Meeting 3 - 7/5/11

We discussed the scope document Jason had prepared.  People were happy with the topics and the groupings for retreats.  Doug suggested we restore Lesson 27 on Group vs. Private worship, and the change has been reflected in the updated scope document.

Barbara shared her document with the potential students.  We discussed how to handle young people whose families are not active members of the church (some of them haven't attended in years).  We decided that we will extend the offer because, lacking a letter of transfer, we are still responsible for their spiritual growth. We will also put notes in the bulletin, in e-mail, and through the mail to make sure we don't miss anyone's child/grandchild because (for whatever reason) s/he isn't in the directory.

Action items:

• Jason will update the calendar to create a draft schedule (finished and can be viewed on the calendar below) that shows when each session will occur.  
• All teachers have until 11:59PM Thursday to tell Jason if there are particular topics you want to teach or particular days you would prefer not to teach.  
• Given that information Jason will update the schedule and assign teachers (rotating)
• Melissa will put together a draft letter to the students (but referencing the parents), telling them about the class and telling them to attend the dinner/meeting on August 3rd at 5:30 in the Fellowship Hall.
• Doug will take Melissa's letter (once it is in its final version) and create a shorter version for the bulletin.
• Cindy will take Doug's bulletin notice and handle getting it on a postcard and sent out to members via snail mail, e-mail, Facebook, or whatever means are needed to get everyone.
• Doug will create a draft covenant to be signed by the students and/or parents defining the expectations for the class members

NEXT MEETING:

Thursday, July 14th at 6:30 in Doug's office.

Meeting 2 - 6/28/11

We discussed the scope of the class for 2011-2012, and Jason took the action item of taking all the wonderful feedback and discussion and trying to take a stab at an approximately 25 session class scope and schedule.

Here is a link to the DRAFT scope (please read the notes below before reviewing the scope).  You can read this document and look at the calendar below to get a sense of the rough schedule (at least what week things are happening).

NOTE:

1. I ended up with 26 sessions.  If you lay that on the calendar  WITHOUT retreats (just to see the longest possible schedule), that takes us from 9/11/11 to 5/6/12.
2. I did propose two groupings of topics that could serve as retreat themes.  Let's discuss these or other possibilities.  That could mean a later start if we are set on finishing on Pentecost.   Again, we'll discuss.

We also decided that we will send a letter off to every young person from grade 6 to 12 in the church and offer that young person and his/her parents the opportunity to meet with us on August 3rd, 2011 at 5:30 for a dinner meeting to discuss the upcoming class, the expectations for students and parents.  Barbara agreed to pull together the list of young people eligible for the class.

Cindy offered her place for a possible 1st session/kick-off party.

Homework for next meeting:

• Review the 27 session course scope and offer feedback
• Be thinking and praying about what will go in the parent and student expectations.

Reference material/links:

• The agenda handout from the 6/28 meeting

Meeting 1 - 6/17/11

AGENDA

1. Determine scope for the class
2. Distribute topics for study
3. (if time permits) Discuss class expectations.

DISCUSSION

We mostly focused on 1, and we didn't finish, but that's okay because #1 and #3 are probably the toughest items we'll tackle all summer. 

I put the materials we discussed (and agreed to review after the meeting) below.  We looked at the topics offered in these different curricula and added/stressed some things that were important to us:

• Bible Study primer
• Interview questions for congregation members
• A class service project
• What it means to be Presbyterian in a non-Presbyterian culture
• What do the creeds mean?  What is their purpose?
• Prayer - (key focus); "how to pray", praying aloud, why we pray, etc.
• Retreats/field trips

We started talking about how we would handle how children would be "admitted" to the program and had very good discussions about that.

ACTION ITEMS

• Everyone - Read over the materials provided in the meeting (also below) and send Jason your list of topics/activities that you think are essential.  These can be gleaned from the materials or they can come from your head.  If you really like the plans offered below, let me know.
• Everyone  - Pray and think about how young people will be eligible to attend.  We had excellent arguments for and against a predefined age. Please pray to discern God's will.

NEXT MEETING:

• June 28th at 3:00

MATERIALS:

• Handout from the meeting
• The confirmation class schedule from Doug's sister's church
• A sample of PCUSA's curriculum (PDF) (I'm going to buy 5 copies of the basic guide and distribute them to our group)
• A link to a church in Chicago that has their confirmation curriculum online (Not shown in meeting) 

Why a blog, Jason?

Thanks again for the wonderful teachers who are helping us plan and carry out this exciting class!  I wanted to have some place where we could store and reference materials we generate, so I created this blog.

If you don't want to use it, you don't have to, and I can put stuff on there if you'd like. If, however, you have always wondered about using or creating a blog, I'd be happy to show you how (it is drop-dead easy) and you could practice using our blog.