Will Your Sunday School Have Visitors This Summer?

Let's hope so! When they come, is this what they will find?

• Information about Sunday School, including where first-time attenders should sign in, was in the worship folder.
• The Sunday School registration location was well marked and easy to find.
• Visitors are greeted warmly when I arrived.
• Enough information was requested to make me feel my children would be well cared for. My cell phone number was requested so that I could be texted if anything came up during the study hour.
• I was escorted to my child's classroom and introduced to the teacher.
• Lesson material was available for my child, just as for the regular attenders.
• Someone invited me to attend the adult Bible class and offered to help me find the class I was interested in attending.
• Someone followed up by phone later in the week to see how things went and invite me to return.

God bless you as you teach God's children His Word this summer!

Yes, Summer Sunday School

Sunday School is hard work!
Summer Sunday School is even harder.
But it is worth it.

• Student will continue to learn about God's Word.
• Visitors will know your congregation is serious about Christian education and have points of connection.
• Families will not "get out of the habit" of Sunday School each week.

Do you want to hear more? Check out this previous post.

CPH's summer release is "Pray, Praise, and Give Thanks" and the material takes a look at the Lord's Prayer using a State-fair theme. Check it out at cph.org/SundaySchool and click on "Our Programs"!

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Pray, Praise & Give Thanks: Jesus Teaches Us to Pray

Ah, summertime! What could be more fun than going to the county fair? From riding the Ferris wheel to participating in pie-eating contests, there’s so much to do, see, and learn. With a fun county fair theme intertwined into each lesson, Pray, Praise & Give Thanks helps students search thirteen Bible stories to learn about the Lord’s Prayer.

• Daniel and the Lions' Den
• Jesus Heals the Centurion's Servant
• Peter & John Heal a Lame Man
• Jesus Teaches His Disciples to Pray
• The Baptism of Jesus
• Zacchaeus
• Paul & Silas in Prison
• Job
• God Provides Mann & Quail
• Joseph Forgives His Brothers
• The Temptation of Jesus
• Three Men in a Fiery Furnace
• The Saints in Heaven

Lutheran Veneer?

I regularly hear educators, who I would think might know better, talk about Lutheran doctrine as a veneer, a coating that can somehow be applied to material that would otherwise be objectionable in terms of theological content to make it Lutheran. Does that work? Or does that merely disguise heresy?

My first supervisor in the editorial business, Rev. Dr. Earl Gaulke, once asked me how much I would want to dilute a poisonous substance before I would be willing to ingest it. Would coating it with chocolate be good enough? Of course not! If I knew it was poison, I would discard it and start fresh, right?

The key teachings of Lutheran doctrine are fundamentally different than those of other major Christian education publishers. They refuse to teach about the Sacraments, which are chief among our Means of Grace, because not enough customers want to buy that kind of material. They fail to correctly discern and teach Law and Gospel. They confuse good works and works righteousness.

Yes, there are attractive features in many non-Lutheran materials. ("So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." Genesis 3:6) But sadly, applying a Lutheran veneer is not enough.

God strengthen you to teach His children His Word!