Each fall in our congregation the students and staff of our Sunday School
are formally recognized in a service of covenanting wherein everyone makes
promises according to their roles in the church family and wherein God's
blessings are invoked upon all.  From year to year there seems little need
to change the basic structure and content of that covenanting time. The
church school curriculum "The Whole People of God" provided ideas and
wording for this annual covenanting ceremony.  Some of the following is
loosely based on that which that curriculum provided for the fall of 1995.

The following takes place in the normal "Children's Time" within the
liturgy of the congregation.  It can take the place of the normal story
time - or follow immediately upon it's conclusion.


INVITATION
   Will the children, the teachers and the helpers - and the members of
   the Christian Education committee please come forward and take a place
   in the front pew or near to where I will stand.


PREAMBLE
   Special welcome - today Sunday School classes begin - where we learn
   new things about God and about how he wants us to Live for Jesus.  What
   you do - you students and you teachers - downstairs - and what we do
   here upstairs - is all connected together and is all important.  We
   work together, each in the way God has given to us, to build a stronger
   church - an ever more faithful people of God.  The Sunday school has an
   important place in our life together - it is the place where faith is
   nurtured in the young.

   Without the students we are poorer - without the teachers and helpers
   we are weaker - without you the parents and the rest of congregation we
   are less than God wants us to be.  So today, in recognition of this
   fact - we make a set of promises to one another before God - we enter
   into a covenant - to love and support each other, to grow and learn
   together, and to make God and faithfulness to him the centre of our
   lives.


THE STUDENTS WILL STAND 
Minister  Will you please repeat after me:

Students  WE THANK GOD FOR OUR CHURCH SCHOOL
          FOR THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS,
          AND THE VISION OF CHRIST'S WAY. 
          WE WILL COME TO CHURCH SCHOOL
          AS OFTEN AS WE CAN 
          AND DO OUR BEST
          SO THAT WE MAY LEARN ABOUT GOD
          AND BE WITH THE FAMILY THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US.


WILL THE PARENTS AND THE CONGREGATION PLEASE STAND
Minister  Will you please repeat after me.

People    WE LOVE OUR CHILDREN.
          WE WILL ENCOURAGE THEM TO LIVE
          IN THE WAY OF CHRIST.
          WE WILL JOIN WITH THEM
          IN STUDYING GOD'S WORD.
          WE WILL TRY OUR BEST
          TO GROW WITH THEM IN FAITH.
          AND WE WILL SUPPORT THE WORK
          OF OUR CHURCH SCHOOL
          WITH OUR TIME, OUR TALENT
          OUR TREASURE, AND OUR PRAYERS.


THE TEACHERS AND LEADERS WILL STAND
Minister  Please repeat after me:

Teachers  WE WILL WALK WITH GOD
          AND WITH THE CHILDREN AND YOUTH 
          OF OUR CONGREGATION
          WE WILL WORK TOGETHER 
          AND WITH GODS HELP
          WE WILL DO OUR BEST
          TO LEARN, TO LIVE, AND TO TEACH
          THE WAY OF CHRIST


LET US PRAY  
Loving God, as we have promised before each other and before you, so let it
be.  Pour out your power and your grace upon us.  Help us be your family
and to seek together to live your way; to learn together to do your will;
to work together to help one another; and to share with each other the joys
and concerns you place upon our hearts.  We ask it in Jesus' name.  Amen.


DECLARATION  
In the name of God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I declare
this covenant to have been made.  May God bless us and keep us, both now
and forevermore.  Amen.


* HYMN:  "One More Step Along The Road I Go"                       - VU 639


copyright - Rev. Richard J. Fairchild - Spirit Networks, 2000 - 2006
             use only with proper acknowledgement