Our religious and spiritual learning is an ongoing process.  At First Church our comprehensive educational program begins with our children in pre-kindergarten and continues through adulthood.

This year will be a year of exciting change for our Christian education programs. A lot of hard work is being conducted to determine how to provide even better educational programs, with new curriculums being considered. The following are the planned activities that will support our Education mission.

Adult Education

In November 2009, close to 100 church members participated in the New Beginnings sessions held after worship.   The first session, ”My Church”, focused on helping attendees better understand the power and potential for our local church as a base of spiritual and moral action.  The second session dealt with “My Spirituality” as a means to identifying the steps to spiritual growth and acknowledging our responsibility to reach out to God for insight, inspiration, and growth.  The final session, “My Ministry”, provided participants with information on their unique talents and skills. The skills inventory fostered a process of self-discovery and discernment.   Copies of the workshop are available on DVD should you want to learn more.

This is the second year of our Small Group Ministry Program.  Trained facilitators lead structured sessions that span a full year’s commitment.  Each small group varies in number up to 10 adults who gather on a monthly basis to discuss the month’s topic, to share with one another, and to listen intentionally, and intently, to one another.  This format encourages an intimacy and sharing that we don’t often receive in our overly verbal and advice giving society.  An important component of this process is the service project that each group chooses.  Stay tuned!   New groups should be forming annually in January or February.

Children’s Music

Music is an important part of our children’s programming.  Singing is incorporated into children’s worship time, the Christmas Pageant, and Children’s Sunday. Children’s choirs also contribute to our Christmas and Easter worship experiences.

Additionally, a children’s bell choir has been formed to help with occasional worship services.  It provides an incredible opportunity for adults and youth to interact and spend time in a coordinated and joyful effort!

Communion Class

This three session experiential learning event is held once a year to introduce sixth grade and older youth to the meaning of this central part of Christian worship. Included is an authentic Jewish Seder or Passover Meal.

Christian Formation/ Confirmation Program

As youth transition from Middle School to High School, their relationship to the church is changing also.  It moves from a more dependent relationship, where they are the student passively receiving what is taught, toward a more self-initiating relationship, where they make choices and decisions about their beliefs, their values and their involvements.

 Our two year Christian Formation/Confirmation program is offered every other year to 8th and 9th graders and high school students who have not been confirmed. We are in the second year of the program. The next class will be starting in the Fall of 2012.

 The first year program is led by the minister, along with a team of mentors who are individually paired with each youth in the program.   During the first year, youth begin reflecting on their own faith and relationship with God on a new level, and to begin to see their unique place within the community of faith.

 In year two the youth are offered structured opportunities to experience and reflect on what it is like to be part of the church community.  The second year program will have one group session or event each month, one of which is a day-long Stewardship Retreat. Participants will learn that “ministry” is the privilege and calling of every church member, based on their unique gifts.  Guided by a Youth Ministry Team and the Minister, they will take a personal gifts survey, and try out their own places of involvement in ministry, either within existing church programs or beyond them.  They may choose to “shadow” an adult church member during the year to observe first-hand their involvement in ministry.  The group will engage in a ministry or outreach activity/project.  At the end of the year, they will be invited to become confirmed, and to make their own personal decision about becoming an official adult member of the church.

 High school age youth, including those who have been through the confirmation program in the past, are invited to participate in service and ministry such as ushering, lay reading, music, Sunday School, IHN, visiting or serving on church boards, and other outreach opportunities.

Middle School

The Middle School Fellowship (MSF) is open to youth in grades 6 – 8.  The group will meet monthly from October through June for fun, fellowship and service.  Typical activities include: indoor and outdoor games such as sledding and bowling, pumpkin carving, an annual family outing to a Sharks hockey game, serving at soup kitchens, caroling shut-ins and helping with the church turkey supper. Leadership is provided by parents and other adult volunteers.

Sunday School

Throughout the school year, our extensive Sunday School program teaches children of all ages, from pre-school through eighth grade.  Numerous adults serve as Sunday School teachers, with high school students participating as teacher aides. Learn more about our Sunday School programs.