Spiritual Growth

As a congregation we seek to:

Foster an environment where all can grow closer to God
Provide guidance and assistance to help people form closer relationships with God

All of our opportunties for spiritual growth are based on individual or group interests througout the church year. While we generally offer classes during the school year, and take a break during the summer, there may be times when a class pauses, or engages in a special opportunity as the life of the church continues on.

Opportunitites for Adults

The Adult Sunday Morning class is engaging in a book study of "My Body is Not a Prayer Request" by Amy Kenny. We gather each Sudnay (starting on September 29th) at 9:15am in the Fireside room and concluding around 10am.

This is one of the books that Pastor Chris studied during his recent sabbatical. Along with engaging in conversations with this book in mind, Pasor Chris is sharing some of his learnings from his sabbatical where he focused on Disability and Accessibility in the church as he has begun writing his own book from the perspective of someone with lived experience of disability as well as having a daughter with disabilities.

All are invited to gather in conversation around disability justice in the church, esspecially what that looks like within our own congregation.

December Sunday School

As the Sunday School class is finishing up their book study of "My Body is Not a Prayer Request" we will continue in our learning about disability justice with the watching of "Crip Camp" in Hazen Hall througout the month of December (until we finish the movie). You are invited to join us as we take this time to learn about hte history of the disability rights movement.

Opportunities for Children

While we do not currently have a formal class for children we do invite them to begin the exploration of their faith by joining us in worship each Sunday as they are. For us this looks like wiggling in pews, utilizing the various musical instruments made available to join in worshiping, dancing with silk scarves, and beginning their faith journey surrounded by people who care for them and their safety. We also have bags available with coloring pages and crayons to help calm the active bodies for those moments where you or they may prefer to be calm.

As children approach/reach the 5th and 6th grades Pastor Chris will engage with their parent/guardian about their interest in Pastor's class which often times leads to thei child deciding to be baptized. This is a class designed to engage the child in conversation with their parents, pastor, and other leaders of the congregation to learn and discover what their faith means to them, and how they wish to respond to that faith.

The church does have a "Sexual Misconduct" policy which seeks to protect all children as they seek to explore their faith. We recognize that througout the years churches have been an easy target for those who wish to misuse the trust given to them, in order to abuse and mistreat vulnerable individuals. As a result we have worked on and put into place this policy which guides how we protect the children who come into our doors. In short this means that all staff and any volunteer that works within our children's ministires have had a full criminal background check run on them. We also do not allow staff or volunteers to be alone (one on one) with a child. You can read our current policy here.