Gather 'Round
Gather 'Round: Hearing and Sharing God’s Good News is the new Sunday School curriculum for Sunday School, worked out jointly by writers from the Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Church Canada, and Mennonite Church USA. This series, thoroughly Bible-based and theologically sound, will replace Jubilee, which has been in use for eleven years. With strong emphasis on tying together church and family, material has been planned for every level, all studying the same Bible texts at the same time, encouraging family conversation during the week centered on the Sunday studies.
For churches with a large number of children, age level materials are graded according to preschool (ages 3 and 4, with suggestions where two-year-olds are included), kindergarten, primary, junior, junior youth, and youth. Recognizing that many congregations have only a few children and youth, a separate multilevel approach has been worked out for those where several age levels must be combined.
Because different children learn in different ways, sound educational principles are incorporated—stories, music, memory work, dramatization, arts and crafts, discussion, problem solving, with adequate teacher helps so that each teacher can choose which learning styles fit the particular children in the classes. For parents and caregivers there is a separate book suggesting ways in which the lesson materials can be utilized for conversation and for getting along in the family, at school, and in the world.
Developed on a four-year cycle, the material begins in the fall of 2006, the memory passage being the Shema—Deuteronomy 6:4-6, with the instruction to remember that there is one God, "And you shall love your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength," and that you shall gather 'round to tell those words to your children. It begins with creation—and our need to care for God’s creation. From the Genesis stories the children talk about what it means to be in a family—what happens when it seems that one child is favored over another, for instance—the Cain and Able story, the Jacob and Esau bit. Joseph finding that what seemed like adversity really prepared him to save not only the strange people he was cold into, but how important forgiveness is in the family and in the world.
Mennonite and Brethren persons met in Pittsburgh ten days ago to plan ways to introduce this new curriculum to individual congregations. So far three sessions have been planned by the Mennonites, who will welcome Brethren to these three-hour Saturday sessions, 9:00a.m.-12 noon: April 22, Roanoke Mennonite, Roanoke; May 6, Science Ridge Mennonite Church, Sterling. A training session for the Elgin-Chicago area will be in the making by Brethren as well as by Mennonites. Watch for those plans.
Or call Keith Springer, 309-722-3249, ekeith4.3@juno.com; or Esther Frey, 815-734-6765, 1 W. Brayton Road, Mt. Morris, IL 61054, eefrey@esses1.com.
For churches with a large number of children, age level materials are graded according to preschool (ages 3 and 4, with suggestions where two-year-olds are included), kindergarten, primary, junior, junior youth, and youth. Recognizing that many congregations have only a few children and youth, a separate multilevel approach has been worked out for those where several age levels must be combined.
Because different children learn in different ways, sound educational principles are incorporated—stories, music, memory work, dramatization, arts and crafts, discussion, problem solving, with adequate teacher helps so that each teacher can choose which learning styles fit the particular children in the classes. For parents and caregivers there is a separate book suggesting ways in which the lesson materials can be utilized for conversation and for getting along in the family, at school, and in the world.
Developed on a four-year cycle, the material begins in the fall of 2006, the memory passage being the Shema—Deuteronomy 6:4-6, with the instruction to remember that there is one God, "And you shall love your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength," and that you shall gather 'round to tell those words to your children. It begins with creation—and our need to care for God’s creation. From the Genesis stories the children talk about what it means to be in a family—what happens when it seems that one child is favored over another, for instance—the Cain and Able story, the Jacob and Esau bit. Joseph finding that what seemed like adversity really prepared him to save not only the strange people he was cold into, but how important forgiveness is in the family and in the world.
Mennonite and Brethren persons met in Pittsburgh ten days ago to plan ways to introduce this new curriculum to individual congregations. So far three sessions have been planned by the Mennonites, who will welcome Brethren to these three-hour Saturday sessions, 9:00a.m.-12 noon: April 22, Roanoke Mennonite, Roanoke; May 6, Science Ridge Mennonite Church, Sterling. A training session for the Elgin-Chicago area will be in the making by Brethren as well as by Mennonites. Watch for those plans.
Or call Keith Springer, 309-722-3249, ekeith4.3@juno.com; or Esther Frey, 815-734-6765, 1 W. Brayton Road, Mt. Morris, IL 61054, eefrey@esses1.com.
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