Dear Friends in Christ,

Sunday School curriculum may seem like a strange topic for a column as we enter the Season of Lent, but please bear with me. In the Early Church, Lent was the time when adults prepared for the sacrament of Holy Baptism, which took place at the Easter Vigil. It was an intense time of instruction and preparation for a life of Christian discipleship. Some 2,000 years later, some things are the same and some are different. We baptize both infants and adults in our tradition, that is a change. Instruction, now called faith formation by both publishing houses and academics, is still important and Lent, a time of repentance, a time of reorienting ourselves and gaining a new perspective, is a perfect time to emphasize instruction in following Jesus. That has not changed. We just paid one of the largest curriculum bills in my time as your pastor and I could not be more excited and thankful. Granted, $300 is nothing compared to the bill for either the new HVAC systems or the new roof, but it is a large portion of what we budgeted for the entire year for Christian Education. Here are the things I am specifically thankful for: kids who attend Sunday School and Worship, parents/grandparents/siblings/friends who bring kids to Sunday School and worship, Tammy Torrey–who wanted to explore Holy Baptism with the 1st-6th grade students during the Season of Lent, Amanda Hanson–who takes the Pre K and K kids out for instruction (during the sermon through the offering) and did the research on a curriculum that would fit her classroom even better, an entire congregation that loves and accepts kids and sees them as both the future and present of the church. My hope is that the kids and their teachers inspire all of us to make a little more time during the Season of Lent to learn and grow deeper in our faith.

Peace,

Pastor Meggan