The following publishers provide a variety of age-appropriate curricula for use in the churches:
Akaloo by Augsburg/Congregational Ministries Publishing
Bible Blitz® by Group Publishing
FaithWeaver® by Group Publishing
The Kerygma
Living Inside Outâ„¢ by Group Publishing
We Believe: God's Word for God's People by Congregational Ministries Publishing
Workshop Rotation Model Sunday School by Potter's Publishing
No matter what level of student you're teaching--pre-school, adult, or anyone in between--your goal is not only to get through the lesson, or even for your students to get information, but to have actual learning going on in your classroom. You want your students to understand God's Word, and to be changed by a relationship with Jesus.
Statistics tell us that people retain only about ten percent of what they hear or read. And with the best of intentions many, if not most, Christian-education programs still teach this way, by reading and/or by the teacher doing all the talking. But those same statistics tell us that people remember up to 90% of what they experience. So how can you bring real-life experience into your classroom?
©2001, Potter's Publishing, adapted with permission
The Workshop Rotation Model is spreading like the flames of the Holy Spirit across the country. Churches embrace the model as the most exciting Sunday school study method in a long time. As it spreads it is important to ensure and preserve the integrity of the model, to maintain consistency with its educational philosophy.
The model's initial attraction is its varied and exciting activities and decorative room interiors. If the model were to rely only on attractive workshops, however, the flames soon would burn out.
Theological and educational underpinnings support the Workshop Rotation Model providing the possibility of creative and sound Bible study.
Why are you a Presbyterian? What specifically are the advantages of belonging to this denomination called Presbyterian Church, USA? Let me explain..
Although I am a cradle Presbyterian, I had the wonderful experience of serving in a Episcopalian/Anglican parish for 3 years. Maybe a decade ahead of us in the arguments over what scripture teaches about human sexuality, quite a few of their congregations are now transferring to other parts of the Anglican Communion. To be sure, these are happy days for nobody involved in that process. I am most grieved for how hard they are fighting over property, when they didn't seem to put that kind of energy into protecting the unity and purity of the Church. I am ashamed and heart-broken over what I am seeing in that part of Christ's body. I am unfortunately seeing the same patterns emerge in our denomination.
We need to realize that our conversations about human sexuality are out-of-step with the vast majority of Christians in the world. Living in a 21st century world, where the church is mainly Southern -- as in Nairobi not Atlanta -- most Christians in the world are viewing these issues of human sexuality from traditional points of view. I am not arguing that this is right or wrong; I'm simply saying this is the way things are currently in the world. It is interesting that the Anglicans in America who are joining the Anglican Church in Nigeria are joining a much bigger entity than the Episcopal Church.
Much has been said and written over these past months in the Outlook and other media outlets about the New Wineskins Association of Churches by a variety of interested and concerned Presbyterians. I was delighted to receive my brother Jack Haberer's invitation to share my perspective on things as the Co-Moderator of the NWAC. It is not my intention in this space to respond to or counter any arguments that have been given so far, there are better people than I to do that. What I hope to do is communicate some observations that may inform an understanding of our particular "missiological context" as evangelical Presbyterians in the United States of America.
From the graveyard of Gadara
and the well of Isaac's son,
sweeping Light and footsteps
the Kingdom Walking, comes.
With Word, touch and gesture;
muscled arm and steady eye,
the Calling Love of heaven,
brings Himself to die.
No give up in this moment
but Consummated Plan
bound there by the nail and rope
our Lover's Open hand.
Now Open --gates and tombstones
Open -- hearts of men
Open to the Love of God
And never shut again.
