My last post was November 14 of 2009. And it is already March 2010. This website actually went down after it was hacked on my previous hosting account. I moved servers and now up again (actually it was up a month ago, I just wasn’t able to make a post).
So what do we have now?
Christmas Caroling
Yup, we had a Christmas Caroling last December. We’ve done this last year. Funds collected from last year’s caroling (that was 2008) was used for our church’s supplementary feeding program we had last May of 2009 (oops, sorry, no post about the result of the activity). This year’s collections from caroling was also used for another community work. We went out three nights and collected around Php 3,000.
Christmas Community Project
As I’ve said, the money collected from our Christmas caroling was used in a community project. The students from our afternoon Sunday School Class are not church members. They are from the community and their family are not members of the church and most of them have substandard living (poor).
We bought some groceries from the money we collected and divided that to 20 packages (for 20 families). Then we went out and distributed that to those 20 selected families. Families were surprised by our visit and very thankful for the small gift that we gave them.
We’re hoping to do this project again this year, but we’re planning for a bigger one, working hand in hand, once more like what we did with our supplementary feeding program, with the local government of our baranggay (village). And yes, we will also need more funding, so we might ask for more donation.
Sunday School Program
As I’ve said in my previous posts (here, here and here), were hoping to implement a ‘new’ program for our Sunday School department. After hours of meetings every last Sunday of the Month (November, January and February, no meetings last December ’cause we did the community project that time) we were able to furnish a schedule, plan, grading system and lessons for our program.
We were actually planning to create our own curriculum. But since that would eat up a “lot” of time and our staff are “volunteers” (we can only meet on Sundays), we decided to use a book that has a good structure. It was ABC’s of Christian Growth by Robert J. Sargent. It’s a book made specifically for Baptist Churches. And since we are a Presbyterian Church, we still need to modify the contents so it fits our needs as a Presbyterian and as a Local Church. They are just minor changes primarily removing the term Baptist Church from the lesson. I just hope they won’t get mad for us using this 
(and I pray, hope and plan that the Presbyterian Church would be able to produce a kind of manual/lesson that are easy to teach and easy to understand by local churches).
We were also able to create a grading system. Simple yet we could measure how our students are catching up with our lesson. The primary goal why we created a grading system is to make this program like a “real” school. Giving them responsibility and, of course, giving them rewards for their achievement. We will also have recognitions and a graduation.
We will be measuring only three (3) categories:
- Attendance 40%
- Participation 30%
- Exams 30% (yes, we will have exams)
- Total 100%
Our plan was to start the program on April. However, as everything has (almost) already laid down, we will start the program this March. And we did. However, as expected, participation rate aren’t that big (yet). Only one adult came for the Adult class, none for the singles 20+ (their schedule is 9 am before the start of our worship service). Good thing that the class for the teens are after the service, we were able to gather them up and oriented them regarding the program. High thanks to our Pastor that during his message that morning, he gave emphasis on the importance of this program and that everyone is “required, mandated, ordered” to attend the program.
With that said, we’re hoping for a higher participation rate from the members. We won’t be adjusting the schedules. Hearts and mindsets should be adjusted here.
Coming Soon
That’s it for now. Hopefully, I would be able to update this blog more often as I would like to keep track of our weekly progress in our program.
God bless.
Tags: church, discpleship, planning, sunday school
As I’ve said in my previous post, we have done some preliminary steps in organizing our C.E. department, specially for the Sunday School Classes. One of those is dividing the church to smaller groups so we can properly teach/train them according to their age/level/social niche.
We used to have 3 levels for our Sunday School classes, beginners (ages 4-6), primary (ages 7-9) and intermediate (ages 10-12). This is on a main category of “Children’s Group/Class”. We currently don’t have any for our youth/adults.
On our meeting, we agreed to group the members according to age level. Also, we consider social factors. Like for example, we could place 13 – 19 year old under the “Teen’s Class”. However, 13 year old and 19 year old already has a huge gap with regards to their interests, way of doing things, thinking, etc. So we’ve divided them into more sub-groups. Let me show how our groupings are done via the table below. This table will also show the teachers who will handle the class. Some have multiple teachers because the kind of group will have a different approach and we want to maximize those teacher’s “seminary” training.
- Sunday School Class Schedule
As you can see, we have 7 classes for Sunday School. This will cover all the members of the church. Not included are 3 years old and below.
