[Seekers] [Write us] [Seeds
of Hope Mission Group]
A
Christian Community
In
the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour
_____________________________________________________
Educating Every Member
Newcomers to Seekers are usually sent to the church’s
School of Christian Living, following a long-standing Church of the Saviour
tradition of educating members in the what and why of Christian living. Church members teach
the classes, which are held on a semester system. “You need to know the theology before
you go into community,” says Marjory Bankson, who teaches in the school, which
is for both members and people who are questioning. “We’re not there to beat anybody up if
they’re not a believer.”
Classes are held weekly — for either six or twelve weeks —
beginning with dinner at
The theme of close Christian Community is also woven
into the school, where classes are kept small to simulate a mission group
experience and time is always allocated for personal sharing. “The hope is that a person gain not
only intellectual understanding, but also experience confrontation with the
living God,” Elizabeth O’Connor, a founding member of the Church of the Saviour
wrote in Call to Commitment, her history of the church. “Each course is planned to lead to that most decisive of all choices: total commitment to
Christ.”
Paul Wilkes, Excellent Protestant
Congregations, pg
The Learners and Teachers Mission Group
Learners and Teachers is called to invite, enable,
and empower participants to live more fully into faith and God's call to
mission, and to enable the Seekers School of Christian Living. The School is a
place of learning and sharing for adults in Christian community, and an
important place of preparation for committed membership in
The Learners and Teachers Mission Group exists to
support the spiritual growth and development of Seekers. This includes
providing the classes required for committed membership in Seekers (Old
Testament, New Testament, Christian Growth, and
Christian Doctrine) as well as other classes of interest to the wider
community.
The
The School provides a setting for Seekers to express
their gifts and to practice mission by teaching and outreach through classes.
We also welcome participants from other communities.
During the year, we usually sponsor two ten‑week
sessions of the School (fall and spring), opportunities for short, special or
experimental classes during January and an informal sermon discussion group
during the summer. Because dinner and the meditation are
considered an important way to build community, we encourage people to
come for that part of the evening as well as for the Tuesday night classes.
People who feel drawn to participate more fully in
the life of Seekers may join a mission group after completing two classes in
the School.
All members of the Learners and Teachers mission group
feel a call to provide continuing education for adults in the Seekers
community. The way that call is expressed differs with
our gifts, experience and available energy. We revisit the issue of roles for
our inner and outer life together about twice a year, to allow for growth and
change.
Tasks connected with our mission include planning and
developing classes, recruiting teachers, promoting participation, offering
orientation to the School for newer teachers, shepherding classes, coordinating
use of the facilities with the Church staff, providing hospitality and
coordinating dinners. We rotate responsibilities for these tasks to develop
gifts growing in us.
Nurturing the Spiritual Growth of Children and Youth
The Seekers Sunday School Program is coordinated by
the Journeying With Children Mission Group, and supported by 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 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
We seek to include children in several other ways:
-- Each Sunday during
worship we use an opening hymn known by the children.
-- Most Sundays we have a brief word for
the children, based on the scripture lections of the week.
-- For some holidays, we have organized
special intergenerational worship services.
-- We hold family overnight gatherings at
Wellspring twice each year.
-- We celebrate special events in the lives
of Seekers children with rituals which are developed
with their participation.
[Seekers] [Write us] [Seeds
of Hope Mission Group]