Monday, September 10, 2007

Passing The Faith To The Next Generation

Our church’s new Director of Faith Formation, Paul Davis, and the Rev. Alison Shane, our associate Pastor most responsible for youth, kicked off a new church-wide program today called SPLASH.

Church doors are thrown wide open at 2:30pm each Monday for four to six hours of interaction – by ministers, staff, church leaders and church members of all ages, with the focus on students.

The program is intended to facilitate the overall goal of having grandparents and parents “pass on the faith” to their kids and grandkids. This mentoring/discipleship environment hopefully fosters the worthy objective of teaching the faith to the next generation

The picture above shows a parent helping her high school daughter and other students with a school assignment. Mentoring is one of the integral ingredients of SPLASH, as parents volunteer their time to help students. As an outreach, students (and parents) from the community are invited to participate where they feel comfortable, especially in study hours and recreation time.

The Christian (multipurpose) Center is open for basketball, volleyball, floor hockey, ping-pong and other fun games. The church library is open for study and mentoring. From 4 to 5pm various youth music groups practice, and from 5-6pm a number of self-formed groups explores Christian education topics of interest.

At 6 pm a church-wide dinner is held followed by a time of singing and fun (picture above). At 7pm, “Head-To-Heart”, the current confirmation class, meets for instruction, while adults may choose from a number of adult Bible classes.

The first-time event was a wonderful success. It’s a working experiment in progress. We’re watching with great interest to see how SPLASH provides new opportunities to “pass on the faith”. My wife and I have decided to be a part of SPLASH as we are able (that’s Kay Lynne, above, with three wonderful pre-schoolers this afternoon).

Guess Monday night football doesn't make the cut in the scramble of Fall priorities.

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