Class #3

"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." '

Numbers 6:24-26

The church is not a building,

The church is not a steeple,

The church is not a resting place,

The church is a people.

So today we looked at what the Bible says about the church. When asked what we think of when we hear the word "church" many of the comments were: pews, sermons, youth group and pastor. What was missing from this list? The people.... not the architecture, or the size, but what God intended the people called "church" to be. We related this to what it means to be a Christian.

We played a game in class titled "Biblical Snapshots" but quickly learned our group was too large to make this exciting game any fun. Instead we competed to find answers to the listed questions which included: What is the church built on? (Matthew 16:15-18 says Jesus) or Why are there different kinds of people in the church? (1 Corinthians 12:4-6 says because each person has different gifts and abilities to help one another.) This worked out much better than our original game.

Be sure to ask your kids how in the Old Testament times people would make a covenant with God? It's a little gruesome but true...In order to demonstrate the difficulty in humans keeping a promise to one another, we promised that we would pass blocks to one another around the class without dropping them. We started with one block but quickly added more and more, proving that outside circumstances can often affect the promises we make to one another. Unlike promises or contracts between human beings, in a covenant with God, we can be assured that God is faithful.

As we grow to know one another and as we become part of the church together, it's important to remember that we will have times of weakness and time of struggle. However, we can depend on one another with our own unique gifts and talents to strengthen our journey forward. What a blessings!

We also had a wonderful opportunity to wish Porter a very happy birthday! See you next week everyone...