Agape at St. Luke's

Cooking Class with Out of the Box Cooking

2010-05-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

We're so lucky to know two very awesome ladies from our church who started Out of the Box Cooking. The Agape ladies had a fun event during the month of April to learn how to make some delicious risotto and dessert! Of course, we also enjoyed each others' company as well!!

Amy M. and Rachel

Ellen, Marci and Julie

Jayne and Laetitia enjoy some delicious pesto risotto

Tablemates: Marci, Julie, Amy C. and Ellen

Ellen & Marci enjoy some chit chat

Amy, Rachel and Julie sample the yummy baked brie

Lots of giggle with Marci and Laetitia

Rachel and Julie sample the evening's wine selection

Catching up: Amy C., Rachel and Marci

Women's Retreat Fun

2010-05-04T17:06:00.000-07:00

Pics from the (rescheduled!) Women's Retreat in March...

Amy & Jayne

Marci & Heather

Amy & Laetitia

The group had a great time making hummus while talking Old Testament, learning to cook quick and fun meals from 'Out of the Box Cooking' and a quick lesson on organic, 'raw' eating from 105 degrees!

Lenten Mission

2010-02-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

Join Agape in giving up something for Lent! Between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, refrain from eating that special treat, drinking that favorite soda, or checking Facebook every day. If during that time, anytime that you cheat and have that food, drink, or participate in that activity, you will make a donation of your choosing to your family's Lent fund. On Easter Sunday, bring a check for the amount your family donated! If you are very disciplined and do not cheat at all, bring us a check anyway!

God Calls Noah

2010-02-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

Lent is a time of preparation. As we prepare for the resurrection, we take time to consider the dark day of the crucifixion. It is not coincidence that there are 40 days of Lent just as it rained for 40 days in the story of Noah. The first week we are going to look deeply into the story of God's commandment to Noah. Next week we will introduce the book Noah Built His Ark In the Sunshine. Then we will spend the 6 weeks of Lent considering how God is calling us to prepare for the storms in our own lives and how we can each Build the Ark of Spiritual Strength.

Each week, I will send out an e-mail with scripture and a thought about what we will study that Sunday. Please feel free to invite a friend to this powerful study.

First Week of February

God Calls Noah

Bible Reference

Genesis 6

14 -16 "Build yourself a ship from teakwood. Make rooms in it. Coat it with pitch inside and out. Make it 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. Build a roof for it and put in a window eighteen inches from the top; put in a door on the side of the ship; and make three decks, lower, middle, and upper.

17 "I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.

18 -21 "But I'm going to establish a covenant with you: You'll board the ship, and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives will come on board with you. You are also to take two of each living creature, a male and a female, on board the ship, to preserve their lives with you: two of every species of bird, mammal, and reptile—two of everything so as to preserve their lives along with yours. Also get all the food you'll need and store it up for you and them."

22 Noah did everything God commanded him to do.

Genesis 7

1 Next God said to Noah, "Now board the ship, you and all your family—out of everyone in this generation, you're the righteous one.

2 -4 "Take on board with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and a female; one pair of every unclean animal, a male and a female; and seven pairs of every kind of bird, a male and a female, to insure their survival on Earth. In just seven days I will dump rain on Earth for forty days and forty nights. I'll make a clean sweep of everything that I've made." 5 Noah did everything God commanded him.

Questions?
What similarities do you see between God's call of Noah and the season of Lent?
What questions do we ask of God when thinking about Noah's Ark?

If you want to do more:
Think about or watch a movie that makes references to Noah's Ark. What stand's out to you about "Noah's" Call?
Some Examples are:
The Flood
Evan Almighty
Wall-E

New Classroom

2009-11-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

If you haven't joined us in a while, please note that we've changed classrooms! We are now meeting in the main church building upstairs in Room 222. Please join us next Sunday!!

First Friday Art Walk at the Paseo

2009-09-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

Please join us Friday, October 2, at 7pm for dinner and an art walk in the Paseo. We will meet up at Galileo's.

Put on your best 80's gear and join us for a party!

2009-09-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Marci and Chris are hosting our "First Friday", next Friday. We will all be fabulously attired in 80's wear. Join us!

Agape Update

2009-05-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

This week we started a new lesson series on John Wesley. Thanks to Heather for getting us started on this thought provoking series! Please talk to Heather if you would like to volunteer to teach this month!

