Sunday School
“The Village”
Sunday School at Oxford United Methodist Church
We nurture participants’ relationship with Christ,
build a caring and creative community,
and extend the love of Christ into the world.
Schedule
“The village meets September through May”
•10:00 – 10:55 a.m. Sunday school for all ages.
•No Sunday School on the third Sunday of each month.
At 10:00 a.m. on the third Sunday we have The Village Brunch where all are invited for brunch and fellowship.
Preschool and Kindergarten Sunday School
Children will be learning about the same themes as Rotation Sunday School and participate in similar activities but in their own classroom.
Nursery is provided for infants and babies until they are ready to join the preschool class.
Children’s Rotation Sunday School
Grades 1st through 5th
Rotation Sunday School is a dynamic program based on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory which states children and adults learn information through the following intelligences:
•Verbal-linguistic •Musical
•Social-interpersonal •Logical
•Visual-spatial •Self reflection
•Physical-kinesthetic
•In the rotation model, children experience God’s Word through a variety of stations that allow the biblical stories to enter through all the intelligences.
•The same Bible story is taught for 4 to 5 weeks. Each week the children rotate to a new station (art/science, game/movie/music, computer, story/drama, or cooking) to encounter the story in a new and different way.
•Repetition is an important part of the rotation model. The more ways a child can explore a story the more likely it will be remembered.
Youth Sunday School (Two Classes)
Grades 6-8 and 9-12
Claim the Life is a six-year, comprehensive spiritual formation plan for youth Sunday school. The annual themes are Journey, Word, and Faith for younger youth; Promise, Story, and Call for older youth. Each year is divided into two 16-week semesters.
1. Each lesson begins with Tending, an intentional ritual that helps youth develop closer relationships through tending to one another and tending to God at work in their lives and the world.
2. The planned Teaching content is focused on one word (or phrase) that is significant to the Christian faith (Commitment, Suffering, Simplicity, Blessing, Peace, Abundant Life, for example).
3. Each lesson concludes with Sending, an intentional ritual that helps youth create SMART goals, ways in which they will practice some element of being a disciple.
•Youth will experience Christian community and participate in practices of the faith.
•Each youth will make the lessons relevant to him- or herself through the practice of developing his or her own SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Revealed, and Time-Limited).
•Teachers will have images, additional activities, training, denominationally specific material, additional background, and links to music from the CD-ROM/Website.
•Classes will have the benefit of being able to use the video material from the related DVD Discussion Starters.
Adult Sunday School
With all of the excitement of a new Sunday School experience for our children, please save a bit of enthusiasm for our new Adult Sunday School programs. Carefully examine our Adult offerings. First Service worshippers please stay an additional hour; Second Service worshippers please come an hour early. It is that simple. Certainly all of us can spare one more hour for Christian fellowship and learning as we move forward on our faith journeys.
•NOOMA – Taugtht by Marianne McMunn.
This is a unique series of study. Nooma is a short film format, featuring pastor Rob Bell (author of “Velvet Elvis”). These videos really speak to issues that we care about and that we want to discuss with a Christian perspective. There will be no printed materials, so you can feel free to come whenever you are available. This series privides an atmosphere for sharing our questions as well as what we are learning on our individual journeys.
BIBLE STUDY – Taught by John Paulson.
This is going to be a drop-in type of class. We will read the Bible, discuss how the readings apply to us today, and try to gain insite into what the authors were trying to share. The agenda is very flexible based on the needs of the class. Our plan willl be to start with Ecclesiastes, Song of Soloman, and then go to the book of Isaiah. Everyone is welcome. You do not need to be a Bible scholar to participate in this class. We will grow together in our love for the Lord.
THE VILLAGE TOUR – Taught by Mary Garrard.
This class will study the themes of the children’s program, with a strong emphasis on the Bibical support for these themes. Participants will need to be flexible as the themes will change every four to five weeks. What a great opportunity to share and reinforce our Sunday School lessons as we talk to the children and each other. The theme for the first month is “Sharing and Kindness”
