“Teach Me Thy Ways”   ( Return to Sermon Page)

May 18, 2008

Mt. 28: 16-20                                                        

Ephesians 4:11-14

          We cannot be disciples alone. 

We learn to be disciples in community.

Here the word of God is taught and the scriptures discussed.

Here we can bring our faith questions, our insecurities, our doubts and our fears. 

Here the Holy Spirit has poured out a multitude of gifts to be shared for the building up of the body.  Here we find support, nurture, accountability, and vision.

Growing in faith does not come easily or automatically.

In a place like the USA ‘where I can do it myself’ is bred into us from birth,

you may not have heard this statement before.

          Faithful people mature in faith by learning together in community.

          One of the tasks of the church is to provide those learning opportunities for every age group at every level of their spiritual development. 

          Today you have seen a sampling of the way we do that here.

We start children off in Children’s church and Sunday School. 

When they get to 3rd grade, we give them a Bible; most 4th graders can read it.

Children progress through the years, and are offered the opportunity to participate in confirmation class when they reach 8th grade or so.  Then we have a wide variety of classes for adults, including Disciple Bible Study.

We have been purposeful in educating our children, youth and adults in this church, but there is more we could do. 

          We should have a mini-lesson for Toddlers.

We should have a confirmation class for adults who never had Sun. Sch. lesson. 

And there is more we could be doing for our children, our teens, especially for our young adults and young married/young singles. 

We need to be intentional about our adult classes offerings so that they cover a variety of subjects over a period of time.

In the coming months we will have a planning session where we look at what we have in place and what needs to be added or changed so that we have an intentional faith development plan from cradle to the grave so to speak.

          Why does it matter?

Because, faith grows when you have a place to ask your faith questions. 

Faith grows when your mind is stretched to encompass new ideas or to understand more about scripture. 

Faith can grow when life throws you a curve, if you have other disciples to be with.

Christ calls us to share our faith, to grow in discipleship, to keep on learning.

Faith tends not to grow if you never talk to anyone else about it.

Faith will become irrelevant if you don’t think about what you believe.

Faith becomes stagnant if think you have it all figured out;

none of us has it all figured out; we all need to keep learning.

Faith becomes strengthen when old ideas are challenged.

It matters because Jesus taught in community, and

it is in gathering together that we see Christ revealed in one another.

          It is in that revelation that we know salvation and are saved.