This Saturday is our "First Friday BBQ" at Rachel's house. Please RSVP on the Evite or to Rachel. It starts at 6pm and is BYOB. This is also our chance to say farewell to Jon and Katie, who will be moving to Stillwater later this month.

Easter at St. Luke's

2009-03-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

Check out stlukesokc.org for all of the Easter week festivities. Please note the schedule change. Agape will meet at 9:30 and traditional services will be held at 8:30 and 10:30. Agape will feature a pot luck breakfast, so please bring something yummy to share. Also, as we are all encouraged to invite someone to church for Easter, please feel free to bring any guests, family or friends, to Agape on Easter. We would love to meet your family and friends and share a wonderful breakfast.

Mission Moment

2009-03-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

Good morning Agape,

I mentioned on Sunday that our class is putting together goodie bags for the meals on wheels folks as a special Easter offering. We were asked to come up with 100 bags. These can be filled with homemade treats, candy, or your choice of something special. It doesn't have to be something big. If you would like to enclose a small note of encouragement, that would be fantastic! We can do it two ways: create your own bags or bring goodies and the mission team will put them together. Let me know what works best for you and we can start a sign up. The bags are due on April 1st. That gives us a little over a week!

Thanks for all that you do for St. Luke's!

Marci Stellman

Agape Game Night- First Friday for April

2009-03-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Please join us for Game Night!
The Busey's will provide Sliders (mini-hamburgers), you bring the rest! Please contact Heather to sign up to bring something to share. (And BYOB).

A small part of the evening will be discussing curriculum, followed by some Pictionary, Apples to Apples...or whatever the dice rolls! :)

Agape on Facebook

2009-02-26T13:23:00.002-08:00

Don't forget to join us on Facebook! We have up to date information as well as discussion boards about our curriculum, missions, and social outings. Look for Agape at St. Luke's OKC!

Join us this Sunday!

2009-02-26T13:21:00.003-08:00

This Sunday we will start our Lenten series. Then, next Friday, March 6, is our annual trek to Eichen's in Okarche for some fried goodness. Join us!!

This Sunday

2009-02-16T07:14:00.000-08:00

We are continuing our discussion about different Christian beliefs. This week we will be discussing Catholicism.

Sunday's Lesson

2009-02-06T08:38:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday!
Hope you all are having a great week! We had a wonderful turnout last weekend for class AND the Super Bowl party. Thanks again to Randa and Mike for hosting and to everyone who provided such great food!

Sunday’s opportunity for everyone to talk about their faith beginnings was a great exercise for all of us. It enlightened us and allowed us to learn a little more about each other. Who would have known we’d have so many with backgrounds in various religions?! Such a great beginning for our newest lesson series. Like last week we’ll again be sharing more of our faith story, focusing on two of the following questions. The two you speak about are entirely your choice!

· What do you remember about church?
· What did you learn, what did you not learn?
· What was something you didn’t understand about the bible?
· How did you view God? How did you view the Devil?
· How did you view the church and your church leaders?
· Did you have any questions about your faith from others?
· Did you feel confident in your faith or feel like more of a wanderer?
· How did your faith change as you grew up? Did you become more faithful? Less faithful?
· Did your view of God change as you grew up? In what ways?
· How did outside influences affect your faith? TV? Movies? Friendships?

We’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday!! Thanks again for your participation and eagerness to share!

Heather

Questions to consider this week

2009-02-04T11:31:00.000-08:00

Glendon has asked us to consider the following questions and be prepared to discuss any two in Sunday School.

· What did you learn, what did you not learn?
· What was something you didn’t understand about the bible?
· How did you view God? How did you view the Devil?
· How did you view the church and your church leaders?
· Did you have any questions about your faith from others?
· Did you feel confident in your faith or feel like more of a wanderer?
· How did your faith change as you grew up? Did you become more faithful?
· Did your view of God change as you grew up? In what ways?
· How did outside influences affect your faith? TV? Movies? Friendships?

Update on our upcoming lesson series

2009-01-28T17:42:00.001-08:00

Good afternoon!
As most of you know, this Sunday will mark the beginning of our newest Lesson Series on Christianity’s Family Tree. We’re excited to have so many people be able to contribute to this great series!

