This year leap day falls on a Sunday! Our curriculum writing committee thought it would be fun to depart from the regular rotation schedule for that 5th Sunday and do something to celebrate! I thought maybe we could do something based around the concept of Jubilee. Does anyone have any ideas?
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Being one day only would you still use a rotation format or something else? How many children? what ages? How long do you have SS?
Year of Jubilee
Funny that you're thinking the same thing as we are at Hilliard Pres in Central Ohio. We have a "year of Jubilee" scheduled in year 5 I think.
Ours is so far out we haven't given it a lot of thought. I'm hoping the thinking of it will get the wheels turning throughout our congregation far in advance.
One idea I've had is to extend the "year" to every ministry/program in our church. Every group has to come up with something quite different about what and how they do.
Some ideas that have popped into my head...
The entire year can be composed of many different ideas.
Form "family groups" of 10 to 15 people, intergenerational. Have them pick a subject to study then develop an entire worship service based on their study.
Cancel classes altogether and invite people to each other's homes for a pre-worship or post worship get together with study component.
Do a complete switch of responsibilities between church groups. Choir does buildings and grounds for a month, buildings and grounds does Sunday School, youth group runs the council/session (!)
Assign 3rd through 6th grade classes to study, rehearse and present a musical during the Winter.
Invite the church down the street to a reciprocal series of Sunday School classes both at your church and then their church.
Shut down worship one Sunday at your place and have everyone attend the church down the street.
Not everyone has to be doing their "jubilee activity" at the same time. It can be like a 'rolling jubilee' where at any given time SOME group is doing something quite different.
Thinking....
<>< Neil
My dictionary says jubilee is "a celebration held every fifty years in which all bondmen were freed, mortgage lands restored to the owners, etc.; a 25th or 50th anniversary."
It was customary to let fields rest on the Jubilee year. I've read (somewhere) that the number 7 means "complete" in Jewish lore, so the Jubilee would be a multiple of that. (Neil, please correct me if I'm wrong)What types of celebrations does the Bible talk about on "jubilee"?
So, I was thinking you could honor those in your congregation who have been married 50 years; you could do a scavenger hunt of 50 items; do a time-line of the last 50 years of your congregation; have birthday parties for those turning 50 (at least the ones willing to admit to that age! ) You could also explore mission efforts worldwide toward the crushing debt relief some countries are burdened with. (I have seen a video on this; I'll look to see who does it). Or, gather 50 pounds of pennies for a special mission project, locally or somewhere else.
I do like Neil's ideas of year-long activities.
Julie Burton
The idea of "jubilee" is to take a year off from Sunday School as we do it now, and do something quite different. Part of my hope is this concept would infect the entire church program.
So maybe we're talking about "The Year of Something Different."