Do you have questions about the Bible? Have you ever found yourself sitting in a Church with no idea what’s going on? When people talk about faith practices, do find yourself without a reference point?
Foundations might be the answer to those questions. We realized that the majority of the basic bible and faith teaching we do in the Church is for our youth, leaving adults who are new to the Church or who simply didn’t pay great attention in middle school without the basics. Foundations is a cohort designed to teach the basics of faith and to explore faith practices in a new way.
F.A.Q.
What, specifically, will we learn?
We will cover basic bible stories from both the Hebrew and Apostolic scriptures, where different worship components come from, Lutheran Sacraments, what makes Lutheran theology different and the same from other denominations, and faith basics such as how to pray.
Why TWO years? That’s a long time.
It is, and it isn’t. Foundations is designed to provide a foundation of faith knowledge and practice, which doesn't happen over night. We ask for a two year commitment because growing in faith takes time and we want the growth to be organic rather than rushed. We also only meet once per month, so that two year commitment is only 18 meetings!
Why intergenerational?
So we can learn from each other! We will have at least two cohorts, one for those in middle or high school, the more “traditional” time to learn the basics of faith, and one for adults. We hope this will allow for us to learn from one another during teaching time, asking questions and sharing perspectives, while still having a cohort of folks in our life stage to do deeper discussions with.
What happens at the end of the two years?
We celebrate your faith growth! Traditionally, this has meant youth standing up in worship to affirm the faith of their baptisms. We still hope to do that! And this is a new program so each cohort will decide what feels right and holy to them as a way to honor and celebrate the faith growth that’s happened.
Foundations a commitment to being in a cohort for two years, meeting once per month from September-May with some faithful exploring of our topics between meetings. Foundations is a program for people of all ages, Middle School through adult hood. Each month we will gather together for teaching time and then split into our age-based cohorts for further discussion.
Foundations meets on the 4th Sunday of each month after worship (roughly 10:35) until 11:45 AM.