As with any program or method, the 21st century presents huge challenges in attempting to take advantage of communication and teaching techniques which are changing at the speed of light! What worked 50 years ago, or 40 or 30 or even 10 years ago must constantly be updated in order to be as the children of Issachar and have "an understanding of the times." (1 Chronicles 12:22)
So, with Hosea 4:6 having been my life verse for more than 20 years ("...my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...") and realizing that our discipleship/Sunday School/teaching system at POA needed a timely makeover, The Knowledge Project was born.
We felt that the last 25 years or so has seen a splintering of families and ages within the church, to the extent that communication has been hindered. We have become increasingly convicted that this is not Biblical. The plan of God is a multi-generational plan, with older teaching younger, and younger working alongside older, and the family unit exuding strength and unity and solidarity with the church. Although they are useful and are a great additional resource, the youth group or the Sunday School class or the retreat should never assume preeminence over the home or church as a whole.
So, while our communication and teaching methods needed an overhaul, we also needed a jarring reminder of what the Bible is and what Deuteronomy 6:7-12 means to us in the 21st century.
And since I have a tendency to make anything I touch hard and involved and complicated, The Knowledge Project was born. :-)
Simply stated, the Knowledge Project is discipleship at the Pentecostals of Alexandria.
So far, it has consisted of 3 phases:
PHASE 1:
Launched in the fall of 2010, Phase 1 is the Module Phase. Each spring and fall, several 4-week modules are taught on the POA campus by various teachers. The modules are 90-minute classes taught at various times during the week--day, evening, Wednesday nights Bible study, Saturdays--and have a variety of focuses. Some that have been taught include the Tabernacle Plan, Prayer Basics, Evangelism Basics, How to Teach a Home Bible Study, Eat This Book, Becoming a Woman of Influence, Old Testament and New Testament overview, Basic Apostolic Doctrine, and more. This will be an ongoing phase to which we hope to add many, many more subjects. This will be the phase which will feed the growing Christian.
We are currently working on establishing these modules online as well for those who cannot come to the POA campus and take the course in a live setting. We will be announcing this as it gets closer to becoming a reality.
PHASE 2:
The Sunday School department of the POA has experienced growth and success for many years, but has not seen a major revamp of teaching methods in about 30 years. The efforts of incredibly dedicated and faithful teachers have insured a wonderful environment of love and learning for our children. As time has passed, different programs and events have emerged in addition to our Sunday School and it became time to consolidate our efforts and resources.
Phase 2 of the Knowledge Project brings our children (grades K-5th) together in the same rooms and facilities for everything they do. A massive re-modeling project providing a central kids auditorium (Kids Central) as well as several breakout rooms for activities to reinforce the stories and concepts have been created. Sunday's lesson and breakout sessions will be reinforced in the 1-hour kids service on Wednesday nights in order to give as much repetition to the concepts as possible.
Our first Sunday in our new facilities is this coming Sunday, March 4. To say we are excited would be an understatement.
PHASE 3:
Phase 3 of the Knowledge Project is the most extensive and time-consuming.
Because we have been convinced that our families need to learn together and the church needs to be unified in their focus and purpose, we have created the Knowledge Project Curriculum which will also be implemented for the first time next Sunday, March 4.Across the POA campus next Sunday morning, every teacher will be teaching the same lesson. The same concepts, the same memory verse, the same Bible story example--it will all be the same from Kindergarten through the senior citizens' class. Books will be provided to the students which include the lesson, the stories, and discussion starters for family night, meal times, and small groups. Suggestions for how to carry the lesson out in our neighborhoods as well as through global missions is there. Testimonies and stories of POA members through the years who have had events and miracles in their lives related to the lessons are there. A complete section is included for each lesson which provides a page per day for a personal, private devotion based on scriptures and thoughts from the previous Sunday's lesson.
We just simply cannot wait.
Although everything always works better on paper than it does in actuality, we are prepared to take the glitches with the good, because we are so convinced of the effectiveness of this curriculum for this hour.
Our first series is "Sure Foundations" and the five lessons include lessons on: the Word, prayer, fasting, stewardship, and communion. The central Bible story for the series is the wise man who built his house upon the rock.
The team that is creating this incredible collection is God-ordained.
Work? Oh my! We have staggered under the load.
Worth it? Absolutely!
It's always worth it when you give your time to something that will outlive you.
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away..."
~Matthew 24:35
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me:
seeing thou has forgotten the law of they God,
I will also forget thy children."
~Hosea 4:6
"We felt that the last 25 years or so has seen a splintering of families and ages within the church, to the extent that communication has been hindered. We have become increasingly convicted that this is not Biblical. The plan of God is a multi-generational plan, with older teaching younger, and younger working alongside older, and the family unit exuding strength and unity and solidarity with the church. Although they are useful and are a great additional resource, the youth group or the Sunday School class or the retreat should never assume preeminence over the home or church as a whole."
ReplyDeleteMethinks you've been reading my heart.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for who you are and what you are doing. You ARE making a difference!