I am still needing people to sign up to teach on Orthodoxy and Pentecostalism. Orthodoxy would be taught on Feb. 15th and then Pentecostalism probably closer to May (due to the break for the Lenten series)…I can get you a firm date once we see how far we get during this first part. You can email Glendon, Rachel, or me if you are interested!

In the meantime, we’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone on ‘Kickoff Sunday’ – Feb. 1st!

Heather

Questions

2009-01-28T17:39:00.001-08:00

Hope you all are having a good week! In preparation for Sunday, I thought that I'd send out some questions for us to think about as we begin a new series. We're only going to focus on the first four of these this Sunday. Looking forward to seeing you all!
· Where did you grow up and what denomination were you?
· What is your career / does religion have an impact there?
· What brought you to St. Luke's?
· What are your spiritual goals moving forward?
· What do you remember about church?
· What did you learn, what did you not learn?
· What was something you didn’t understand about the bible?
· How did you view God? How did you view the Devil?
· How did you view the church and your church leaders?
· Did you have any questions about your faith from others?
· Did you feel confident in your faith or feel like more of a wanderer?
· How did your faith change as you grew up? Did you become more faithful? Less faithful?
· Did your view of God change as you grew up? In what ways?
· How did outside influences affect your faith? TV? Movies? Friendships?

Thanks!

Glendon

Superbowl Party

2009-01-26T06:58:00.000-08:00

Please join us at Mike and Randa's this Sunday at 5:00pm for a Superbowl party! If you need directions or would like to sign up to bring food to share, please email Randa. Hope to see you there!

Bring a Friend Sunday!

2009-01-19T15:09:00.001-08:00

Come to Agape this Sunday and bring a friend! We will also all be bringing breakfast food to share. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Mizpah

2009-01-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

I love the Jewish tradition of summing up a theme of a passage with one word and often an accompanying symbol. One of these is in the reading this week, Genesis 31:49, “The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another". There is a good sermon regarding this by Laurie DeMott, God Watch Between Me and Thee. Here is an excerpt,

Benedictions often function, then, as more than simple prayers of blessing: they can capture the character of a congregation or its minister, summarize a worship, or convey a specific understanding about our relationship to God.

When Laban uttered his words of “Benediction” to Jacob, he chose words that he believed would create a certain type of bond between Jacob, himself, and God. The words Laban chose were powerful, words that most of us hear in the King James Version – “The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another,” – and those words touch that deep part of the human heart that always feels a certain anxiety when we are parted from loved ones. “If I can’t be with you to watch over you,” we want to say, “then let me take comfort in knowing that God is watching over you.” Laban’s words became known in Judaism as the Mizpah blessing and have been likewise adopted by generations of Christians often as benedictions in their own worship services.. Lyndon Johnson’s mother often wrote the single word, “Mizpah”, on the back of her letters to her son as a shorthand way of letting him know she was keeping him in her prayers.

Agape Update

2009-01-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

Great turnout last night for First (Second) Friday/ Agape Planning
Session. I think we got a lot accomplished as well as some great
fellowship, and I am excited for the coming year!! Forgive this email
for being rather long-winded as we did cover several aspects of the
class: Officers, Curriculum, Missions, & Social Events.

2009 Officers:

President/Co President: Heather Busey
Co President/President-Elect: Rachel McCombs

Mission Committee: Marci Stellman & Amy Curran

Compassion Representatives: Jayne Hudson & Laetitia Clark

Social Coordinator: Heather Busey, Rachel McCombs, & David Clayton

Prospect Committee: Dillon Curran & Philip Busey

Life of St. Luke's Write Up - Jon Arps & Mitchell Clark

Curriculum Planning:
While we have so many out volunteering for The Great Adventure, January
will be spent doing bible study on the books of Genesis and Exodus (to
go along with St. Luke's Read the Bible in Year challenge). These will
be informal discussions/observations among the class. This would be a
fantastic start to the new year and to get you thinking about your
readings for the week.

For February-March we will start a series on "Our Spiritual Legacy." We
will each get a chance to talk about our Spiritual Past and Present as
well as discuss what we want for our spiritual future and the legacy.
To correlate with this topic, we'll get into Adam Hamilton's book
'Christianity's Family Tree'. This will be a discussion of eight
Christian denominations and their beliefs led by various members of the
class.