Now that they are divided, the next hop will be the lessons that we will teach and how long should the students be on each level (note that we will make this a “process” wherein one member will come to a point the he/she will graduate). That would be on my next post.
Tags: class, discpleship, grouping, organizing, planning, sunday school
It’s been a long time since I made an update on this blog. My initial plan was to upload all videos from our church anniversary. Unfortunately, I ran out of disc space. However, I think I will be able to free up some disc space in the following days, and I also upgraded my DSL subscription so I can upload faster now.
Anyways, what happened the past few months? We had some lunch fellowship with the staff (no meetings, no discussion about the organization, just plain chit chat). The big thing is we’ve already started developing the system for our C.E. department.
We had a long (very long, 5 hours) meeting on the last Sunday of October. During the meeting, we were able to group the members according to age. This grouping, for us, will be the best way for us to teach/disciple each member.
We’ve also devised at least a time frame and a framework on what we will teach. I will be posting the details on my next post.
We will have our next monthly meeting on the last Sunday of November (29th). I’ve already told my staff to expect another “long” meeting. We expect to end our next meeting on a dinner at a local eatery.
God bless. Soli Deo Gloria.
Tags: organizing, planning, updates
This is a video of one of our practice of the song Flower in the Rain by Jaci Velasquez. This will be used for our presentation in our Church Anniversary.
There were 6 singers, I was only able to capture 4 of them on tape. I was playing the guitar and no one else can take the video. This is a practice, so the video includes bloopers and all the good stuff. God bless.
Will be uploading the actual presentation we made on our Family Sunday.
August 2, 9, 16, 23
9:00am to 12:00pm
August 30 – Worship Celebration
5:00pm
16 Years of God’s Faithfulness and Glory
Liberty Presbyterian Church
Blk. 9 Gumaoc West
City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
Tags: anniversary, church, Events
Last Sunday, we had a meeting (regular monthly meeting) and our agenda (supposedly) are:
- Why do we teach?
- What is our vision?
- What do we want to achieve from this purpose?
However, I realized that in order for a ministry to be effective, it should be laid on a good, right foundation. The 1st question was asked, and answered by our teachers. However, the 2nd and 3rd questions were not asked. Instead, I tried to make them realize what kind of ministry they entered.
So, what kind of ministry is C.E.?
As our team discussed last month and last Sunday, C.E. is a broad ministry. It doesn’t just involve teaching children bible stories, but it is a training ground for leaders. It is a method or strategy of the Church to make disciples (Matthew 28:19, 20). It is not a simple task. It will not just involve small time during Sunday mornings but a lot of time preparing and studying the lesson we are about to teach. A lot of time praying for the students, by name. A lot of time training our selves and seeking God first before we teach our students seek God.
According to World Net Search, a disciple is someone who believes and helps to spread the doctrine of another. Therefore, the teacher should know this doctrine, by the heart, and lives with it. And that is one of our goals.
So what is the foundation? It is Christ. Since He is the one who gave us this ‘Great Commission’. A ministry that is planted on God’s, functioning with joy, enthusiasm and love.
C.E. is not a simple ministry. It is a ‘hard work‘ and requires real commitment. This is a training ground for the future leaders of our church. I pray everyone in our team will be able to give this commitment to God.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Tags: discpleship, foundation, planning, plans
After some personal struggles. I decided to move along in this ministry.
On our meeting last May, I told our staff regarding the changes that we will have on our department. One of this is focusing on completely organizing the Christian Education Department – starting with us. I told them that I am expecting everybody to attend the monthly meeting every last Sunday of the month. Required them to bring lunch since we will spend that time to study certain topic(either doctrine, teaching strat, etc.).
On our meeting last June, the topic that we discussed was ‘how big is C.E.’. After sharing of ideas, we concluded whenever education is needed, C.E. is there (an obvious thought, but usually forgotten). This means that C.E. doesn’t just cover children or Sunday School, but it covers every other department in the church. The reason is, everybody in the church needs to learn (children, youth, adult, newcomer or a long time member, including pastors, leaders, deacons, deaconess, elders, ‘teachers’).
