The Fellowship Sunday School Class – Holley Building Room 3
Facilitator: Marie Smith

Warm, friendly and smiling faces welcome you when you visit the Fellowship Class.  Comprised of “card-carrying” AARP members, we encourage one another to share experiences and how the Holy Scripture has enabled us to meet life’s challenges.  The Fellowship Class uses an open discussion forum with the Cokesbury Adult Studies as its curriculum resource.  Members read a short daily Scripture which serves as background for the upcoming Sunday lesson.

We open with touching base on members who are not in attendance, Covenant activities and needs - then joining hands, we each lift a short prayer of praise, thanksgiving and concern. 

Missions:  The Fellowship Class raises mission money through the sale of pecans each year.  Missions include our missionaries in PaPau, New Guinea (Wycliffe Bible Translators), United Christian Outreach, Ruston Methodist Children’s Home, Interfaith Hospitality (Family Promise) Faith House, several missions of Covenant Church (Pumpkin Patch, auto clinic, Vacation Bible School, etc.), plus other local and national missions.

Highly motivated – many Fellowship Class members volunteer their time and talent in service to God by serving on boards/committees, repairs/upkeep of the Church, hurricane repairs, Fellowship meals, cancer center, UCO, hospitals and various Covenant ministries.  Mention a family’s suffering, an illness, financial stress and the class is one of the first to step up to the plate – not only with finances, but with much love and encouragement.

Oh – by the way – there’s lots of fun as well – stories from the past ….remember the good ol’ days?.... that brings smiles and laughter to all.  Sit in on a Fellowship Sunday School class meeting, and then…..”Y’all come back now – ya’ hear?”

The Wesleyan Sunday School Class – Holley Building Room 5
Facilitator: Gene Blevins

Focus of Study
The Wesleyan Class utilizes the International Learning Series as the basis for our studies.  Our goal is to focus on how the Scriptures apply to our personal, interpersonal, and religious lives.

We do this by:
· Studying our weekly lesson
· Prayerfully considering how the lesson relates to our lives
· Sharing our personal insights and experiences
· Reviewing current events within the context of the lesson

Ministries
The Wesleyan Class has actively supported the ministries of the Church of the Covenant by raising funds through various methods including baked potato sales and we initiated the Pretzel Sunday fund raising.  We have passed these on to the youth, but these activities helped us raise for various causes including:

· Paid the church’s financial obligations to the Louisiana Conference Center
· Purchased choir robes
· Started the initial landscaping including the trees along the driveway, the prayer garden and other trees
· Underwriting set costs for the Passion Play
The Wesleyan Class has never tried to define a particular age group or gender for our class.  We are somewhat eclectic and encourage anyone interested in studying the Scripture in the modern day world to consider our class.
We are noted for a friendly welcome and a full pot of COFFEE!  Come join us!

The Berean Class – Holley Building Room 14
Facilitator: Paul Guilbeau

This class gets its very name from the New Testament people of the Macedonian city of Berea, who the Apostle Paul visited. The Berean people were known as people who loved the Word of God and received it “with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures to see whether these things [prophecies about Christ] were so” and many of them came to faith in Christ because of Paul’s message. This class, a mixed group of pairs and spares, ages ranging from late 30’s to late 50’s, is a very friendly, easy-going group of folks, who share a love for God and a zest for life. Their studies vary, including seasonal resources for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. Several past studies have included the Life and Ministry of the Apostle Paul, particularly as related to the Early Church in the Book of Romans and in the Books of First and Second Corinthians. The Scripture readings often lead to lively discussions of the life issues of the class such as child-rearing, work, marriage and home life. In fact, according to the class facilitator, the Lord has often been known to show up in class and “speak” through the Scripture reading being discussed for that day to help a student with a troubled heart or an unresolved life issue. The members of the class take the Lord’s commandment of loving one another seriously by sponsoring a single-parent family, providing basic life needs including food and clothing. This real, genuine, down-to earth intimate class of eight persons keeps an “open-door policy” and welcomes anyone to come and share with them in the studying of God’s Holy Word and in experiencing true Christian fellowship.

