2023-2024 Sunday School Program
Connect³
Connect³ Weekly Schedule:
9:00 AM – to 9:30 AM – Children’s Choir rehearsal in the Activity Room. We have parents who participate along with their children in the rehearsal and the choir but children may participate without their parents. Led by Abbie Lampe, our Minister of Music for Children and Youth.
9:30 AM – to 10:00 AM – Children’s Sunday School in the Activity Room – one class for children up to 6th grade. We have parents and members of our Board of Educators who will be our teachers and activity leaders, and we invite our middle school and high school youth to volunteer as helpers with the children’s class!
Special Project: Winter-Spring 2024: Our class is collecting children’s books for the library in the small country of Malawi in southern Africa. They have a great need for children’s books, new and used. They also need solar-powered flashlights so they can read at night as power is an issue there. Please bring these items to the church library; there is a collection box in the library. Questions: contact Abbie Lampe or Sarah Hogan. Thank you!
Connect3 Mission Project: More From the Herald Feb. 18, 2024:
“Shine the Light” of love and Christian fellowship on the children of Malawi. Back in November, Rev Chuck Monts and his wife Deb spoke to us about their work in Malawi. Our children learned about the children there, and learned a song they sing in church. When we asked what we could do to help the children there, Deb and Chuck suggested we help create a library, because the children have no books. They also suggested sending solar powered flashlights, because there is no electricity.
We have started a collection of books and flashlights to send to the children in Malawi. Lizzie the bookworm is helping us with that, too. If you would like to help with this project, there are three ways to do so:
- New or used children’s books for all ages can be dropped off in the library
- Solar powered flashlights can be dropped off there, too
- If you would like to contribute money to cover the cost of shopping (or to buy more books), please mark your contribution “Malawi mission project”.
Thank you for your support of this project and of the growing Christian community in Malawi.
We welcome all families including those new to St. John’s to participate in this program! Children do not have to be regular members of the choir to attend at 9 am but we hope they will want to participate in singing and join the choir!
Recent History: Beginning Sunday, September 17, 2023, we began a “new chapter” in our St. John’s Sunday School program, returning to having a weekly, in-person children’s Sunday School program for the first time since 2020 during the pandemic.
We hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to get your children involved in the life of the church. We know there are lots of places to be and lots of other things to do on a Sunday morning, but consider making church one of your priorities and work with us to build something that feels meaningful (and do-able) in the busy lives of your children and family. So much has changed in the last few years, but the positive impact and life-shaping love of being involved in a church family has not! Come join us each Sunday to be part of this new but familiar program!
At this time, we do not have Sunday morning Sunday School classes for youth in middle school and high school, but we invite them to participate in worship Sundays at 10:15 am and our Wednesday Night Live program of dinner, worship, Christian education and choirs. Our hope is that will lead to additional participation and creating future new programs for our youth! Please encourage your whole family to come out Wednesdays!
Adult Education
Adult Education takes place at St. John’s each week. These sessions are led by a pastor in informal discussion of the key scripture of the week. Adult Education takes place on Wednesday evenings at 6 pm during Wednesday Night Live in the church library. Details on the Wednesday Night Live webpage. Information on the Adult Education webpage.
Sunday School History at St. John’s
Sunday School and Christian education have always been an important part of St. John’s going back to our beginnings in 1876. There is a story of our founding on Our History page of this website showing that the early churches of Lansdale were formed because the townspeople of this new community in the mid-1800’s wanted a Sunday School in town!
Historical Photos from St. John’s Sunday School
Below: May 6, 1928, St. John’s ‘J.J. Rothrock Men’s Bible Class’ and St. John’s Sunday School around 1937. Our classes are no longer this large or formal, but like our classes generations ago we still are seekers and learners who study the Bible for God’s Word to us!
Below: United Adult St. John’s Sunday School class in the Corner Classroom, 1970’s. This is after our former men’s and women’s classes united as one class. Note the women on one side of the room, the men on the other, a tradition back then. The Corner Classroom is now called the Adult Library and our Adult Education classes still meet there Wednesday evenings.
For many years, we began each new Sunday School season with a ‘Rally Day’, later changed to ‘Celebration Sunday’ , which was traditionally held the first Sunday after Labor Day each September in the front or rear courtyard or in the sanctuary. All classes and others would gather and sing and greet each other to welcome the new study year, and the children would advance to their new classes.
