Back to school time caught up with us this week. (Well we did have one summer fling with the children, as shown above). We have a wonderful group of teachers this year coordinated by Elizabeth Heimbach. For the children we had Becky Fisher, for the teens Cookie Davis and Ben Hicks for the adults. Other teachers include Terri Harrison, Marian Mahoney, Sandra Smith and our newest teacher Marilyn Newman. Thank you to all!
Today, we had 3 children, 2 teens and 7 adults in Christian education, not bad for Labor Day weekend. The curriculum is all new this year – "Living the Good News" (LGN) based on the Lectionary. All three groups – children, teens, and adults – are reading the same materials on different levels. The beauty is that after Christian Ed you get a second chance to hear the readings in Church and a sermon based on the readings you’ve just discussed. Secondary benefits include a variety of activities associated with LGN including music, poetry and art besides reading and discussing the scriptures. For instance, today we brought in Bach’s "Brandenberg Concerto #4" and Laurel Burch’s art "Harmony under the Sky" into a discussion of the many types of communities. It’s quite a creative curriculum.
As mentioned above, the readings were centered around Christian community and how it is kept together through resolving conflict (Matthew) or through practice of common beliefs (Romans).
The sermon delved into the latter. Paul tells us the fundamental commandment is to love one another and “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul is asking us to make the decision to remember that we are marked as Christ’s own forever, to choose to put on Christ in every moment of our lives and get rid of our bad practices – " anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth " and put on the armor of "Kindness, Humility Patience and Meekness". This is all about behavior. Love binds everything together in perfect harmony. We pass through the cross.
Despite the long weekend, we had 46 in Church today as well as Coffee Hour and a pool party for the children. We welcomed the Williams family, above from Fredericksburg along with their daughter Laura and her two children from California. We also celebrated Beverly Williams’ birthday as well as Cheyenne’s. Coffee hour featured barbecue sandwiches, fruit, finger sandwiches and fruit. Thanks to Betty and Clarence for their treats.
After coffee hour all of the children and teens enjoyed a cool swim at Cookie and Johnny’s home along with their grandchildren. Cookie prepared snacks and a birthday cake for Cheyenne (see above).
We are off to a great start. Here’s our bulletin with a number of announcements for the week ahead.