Church class
The community education is a many free churches for young people aged 12 to 14 years. It usually takes place weekly or bi-weekly over a period of two to three years. Participation is voluntary, but a certain amount of commitment is expected. Other names for church education are religious education , biblical instruction or (especially in Mennonite congregations ) baptismal instruction .
Content
The clear focus of church teaching is imparting biblical knowledge . In addition, it is about church history from a free church perspective, practical help with everyday faith, prayer , Bible reading and Christian life and Christian ethics , as well as the connection between conversion , faith and baptism . Practical assignments in diaconal and missionary areas complement the curriculum. Denominational topics are also part of the parish curriculum. Free time and joint excursions deepen the community among each other. The individual free churches each provide their own teaching material for congregation lessons. The Evangelical Free Churches use, for example, the textbook With Head, Heart and Hand , published by Oncken-Verlag , Kassel .
Dismissal from church class
At the end of the congregation class there is a special worship service in which the students of the congregation class are dismissed with personal Bible words and with prayers for blessings . There is neither an automatic admission to the parish nor a baptism at the end of the parish lesson.
Addressees of the offer
The offer of church lessons is aimed at all young people in the above age range who want to learn more about the basics of the Christian faith . Participation is independent of both your own and the parents' denomination . The discharge from church classes is therefore not comparable to confirmation or confirmation . Under no circumstances does it want to anticipate or force the personal decision to live as a Christian and therefore neither presupposes baptism, nor does it require its implementation.
See also
literature
- Ulf Beiderbeck: Free and secure. A study of community teaching in the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches K. d. ö. R. , Volume 3 in the series Baptism Studies , Kassel 2002, ISBN 978-3-87939-202-5
Web links
- Biblical lessons in a Free Evangelical Congregation in Switzerland
- unti-online.net teaching material in German for free use
Individual evidence
- ↑ With head, heart and hand , excerpts online ( memento of the original from March 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Accessed May 19, 2010
