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Over the years since 1976, Seekers Church has developed some guidelines for our life as one small part of the Body of Christ. These help us remain faithful to our call and reinforce our core values of commitment and inclusivity.
The Seekers School of Christian Living is a place of learning and sharing for adults in Christian community, where we invite, enable and empower participants to live more fully into faith and God's call to mission. The school exists to:
The School schedules two semesters each year and occasional classes during the summer months. Up to four classes are offered in each semester. Classes are small, to allow all participants to experience the life of a Seekers Church mission group as part of the class experience. There is an emphasis on experiential learning, with time for sharing personal experiences related to the subject of the class. Classes are taught by Stewards and other Seekers, who bring a wide variety of experience to the task. Classes are focused discussions, with homework assignments of reading and journaling on specified topics. Class members take turns providing a simple meal for all to enjoy.
The School is an essential element in the life of Seekers Church, offering the four courses required for becoming a Steward on a rotating cycle, so that regular attendance at the school will allow a prospective Steward to complete the course requirements within a two year period. Classes are offered in the areas of Scripture, spiritual growth, Christian doctrine, and mission. Hebrew Scripture and New Testament classes are often focused on a particular theme such as Jesus' miracles, the prophets, or God's covenant.
Seekers Church, building on the tradition of the Church of the Saviour, has not adopted specific statements of doctrinal belief. Our Christian Doctrine classes help participants examine the various doctrinal positions within the Christian church. Spiritual growth classes focus on prayer, techniques for Scripture study, journaling, meditation and reflection, and other ways to deepen the inner journey of faith such as liturgical clowning, sacred dance and other arts. Mission classes introduce participants to missions sponsored by Seekers Church, and provide an opportunity to explore other areas of need.
The school is administered by the Learners and Teachers Mission Group, which plans and develops class schedules, recruits teachers, coordinates classes and the supper that precedes them, and supports the teachers and students.
The Seekers Sunday School Program is coordinated by the Journeying With Children Mission Group, and involves the entire community as part of being an intergenerational Christian church. The writers and theologians whose work has undergirded our Sunday School program include John Westerhof (Bringing Up Children in the Christian Faith) and, more recently, Sophia Cavaletti (The Religious Potential of the Child).
Westerhof cautions us that approaching our children concerned with who they will become, rather than who they are, will produce potentially negative and oppressive results. Such an approach denies the child's full humanity. Westerhof reminds us that our own faith development depends upon recapturing the spontaneity, creativity and excitement we knew as children. He says that faith is God's gift to the child through the community of faith. For that community to be deep and real, adults must be with, and do things with, instead of doing things for, or to, our children.
Sophia Cavaletti describes her experience of being with children in a very centered, quiet setting, offering them a simple object or kernel of truth from the Gospel. She witnessed the awesome spiritual wisdom and openness of young children when given the space to respond in their own time and way to simple spiritual stories. Again, the message comes to us as it does from Westerhof: respect the child's own journey, the here and now; learn from the child, who has at least as much to offer us as we have to offer her or him.
Since Seekers Church began in 1976, we have used a variety of curricula and administrative structures to implement the Sunday morning program for our children. Our current Sunday morning program is organized into three classes by age. Each class has its own coordinator and teams of teachers for each section of the curriculum, usually about six weeks. Curriculum is developed to support Seekers' young people as they develop a faith life that balances spiritual, social, physical and emotional growth..
We seek to include children in other ways as well:
In the tradition of Church of the Saviour, Seekers Church is committed to mission through the giving of time, talent and financial resources. Our commitment to mission is lived out in the ways we allocate our gifts of time and resources to the community and the wider world.
The Seekers Church budget is developed in the late fall, for the following calendar year. Suggestions for mission giving are welcomed from all Seekers. In the annual budget, a large proportion of the gifts received from our offerings are given to help those in need who are outside our community. We do this through contributions to missions sponsored by Seekers Church and other missions in the tradition of the Church of the Saviour, gifts to other local and national organizations that work for justice in ways that are important to Seekers, and gifts to groups and individuals overseas who are ministering to those in need. Our overseas gifts are delivered by several Seekers who travel widely overseas and have the opportunity to identify and maintain contact with those we have chosen to help. In addition to the spending priorities described above, a small portion of our mission giving, known as the "Community Passions Fund," is distributed to groups where individual Seekers have special, personal commitment and interest.
