So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17
Faith Formation in Community
The Scriptures are clear: faith formation does not happen as an isolated event. Today, we have become so used to relating to the world as individuals we have almost forgotten the importance of community. But that is exactly what the Church is: the Body of Christ. As Paul says, “We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another,” (Romans 12:5). Community is also important for education. Therefore, as a congregation we strive to learn together by providing opportunities for faith formation to people of all ages.
Sunday School Education
Learning to read and love the Bible is central to faith formation. As Paul says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We desire to give a love of God’s Word to all people, so from birth to adult we have you covered in Sunday School. Our whole program is geared toward learning the Bible together. During the school year we read and learn about the same Bible passage in age-appropriate ways. Infants and Toddlers have their own special curriculum where they learn alongside their parents to develop faith formation continue at home. To learn more about our Sunday School, visit our page here.
Midweek Class Education
Faith formation is not only learning Bible stories, but what the Bible teaches about God and ourselves. Paul tells the Corinthians, “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, and in which you stand firm. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain,” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). He tells Timothy, “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed,” (1 Timothy 4:6). So we too hand down the gospel and doctrine that was passed on to us in our Midweek Classes. Currently our Midweek classes are for students from birth to 8th Grade. To learn more about our Midweek Classes, visit our page here.
Bible Studies
In addition to Sunday School and Midweek, we offer several other opportunities for learning the faith. Our “Dialog and Doctrine” groups meets Tuesday evenings at 6:00 to read and discuss a variety of topics. This can range from a study on the Gospel of John to what the Church teaches about Baptism to reading to reading a book written by a classical Christian author. On Thursdays evenings at 5:00 we have both a Men’s and Women’s Bible Study that meet. These studies are open to everyone in the community.
Seminars, Workshops, & More
We also host a variety of seminars and workshops. We have hosted several “Seminary Summer Workshops” and had a seminary professor from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis come a teach on a topic. We have also hosted workshops with denominational leadership and done self-led workshops to help us learn more about how we can live out our faith.