Our Equipping For Ministry (E4M) hour is currently on break due to the coronavirus stay-at-home order, and will resume when it is once again safe to meet.
Our teens (6th- 12th graders) are currently meeting ONLINE for their E4M class, Sundays at 3:30 PM, through Zoom, an easy-to-use video conferencing service. Contact the Church Office for access information.
Classes normally meet Sundays, 9:00–10:00 AM, for children, youth, and adults.
We believe that every Christian is called and gifted to minister in some capacity (1 Cor 12). The Equipping For Ministry (E4M) hour on Sunday morning is our attempt to equip our children, teens and adults with the theological grounding, Biblical world-view, and practical skills they need to pursue God, love people, and multiply fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
CHILDREN (3-1/2 yrs – 5th grade)
Our E4M classes for 3-1/2 years through 5th grade will be continuing in their studies of the Old Testament using the Answers Bible Curriculum, which is focused on teaching children to see Christ in all of the Bible. Our children ended last year with the Israelites traveling through the desert to the Promised Land. This year the kids will learn about how the Israelites made it to the Promised Land, and then about Gideon, Samson, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon. Each unit will be attempting to explain how the story is pointing to Christ. Additionally, in each unit the kids will learn two verses with the help of songs. It is going to be a great year of seeing more of Jesus! If you’d like to learn more about the curriculum, CLICK HERE .
TEENS (6th – 12th grade)
The Student Ministry Team (SMT) is excited to announce that our 6th-12th graders are going to dive into the Gospel Foundations Curriculum. The goal will be to help our youth trace the storyline of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, showing them how all the pieces fit together into a unified whole, a whole which points to Christ. The SMT is trusting the Spirit to help them each week to see more of Jesus as they unfold the plan of redemption alongside our youth. If you’d like to see a sample of what they will be learning, follow this LINK.
ADULTS
Do you ever feel like the best years of your Christian life are behind you and you do not know how to move forward? And even worse, do you feel like everyone is growing in leaps-and-bounds while you are just struggling to find joy and purpose in your Christian life? If so, you are not alone… countless Christians are struggling with the very same problem.
So how do we move forward? How do we get out of this rut? Well, I believe the best way forward, in some ways, is a few steps backwards. What I mean by this is that, in most cases, modern Christians are completely disconnected from the simple means of grace that God has already provided. In light of this, we will be devoting our adult E4M hour to this next year to a study the spiritual disciplines. Now, if those two words strike panic in your heart, or major feelings of guilt and condemnation, please read on….When we think of the spiritual disciplines we need to understand that the Spiritual Disciplines are not tasks to be mastered so that we might finally experience God. Rather, the disciplines are rivers of divine grace through which God promises to bless his blood-bought people. To put it another way, if you want to get wet, stand under a waterfall. As the author of our first book Habits of Grace observes:
[The spiritual disciplines] are the stuff of everyday, basic Christianity — unimpressively mundane, but spectacularly potent by the Spirit. While there’s no final and complete list of such spiritual disciplines, the long tally of helpful habits can be clustered into three big groups: hearing God’s voice, having God’s ear, and being with God’s people. Or simply: word, prayer, and fellowship… the key is that God has revealed certain channels through which he regularly pours out his favor.
So, whether you consider yourself a “master” or haven’t pursued the disciplines in decades I want to encourage everyone to attend. Because, we are not simply pursuing new habits, we are pursuing ever-growing delight in Jesus Christ.
Your fellow servant in the Greatest Cause,
Pastor Mark