3-1-09 Sunday School Discussion

Easter Egg Hunt

Stephanie got three boxes of Easter Eggs. Brandee will try to find one or two more when she goes to Dodge. We asked the church for prize donations. Rachel will also look at Dollar Tree for prizes. We can spend about $100-$150 on prizes.

We will have James or the city block off the streets around the park so we don't have to worry about kids running into the street.

We discussed the use of the MAM food pantry. We're giving away about 100 cans of food per week, which reflects the need in our community. Eventually, we would like to empower those we are helping in other ways. We talked about the possibility of a series of guest speakers. For example, we could invite a doctor to speak about immunizations and child health; a dentist to speak about dental health; someone from the bank to speak about financial management; someone to speak about parenting. It would be important to invite Spanish speakers.

Sunday School Discussion 2-22-09

Easter Egg Hunt update: Stacey saw 250 Easter eggs for $8 at Wal-mart. She didn't buy them because she didn't know if Rachel had ordered them already. Stephanie is going to Liberal today; she will see if the price is the same there, and if so, she will pick up four packages.

We discussed Chapter 6 today. This chapter suggests that service and evangelism are both possible at the same time, that the salvation of those we serve should be our ultimate, but not ulterior, motive.

We discussed our personal discomfort with overt evangelism. None of us present today (Stacey, Karen, Stephanie, Blake, Nicole, Rachel) were raised in churches with a strong emphasis on converting the unconverted. We would feel uncomfortable if someone tried to convert us, and it might actually push us away from a church. We worry about offending those who have beliefs different from our own.

Rachel shared a discussion she'd had in one of her classes about the role a teacher's religion should play in the classroom. Since we are all educators, we shared our thoughts on the role of religion in the classroom. We believe it's important to respect the beliefs of everyone in our classes, even if we don't agree with them. Although we feel it's important to model Christian behavior, we don't think it's appropriate to discuss our beliefs in the classroom. We believe it's important not to push our beliefs on others.

We discussed the diagram on page 44 of the book. We decided that we are externally focused in terms of service, but internally focused in terms of sharing the word. We like the quote from St. Francis of Assisi: "Preach the Christ at all times and when necessary use words."

Some books Karen thinks we might find interesting:

unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons




Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Politics, and Morality by Adam Hamilton

Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity by Adam Hamilton