In Seekers, the small mission group is the structure for support and spiritual accountability for living out God's claim or call on the life of each Seeker. We understand that, according to the New Testament, a mission group is an expression of the Body of Christ, in which Christ is resident and present.
Because of the presence of Christ, the mission group has such power that if it forgives the sins of any, they shall be forgiven. Christ is standing in the midst of the group. For us, a mission group carries the seeds of the destiny of humankind. The future depends on what happens in the group and whether it is faithful to Christ. Without the living presence of Christ in the group, participants will not feel a sense of eternal significance.
Participation in a mission group is a balance of giving and receiving. Participants are called to give themselves to the group and its mission. In doing that they receive support and affirmation for their unfolding lives as Christians. This giving and receiving is more a matter of commitment than one of maturity or strength.
Joining a mission group implies a specific commitment to the spiritual disciplines of that group. New members are expected to have completed two classes in the School of Christian Living. There is normally a trial period to help all participants in the group confirm the joining. Preparation for this level of commitment is nurtured through participation in the Seekers School of Christian Living and in the worship life of Seekers Church.
New mission groups are born when two Stewards discern a call for corporate mission. Once they are clear about the call, they bring it to the Stewards for confirmation. Then the call is sounded for all Seekers. Those who respond begin meeting regularly to live out the mission as part of the life of the church.
In Seekers Church, as in other faith communities growing out of the Church of the Saviour, mission groups are born, live out a natural life, and die. A mission group ends when the group can no longer live out its call. After an appropriate closure, participants are free to respond to some different call. When an individual participant in a group no longer feels an internal identification with the call of the group, the person is expected to discuss this with the group, receive the blessing of the group and leave to seek God's new call in some other place.
We sustain our worship life and enable our School of Christian Living through mission groups. We participate in "corporate" missions that serve the needs of the world through mission groups. We support individuals who are called into a vocation as ministry through mission groups. For us, mission groups are the focal point for living out our commitments to mission (the journey outward), community (the life of Seekers Church), and spiritual growth (the journey inward).
The mission groups called to nurture the life of the community and support the spiritual growth and empowerment for mission to all who participate in it include: Celebration Circle, which supports Sunday worship; Learners and Teachers, which supports our School of Christian Living; and Journeying With Children, which supports adults in their relationships with children and coordinates the Sunday School and other programs for children and youth.
Many Seekers are called to vocations that work to empower those in need. Some work within the Federal government, bringing their personal commitment to justice into those settings. Others are advocates for justice and empowerment. Others work through non-profit organizations to bring change to communities and churches. We want our mission group structure to provide places of support and accountability for this vocational commitment to mission. Two Seekers Church mission groups have this focus on support for individual vocation, the Mission Support Group and the Artists' Mission Group.
Since Seekers Church came into being in 1976, several policies have been developed by the Stewards to guide us as we determine how the budget will be spent. Each year, recommendations for the budget are developed by small groups of Stewards, based on information gathered from throughout the community.
In developing the annual budget of Seekers Church, the Stewards have established a guideline that we will commit about as much of the annual budget to support for mission as we spend on the internal needs of the community.
Seekers Church supports many missions that grew out of the Church of the Saviour or serve local needs, particularly those that empower women and children. These include the Hope and a Home program, Community Medical Care, Community of the Ark (a L'Arche community), Academy of Hope, and the Wellspring Conference Center and Dayspring Silent Retreat Center.
As a community, Seekers Church is fortunate to have several members who are involved with service organizations in other countries. These Seekers help identify new opportunities for ministry as they travel, and are often able to deliver our contributions personally. In recent years, Seekers Church has supported a school for homeless children in Brazil, a health clinic in Soweto, South Africa, a literacy program in Haiti, a community health ministry in Nicaragua, relief for women victims of violence in Bosnia, support for the emerging women's movement in El Salvador, a school for the deaf in Gaza and other projects.
In 1993, the Stewards established a budget category to support advocacy. We use these funds to support systemic change, rather than direct delivery of services. We give preference to supporting organizations and activities where we have a personal connection, and work to develop some specific process for involving the larger Seekers community in the activities we support.
Each year, we offer some financial assistance for Seekers who want support from the community as they respond to God's call in some growing edge of their lives. Recipients work with the Stewards to develop some appropriate form of accountability to the community.
Each year we set aside some funds to help support participation by young Seekers in mission projects, such as summer work camps abroad. These funds are made available based on requests from young Seekers, which are reviewed by the Journeying With Children Mission Group.
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