and they grow stronger from this common nurture and daily companionship, and from both general education and our discipline in the law of God.
The above verse is not often included in many of our Bibles. It is considered apocryphal by many of the mainline Christian traditions, except with the Orthodox, who at one point considered it deuterocanonical. While Lutherans don’t look at this book as anything but apocryphal, it does have some helpful information in it.
For Christians, education is a large part of our spiritual journey. It is a way in which we can grow, as well as help others to grow. Martin Luther had this to say about education:
“If I could leave the preaching office and my other duties, or had to do so, there is no other office I would rather have than that of schoolmaster or teacher ... for I know that next to that of preaching, this is the best, greatest, and most useful office there is ... It surely has to be one of the supreme virtues on earth faithfully to train other people’s children ...”
As a congregation that is going to focus on evangelism for the next six months, I think it is important to re-evaluate our Christian education, and the opportunities that we have. On both road front signs that we have, we advertise Sunday School at 9:30. Yet yesterday morning, at 9:30, there were 4 cars in the parking lot. Now I want you to think about this…if you were parents with young children, would you want to stop at SOG if only 4 cars were in the parking lot?
In order for our evangelism to be successful, we have to start with ourselves. We can go door to door, knocking and inviting, but without anything to offer, we are not going to be successful. Next week we start a brand new Sunday School series. Mary, Doris, and Marjorie have all agreed to rotate teaching. The book we are going to use presents us with a Lutheran aspect of a Purpose Driven Life. As a congregation that has a purpose, I think this book will provide us with some good examples and ideas on how to drive our purpose. The materials are set up so that if you miss a week, that is ok. You will be able to easily catch up on what you missed.
As I told your church council this past week, as the Pastor, I cannot force you to come to church. Nor can I force you to come to Sunday School. What I can do is encourage each of you to come and learn, and at the same time, come and teach. Each of you have something to offer. Please come and share.
In our prayers: Lee and Fairy, Linwood, Buddy, Ann, Alma, Jackie Martin (Van Wagoner’s daughter), Michael, Chris, Brenten,
Madison Fancher (John and Sandy's granddaughter), and Lori Bailey.
God's Peace,
