"In time Sunday school may disappear.

For now, however, congregations need to discover ways to strengthen adult participation in Sunday school while exploring alternate methods of adult Christian education."

-- W. Easum (Dinosaurs, p.101)

 

"I am about to do a new thing ... do you not perceive it?

-- Isaiah 43:19a   

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Life is not lived on a schedule. Jobs often demand 24 hour a day allegiance. Shift work isn't the same rotation everywhere. Family members often pass in the driveway as work, school, sports, hobbies, community, and personal demands wreak havoc with schedules.

Congregations can no longer assume that large numbers of people can easily clear their calendars for regular gatherings. Complexity is the challenge of the day. Communities of faith can offer the peace of Christ in the midst of that complexity, if we're willing to acknowledge it's presence and alter our working assumptions.

1) If indeed weekday ministries will overshadow the importance of Sunday (p.97), then what assumptions and patterns will we, as individuals and as a congregation, need to change? Why?

2) This chapter is full of stewardship thoughts (I notice two blatant examples on pages 99 and 105). What examples of stewardship/faithful management do you see? What marks these examples as something different or as growing out of ministry in a new and changing time?

3) "Innovation will keep weekday ministries in constant flux." (p.101) Easum lists four pages of examples (at least). In what ways can our congregation address vital ministry in the light of such innovation? What roles do you see for faith, risk and creativity in following a path of innovation?

4) What makes Easum's description of a seven-day-a-week ministry uniquely Christian? or what can we do that the Lion's club or the Local Single's Dance can't?

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This is an online Study Guide for use in the local church, compiled and produced by David P. Harris of Ephrata, PA.