Christian Education is an important part of Thyatira’s history of faith unfolding.
Thyatira’s younger children children learn about the Bible, faith, and service at God’s Faith Farm at Thyatira, a series of monthly workshops in which kids learn through hands-on activities, stories, music, art, theatre, games and many other ways. For this age group, Thyatira uses the “workshop rotation model” of Christian Education for children which recognizes that children learn in a variety of ways.
Our older elementary children use the Spark curriculum that follows the Lectionary readings for each week of the year.
Adults can choose from four standing Sunday School classes which use excellent resources to guide their studies. These groups are always open to new participants, and new classes can be formed as desired.
In addition to our regular offerings, on each fifth Sunday of months which have them, the adult classes join together to hear presentations from members or guests on a variety of subjects. Recent presentations have been on a member’s experience with Habitat for Humanity on Colombia and the founder of a local ministry combatting human trafficking.
For more information, please contact the church office at 704-636-1595
Our Children’s Sunday School Classes are as follows:
- Nursery and Preschool ages meet in the upstairs nursery and in the three-year-old room on the first floor for age-appropriate activities.
- God’s Faith Farm is our Sunday School for K-3rd grade. It uses the popular and successful Workshop Rotation model in which a different Bible story is the focus each month and the students learn about it through a different activity each week, like art, storytelling, games, music, and science. The children gather each week for approximately 10 minutes to introduce the bible story and then go into more depth led in different activities by their teachers.
- The 4th and 5th graders meet for a more traditional lectionary-based Sunday school lesson led by Abby Covington.
- The Middle School/High School Youth Group meets Sunday mornings in the Youth Annex as well as other events throughout the year. It is led by Ben Watts and the group focuses on faith formation, community, service and Bible Study.
Our Adult Sunday School Classes are as follows:
- The Newsome Class was originally the Young Adult Class founded in the 1980s. Even though we are still young at heart, some things have changed! Our class meets in the Conference Room and adults of any age are invited. The primary source of material for discussion comes from Scripture, which we approach without study guides.
- The Lost Sheep Class is on a mission: we open our doors to anyone and everyone who is looking for somewhere to belong. We recently relocated to the room at the top left of the stairs in the Educational Building. Our curriculum changes with our needs, but we have lively and relevant conversation every week we meet. We don’t stop at Sunday morning. We’re a mission-led group with current and future goals to spread the love of God and Thyatira.
- The Friendship Class meets in the Parlor each Sunday. We are older adults who like to have lively discussions about the Bible. We use material found in The Present Word as our guide. Next quarter we will be studying Isaiah, Hebrews, and Revelation. We have about 5 different people who take turns teaching for one month so we get many different views. The thing we like most is nobody judges you for your views, all join in the discussions and though we may not all agree, we feel it just makes a more interesting class.