Following 'Our Spiritual Legacy', we'll delve right into our Lenten
Series by James W. Moore called 'On the Road Again'.
I'm very excited about the idea of growing in our faith together by
learning from each other. We hope to see all of you there!

Missons:
Agape's Missions will be broken down into a quarterly schedule focusing
on four ideas:
"On Whose Shoulders We Stand"
"Within the Walls of the Church"
"The Future of Our Church"
"Outside the Walls of the Church"
Look forward to hearing more from Amy & Marci regarding these great
mission opportunities. Also, we'll be devoting one or two of our
outings per year to a Mission, whether that is volunteering to make and
deliver Mobile Meals or something else as the class decides. It will
be a great way to spread the love of God with others while experiencing
fellowship with each other.

Socials:
February's Superbowl Party will be held at Mike and Randa Orquiz's
house...details to follow soon!
Other upcoming socials: March - Eischen's Night
April - Progressive Dinner?
If anyone would like to sign up for a month to host, we'd love to know!
Email Rachel, David or myself to sign up.

Additional Information:
We'll be taking up a 'Compassion Fund' which will enable us to purchase
cards, meals, and flowers for life's joys and sorrows (births, deaths,
illnesses). We're looking to have everyone contribute around
$10/person to get this started.
Some in the class will be checking on a few other lesson ideas such as
having class with Robert Fasol in the choir loft again, a lesson on the
Stained Glass Windows surrounding the Church, and possibly a series on
Christianity in the Workplace.
We're going to put a lot of effort into inviting friends and prospects
to our class through 'Bring A Friend Sunday' which will generally fall
the 3rd Sunday of the month....just in time to invite them to our First
Friday! These Sundays we will be doing an open house with a potluck
breakfast.

Again, so much exciting things for 2009. Thank you all for your
participation, prayers and input. I know we all want this class to be
such a success, and I'm confident 2009 will exceed our expectations!

Blessings,
Heather :)

Noah's Ark

2009-01-09T11:34:00.001-08:00

For those of you guys and gals who were lucky enough to be in class on Sunday, you remember this conversation....but, since not everyone was there, here is a summary.

We were discussing how many baby items, nursery, clothing, etc. depicted the story of Noah's Ark. My question was how this came to be since it is such a sad/scary story. Imagine reading this story for the first time as adult. This does not sound like the kind of God you want to worship. I have no idea how they found so many happy pictures of the Flood, but A for effort.

I think the hope/redemption/etc. that is found in the story is the Covenant that is formed between God and man. The promise of the Rainbow.

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Adam and Eve

2009-01-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

Some of my favorite classes in college were the film classes. I took several and in graduate school I took one called Bible in Film. Now, every time I see anything with even the most vague biblical reference I am intrigued. Rereading the Adam and Eve story I started thinking about a movie we now have two copies of thanks to "the boys", Wall E. The female robot in the movie is Eve. Wall E mispronounces it throughout, calling her Ev-a, but is Eve. I Googled my theory and found several things. Here is one take on it from a fellow blogger.

Adam & Eve
The robot who drives much of the story of Wall-E is called Eve and she is given a decidedly feminine form in contrast to Wall-E who is masculine. Based on the significance of the name Eve alone it is worth examining the film from a biblical standpoint, and one finds that the plot of the film reverberates strongly with Genesis albeit in a way that most of the symbols are disguised by being reversed.

Wall-E is the last of millions of cleaning robots on Earth, whereas Adam was the first of all men. But being the last or the first is no different when you are the only. Singularity is a trait shared by both Adam and Wall-E.

The Earth proves a poor garden of Eden, devoid of life and full of garbage, in opposition to Genesis’ verdant garden paradise. However, this is another reversed symbol which is turned forwards at the movie’s close as we shall see.

Suddenly Eve appears on the planet Earth scanning for signs of photosynthesis. Alone, her search proves fruitless and she finds no signs of life. Then she meets Wall-E and a relationship begins. The two robots court amusingly and this would amount to nothing more than a trifle until Wall-E gives Eve the small growing vine in the boot. This is perhaps as close to sex as we’re likely to get in a G-rated movie for there is significance in the way that the growing vine is passed from male robot to female robot, and especially how Eve deposits the vine into a kind of uterus chamber within her. Furthering the symbols here, Eve then transforms into an inert egg and incubates the vine until the mothership returns.

