On the advice of my District Superintendent, I held small group meetings with members of Dodgeville United Methodist Church, seeking to find out what our members saw as the strengths of our church, along with a vision for what they would like to see the church doing five years down the line. I did this before completing my first year of my appointment. When it came to what the church was hoping to see in give years, the number one response was have a Sunday School!
Before I had arrived here, Dodgeville United Methodist Church had attempted to launch an “All4One” program on Wednesday evenings, hoping to have a church school, youth group, and other educational events on this particular weekday. While the youth group was successful for a number years, the hopes for a church school did not bear fruit.
In my time as pastor here, we have twice attempted to get a Sunday School program going, but it is has not been successful. Part of it had to do with only having one or two people taking on the teaching responsibilities. It was simply too much work and made people prone to burnout. It was also difficult to get a steady stream of children to participate week to week.
Starting March 4th, 2018 we are giving it another go. We have a really nice “one room Sunday school” curriculum from Cokesbury called Deep Blue. We have four different teams of teachers that are willing to rotate in the teaching, and we have been doing our best to market this not only to our church but also to the community. I really think God is calling us to have a Sunday School so that we might help to equip our children to grow in their Christian faith!
Sunday School will be at 9:15AM. Families can come to worship at 9:00AM, and after the children’s moment, kids will be excused down to the basement for class. Class will be done at the latest by 10:15AM and they can find their parents in the Fellowship Hall.
We are going to have Sunday School through the month of May, and if it catches on, it is our hope to begin again in September. I encourage you to come and check out this new part of our church’s ministry!