Our strategic discipleship plan for the entire congregation—from birth through retirement—starts with Sunday school.
Our goal is that when our children graduate from high school they will have a true knowledge and lasting relationship with Christ that started developing as babies. As they transition to adulthood, we continue to focus on what it means to truly be disciples making disciples.
While we’ll continue to have community groups, mid-week studies and events for various groups (those can be found here), the foundation for those will be built during the Sunday school hour. We encourage everyone to join us. Below you’ll find the details for each of the age groups in the church.
for adults
As a community of grace and healing, we recognize that our lives are broken and we live in a world that is broken. Jesus came to bring his kingdom among us to renew and restore our lives and the whole of creation to himself. In keeping with our mission to make disciples who make disciples, St. Andrew’s Church will offer a robust adult Sunday school curriculum comprising three tracks: Core, Electives and Bible.
Each semester will be broken into two 8-10 weeks quarters and with three classes per quarter, which gives six different class opportunities each semester.
core track
Our core classes represent skills and information that we believe are essential for everyone at St. Andrew’s. They are designed with the whole church in mind and all members are encouraged to complete them. These courses provide a place to not only learn, but they are also designed to help people establish relationships and integrate meaningfully into the life of the church. In this two-year cycle, attendees will learn and practice faithful ways of relating to God, themselves, the church and the world.
Newcomers’ Class
This class offers an overview of our community’s history, organization and introduction to discipleship in this congregation. It functions as both an orientation for the curious and as our adult confirmation class. It is the doorway to church membership and a prerequisite to all other core classes.
Discipleship Practices: Bible
This class is practicum where attendees work in groups to learn, practice and make a habit of daily Bible study aiming for routines that will stick, as well as solid and applicable hermeneutics. This will include understanding the Bible’s reliability, the metanarrative and key topics such as genre and perspective. The main goal is to establish a habit of reading Scripture well.
ELECTIVES track
Electives classes are just that—classes you can elect to take or not. They offer a way to go deeper into the various callings and interests that people will uncover or clarify in the Core track.
Classes in this track with begin the 2nd quarter.
BIBLE track
Bible classes are our standard offering for those who want to intersperse that material with a deeper engagement with scripture. A rotation of Biblical books and formats—lecture and discussion—allow these classes to provide fresh and meaningful material that is always relevant to all. Fall semester will cover books from the Old Testament; New Testament books will be during the spring.
The Book of Job
This course will guide students through a study of the book of Job, including its key themes, literary features, historical background, and theology. It will explore questions like: What does Job tell us about what God is like? Why is the book written as poetry? Who are Job’s friends? Where does the book fit into God’s plan of redemption? How does this change the way I suffer? We hope you will join us as we learn together and meditate on this profound book of the Bible.
for YOUTH
St. Andrew’s Student Ministry, DASH, is divided into three groups—6/7th grade, 8th grade and high school—for Sunday school, and two groups—middle and high school—on Wednesday nights.
DASH track
We believe that every student should have the chance to learn who they were created to be, who they are in Christ and to love what he loves. We want all our students learn everything they need to know so that they can follow Christ in the way they were intended to.
6/7th Grade
In a class geared just for them, sixth & seven graders dive into companion lessons of the New Testament survey they do on Wednesday evenings.
8th Grade
Eight graders walk through a year-long confirmation class as they solidify the basics of their belief in and love for Christ. Student confirmation takes place each Spring.
9-12th Grade
In a class designed to take our high schoolers deeper in their knowledge of God, take a more in-depth look at companion lessons of the Old Testament survey they do on Wednesday evenings.
for Children
ENCOUNTER kids (K–5th grade) and Beginnings (infant–pre-k4) each have two distinct, but related, discipleship times on Sundays: service and Sunday school.
God’s big story track
God’s Big Story, rooted in the incredible truth that God has come to rescue his children from their own sin through his Son Jesus Christ, invites children to enter into the narrative of God’s abounding faithfulness and love for all of his beloved children. It explores the biblical narrative from creation and the fall to Jesus’ sacrificial victory on the cross to the promise of a new heaven and earth. God’s Big Story is taught in the context of worship through liturgy, song, scripture memory, story presentation, wondering questions, catechesis (teaching of doctrine and the faith), prayer and many reflective and creative responses geared to a variety of age groups.
Toddler
Ones and Twos
The curriculum repeats with the same lessons each year. The same bible story is repeated over four weeks and each week we provide different activities to help children engage with the story.
Fall Semester Topics
Good Shepherd and stories of those who follow Jesus
Preschool
Threes and Fours
This one-year curriculum is designed to transition a group of kids from the toddlers program to the regular elementary program with shorter stories and plenty of play time. The lessons are designed with lots of review and repetition as stories build upon each other.
Fall Semester Topics
Creation
The Garden Stories
God’s Promises to Save
Lower Elementary
K, 1st & 2nd grade
Each year of this curriculum covers Old Testament stories in the fall, New Testament stories beginning in Advent and has a Catechesis Unit for the summer. In small age-based groups (no more than 12 kids), children explore and engage the story.
Fall Semester Topics
God with his people in the tabernacle
God with his people in the temple
Upper Elementary
3rd/4th grade
Each year of this curriculum covers Old Testament stories in the fall, New Testament stories beginning in Advent and has a Catechesis Unit for the summer. In small age-based groups (no more than 12 kids), children explore and engage the story.
Fall Semester Topics
God’s Promises of the Serpent crusher, Land, People, Blessing and the Forever King.
Faith. Sin. Substitution.
Junior Youth
5th grade
Two year rotation which is pedagogically different than Elementary curriculum in which kids go more in-depth discussions as they read directly from the scriptures, play games and act out stories.
Fall Semester Topics
Joshua
Judges
Ruth