What is your Church's teaching ministry?

[yoyoceramic]

Brothers and Sisters, I am interested to know how your church has structured its Adult Christian Education ministry. How does your church teach the people?

Do you have several classes or only one? What the theological reasons guide your church's Adult Christian Education?

How does your Adult Christian Education progress? Does it have a progression in "level"? (eg Grammar -> Logic -> Rhetoric)

For example, Capitol Hill Baptist has what they term, "Core Seminars" which consist of

1. Membership
2. Basics
3. Bible Overview
4. History and Theology
5. Christian Life
6. Christian Growth

Most of us, being confessional, undoubtedly use the standards and WSC/WLC to teach, and if your church does this, then I would like to hear how you use them for new and experienced Christians alike. Maybe your church does a year-round "Christianity Explored" class to which your members can bring newer Christians. Do you do evangelism "training" or "how to.... share your faith/disciple/study the bible"?

I'd of course, also like to know what criticisms and suggestions for improvement you would make to your church in respect to the teaching ministry, too. Teaching is a passion of mine, and teaching the church even more so. It would be great to see what others are doing!

 

[KMK]

I use Spurgeon's Catechism in conjunction with the resources at shortercatechism.org.

 

[yoyoceramic]

Thanks Ken.

 

[jwithnell]

I really like our Sunday School! We have 9-week classes for three quarters of the year, usually two going at one time.

The new members class runs at least once a year and other classes are aimed at basic Bible literacy.

The "advanced" classes include topics such as early church history, intelligent design, the scriptures (how they were given and passed down through the ages), the threat of Islam, and an in-depth study of Ecclesiastes including its literary form. People give questions that are answered in one-week classes during the summer.

With a new members class and a basic book study going on for this nine weeks, I'm sitting out and reading one of G. Vos' shorter works divided into sections for each week. This way I can join a new class when it starts up late fall.

 

[smhbbag]

We just had a major overhaul of our Sunday School program for adults and the youth. Both are now operating on a 5-year program of rotating courses.

The intent is to ensure that, over the course of 5 years of faithful attendance, the Church will know that every member has had some sort of foundation in major areas.

The classes range from 6 weeks to 4 months long, and unless you repeat a course (which is allowed, of course), you will hit everything in a five-year period.

Classes include: the Pentateuch, Wisdom literature, Major Prophets, Minor Prophets, OT History books, the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Prayer and Fasting, Eschatology, Church History, Apologetics, Systematic Theology, Marriage, Parenting, Christian Ethics, Evangelism and Missions, and Ecclesiology.

It's quite ambitious, and the program started a few months ago. I'm teaching the middle school boys, and we're starting with the Pentateuch.

It is so terribly easy to skip from topic to topic, or book to book, over semesters and years with no overall plan. Depending on when a youth came to our youth program, we would have no idea what he had learned or not learned over his time there, or what topics were missing. Now we will know.

These are all our Sunday morning classes, but additional series are done on Wednesday nights (called ACTS - Adult Christian Training Seminars), that will do something like study the life and ministry of a saint, or tackle unique issues like Medical Ethics.

We have a lot of international students from the local universities whose English is not very good, and their exposure to Christian teaching is minimal. Some attend regularly just to have friends and learn English. Well, they're learning it by learning the Bible from us, so that's just fine. They will continue to have their own class tailored to their situation.

I'm pretty thrilled about it, and I praise God that our Elders take a really long view of what they are there to do.

 

[yoyoceramic]

Wow, thanks Jeremy. Your elders have taken quite a long view. I think this is excellent and very encouraging. Thanks for taking the time to share this.

 

[Rich Koster]

We went through Baptist Catechism last year. Where Sin Abounds (R. Gonzales) and 1st John, so far, this year.

 

[Edward]

14 adult classes (one in Laotian) in 3 time slots, ranging from evangelical to reformed. Some age and stage, some broad based. One based on the Westminster standards open to all members, but required for candidates for office.