WHAT DOES YOUR CHURCH MEAN TO YOU?
One of the leaders of the Youth Sunday School Group, I've been asking our youth this question.
Sunday, July 24, the Scripture for our discussion was Romans 8:26-39.
I invited Judy Kraft to come to the class to tell us about the Mission Project our youth participated in in Philadelphia this summer.
She told us that the theme of the week was the Parable of the Sower.
Mark 4:3-9
3Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: 4And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. 5And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: 6But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 8And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. 9And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Judy told us we are the good seeds. And it comes about that the kids we met in mission are also the good seeds. What a wonderful web of exchange!
Some words we wrote on the white board to describe what our church means to us were: Mission, Community, God's Love, Family, Safety, Consistency, Support, Dependable, Love.
Student wrote down their personal works to describe what their church means to them. Casey wrote, HOPE. Cole wrote: Education, Silence, Peace. Sandy wrote: A place where I can pray for God and let my feelings out to tell me I can feel whatever I want to feel.
What a lesson these wonderful kids teach me, the teacher.
Romans 8:37-39 (Paul's message about God's love)
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ann Ahnemann