What's the Hurry for Christmas?

The world will be done with Christmas on December 26th, delaying only long enough to put Christmas on sale for half-price. But what's the rush? In early times, Christmas was celebrated not just on December 25th, but for twelve more days after ("On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . ."). In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Christmas is celebrated on January 6th, the date when the Church marks the visit of the Magi.

So don't get impatient with the Growing in Christ and Cross Explorations Sunday School materials from CPH, when you don't get to the Nativity lesson until the middle of January, and that Epiphany lesson is delayed almost into February! There is a lot to bless children with in the accounts that lead up to and follow Jesus' birthday. Tell your students to enjoy the Church's celebrations of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany as they come, and promise them that that Christmas lesson in Sunday School is coming!

For wonderful explanations about the importance of the several lessons before the Christmas one, I hope you listen to Pastor Tom Baker's exposition each week in the Seeds of Faith podcasts, produced by Issues, Etc. They provide 30 minutes of background on the biblical text, and they can be downloaded for listening on the go.

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Have You Visited Yet?

I've been fascinated over the past few weeks to "watch" people like you visit our relatively new Sunday School Web site, cph.org/sundayschool. Okay, I can't really watch you literally, but as a tool to facilitate communication with our customers, visitors who download samples of our Growing in Christ or Cross Explorations material leave behind their name and e-mail address.

I can tell that we are in the heart of "it's time to choose our Sunday School curriculum for the fall." Visitors are downloading samples five or six times a day, compared to just two or three times a day last spring when the new Web site was launched.

In addition to viewing samples, there are several other reasons you might want to visit.

• Complete overviews of both curricula
• A handy comparison of the features of each curriculum
• Access to the weekly "Seeds of Faith" podcast, offering Bible background for next week's lesson
• Access to the scope and sequence of lessons
• Access to W5Online, contemporary event openings for junior high and high school classes (offered for the school year only; the next new posting will be on August 23rd)
• Quick order forms

So, check out the new Web site. I'll be watching for your.

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