Sunday School
Youth Group
Movie Night
Sunday School
Our Sunday School program year generally runs from September through the end of June and is open to all school aged children (K-12). We meet every Sunday with a few exceptions such as holiday weekends and on the 5th Sunday in any month that has a 5th Sunday. The 5th Sunday of any of those months is our Family Worship Sunday. Worship on those Sundays (January, April, October and December) will welcome different worship experiences.
One of the most important ministries of any church is the Children’s Ministry. Parents are their children’s first teachers about faith. Our children learn by watching their parents practice and asking questions about why we do what we do. But often that’s not enough. That’s where Sunday School can help.
Recognizing that the youth of today are the faith leaders of tomorrow, we at First Congregational UCC have made a commitment to offer a vibrant Children’s Ministry.
Tracy Lovejoy-Kitzweger leads this ministry as our Sunday School Director and Lead Sunday School Teacher. She has 16+ years experience in the Faith Formation of children. In addition to her experience with children’s ministry, Tracy has served as our Office Manager for 15 years and counting. By serving our church in that capacity, she has gained an in-depth knowledge of UCC theology and she practices God’s extravagant welcome every day.
Sunday School classes take place during regular worship on Sunday mornings.
Our class uses two different curriculums. Depending on the make-up of our class on any particular Sunday, we either use a curriculum called Faith Questions or a curriculum called Deep Blue. Faith Question is centered around questions asked of faith leaders by youth. We are grappling with issues like Do All Paths Lead to One God? Why Do We Sing in Church? Why Do Some Churches Wear Red on Pentecost? What Do I Believe and How Do I Know My Beliefs are Mine and Not Everyone Else’s? Our Deep Blue curriculum works with beloved Bible Stories like Jonah and the whale, the stories of Joseph and his jealous brothers, Abraham and Isaac, and lots of others! No matter which curriculum we are using, each Sunday provides a mixture of crafts, learning, physical and mental activities, all with an eye towards learning while having fun! We even serve snack, sometimes having made our snack during our class.
It is our hope that the children are as excited about our program as we are. We invite you to take a look at the pictures below and see all the fun we have had in Sunday School over the years.
We welcome you to come and be a part of this ministry! The fun of our program awaits!!
Every year we begin our program year by participating in some sort of Rainbow activity. Just one of the examples is pictured above. Just as God put a rainbow in the sky to show his covenant with Noah, we made rainbows to show our covenant with each other, the covenant to learn, laugh and work together.
We played Bible “Minute to Win It” games to wrap up our Books of the bible series. Here they are moving mini-marshmallows from one plate to another…..
And this is Noah’s Ark Animal Drop…..
Here they are running a water relay race – just like Rebekah when she drew water for all those camels…. the kids had to draw water from a “well” and bring it back to fill the cups.
Youth Group
Our Youth Group plans were thwarted! Last year we tried to get a youth group experience started. Planned for the first Thursday of the month, we offered a dinner, a short relevant medication based on the book “What Your Soul Needs for Stressful Times” written by Holly Gerth and then we played some games. Alas, after offering the group experience for several months, our low attendance caused us to discontinue the effort. If your teen is interested in a youth group type experience, we would love to offer this experience again!
Movie Night
A brand new event we have begun to offer is our Monthly Movie Night! Each month, on the 4th Friday of the month, we show a different movie. The first two months of this special ministry, we showed two different Disney/Pixar movies. This month (March) we are showing a Marvel movie. Our movie license doesn’t allow us to publicize the name of the movie but I can tell you that the movie’s plot revolves around our hero avoiding bounty hunters after he has stolen an orb. He teams up with 4 characters that include a raccoon, a talking tree and two others. Ultimately this rag tag group must work together to save the universe. The soundtrack is loaded with 80’s music (sssssshhhhhhh, that’s our Children & Youth Ministry Director’s favorite genre of music…..so don’t mind her if she’s lip synching along!)
Our Movie Nights run from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (or whenever the movie ends since some movies are longer than others). We will serve a hot meal – this month we are serving baked ziti and green salad. Movie type snacks and popcorn will be available for dessert during the movie. Our event (including the meal and the snacks/popcorn) is free of charge. While donations are welcomed, they are absolutely not necessary. Our attendees can park in the back of the church behind the gate. We do ask that you reserve your free tickets so that we know how much food to prepare. We invite you to please reserve your free tickets to this event right here at this link:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/569806776407
As always, please reach out to Tracy in the church office at 845-454-2960 if you have any questions. We’re looking forward to watching this month’s movie with you!
First Congregational United Church of Christ 