Everything we do as a church falls under one of our five broad ministries: Worship, Missions, Stewardship, Hospitality, and Spiritual Formation. These are the five important ministries that we are called to as a church, and we have teams and committees that work in each of these ministry areas. We have continued to do God’s work in the five ministry areas during the pandemic, although some of those ministries have been adapted and more limited. As we have been returning to a new normal with the benefit of vaccines and other protections, more and more functions have resumed and returned to normal.
Sunday School has been an important part of Spiritual Formation at May Memorial since our founding. Sunday school has been around for nearly 250 years, it has been vital for millions of Christians. Through the years at May Memorial many classes have been a source of fellowship, Bible Study, and community for our members. One of those classes at May Memorial is the Koinonia Class. The class, taking its name from the Greek word for fellowship used many times in the New Testament, has resumed meeting in our building every Sunday morning at 9:45.
At the December Deacon’s meeting, the deacons talked at length about the importance of Spiritual Formation for our church family and how best to provide opportunities for that to happen. There was conversation about simply encouraging all of the classes that we had before COVID to simply resume their normal Sunday morning schedule. There was also conversation about seeing this as an opportune moment to explore new and different ways for Spiritual Formation to happen in our church and community.
During the worst of the pandemic we had an online Sunday school class taught faithfully by Bob Kruschwitz. The class was well attended, and it provided community, encouragement, outreach, and spiritual formation for us during a difficult time. Last summer as the vaccines became available and it seemed that life was returning to normal the online class ended and many of those attendees returned to the Koinonia class. We would have never guessed a few years ago that we could have a “Sunday school” class that met online and it to have been as successful as it was. And yet it was wonderfully successful. Which leads me to ask: are there other non-traditional ways for Spiritual Formation to happen? And, should we explore those as we think of re-starting other Sunday school classes?
Would there folks that would like to meet in homes instead of at the church building? Or, maybe meet at a restaurant or coffee shop? Would there be some who would prefer to meet another day and time rather than the traditional Sunday morning at 9:45? What about “short term” classes, that offer a specific study for a few weeks or months? Is there still a need for an online class? These are just a few of my thoughts, and I would guess there could me more options that I may not even think of.
Early in January the church family will be given the opportunity to give input for the ways we can offer Spiritual Formation opportunities. Please be in prayerful thought of how we can continue to provide opportunities to be formed as Jesus’ disciples.