@2006 A. Kirk Johnston
Kirk Johnston
First Presbyterian Church
Paola, Kansas
In all the ancient storied script
Recited for our hungry ears
By priests and prophets in our tents
Rejected we the shock and awe
Of disappointment and of fears
A song of safety and of care
The strong and gentle parent sings
Reminder of what love will bear
To win the world from dark'ning sin
And carry it on eagle's wings
One feather at a time is plucked
One leaf that withers in the heat
One cloud the sun could cover up
One cross cross out eternal hope
One stone could love defeat
by Carol E. Bayma
When Christ entered Jerusalem, he rode in upon a donkey. He came as a king, but he came as a king of peace. Of course, as soon as Jesus entered into Jerusalem, what is often ignored by many people is that fact that Jesus chases evil doers and thieves out of the temple (Matthew 21:12) , calls the Pharisees a brood of vipers (Matthew 23:33), and is quoted as saying that the temple in Jerusalem will one day be destroyed (Luke 19:43-44). It should also be mentioned that, even as Jesus encountered Roman soldiers on numerous occasions, nowhere can it be found that he preached that either they or the Temple guards should not be doing what they do. Yes, Jesus believed in peace, but as far as we know, he also believed that armed forces were needed, that stepping up against wrong-doing sometimes required confrontations, and that all people are equally accountable. There are many times, it seems, that those who speak up for peace in speaking up against America's actions seem to have forgotten that aspect of Jesus' character. John the Baptist would tell soldiers in Luke 3 not to take money by force or accuse people falsely. He did not say that there were not times to fight. Indeed, even as I have heard much about Guantanamo Bay and Abu-Ghraib (and rightly so), I have heard far less condemnation from church leaders concerning the beheadings of American citizens, the bombings and killings of our soldiers using illegal I.E.D's, (mines) and the fact that Al Queada terrorists (alongside Iranian and Syrian insurgents) are killing many more innocent Iraqis and other people than they are foreign soldiers. It is my feeling that many Peace Fellowships would hold a great deal more credibility and would represent a true Christ-like spirit if they would treat all as equally accountable to God's call in loving one another as Jesus loves us. "Turn the other cheek" has been twisted to mean that one should never respond when I believe its original intent was to say only that one should not respond to every insult with violence and hatred (Note especially that one is hit on the right cheek in Matthew 5:39. This would make it a back-handed slap, which is more of an insult than inflicted physical harm).
Dearest Jesus, The world is in darkness, the night lasting forever, so it seems. And You are ... dead. I saw..
The first time I heard the term paradigm, I thought something had come back to haunt me from my unsuccessful trigonometry past. Curious, I asked a seminary professor about the term and received a copy of David Bosch's Transforming Mission. I read this voluminous writing. Bosch covered it all from the paradigms of the Enlightenment, the Medieval Church, the Protestant Reformation, the Ecumenical movement, Postmodernism and many more. Later I attended a church conference where the leader presented a paradigm that he believed Jesus initiated. He called it the "missional" church model.
I grew up loving baseball. Although I played Little League, I was never really very good at it. But I loved the game.
The season of Lent anticipates Easter, but almost as important for some of us is the anticipation of the baseball season during Lent. Everything is fresh and new. Fresh beginnings. New opportunities.
Even today, as one in his mid-50s, my heart stirs through spring training as it prepares us for the new season. What joy! What excitement! What anticipation that game engenders for some of us!
based on I Corinthians 15
Text: ©2006 Carolyn Winfrey Gillette.
Used by permission.
Tune: BEACH SPRING
(God Whose Giving Knows No Ending)
Listen, sisters! Listen, brothers
To the news that we proclaim;
Spread the word and tell your neighbors:
We have life in Jesus' name.
All because God loves us dearly,
Jesus died for all our sin.
On the third day, God showed clearly:
Love has conquered, death can't win.
Editor's Note: The following essay is the eighth in a series dealing with topics of interest and importance to Presbyterians. Author Johnson explains: "The report from the General Assembly Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church provides us both the occasion and the urgency for theological dialogue within the PC(USA). This and succeeding essays are offered as a constructive effort in that direction."
The work of Christ for our redemption (atonement) is another place where the current divisions within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) beg for a better way forward, for three reasons. (1) The current Modernist-Pietist Church milieu has narrowed the work of Christ largely to the role of example. (2) Many people today put two atonement ideas into false and unnecessary competition with each other. (3) The "classical" view of atonement, neglected by both sides but deep within the Bible and the Reformed tradition, offers a powerful way to reconfigure the total work of Christ for our redemption. This essay explains these assertions.
Easter 8 Introduction
A lot was going on that first Easter morning. Bewilderment was an emotion shared not only by Jesus' friends, but also by his enemies. Pilate, who had seemed almost skeptical in granting the chief priests' request for a guard to be set on Jesus' tomb, Make it as secure as you can... now finds his ironic words ringing true after all. And what had appeared to be merely the regrettable, yet necessary execution of a rather enigmatic figure he had personally considered harmless, is now threatening to expand into a crisis, perhaps even a potential insurrection. Even as he ponders a plan of action, however, Pilate still finds himself drawn in a curious kind of sympathy toward that strangely dignified and self-possessed victim of whom, just two days before, he had thought he was washing his hands forever.
