Return to Sunday In-Person Bible Study

God is always at work! It's in his nature and is directly related to his love for us and his whole creation. He sustains us and provides for us during good times and bad. He provided Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and provides us with the Holy Spirit to believe in him and hold tightly to his promises of forgiveness and eternal life (among many others!). His work and love for us will never end. I find great comfort in this simple truth.

Perhaps you have done a lot of different work around your home during this pandemic. You might have worked to establish a home office so that you could work from home, but part of your home might have been converted to a facility to care for a loved one or for your student to learn online. You might have remodeled or spruced up parts of your home with your new spare time, but maybe you worked to help someone else with similar projects.

There's been a lot of work going on around here at Christ Our Savior, too. Our Early Childhood Program has been actively serving our families, and our retiree volunteers have been remodeling and maintaining many rooms in the building. Most of you have not yet experienced the wonderful new acoustic tiling that was installed in the gym a month before the COVID shutdown, and even fewer of you have seen classrooms 1-6 while they are being renovated even now. Brand new AV systems are being installed in the gym and in classrooms 1-4 over the next two weeks to prepare us for in-person Bible study and all of the other activities and events we hope to return to here at COS soon.

With all this, we're also excited to announce our plans for returning to in-person Bible study, Catechism, and Sunday School starting Sunday, September 20. Some things will be similar, but some things are going to be quite different. We've been hard at work on this, too, and look forward to being together again.

Please register for these classes.

Youth & Family Night
As frustrating as this is, we have decided that our Sunday evening Youth & Family Night format is not going to work well given all of our current circumstances and context. We are thankful that it has served as an effective way for youth and families to connect and be nurtured in God's word, but for now, we are cancelling Youth & Family Night. We are currently building an expanded team of leaders for Jr. & Sr. High Youth Group, so stay tuned for more updates regarding those groups.

Sunday School
We are looking forward to this new format! We plan to have preschool Sunday school (ages 3 and 4) in the classroom where it has been (room 15). Lessons will occur much the way they have in the past for these children with learning Bible stories, doing activities that relate to the stories, and interacting with each other.

Grades K-6 will meet in the gym. We will spread out (physically distance) on the floor and have a fun large group introduction including a short lesson and music, making use of new technology currently being installed. This large group time will stream live online as well as be recorded so that those at home can watch in real time or later. After the large group time, we will break up into small groups. There will be tables with a leader and small groups of children. Depending on the day, the lesson, the leaders, etc., those groups may do crafts, games, discussion, etc. There will be lesson content emailed to families so that if your children are not attending in person, you can use the time after the large group introduction to work with your family group at home.

Catechism
Catechism is intended primarily for 7th and 8th grade students at this time as they prepare to be publicly confirmed in the faith they were given in their baptism and be ready to receive The Lord's Supper. Since Youth & Family Night is cancelled for this year, Catechism will be Sunday mornings at 9:45 and will be offered both in person and online simultaneously. Each session will be recorded and posted on our website on a weekly basis. The newly-renovated classrooms 5-6 will be the location for this group.

Sunday Adult Bible Study
Adult Bible Study will begin with a congregation-wide study based on the book, "One Nation Under God", by B. Keith Haney. It will be provided to all participants for free. The newly-renovated classrooms 1-4 will be the location for this study unless capacity limitations  lead us to meet in the sanctuary instead. As with Sunday School and Catechism, this will be offered both in person and online simultaneously and will be recorded and posted online on a weekly basis.

Bethel will not meet in person but will continue as they have since March.

Registration
Whether you plan to attend in person or online, please register for all of these classes. This is crucial for us as we plan the logistics of returning to in-person Bible study for all ages. We are excited and thankful that we have the technology resources to offer these both in-person and online, and we hope you will take advantage of these opportunities, whether it's here at COS or in your homes still.

If you have any questions about any of these groups or would like to be a part of leading Sunday School in particular, please contact Pastor Davenport (pastord@christoursavior.org), Pastor Eden (pastore@christoursavior.org), or Karla Schettenhelm (karlas@christoursavior.org).

You can scan the following QR code with your mobile device if you prefer to register using that instead.