Dear Kansas District Church Workers,

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ from the District Adult Education Committee!

Did you know that currently only 11% of LC-MS high school youth and adults who attend worship are participating in a regular Bible study? We were asked to serve on this committee in response to the 2006 Kansas District Convention Resolution 2006-03-01 to address the concern about the status of Adult Christian Education in our congregations. Our mission is to identify needs and suggest resources and strategies for the growing of Jesus' disciples through God's Word.

In order to fulfill the first part of our mission, identifying needs, we have included an assessment tool (refer to the letter of explanation) that each congregation can administer to their members. We ask that someone from your congregation be given the task of compiling the results of this survey for local use and also sending a summary of the results to the District Office on the enclosed Data Report. The enclosed key will assist to eveluate and strengthen your congregation's adult education ministry.

When should this survey be given? In order to lift up Christian adult education within our District, we are encouraging each congregation to designate a special Sunday between January 6 and February 3, 2008. You will find in this packet of materials a sermon, written by Pastor Phillip Hoppe (St. Paul, Ellsworth), that you can use on your designated Sunday. Obviously, you need to determine what will work best in your congregation, but we suggest distributing the survey to your worshipers either through the bulletin on your designated Sunday, or by handing them out preceding the sermon. In order to prepare people about the special emphasis and survey, we have also included sample bulletin and newsletter articles.

We ask that the survey results be returned to the District office by February 22, 2008. As a committee, we hope to use the results of the survey to offer resources and strategies to encourage our high school youth and adults to continue to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ through the study of His Word. If you have any questions, please fell free to contact one of us.

May God bless us all as the Holy Spirit guides us in making disciples!