In light of the coming revisions to the Book of Order - I hope the responsible parties will keep in mind our..
Background links: "Marks of the True Church" (Original article by Merwyn S. Johnson) "Faith is a Result of Salvation?" (Open letter response..
Between Two Ribs
that spear was cast,
a deadly blow,
an icy blast.
The Warmth of life
came streaming forth
then, earth to mud,
a Balm ....
Of endless worth.
Lent 6 ¢ Introduction
This week's Face By the Wayside is an anonymous one. He is simply called a Disciple and represents all those nameless ones who took off and followed Jesus because there was something in the way he looked, something in the things he said, something in who he was, that made life richer, fuller, truer than it had even been before. Don't ask them what it was. Most of them, all of them really, didn't even begin to understand until much later, much much later. All they wanted to do was to be near him, to learn from him, to laugh and even weep with him, and maybe even to become just the tiniest bit more like he was, even if it came to walking on water!
When we are hurt or offended, we cover our tender hearts to protect against further "heart attack." Underneath the cover--denial, resentment, or rage--can come pain, memories, and flashbacks. If we are honest with ourselves, we reluctantly admit that in the late show that plays in our mind, we often watch reruns of hatred, resentment, bitterness, hostility, anger and fear. Worse yet, these images and thoughts do not always intrude forcefully. We too often invite and indulge them. Then we feel vandalized, ashamed, and violated because of the ugliness we permitted our minds dwell upon. How can we stop these experiences of un-forgiveness, bidden and unbidden?
Any discussion of forgiveness must surely open with the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer which reads,
Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. (NRSV)
This prayer was crafted within the piety of first century Judaism and its famous eighteen prayers (Amidah) most of which are thought to have been in use at the time of Jesus.
One of those prayers (No. 6) is called "For forgiveness" and reads,
Forgive us, O our Father, for we have sinned; pardon us, O our King, for we have transgressed; for thou dost pardon and forgive. Blessed are thou, O Lord, who art gracious, and dost abundantly forgive.
(Used by permission of the author.)
When I knelt to wash the feet of an African-American woman who is an elder of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I knew the moral universe of my youth had vanished. A cynic viewing the action only moments before when she knelt to wash my feet could argue that nothing had changed. But when the roles changed, even a cynic could acknowledge that deep change has occurred.
It certainly did to me in last Maundy Thursday, when a small group of Christians gathered to remember the gospel story of the night Jesus washed his disciples' feet. We listened to the story and I said a few words about servant leadership. Then we came forward, two by two, to wash one another's feet, reenacting Jesus' humble example of love.
Jesus' parable of the laborers in the vineyard is one of those stories that sounds increasingly outrageous the longer we think about it. The manager's decision to pay the same full-day's wage whether workers labored a single hour or a full day strikes us as grossly unfair. And Jesus, of course, makes matters worse by stepping in and telling us that this picture of scandalously unfair treatment is in fact what the kingdom of heaven is like.
What are we to make of that? God is unfair? God plays favorites? God violates the norms of justice? What comes leaping out at us from the parable, of course, is that the late hires did not deserve the reward they got. They did not qualify for such compensation. We are quite naturally outraged by this miscarriage of justice, and if this is how God does things, isn't there something just wrong about that?
I asked a non-Presbyterian friend not long ago to read what has become not so fondly known by some as "The PUP Report," and to give me his views as an outsider on what all the stir is about. He said, after a serious reading of the document, and an additional look at the actions of the 2006 Birmingham General Assembly, he was a bit mystified by why anyone would get upset over what our denomination had done. Nothing much seemed to have really changed. The Book of Order is still the same. The actions of the Assembly did not change the paragraph that seems to concern some so much.
Recently, I joined 49 other adults in traveling down to New Orleans. For the sake of this trip and our well being throughout our weeklong stay, our group raised more than $28,000. I am certain that we left the dozen homes we worked on in better condition. I am also confident that $28,000 could have been used to reconstruct many more buildings if we had only donated the money to local causes.
The question then becomes, why did we go?
In most Presbyterian circles, the term "calling" is debated and discussed almost ad nauseam, but I trust that the reader's constitution is strong enough to permit a little discourse on the subject. Though we represented many different churches from across North Carolina, each individual committed to the same Bible verse for the week, Isaiah 6:8: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"
The question still becomes, why were we sent?
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