On October 31st, while many folks in America and elsewhere are participating in Halloween activities, Protestants across the world will be celebrating and remembering an event that is arguably far more important and worthy of recognition:  The Protestant Reformation. On that October day in 1517, the monk Martin Luther and his mallet (to borrow from author Stephen J. Nichols) providentially nailed his 95 Theses to the doors of a church located in Wittenburg, Germany and sparked a flame that has yet to be quenched.  Whether he intended it to be so or not, Luther’s act was the starting point of a revolution of doctrine and worldview that continues to influence Christians and non-Christians alike to this very day.

In commemoration of the contributions of Luther the men that followed in his steps (Calvin, Bucer & Zwingli to name a few) and the rich theological tradition that was born from their bold and sacrificial efforts, North Creek Presbyterian Church, located in Coconut Creek, Florida, will be kicking off their first ever Reformation Day Celebration.  The event will be held this Sunday, (October 26, 2008) at the church and will, in addition to its regular 10:30 Sunday morning worship service, feature a special service at 6:00 p.m., celebrating “Reformation Sunday”.  This evening service will feature the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, who, according to Francis Schaffer, was the zenith of the composers coming out of the Reformation. 

For more details about this unique South Florida event, go to the North Creek church site to read the full press release.

For all of the homeschoolers that are reading this, I would like to suggest that the Protestant Reformation is great subject matter for the development of an intriguing homeschool unit study.  With a bit of effort, you can easily use a Reformational theme and cover a wide variety of subjects, including:  history, government, law, church practice and doctrine, science, vocations, literature, music, art and more.   To help get you started, there is a great resource produced by Doorposts called A Night of Reformation, which was designed to help churches create fun, fellowship events that help teach about the historical era, personalities and teachings of the Reformation. This simple, yet well-produced resource can be of great help in the development of your own informative, fun and unique unit study for your children.

Have you ever conducted a unit study on this important event in history? If so, we’d love to hear about it. Please share in our comments section.  Of course, if you can also attend this Sunday’s event at North Creek Presbyterian Church, we’d love to see you there. Semper Reformada!

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UPDATE:  The morning sermon (10/26) from North Creek Presbyterian Church is available using the audio player below. This sermon is a continuation of a series on the book of Phillippians.  To hear all of the sermons in this series, go to the North Creek sermon audio page on their web site.

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Tags: 95 theses, Christian, Florida, francis schaffer, homeschool, homeschoolers, homeschooling, johann sebastian bach, john calvin, martin luther, north creek, protestant reformation, reformation day, reformation sunday, science, wittenburg germany, zwingli