The vine also reflects as being fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, though we find another reversal as Wall-E/Adam gave the “fruit” to Eve. But in any case the vine is what triggers the return of the mothership which expels Wall-E and Eve from their garden of Eden and into outer space.

One particular trait of Adam and Eve over the other creatures in the biblical garden is that they have free will, and it is free will that, by accident, they bring to the fat humans on the starship Axiom. Wall-E bumps a woman on a transport, accidentally turning off her computer. She becomes aware of the world in which she lives and is seen exploring the spaceship instead of plugged into her computer from then on. Similarly, the robots give awareness to a man and to the spaceship captain. It is the awareness of the spaceship captain that eventually frees the whole society from their unconscious state.

By the end of the film the humans have returned to Earth which suggests a return to the garden of Eden, but the very last shot of the film shows the little vines growing. The Earth is returning to life.

I encourage you to look for biblical references next time you watch a movie and report back. I would love to hear what you find.

It Was Good

2009-01-09T10:32:00.000-08:00

The first reading is the Creation story. For me the most meaningful part of the story of "the beginning" is the quote, "It was Good." The version that I read repeats this four times. One thing I have realized while reading scripture....it it is repeated it is important. (My past English teachers did not value this technique quite like the authors of the Bible.)

This is meaningful to me because it shows, from the beginning, God created us Good and created a Good world for us to live. When I was a Children's Minister and in graduate school I did a project that required designing the existing church nursery and children's rooms to reflect appropriate theology. The toddler room became the Creation Room. We recreated scenes of the creation story on all the walls and across a prominent beam that was seen from the door and all over the room we put the verse "....and God said it was Good." I thought this was valuable for the parents to see when they dropped their child off and picked them up. I also thought that it was powerful for the volunteers and staff to see as the cared for some of the smallest and most vulnerable of God's children.

How many times does your Bible say, "it was good" in the creation story?

Agape Reads Through The Bible

2009-01-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

"I have for many years made it a practice to read throught the Bible once a year."
John Quincy Adams

It takes approximately 71 hours to read the Bible alond from cover to cover (although a church in Scotland reported doing it in 62 hours, 55 minutes!) Based on that pace, it would only take 12 minutes each day to read through the Bible in a year.

The Agape Class has decided to join St. Luke's and commit to read through the Bible in 2009. Who will make it? No body knows....but it is worth a try. We will try to blog about this experience and reflect on the readings at least once or twice a week. Check back in with us and let us know how it is coming. You can read the Bible online too at http://www.stlukesbible.blogspot.com/.

Yesterday Wendy Lambert talked about starting a Heritage Bible. A Bible that you use to read through and record/underline/write questions in margins.....the idea is that you have a tangilbe object to pass down your faith to generations to come. I think this is a great idea and now I plan to do the same thing. If all goes well, I hope to do Bible's for each of my children over the course of a year of their life.

First (Second) Friday in January

2008-12-18T14:40:00.001-08:00

Dear Agape class:

Mark your calenders now!!!

WHAT? Agape First Friday in January

WHEN? January 9 at 7pm.

I know we don't like changing up the "first" in the First Friday, but since the first Friday in January is one day after New Year's, and we want as many people as possible to participate, we're changing to the Second Friday in January.

WHERE? The Busey house:: Heather's generously offered to host and prepare the main course if everyone else will sign up to bring sides, bread, salad, dessert and/or beverages.

WHY? We really really need a planning session and officer elections in January but with some of our class gone each week in the Great Adventure, it seems like a better idea is to combine this "housekeeping" with our First Friday gathering. We can have dinner at someone's house and mix in a bit of business and brainstorming for 2009. What better way to ring in the new year than to get everyone's input for Agape??

It's really important that we all sit down to discuss what we want out of Agape, in terms of each aspect- curriculum, socials, missions, etc. It will be a way for all of us to recommit to Agape and St. Lukes! Please plan on attending!!!

This will be both fun and productive- plenty of food and drink and dessert- and fantastic conversation and ideas for how to guide and improve our class! I can't wait to hear everyone's ideas and think this will be the perfect setting- relaxed fellowship- to discuss!

Let me know if you have any suggestions or want specific feedback for certain areas of the class. While we don't have to be overly structured in our discussion, we should touch on all areas of the class. We will also touch on the feedback we've already received from the surveys.

