House Church Grades K–8
|
Being in this group allows all of us to participate and provides a broad view of religious interpretation of the Bible. Also, we have related and used the Bible as the foundation for our spiritual growth. By doing this as parents, it allows our children to see how important religious education is to us, therefore showing them if we are involved, it is important to us and therefore important to them as children in our spiritual growth development. Our house church has also grown together as friends and helped each other in times of turmoil any of us may have had. The bottom line, we are showing our kids how important religious ed is in building his or her own faith foundation.
–From Julie Carr,
Loving Lambs House Church
We joined House Church because we wanted to deepen our faith together, as a family. We felt that it would be more beneficial to our children if we were participating with them as they learned about God and the church. We also thought it would be an opportunity to get to know other families at Pax Christi.
We have participated in House Church for the past 3 years. It has been a rich and rewarding experience for our family. We have formed wonderful lifelong friendships with the other two families. Our kids look forward to House Church and have a more positive attitude about going to church. Although Pax is a large community, participating in House Church has helped it to feel much smaller and had been a great way to meet others.
The one thing I appreciate most about House Church is that we are going about our faith journey together, as a family. I believe it is essential that our children see that their mom and dad are involved in faith education to make it a priority for them as well. Doing this with other families makes the "journey" much more fun. Parents and children have become great friends and look forward to our gatherings, kiddos asking "Is this a Families of Faith Sunday?" each week.
–From the Pax Angels
House Church | The term House Church originated from the days of the early apostles when Christian communities gathered regularly or spontaneously in a home to break bread together and learn about Jesus Christ. They proved to be an effective way of creating community and engaging in outreach. At Pax Christi the House Church not only supports each other as they increase their knowledge of the Catholic faith, but they also reach out to the community around them as they live the message of service to others that Jesus proclaimed in his preaching, teaching, and example.
To participate, a family is defined as one adult and at least one child in grade K-8. Siblings in preschool and grades 9-12, grandparents, and other individuals considered “family” are welcome to participate with the rest of the family. House Churches consist of about 2-5 families. All families opting to belong to a House Church, both previously enrolled and newly registered, are welcome to form their own House Church group when they complete registration materials. Those families not indicating placement preference will be placed in House Church groups by the program coordinator based upon the age of the children.
House Church groups will use Faith First: Legacy Edition by RCL—that supports learning of what we believe as Catholics and also how to live out those beliefs in daily life.
House Church groups meet for 90 minutes twice each month. The dates and times for these meetings are determined by the participants of each House Church group. Pax Christi meeting rooms are reserved through the House Church program coordinator. In addition, there will be seasonal gatherings 4 times throughout the year, held at Pax Christi, to support the House Church faith experiences.
All House Church groups that are formed must have one parent volunteer to be the House Church facilitator. These facilitators meet with the program coordinator to receive and review lessons and bring materials back to their House Church group. The role of facilitator may be rotated within the House Church group.
House Church Large Group gatherings for 2010-2011 will be held on: Monday, September 27, Monday, November 8, Tuesday, January 11 and Tuesday, March 1. Each Large Group Gathering will begin at 5:30pm with a community meal, followed by programming from 6:00-7:30pm.
For more information, please contact Jane Schmitz, 952-405-7238
or the parish office, 952-941-3150. |
