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HELMdisciples.org > > Higher Education Sunday

Higher Education Sunday

November 2*, 2008, is Higher Education Sunday in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a day when we celebrate our long tradition of education and faith. While November 2 is the official Higher Education Sunday, your congregation can celebrate education any Sunday you choose. Here are a few suggestions on marking Higher Education Sunday in your church. All of these suggestions are applicable during the academic year.
  • Recognize members who attended a Disciples college, university, or seminary during worship. Ask them to reflect on the values their alma mater instilled in them and what a difference that school made in their lives. A Higher Education Sunday litany is available to help your congregation lift up education.

  • Recognize teachers for every age. College professors, high school, middle school, elementary school, pre-school, Sunday school, volunteers at a local school — everybody who teaches, whether as a full-time job or by reading to kids — they're all playing an important role teaching.

  • Recognize your students: undergraduate, graduate, and seminarians. They may not be there in person, but remind the congregation about the college students they have sent out into the world. Schedule a time for a student to call during worship and talk to the congregation about the college experience. Send students a care package of healthy snacks with a note that they are missed and appreciated.

  • If you have a campus ministry, recognize its participants. If you don't, and you're near a college, consider campus ministry as another form of outreach. For ideas on starting a campus ministry, get great ideas from the Campus Chaos entries at http://www.stepnetwork.org/chaos.html

  • Talk about Disciples higher education. For two centuries, Disciples colleges and universities have trained Disciples leaders to think clearly and rationally and to minister to the world around them. While those first instructors and students might not recognize modern campuses, those classic values live on in the 21st Century. Disciples undergraduate institutions serve nearly 27,000 students in a wide variety of settings - from a rural college town with several hundred students to a metropolitan setting with almost 9,000 students. Despite those differences, these schools all share a commitment to the church, emphasize spiritual faith and values, and cherish a commitment to a liberal-arts education. HELM has a variety of publications about Disciples higher education and campus ministry available free at http://www.helmdisciples.org/orders/.

  • If you're near a Disciples higher education institution, invite a representative to visit your congregation. The 27 schools related to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) are eager to spread the word about Disciples higher education. Use our lists to find the appropriate contact at a Disciples college, university, or theological institution.
If you have other ideas for celebrating Higher Education Sunday, we'd love to share them with the rest of the church. Send your ideas to helm@helmdisciples.org.



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Higher Education & Leadership Ministries
of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)