Sowing the seed…

By Cari Pattison Riley, Minister of Education

 
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed,” said Jesus—you can move mountains!  Uproot mulberry trees and move them to the ocean!  And if we are fertile soil, like the parable Jesus teaches, that small seed of faith will take root and grow in us, bringing new life and bearing fruit of good news to the world! 

That is what Christian education is about, I believe, for the youngest to the oldest among us—planting seeds, which God then waters and grows.  What seed is God sowing in you?  Educator Karen Tye writes that there are typically four different approaches to Christian education: religious content instruction, socialization of faith community, personal development, and a process of liberation and societal transformation.  Tye challenges us to consider whether there are ways in which we limit ourselves as a church, by defining education only from one perspective?  I hope that here we can look at education from all four angles, and get all ages rooted and growing! 

One of the founding confessional documents of the Reformed faith is the Heidelberg Catechism, a statement written in 1562 to bridge the Lutheran and Reformed communities who were in disagreement about the Lord’s Supper.  The first question asks, “What is your only comfort, in life and in death?”  It answers, “That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ…” 

There are many things in our lives from which we seek comforts—our careers, families, homes, vacations, possessions.  But God’s mustard seed of faith reminds us that only Christ is our ultimate comfort—the rest is all limited and temporary.  What seed is God planting in you?  Come grow with us this month at the church, join a Bible study, pray with a child, take time for silence, and live out the joy of belonging to Jesus!