Liaison to Consistory: Patti Varga

Welcome to the Christian Education as Faith Formation ministry page of the Kinderhook Reformed Church! 
 
A Reflection on Faith Formation
 
Yet, O Lord, you are our God;
   we are the clay, and you are our potter;
   we are all the work of your hand. –Isaiah 64:8
 
Faith formation is at the heart of what the Christian life is all about. In many ways, we engage in the practices of our daily lives through worship, mission, working for justice and peace, outreach, and education—so that our faith may be nurtured, enlivened, sustained, and formed. In this regard, the imagery offered by the prophet Isaiah of Potter God forming humanity, God's created own, is an appropriate vision for how we might view the ministry of faith formation.
 
At the Kinderhook Reformed Church, we can understand faith formation to be "an engaged process of learning and practice integrated throughout all aspects of congregational and daily life." This definition highlights the initiative and action we must take in our own faith formation. In essence, we become clay so that we are formed and transformed by the Holy and by one another. But throughout all of our doing and being, we are reminded that God's "hands" are continually present in our efforts to gain both "head" knowledge found in education and learning and "heart" wisdom discovered through prayer, ritual, and practice.
 
So, it is indeed most fitting to say that faith formation is at the heart of what our living and being is all about; but without the hands that guide what we are continually becoming, the process is incomplete. May this webpage offer some helpful tools from which you and others can “become clay” and be reminded of God's formational presence along life's journey.

“Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of age.”

— Matthew 28: 19–20  (The Message)

Christian Education is very important to us as a faith community.

• Worship Service is at 9:30am.
• Our Youth Sunday School classes meet at 9:30am Sunday mornings Sept - May. 
• Our Weekly Bible Study groups meet Thursdays at 9am, Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm, all currently on zoom.
• Other study groups meet throughout the year at varied times for topical studies, see calendar for details.
• Youth Ministry (Visit the Youth Ministry tab to learn about what we're doing!)

To join in the work of the ministry please contact Patti Varga, Elize Visser, Jane Deane or the church office at 518-758-6401 or office@kinderhookreformedchurch.com