8th grade student, Tyler O'Shea, gave our lesson on Sunday on "New Creation". Tyler reviewed the "fall" in Genesis 3 and talked about how sin separated us from God and also caused all of us to be born with a sinful nature. So before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, we were created to live as Holy creatures with God in a perfect place.
Tyler then directed us to Hebrews 2:10 which says, "In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering." Tyler spoke about how Jesus had to suffer to bring things back to the way God intended for them to be in the beginning.
He went on to show us in Galatians 2:20-21 that Paul writes to the church in Galatia saying, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing."
In these scripture lessons and through a diagram that Tyler drew for us, we learned that we were meant to be Holy but because of the fall became separated from God and became Unholy. So to get us back to Holy (Heaven), we need a bridge and this bridge is Jesus dying on the cross and being raised to life. By accepting Christ and the salvation He gives us, we can cross that bridge. Nothing that we do, no right behavior (living by the law) can bridge the gap that was created by sin. Only accepting Christ and his sacrifice for us will provide us with that bridge.
Three questions that Tyler asked:
1. What does the fall mean for us today?
2. How are we saved from the Human sin of the fall?
3. What does it mean to be a new creation?
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Church (cont'd)- November 11, 2012
The Bible says a lot about what it means to be a church. The Book of Acts was written by Luke and is the history of the early church. In Acts 9 we read about Saul's conversion to Paul, and after discussing the conversion of a man who was persecuting those who followed "the Way", we talked about how and what God used this same man to do to form the early church. (One student in class explained that the story of Saul's conversion is important because it shows us how God can use anyone to do anything He needs and that He can make us new. I love that this student said that because our next lesson will be on "New Creation".) In the books of Roman - 2 Thessolonians, Paul, the writer of these books, gives advice through his letters to specific churches about theology and how to live in communion with one another. In the books of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul writes letters to give specific church leaders advice on caring for their congregation. He also writes about what kind of person should be pastoring and overseeing a congregation. We read 1 Timothy 3:1-7 as our scripture lesson on what exactly the Bible says in regard to those that oversee our congregation and for justification on those who are set apart to oversee.
Our church lesson continued with some brief discussion on a history of Kingwood United Methodist Church. KUMC was the 2nd church built in Kingwood. The church was started on Jan. 26th, 1972 with 6 couples in attendance and was called Trailwood Methodist Fellowship. They started by meeting in someone's home and did this until membership grew to 30 people. They then moved to Forest Cove Civic Center. On Nov. 26, 1972, KIMC had their charter service and 59 people joined on that Sunday. Jack Shelton became the first minister on Jan. 1, 1973 and remained at KUMC for 10 years. On July 21, 1974 we had a ground breaking ceremony for the original 8,000 square foot building which is now known as the gym. The first service was held in the new building on Dec. 31, 1974. The School for Little Children and Mother's Day Out started in 1975. 1976- 2nd building was proposed - Administration Building and completed in 1977. 1977- 2nd minister was hired as an associate - Wayne Middleton was hired to help grow the youth department. 1978- Church membership was almost 1,000 members and there was standing room only in the gym and every room was being used as a Sunday School room including the kitchen. 1979- ground breaking for the Sanctuary, G-building and E-building. All were completed in 1980. The first service in the sanctuary was held on July 13, 1980. 1979- the first music minister, Charles Tucker, was hired. 1981 - Society of St. Stephen was started and Wayne Middleton was replaced with Assoc. Minister and Christian Ed director, Don White. 2005- Renovation on the sanctuary to expand capacity and ground breaking for the K-building. Both were completed in 2006. Presently we have over 4,000 members, 7 buildings, 4 ordained pastors and a total church staff of 30 people not including the teachers of SLC.
So with a church this size, how many ministers do we have? How many people does it take to put a worship service together? After naming all the parts and details of the worship service such as ushers, the minister who preaches, acolytes, choir members, organist, greeters, and many others not mentioned, we concluded that it takes more than just the church staff to do all the different things to run the church and church services. All of us are called to minister. All of us are the church and are called to do the work of the church.
Table Groups:
Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
How does this passage relate to our discussion about the people involved in planning worship and the other ministries of the church?
Our church lesson continued with some brief discussion on a history of Kingwood United Methodist Church. KUMC was the 2nd church built in Kingwood. The church was started on Jan. 26th, 1972 with 6 couples in attendance and was called Trailwood Methodist Fellowship. They started by meeting in someone's home and did this until membership grew to 30 people. They then moved to Forest Cove Civic Center. On Nov. 26, 1972, KIMC had their charter service and 59 people joined on that Sunday. Jack Shelton became the first minister on Jan. 1, 1973 and remained at KUMC for 10 years. On July 21, 1974 we had a ground breaking ceremony for the original 8,000 square foot building which is now known as the gym. The first service was held in the new building on Dec. 31, 1974. The School for Little Children and Mother's Day Out started in 1975. 1976- 2nd building was proposed - Administration Building and completed in 1977. 1977- 2nd minister was hired as an associate - Wayne Middleton was hired to help grow the youth department. 1978- Church membership was almost 1,000 members and there was standing room only in the gym and every room was being used as a Sunday School room including the kitchen. 1979- ground breaking for the Sanctuary, G-building and E-building. All were completed in 1980. The first service in the sanctuary was held on July 13, 1980. 1979- the first music minister, Charles Tucker, was hired. 1981 - Society of St. Stephen was started and Wayne Middleton was replaced with Assoc. Minister and Christian Ed director, Don White. 2005- Renovation on the sanctuary to expand capacity and ground breaking for the K-building. Both were completed in 2006. Presently we have over 4,000 members, 7 buildings, 4 ordained pastors and a total church staff of 30 people not including the teachers of SLC.
