The Power of Awe
Do you know that feeling of awe when you experience the birth of your child? Or when you sit out in the quiet, starry night and feel the magnificence of creation? Or hear a piece of music played in such a way that it sends shivers down your spine and you feel like your soul has been touched in some profound way? Those are all ways the Holy Spirit stirs deep in our souls to remind us of God’s love radiating in us, through us, and all around us.
Have you struggled to find language to talk about God’s love for you? Maybe the things you learned to say about God feel inadequate to you now? Or maybe you learned something about Christianity as a child that just doesn’t make any sense to you anymore? Maybe you got stuck in the idea that science and faith can’t coexist? Or you are angry at God for something that happened in your life like childhood abuse or the death of someone you loved or being disappointed by the Church or a pastor or someone else?
Discover Your Faith and That of Your Family in New Ways
We offer you a place to ask your hard questions and to learn the basic and more complex concepts of the faith. At Luther Memorial, we encourage you to ask hard questions of the faith (who wants a faith that breaks under pressure?). We also invite you to learn how God has wired you to communicate with the Divine Spirit through a wide variety of spiritual practices. Children, youth, and adults all have opportunities to learn how to study the Bible in age-appropriate ways and discover how the ancient wisdom applies to 21st-century life.
The word “disciple” means “student.” The Christian life is an ongoing learning experience as we grow in spiritual maturity and theological knowledge. Just as there are stages of physical development, emotional development, social development, moral development, and also faith development. We structure our learning opportunities to encourage ongoing growth and spiritual maturity.
The Benefits of Christian Education for Children and Youth
Studies have demonstrated the youth who attend a house of worship regularly do better in school, behave better, and are engaged in more extracurricular activities than their non-church-going classmates. Researchers are thinking there are at least three reasons for this: children have the values of their parents reinforced by other adults, religious values tend to nurture the self-sacrificing nature of healthy parenting which affects how parents and children develop, and religious organizations “imbue parenting with sacred meaning and significance.”
Luther Memorial excels at caring for the children and youth with whom we have been blessed. We call them by name, celebrate their successes, and have adults who care about their faith development. There are an array of classes for adults to help them grow in knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual maturity.
The sad news in our culture is that 65 – 80% of adults in the United States have stalled in the stage of spiritual maturity equivalent to most middle school students. If you struggle with your faith not making sense, maybe it is because it hasn’t kept up with the rest of you maturity. We have all kinds of opportunities at Luther Memorial for you to grow in both knowledge of your faith and spiritual insight.
Come and Learn!
You are invited to our intentional programs for children, youth, and adults where we invite–and even expect–you to wrestle with your faith and delight in the ways our God reveals the Divine Love for you, to you. Please click on the following links to explore options for the age group which interests you.