To Break or Not to Break for the Summer

You will need to work carefully with congregational leadership on this one, but here's my take.

Achieving a vibrant, growing Sunday School requires huge amounts of energy! Keeping your momentum is difficult, reversing a declining trend even harder. Think of the amount of energy it takes to get that boat moving through the water, to overcome inertia and the drag of friction. When Sunday School is discontinued through the summer, you may actually train your families not to attend, let key volunteers find other things to do with their time, and make a statement about the program's ongoing value.

On the other hand, summer is when lots of families relocate and visit new churches. They are eager to establish roots, and have their children meet new friends. No summer Christian education opportunities will not cut if for them.

With these thoughts in mind, you might want to review the article provided through a recent e-mail from Concordia Publishing House. You can reach it through this link.

God's blessings as you teach His children His Word.

Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain

The Easter season has more than its fair share of great hymns, and I look forward to singing them all. One of my favorites, though, is one that is less well known, “Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain” (Lutheran Service Book 487), the union of an eighth-century text and Reformation era tune that captures the joy and wonder of the paschal season.

John of Damascus wrote this Greek text as one of a cycle of hymns sung in the daily prayer services of the Eastern Church on “St. Thomas Sunday” (the Sunday after Easter), and, because of its intended place in the cycle, the hymn picks up the theme of Israel crossing the Red Sea (st. 1). John then weaves a tapestry of Easter metaphors, each stanza offering new images of the resurrection: freedom from prison, waking from sleep, and the coming of spring in stanza 2; feasting in stanza 3; and the Gospel account of Christ’s appearance to Thomas in stanza 4.

Who can miss John’s meaning? We are the joyful sons and daughters of Jacob, the new Israel. We too are released, awake, and enjoying the new life of spring. We will join the feast now and in eternity. We see the empty tomb and know Christ’s peace that passes understanding. We will “raise the strain of triumphant gladness! God has brought His Israel into joy from sadness!”

God's richest blessings as you share His Word with His children in this Easter season!

He Did It for Me!

Surely that's the goal for the Sunday School lessons around this Easter celebration, the key point we want children and adults alike to take home from their Easter worship and education participation. He did it for me! Christ came in human flesh, lived a perfect human life, gave His body and blood, suffered a human death, and rose in victory over death and the grave . . . for me!

So that I would not be dead in my sins, beaten down by trials and woes, or frightened by the grave. And so that I live as God's child, serve my neighbor in his or her need, forgive those who sin against me, and find Christ in word and water, bread and wine.

Some of the most difficult Words of Scripture will assault our ears and hearts this week, detailing the suffering and death of our Lord. What a blessed joy that we can know for certain, He did it for me!

God bless you as you teach His children these words . . . He did it for you!

Don't Miss Easter!

The most casual Christian seems reluctant to skip Easter.

What a marvelous opportunity to encourage Sunday School attendance and teach the "real reason for the Easter Season!"

Will your church see Easter egg hunts and pancake breakfastson April 20? Or will they see Jesus in Sunday School?

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!