Please also let Heather know if you would like to nominate someone for a class office (including yourself).

Christmas Mission- Family in Need

2008-12-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

Please sign up and bring items to the church by Monday at 5 pm. Please email Amy C with your contribution so we don't overlap!

You can put your gifts in Amy C's office. (Charlotte's old office).

(Mom)
size 12 or large pants and shirt. would like something to wear to church, too.
shoes 9

Girl age 12 1/2
size 12-14 (tall girl)
shoes -- 4
teenage toy idea

Girl age 9
size 12 (short)
shoes 2

coat 10-12---Jon and Katie Arps

toys -- anything

Girl age 6 will be 7 in January
size 8- McIntires- We can get a couple of shirts and pants
shoes 13 or 1
toys -- anything

all the girls like arts/crafts stuff- Rachel

food basket

Important Upcoming Dates

2008-12-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

We will be having quarterly planning sessions to talk about the direction of our class and ideas for the future. Please plan to attend!

Planning Sessions: Mar 1, May 31, Aug 30, Nov 22

Do you love Agape? I know you do! Bring a friend or friends to share this wonderful group of people with others!

Bring a Guest Day: Jan 25, Feb 22, Mar 22, Apr 19, May 24, June 21, Jul 26, Aug 16, Sept 20, Oct 25, Nov 15, Dec 20

Update on Great Adventure sign up

2008-12-11T17:35:00.001-08:00

Here is the list of people signed up to teach in January. If you can help fill in the blanks or have questions, contact Laetitia.

Jan. 4
Mountain movers: Mitchell and Laetitia
Paris Plaza: Marci and Christopher
Kings Court Paul and Christa

Jan. 11
MM: Marci and Christopher
PP: Lisa and Patrick
KC: Amy and Dillon

Jan. 18
MM: Jonathan and Mitchell
PP: Randa and Mike (Rachel)
KC Marci and Christopher

Jan. 25
MM: Glendon and Jayne
PP:
KC:

Christmas Mission- Gifts for the Homebound Delivery

2008-12-10T15:47:00.001-08:00

Amy C has the gifts for the homebound ready to deliver. You can pick them up in her office at the church. Please contact her if you have any questions.

2009 Curriculum and Class Planning

2008-12-01T13:27:00.001-08:00

From Heather:

Agape friends,Thank you so much for your positive and honest feedback on Sunday. We have much to look forward to in the coming year.Some of the changes (all good ones!) that will take place beginning December 7th are:
· Sign up sheet (back by popular demand!)
· Quarterly planning sessions in class.
· Email visitors’ email/contact info to entire class so those who want to can send a “welcome” email.
· Last and MOST important – we need to be on time. Class does begin at 9:40. We should be finishing up our lesson at 10:30, so everyone has time to socialize before church. Let us all make a resolution to be there on time during Advent.

I’d like to get several people together to talk about the results of the survey and how we can implement some and move forward. We also need to discuss curriculum and teachers in the coming year. I know it will be crazy with the holidays coming up. Let me know if you’d like to take part. We can start planning immediately after the New Year if that works best for everyone else.

Laetitia Clark will be starting our Advent series this coming Sunday from the book “Hurry Less Worry Less at Christmastime.” Let me know if you have questions or concerns. Thanks again for the feedback, and I’ll be looking forward to spending Advent with all of you, growing in our faith!

Curriculum Discussion 2009

2008-12-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

Suggestions from Linda Truitt for 2009 Curriculum:
What you might think of doing is defining what your class wants to learn in 2009. Develop just simple statements such as I want to know what Methodist believe, I want to enrich my prayer life, ETC, then work around those, otherwise you end up with a bunch of hodge podge.
Love/Marriage- the 5 love languages, 5 lanuages of Apology,getting the love you want, Love life for every couple. And more Healthy families a study for 20-30 year olds, Rick Warrens- God's purpose for your life. I have lots of books on prayer or spiritual discernment, books on theology and what we believe. I have books on other faiths,One of the other classes did a whole year with James Moore, he a prolific writer, they enjoyed it-I have lots of James Moores books such as -"Is there life after stress" and many other titles.

From Heather: Any of these topics jump out at you? How about thinking about a “vision” statement for our class in 2009? We could put it on the website and blog and Facebook.I know many of these that Linda suggested are more “personal growth”, which might be good “in-betweeners” but I thought the idea of the “My Upmost for his Highest” or “The Imitation of Christ” might be good starting points? Thoughts?

