Explorers Sunday School

How We Worship and What We're About

We combine, in Power Point presentations, lessons based on Biblical study from a historical and contextual perspective. We don't just want to know what Matthew wrote. We want to know when it was written; why it was written; to whom was it written; what was the author trying to communicate; what external influences faced the author; how does it compare to the other Synoptic Gospels. In short, the books of the Bible weren't written in a vacuum, and should not be read in a vacuum. Only by studying the context of the Scriptures can they really come alive. I am also a threat to do a lesson out-of-the-blue on something that comes to my attention from a wide variety of world news publications I read regularly. Some folks like our class because they just don't know what is coming next.

Our class will also be working towards implementing a small groups structure within our existing Sunday School framework. This will make for an interesting transition, since we've operated off the traditional lecture format for many years, including those wonderful years during which Sammy Prim led us.

What We are Currently Studying

For the next few weeks we’re going to be studying prayer. It has never occurred to me that we ought to study prayer, which is kind of short sighted on my part given its importance. Be thinking about some of these issues:

• What is prayer?
• Why do we pray?
• What should we expect from prayer?
• How do other faiths view prayer?
• Why do Catholics cross themselves?
• Why do Muslims face east and pray five times?
• Are there good prayers and bad prayers?
• Should we feel guilty when we ask God to fill certain needs?
• What’s the deal with unanswered prayer?
• Does God answer some, and ignore others?
• How do we know when a prayer has been answered?
• Is there a such a thing as prayer etiquette?
• Private prayer v. public prayer—is there a good, better, best?

The list could go on and on. I think it will be a meaningful study.

Bill  & Diane