Sabbath School

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This article is about the Seventh-day Adventist church service on Saturday. For Sabbath as in "Sunday", see Sunday school.

Sabbath School is a function of the Seventh-day Adventist church that roughly parallels Sunday School in most other Protestant denominations.

It usually occurs around 9:30am (or often 10:00am, especially in the United Kingdom) on Saturday mornings before the worship service starts. The Sabbath school service usually has two portions. The first portion begins with a song service, followed by a mission emphasis and a short talk. The second, and larger portion, is the lesson study.

Adult church members are provided with a Sabbath School Lesson study guide that is issued every quarter, known as the quarterly. The quarterly is designed to be read during the week, so that during Sabbath School, the class members are ready to discuss questions and topics raised in that lesson in small groups. The Adult Sabbath School always has a heavy focus on the Bible. All Seventh-day Adventists around the world use the same Sabbath school quarterly, translated into the necessary languages (with few exceptions such as Germany, who cover the same topic with different material). The current editor of the Adult Sabbath School lessons is Clifford Goldstein.

At the same time as the adult study, children attend classes aimed at their age group. Typical age group divisions are Beginner (infants), Kindergarten (K), Primary (Grades 1-3), Junior (Grades 4-6), Earliteen (Grades 7-8), and Youth (High School). Each age division has its own specific quarterly, titled by the class name, except: Juniors and Earliteens which often share the same quarterly entitled PowerPoints, or if using separate quarterlies, the Juniors use PowerPoints while the Earliteens use a new publication entitled Real Time Faith; and Youth, which use either Cornerstone Connections or Collegiate Quarterly (CQ). In some churches, the children receive a weekly magazine at the close of Sabbath school, which they can read quietly during the sermon. Kindergarten receives Our Little Friend, Primary receives Primary Treasure, Juniors and Earliteens receive Guide, and the Youth receive Insight. The most popular magazine tends to be Guide.

When Sabbath School draws to a close, people file back into the sanctuary and the worship service begins, usually at 11:00am.

[edit] See also

Seventh-day Adventist Church

Sabbath School lessons are bible study guides that cover a specific topic or book of the bible every quarter. The Seventh Day Adventist Sabbath School is different from the traditional Sunday School in that all members of the church participate in studying the bible during that allocated time. Materials used vary according to age groups.