One more thing…I had an idea that I’d love to have feedback on. What if, like our lessons, we divided our missions into quarters. For example:
· Q1 – “On Whose Shoulders We Stand”
o Mobile Mealso Blizzard Packs, Visiting the Homebound
· Q2 – “Within the Walls of the Church”
o Studio 222o Samuel’s Call
· Q3 – “The Future of Our Church”
o Children’s Ministrieso VBS volunteering
· Q4 – “Outside the Walls of the Church”
o Volunteer at Food Bank
o Volunteer at Infant Crisis Center
o Sponsoring a family for Christmas

Agape Mission Project: Great Adventure Teaching in January 2009

2008-12-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

From Laetitia:

As most of you know the Agape class has volunteered to serve the church by teaching Sunday school in the Great Adventure. This is the children's Sunday school for grades K-5. We still need people to sign up to teach. We need two teachers (So you don't have to teach alone) for three of the classes. That is a total of six people every Sunday in January. If you are not teaching, we will still have class. If everyone would volunteer for one Sunday, we would not need to have people miss an entire month of class. Thank you so much for your willingness to serve the children of our church. This means so much to our church family!Please know the curriculum is written and easy to follow. You will get it ahead of time, so you can ask questions. If you teach in the same room for more than one week, the curriculum stays the same. The kids change.

January 4
Mountain Movers (Games): Mitchell and Laetitia Clark
Paris Plaza (Cooking/Crafts): Marci and Christopher
King's Court (acting/ costumes): ______________________

January 11Mountain Movers: Marci and Christopher
Paris Plaza: __________________
KIngs Court: Amy and Dillon Curran

January 18
Mountain Movers: Jonathan Arps and ______________
Paris Plaza : ___________________________
Kings Court: Marci and Christopher

January 25
Mountain Movers ___________________________
Paris Plaza ___________________________
Kings Court ____________________________

Marci needs your help...

2008-07-02T13:58:00.000-07:00

Marci's classroom was destroyed by vandals while we were in Hawaii...if you watch the video you'll hear that most of her classroom items that were destroyed or stolen were bought with her own money. If you'd like to donate money or supplies, I will be collecting them for her. You may bring them to Sunday school if that is more convenient. Your prayers that they will find the vandals will also help!

Britton Elementary School vandalismVideo:View footage of the damage.http://www.newsok.tv/?titleID=1640166850

Here's a list of things she needs:
Markers
Colored Pencils
Regular Pencils
Tempera Paint
Pastels
Erasers
Paintbrushes
Tape - Masking & Scotch
Scissors
Glue: Elmer's and Glue Sticks
Yarn, Glitter, Cottonballs, Popscicle sticks, Pipe cleaners
General Cleaning Supplies
Plastic Storage Boxes with Lids

Thanks again for your help. I'm sure Marci will be overwhelmed by the outpouring of support...that's what makes St. Luke's so special.

Heather :)

Mission Committee

2008-06-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

From Amy & Ryan McIntire:

Matthew 6:1-4

Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Hi fellow class members!
Here is what we have lined up for mission work for the rest of the year; of course this is just an outline and if anyone hears of an opportunity to help others please jump in! Since it is pretty much already July, we have lined up our first project to be at the end of August/beginning of September. This will be to take dinners to the Studio 222. Julie Robinson has decided that when the children are there she wants to feed them as much as possible as many of these kids don't eat at all unless at the studio. She also shared with us that the kids LOVE it when the people that donate come to visit, so we offered to help with both for one week (a week for them is Monday-Thursday.) And of course if anyone is ever available to drive the busses to pick up or drop off, they desperately need drivers. Ryan has driven one of the busses and says they are very nice and very easy to drive. In October/November we will begin to focus on helping folks for Christmas time. One thing we can do is help the homebound with ingredients for soup and gifts of yarn to the SLUMC knitting group. And of course we can always adopt a family again as well if we want to.
The Studio 222 golf tournament is August 18th and for those interested in playing and want to do a class team contact Ryan. $150/golfer and $600/team
Please give us feedback on what you would like and don't like about our plan.