With this, we decided that we need structure on our ‘Education System’. Usually, Sunday School is repetitive, non-formal, and with no regular attendees (students may or may not attend the class, or new students will join an old class). This leads to students being ‘bored’ of it. One of our students said that he already know what the teacher will teach. And even though the teacher will look for ways to have a different approach, it is not that effective. New student will attend an old class so the teacher has to adjust so the new student will understand the lesson. This causes the old students to loose interest on the already heating up lesson. And after all the lesson had been exhausted, same students will go back to square one. This is how most church’s Sunday School system goes.
What we want to have is a system that will allow the student to progress. In short, we want a system patterned on the secular educational system. New students will enroll on this class, as the class go on, no new students can join and they have to wait till next school year. Then after they finish that level, they will move on to a next level with a different way of approach/topic/discussion, until they finished all the levels until, if God willing, they commit to be a worker of the church (or maybe sent to the seminary to study or become a teacher also). We will also include graduations, awards for the students, and similar things that they might receive on secular schooling. Why? So they will have a different understanding why there’s Sunday School. They will take seriously and won’t take it just a way for the church to have a ‘child care’ system.
Well, this is an huge task for us. We have to develop a curriculum, etc. I am not a professional on this. But I thank God cause we have talented people with us. Some of us took Education in college. We could make use of what they learned. This is our plan for this last half of the year. We don’t want it to be finished as quickly as possible, but we want it to be a good system that the church will use. I am hoping our teachers will give their full cooperation on this project.
Tags: organizing, planning, plans
Paradigm Shift –
the notion of a major change in a certain thought-pattern — a radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems or organizations, replacing the former way of thinking or organizing with a radically different way of thinking or organizing – wikipedia.org
I was about to post an article regarding some struggles that I experienced a couple of weeks ago regarding the department I am leading. However, after reading some articles from the web, I think God is speaking with me.
I was planning to resign as director fo our Christian Education Department, however the statement I read changed my mind and made me realize, I haven’t done my best yet, so why stop?
I’m not going to ask You to bless our Sunday School until I get a chance to work it out. When I’ve worked on it and Sunday School is worthy of your blessing, then I will come and ask for Your blessing. — from The Landon Altizer Story
Now, why paradigm shift? Not yet for me. I am not yet at the point of standing in front of a lot of people and preach regarding a change of mind regarding approach in the ministry. I am currently at the state of changing my own state of mind. How I think, and perceive the current situation we or I have. I expected things to happen, but I haven’t done any steps to do it. I try to blame someone else for the “problems” that is the result of my own action and negligence.
We will have an outing on Friday (May 29) with the people of our C.E. Department. I might talk to them regarding this. If we want result, what should we do first. Before we seek out God’s blessings, we (I) will ask ourselves (myself) first, have we done our part to make our work desserving of God’s blessing. You might say that God doesn’t look at what our hands can make, but rather at our hearts. But I say, hands will express what our hearts desire.
It is time to move on. Time to do something. Time to think right. And time to serve God.
“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” – Acts 20:24
There had been many activities that we had. But I having some sort of dilemma in making reports (posts) about those. I need to gather up my thoughts first so I wouldn’t just burst in emotion and say unecessary things.
Wonder why? The activities were successful (though we can’t avoid some problems). But there are situations that made me feel bad (so bad).
I’ll post that later.
God bless.
(It is hard to lead Christian Education Department, but I hope by the grace of God, I can make it)
Liberty Presbyterian Church will be conducting a Supplementary feeding program this coming 5 Saturdays of May. This was actually a plan by the women’s group, however, it didn’t materialize and the Christian Education department, thinking of activities we could do for the community, decided to organize the activity.
We decided to conduct the supplementary feeding on the 5 Saturdays of May. First Saturday will be an orientation for the parents of those qualified patients. The following four will be the actual feeding. We have a registered nurse at our church (our Pastor’s wife) and she is also working as department head of a Children’s Missionary group in Quezon City. We also have members that is currently working for the local rural health centers. So meaning we have the expertise we need to conduct this project.
We will be covering three small baranggays (village) (Gumaoc East, Gumaoc Central, Gumaoc West), and ten children with ages 4 to 7 years with that belongs to very low normal category will be taken from each, totalling of thirty children all in all. One of our goals is to be involved in the community and show them that we do care for them (opening the doors for mission work). During the program, we will also distribute brochures that contain recipes for foods that are nutritious, easy to prepare, delicious, and doesn’t cost much. Part of the orientation will be sharing of the gospel.
We are still praying for funds for this project.
God bless.
Tags: Events