So with a church this size, how many ministers do we have? How many people does it take to put a worship service together? After naming all the parts and details of the worship service such as ushers, the minister who preaches, acolytes, choir members, organist, greeters, and many others not mentioned, we concluded that it takes more than just the church staff to do all the different things to run the church and church services. All of us are called to minister. All of us are the church and are called to do the work of the church.
Table Groups:
Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
How does this passage relate to our discussion about the people involved in planning worship and the other ministries of the church?
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Church- November 4, 2012
We reviewed some of the things that happened at the Synagogue when the class went to Temple Beth Torah on Oct. 26th. Students said things like you read backwards from the hymn book, men wore small hats called yammica, they read in Hebrew not English, and the Torah is the first 5 books of the Bible. I asked what similarities they noticed in the service compared to our service. Some of the answers included: they worship God, they sing hymns, they read from the Old Testament. When I asked what the difference was the class responded that Jesus was the difference.
How rapidly did the early church grow? Acts 1:15- there were 120 persons; Acts 2:41- 3,000 persons were added; Acts 4:4- the number of men grew to 5,000.
In last week's lesson Matt Stone explained how after the resurrection some Jews converted to Christianity. But even in the early church people disagreed about how one needed to worship. The Jewish Christians felt that the Gentiles needed to be Jewish before they could be Christian. The Jews were caught up in the ways of the law and the Gentiles knew only that Jesus had died to free them from sin. This began the splitting of the church.
The splitting of the church kind of resembles a tree--the roots and trunk of the tree being the Early Church represented in Acts. The first split in the tree shows the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Orthodox church in the East. In the East small branches that arose from the Orthodox church were associated with specific countries such as the Greek Orthodox church, the Russian, and the Armenian Churches. In the West, a German Monk named Martin Luther called for reform of the Roman Catholic Church by posting his "95 Theses" or complaints on the door of the church. Luther felt like the church had so much emphasis on church tradition that it had distorted the truth of Scripture. This led to the Protestant Reformation which resulted in forming churches such as Lutheran, Calvinist (Reformed and Presbyterian), and Anabaptist (Mennonites and Amish).
Again, because the church is made up of imperfect people, the church split in England. King Henry VIII was a Roman Catholic who wanted a divorce from his wife and when it would not be granted by the Pope, he started the Church of England. Despite its controversial beginnings, the Church of England became an important denomination in England and in the United States. In the U.S. the Church of England is known as the Episcopal Church.
John Wesley, a minister in the Church of England, set out to reform the church. He emphasized God's grace, personal holiness, and social responsibility. Those who followed Wesley's method of holy living earned the nickname, Methodists. When the Church of England stopped sending clergy to the Americas during the Revolutionary War, Wesley ordained Thomas Coke as the first United States Methodist superintendent. Coke then ordained Francis Asbury and the two were the first bishops of the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church.
How rapidly did the early church grow? Acts 1:15- there were 120 persons; Acts 2:41- 3,000 persons were added; Acts 4:4- the number of men grew to 5,000.
In last week's lesson Matt Stone explained how after the resurrection some Jews converted to Christianity. But even in the early church people disagreed about how one needed to worship. The Jewish Christians felt that the Gentiles needed to be Jewish before they could be Christian. The Jews were caught up in the ways of the law and the Gentiles knew only that Jesus had died to free them from sin. This began the splitting of the church.
The splitting of the church kind of resembles a tree--the roots and trunk of the tree being the Early Church represented in Acts. The first split in the tree shows the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Orthodox church in the East. In the East small branches that arose from the Orthodox church were associated with specific countries such as the Greek Orthodox church, the Russian, and the Armenian Churches. In the West, a German Monk named Martin Luther called for reform of the Roman Catholic Church by posting his "95 Theses" or complaints on the door of the church. Luther felt like the church had so much emphasis on church tradition that it had distorted the truth of Scripture. This led to the Protestant Reformation which resulted in forming churches such as Lutheran, Calvinist (Reformed and Presbyterian), and Anabaptist (Mennonites and Amish).
Again, because the church is made up of imperfect people, the church split in England. King Henry VIII was a Roman Catholic who wanted a divorce from his wife and when it would not be granted by the Pope, he started the Church of England. Despite its controversial beginnings, the Church of England became an important denomination in England and in the United States. In the U.S. the Church of England is known as the Episcopal Church.
John Wesley, a minister in the Church of England, set out to reform the church. He emphasized God's grace, personal holiness, and social responsibility. Those who followed Wesley's method of holy living earned the nickname, Methodists. When the Church of England stopped sending clergy to the Americas during the Revolutionary War, Wesley ordained Thomas Coke as the first United States Methodist superintendent. Coke then ordained Francis Asbury and the two were the first bishops of the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church.
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