Feedback/Thank You's

2008-06-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

I wanted to mention a few things class-wide, because we've had such a successful two months:

Laetitia, Amy and Marci: Thank you for making The Screwtape Letters a big success for the Sunday school class. The series offered a great ending to our quarter on the devil. The curriculum was a fun marketing concept and brought in several visitors. I'm excited to see our class getting into some dynamic lessons and discussions!!! We couldn't have pulled it off without you!

Laetitia and Jayne: Philip and I were delighted to have received an anniversary card from the Agape class...Compassion Ministry is an important part of our class in keeping members and fostering relationships! Thanks for the attention to detail!

Marci, Amy and Rachel: I appreciate your coordination of Agape's recent outings...Everyone enjoyed the bowling outing and is looking forward to some fun things being planned for the summer.

Philip: Thanks for letting me boss you around on the website stuff...it's an important marketing detail for prospects and current members!

Amy: The blog is great! Hopefully it can become a sounding board for all our classmembers to utilize! Thanks for taking the initiative to set it up!

Last, I wanted to get feedback on how well you think things are moving. We have some great leaders and great support members, but I'd like to know where you see room for improvement. If you don't feel comfortable telling the whole group, feel free to email me privately and we'll discuss. It's important for the class to be candid with one another in order to fulfill our spiritual development and have fun at the same time. The only way to make positive changes is through communication...so let us know how we're doing in the following categories, and/or if you have ideas! Feel free to critique me as well...I really want to know how to best lead the class. Another note, some of these committees haven't quite gotten off the ground, so it is okay if you would like to refrain from discussing...once curriculum gets going strong, we'll start working on the other areas!

Thanks for your participation! :)

Mission Committee:
How are we doing?
Ideas?

Prospect Committee:
How are we doing?
Ideas?

Class Leader:
How are we doing?
Ideas?

Social Committee:
How are we doing?
Ideas?

Compassion Committee:
How are we doing?
Ideas?

Curriculum Planning:
How are we doing?
Ideas?

Other thoughts to share?

Thanks again for being part in the success of Agape!
Heather :)

Class Officers & Committees

2008-04-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

We had a nice turnout yesterday to vote on the nominations for Sunday School officers.

The results are in:

Mission Committee: Amy & Ryan McIntire

Class Leader: Heather Busey

Compassion Reps: Laetitia Clark & Jayne Hudson

Social Coordinators: Amy Curran & Marci Stellman

Prospect Committee: Paul Long & Dillon Curran

If anyone else feels an interest in being involved in either the mission committee or prospect committee, let Heather Busey know. We can still use one or two more people for each.

We had a great lesson this Sunday by Laetitia Clark on C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. We've only gotten into the Preface and first letter, so there is still time to join in. This is sure to be a dynamic series, so bring a friend...we'd love to have you!!

Have a blessed week!

Class Officers

2008-04-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

If you missed Sunday school yesterday, you missed getting the list of class roles and duties for our class. You also missed getting the nomination form. The steering committee wanted everyone to be able to participate in the class at whatever capacity they choose, so following the list of duties is a nomination form for us to nominate people we feel would excel at these tasks. Feel free to nominate yourself for anything or to take your name off the list for whatever reason. We will be voting next Sunday to elect people to these duties, so you don't want to miss on Sunday. Below is it the nomination form. You can bring it to class Sunday or you can e-mail it to me if you are unable to attend class next week, and I will bring it in for you.

Class roles and duties

Mission Committee (2-3 people and Social Coordinator)
Coordinates class mission/service projects

Class Leader
Coordinates teachers wether inside or outside of class
sends out e-mails to notify class of church or class events
attends Sunday school planning sessions at the church

Compassion Representative (2-3 people)
Mails out birthday and sympathy cards from the class
coordinates meals for those who have been ill, had a death in the family, or had a baby
Notifies the class of life changes or events

Social Coordinator (2 People)
Coordinates class social events
Makes sure the class roster and email list is updated with new members/changes
Completes "In the life of the Church" Sunday school write up.

Prospect Committee (2-3 People)
Contacts prospective class members through e-mail or phone
Stays in contact with church staff to be notified of new members or prospects

Our New Blog

2008-04-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a place for us to keep in touch during the week. We will post upcoming lessons and comments on previous lessons. We can also track social events and prayer concerns. If you would like to be an author, please let Amy know at amycurran@cox.net.

Blogs are only fun if there are comments. So feel free to comment whatever and whenever you want.