| 50 Years Of Grace |
| Weekly Schedule | |
|---|---|
| Sunday School | 8:30 AM |
| Sunday Bible Class | 8:30 AM |
| Coffee Hour | 9:30 AM |
| Sunday Divine Service | 10:00 AM |
| Young People's Bible Study | 7:00 PM |
| Fri Bible Study | 10:30 AM |
| Need A Ride? | |
|---|---|
| We would be pleased to give anyone on Madison's Westside or the Isthmus a ride to and from any of our Church Services or our Bible classes. For a ride, please call our church at 233-2985. | |
Christian Education at Grace
About the Christian Faith
- Luther's Small Catechism as found in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary. For printing as a nice little booklet, use this PDF for the first side, and this one for the second side.
- A Lutheran Sunday School Curriculum in PDF or HTML 4.0. We are currently using this, and consider it to be "in development." Its aim is to draw upon the oft-forgotten strengths of the confessional Lutheran Church in particular and historic Christianity in general, while avoiding unnecessary borrowing from the resources of heterodox Christian churches. Teachers have a great deal of flexibility, though some may need more explicit guidance than is provided so far.
- Another Lutheran Sunday School Curriculum, created by the membership of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. It provides more teacher guidance than the curriculum above provides at present, while making use of existing resources (like The Lutheran Hymnal) rather than pushing needless innovation. Teachers will likely find it useful when preparing lessons for the curriculum above.
- For Confirmation Classes
- What's the difference between Lutherans and ...? A quick glance at some important differences.
- An Introduction to Christianity. This is a short textbook for our adult instruction course. There are accompanying overhead-projection slides too. Some slides are meant to overlay the prior ones, and you will not have that effect when viewing the file on your computer.
- Grace Lutheran Church and the ELS do not participate in worship with every other Christian church. There is a good reason for this. Many other churches have decided to participate in in joint worship, even to the point of overlooking or ignoring doctrinal differences. American society in general may be losing interest in "truth," "facts," and "doctrine," but we have a good reason to believe that these things still exist. Because of its history, the ELS is particularly sensitive to to this issue. Our position is summarized in the small booklet Unity, Union, and Unionism.
- A clear summary of Bible interpretation principles.
- The Christian Faith is often questioned by non-Christians. Here are some of those questions with answers.
Christian Education: What is it?
Christian education is part of the Church's commission. Our Savior instructed us to teach the world what He has taught us. There is more than one way in which this teaching is accomplished. You might envision three different areas of life where Christians teach the Word of God:
- in the individual Christian's daily life
- in the home
- in public Church activities
At Grace, we recognize that through faith in Christ, we are made spiritual priests (1 Peter 2:9), and so authorized by God to give Him our lives as thankofferings. Part of this is our obedience to Christ's command that we tell others about Him. No matter where a Christian may find himself, he is a disciple of Christ. As such, he tells others about the Savior of the world. This takes place at work, in government, at schools, and anywhere else he may be. This is always done on a person-to-person basis, with the authority of an individual Christian -- a representative of Christ.
God has given special responsibilties to parents. They are to train their children in the Christian faith, so that they know what to believe and how to live accordingly. This command is especially directed at fathers (Ephesians 6:4), but mothers are also responsible. For their part, children are responsible for honoring their parents. Many times, a parent will obtain another teacher to instruct his children. This is often a matter of convenience, but it does not release parents from their responsibilities. It's still up to parents to make sure that their children are not learning things contrary to the Christian faith, but instead, that they learn scriptural truth.
You might not have thought that the previous two paragraphs describe Christian Education, but they do. In fact, they are very important parts of Christian education. When they are neglected too long, the whole Church suffers terribly. When they are upheld faithfully, it is a gift of God, and the Church prospers as a whole.
The Church also teaches in a public setting. To do this, it calls qualified individuals to teach on its behalf. The qualifications are permanently set in scripture for all time. Scripture also tells us that these called ministers of the Word are really called by Christ Himself, through the Church, and authorized to preach and teach in Christ's name. Any time the Church wants someone to teach the Word of God on its behalf, it needs to follow the principles that God has established for His ministry. These principles are all given in the Bible.
This page will be a repository of information and resources for Christian education of all kinds.
Christian Education in the Personal Life
Every Christian's communication should be salted with the Christian faith. Consider this when choosing the words you speak, the movies you watch, the books you read, and the thoughts you write. We are individually disciples of Jesus Christ, and that should be apparent in our lives.
We never stop learning. The people we associate with every day become our teachers and pupils at the same time through normal interactions. Therefore, Christians should keep in mind that our every activity, everything we're exposed to, can affect our faith. The reverse is also true. We can "teach" our faith to others when they notice the way we ourselves live.
Christian Education in the Home
Every Christian parent has a responsibility to God for training his/her children in the doctrines that God has revealed. Different parents will approach this responsibility in different ways.
Some parents will use the public school system to provide most of their children's education. The responsible Christian parent will carefully monitor the level of anti-Christian indoctrination that children experience at school and actively counter it through Christian training at home and at Church. It may seem as though this route is the easiest, since our property taxes already pay for that public schooling. However, this option can be very difficult in some places, because of the level of anti-Christian indoctrination that takes place at public schools. Some parents may not want their children exposed to such dangerous teachings at all.
Other parents will choose to teach their children at home. Reasons for this vary greatly from family to family, but the advantages over public schools are clear from a Christian perspective. Home schooling makes Christian training of children easier for the parents than using public schools, because less effort and time is required to counter anti-Christian influences. Sometimes the same advantage may apply over private schools as well.
Still other parents will choose to use a private or parochial school to provide for their children's education. This may be the most expensive option, but it allows parents to select a school that will teach the same Christian doctrines that God wants their children to learn. Remember that God places the primary responsibility for Christian training upon the parents. By choosing a parochial school, parents are able to cooperate with one another, pooling their resources to provide greater opportunities in their children's education. At the same time, they are delegating their responsibilities as teachers of God's Word to others, who may have greater training and qualifications for the task.
Whatever method parents may choose to teach their children the Word of God, they remain responsible to God for that training. There should always be regular times at home dedicated to this teaching. Parents should always stay abreast of what their children are learning elsewhere. This is their God-given duty.
Here are some resources related to Christian education. Not all necessarily agree with the Christian faith at all points, so the reader will use them judiciously.
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Google Homeschooling Directory |
A list of links to web sites collected in the Home School category by Google. |
| Yahoo Homeschooling Directory |
The same thing from Yahoo. |
| memorywork.pdf | Memory work schedule for schools or families with children, grades 1--8. Please contact me with corrections at pastor@grace-els.org. You can print the book by printing the even-numbered pages in reverse order, then re-inserting the stack and printing the odd-numbered pages in regular order. The first step can often be accomplished by printing the even-numbered pages in normal order and using an alternate paper ejection path in your printer. |
| Our Book Club | Anyone is welcome to attend our meetings and chime in. |