The Believers Class – Holley Building Room 6
Facilitator: Mrs. Pat Griffith

The conception of this class was founded on the Book of Acts where the Christians of the Early Church were filled with the Holy Spirit and their lives were full of faith and courage despite persecution. This class believes that living the true Christian life is about “continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ (Biblical) teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 3:42) It is about going back to the basics by studying the Word of God itself verse by verse, chapter by chapter and book by book. All you will need for this class will be your Bible and an open heart to hear the voice of the Lord. The only other main resource which is used to lead the class is the “Life Application Bible Commentary,” which helps the student to translate the Word of God into his or her everyday life. Currently, there is a healthy mixture of men and women of all ages enthusiastically committed to studying the Scriptures and putting its truth and teaching into practice. This class is loving and friendly and welcomes you with open arms. Come and join us!

The Searchers Class – Holley Building Room 2
Facilitator: Kathy Hoover
Assistant Facilitator: Ardella Richeson

This class is a lively group of women from all walks of life, who share a love for the Scriptures and a zest for life. This group studies directly from the Bible, book by book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, using the “Serendipity” Bible resource, which includes intriguing discussion questions about how to apply the truths of the Bible to every day life. These active women contribute to many charities on a as needed basis. Some of the charities they have sponsored and supported have been: “Angel Tree” for children of imprisoned parents, needy families of Hurricane Katrina and meals for the displaced and homeless families of the “Family Promise of Acadiana” ministry. In this group there is a deep-sense of sisterhood in Christ and also lots of laughter! These ladies love to get together in social outings at least once every other month. Anyone is invited to join this great group of ladies. It’s a great way to make some really good friends. Come one! Come all! The Searchers Class meets in our church library in the Holley building.

Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts – Holley Building Fellowship Hall
Facilitator: Randy Loewen

God has equipped each of us with special gifts to carry out his plan of ministry. Have you identified the most important gift that God has given you for the purpose of His ministry? Or are you working in areas that are not in the mainstream of your gifts and abilities? If not, you will likely feel a lack of meaning or sense of frustration with your spiritual job.

God’s plan is to utilize those special gifts he has given you for ministry, which are called your “spiritual gifts.” This study will use scripture to identify our gifts, and help us understand our purpose as well as that of others in the church. When you understand your spiritual gifts as well as your neighbors, God can more effectively run the church. We will be more effective and work better together if we understand each persons part in God’s plan.

We will not stop with a simple understanding of our gifts. We will work on a practical plan, focusing on how to develop and utilize our gifts to answer God’s call, and how to revitalize the ministries in our church. This will make our church more open and inclusive of each person, and enable us to meet the ministry needs of a constantly changing culture.

The study book is entitled Ministering Through Spiritual Gifts, written by Charles Stanley, In Touch Ministries. The study is divided into 10 lessons. We will add a Spiritual Gifts Test and a discussion of how we can best use our gifts to serve at the Church of the Covenant. The study examines the 7 gifts that motivate us to serve the Body of Christ (Prophecy, Service, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Organization & Mercy). There are other spiritual gifts that will we will not examine in this study (such as healing & speaking in tongues).

Join us in the exciting study. Come make some friends while you get a better understanding of God’s purpose for your life.

Daily Living – Holley Building Room 4
Facilitator: Lynley Jones

Daily Living: A class for those who want to know how to read the Bible, understand its principles, commands and warnings and then, most importantly, learn to apply those teachings to our lives every day.

This series is based on Tony Campolo’s best selling book, “10 Hot Potatoes that Christians Don’t Want to Talk About.”

Topics will include:  the Biblical basis for what the Methodist Church believes about abortion, homosexuality, divorce, gambling, hunting, funerals, etc. This class will not be an open discussion on these lifestyle issues, but rather a Bible-based research and application class.  

The class will run for 10 weeks.

Children’s Sunday School - Come Join Us

Sunday Mornings - 10:10am - 11:10am
in Children’s Education Building

PreK - 5th Grade
Meet in Room 13 for music with Miss Jodi Wolfe, then go to their classes:
Babies 6 months to 3 years - Room 4 with Jennifer Manuel
PreK thru Kindergarten - Room 9 with Beth Bolinger
1st thru 3rd Grades - Room 13 with Jodi Wolfe & Carl Frantz
4th & 5th Grades - Room 8 with Terry Chambers & Nancy Dear
6th thru 8th Grades - Room 7 with Danny Dubose & Jerry Nugent