Five members of the Greater Richmond Area Christian Educators (GRACE) peer learning group took a field trip to The Center for Church Understanding of Islam and a local mosque, The Islamic Center of Virginia in November of 2006. The event was put together by GRACE member, Marty Canaday, Minister of Christian Formation at the Derbyshire Baptist Church (Richmond, VA) as a small group learning experience to facilitate greater understanding of Islam and dialogue between Christian and Muslim leaders. Dr. Charles Beckett, Director of The Center for Church Understanding led the GRACE group in an orientation to Islam through a tour of the Center and arranged a tour and dialogue with the administrative director of a local mosque. After the tour the group met over lunch for discussion with Dr. Beckett. They shared impressions and pondered questions about their experience.
This kind of small group event is an example of a learning approach that Marty Canaday is offering in his church. Canaday personally invites members of the church (maximum of 10 persons) to join him “in the streets†to encounter places where God is at work, as he says, “in our midst.†The group makes a visit, engages in dialogue with the leaders of another faith tradition or service agency, and then follows up with lunch for extended dialogue and reflection on the experience.
The approach serves several purposes. It helps church members learn about the community and the places where agencies are ministering and meeting the needs of others. It provides members with information about where they may get involved beyond the local church to use their God-given gifts. It helps the members understand that the church’s call to ministry is beyond itself into the world—especially to its local community. It builds relationships between the church and other faith traditions and service organizations in the community. It develops clergy-parishioner relationships. And finally, this experiential form of learning promotes reflection and dialogue, and therefore, is one of the best ways faith is shaped through a dialogical process with other members of the congregational faith community.
Canaday’s practice of inviting church members is a very effective way of facilitating church members’ exposure to their community, city, and environment, in order to (1) raise awareness, (2) make connections, (3) set up potential hands-on missions opportunities. When starting ministries outside of the walls of the congregation people need to BE there, to see it, and to connect with potential partner organizations and individuals.
In the past, members of the GRACE group have taken field trips to other holy sites in Washington, D.C.: the National Cathedral, the Franciscan monastery, and the Basilica (National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception).
