Redeemer Church School 2007-2008

How Are We the Same? How Are We Different?

Sunday church school at Redeemer begins again on September 16, during the 10:00 education hour. Our meeting spaces will still be in a combination of ParishDay School classrooms, and rooms in the Parish Hall part of our building complex. A team of dedicated adults and teens will offer their time, energy and love, teaching, learning and sharing their faith with our children. The Children’s Ministries Committee will meet monthly to design programs, oversee their implementation, and watch to be sure our children are receiving the best and most loving upbringing we can give them within this community. Does that mean we are the same as we have always been? NO!!

Those of us responsible for Christian formation for children work constantly to keep us growing and changing. Curriculum is reviewed; we use a new one every few years. In our teacher training efforts, teachers are encouraged to vary their lessons and activities to accommodate the diverse needs of the children in their care—games one week, cooking another, art another, etc. We try to keep our Sunday program fresh, current and exciting, as well as welcoming and fun.

What specific changes can you expect for children this year? A group of Children’s Ministries Committee members, and church school teachers, participated in a unique conference-call course last June, called “Making It Real and Relevant: Christian Education in the 21 st Century,” to learn more about the impact of conditions in post-modern America on church attendance patterns and congregational needs. The course leader, Heidi Hawks (www.seespiritgrow.com), was dynamic and motivating—the effects of the course will weave through our meetings and the programs we plan as this year progresses. Some new programs already in progress are:

• a music time each month when children in grades K through 5 will meet in the Hale auditorium with Valerie Adelung (which we hope will result in occasional group singing at the 9:00 worship service);
• a new resource for teachers, compiled by a Children’s Ministries Committee member and teacher, which will augment the curriculum and allow for development in areas we feel have been missing;
• continued efforts to increase the involvement and visibility of children in worship, especially at 9:00;
• some new designs for teacher training and development, begun last year, and continued in consultation with Heidi Hawks, and with our teachers themselves;
• renewed efforts to keep the web site updated, to keep the parish aware of what we are doing.

How can you help? Offer to join a team of teachers, in the age level you enjoy the most; bring your children to church school regularly, so they will grow to feel a part of their own community; register your children, so our information on your family is current (registration forms are available on line at www.redeemeronline.com; keep our teachers and children in your prayers!