The new book by GRACE members Israel Galindo and Marty Canaday, Planning for Christian Education Formation: A Community of Faith Approach (Chalice Press) is immediately available in print and e-book format.
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I’m revisiting some of the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Few have written better on the matter of community. I came across his thoughts on speaking the truth in love in community that I find timely. I’ll confess I remain perpetually puzzled at people’s inability to be frank with each other. I spent too many of my formative years growing up in New York City, where they didn’t mince words and more conversations than not tended to be delivered with an in-your-face attitude. I find Bonhoeffer’s words worth considering.
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Scottish mystic Henry Scougal (1650-1678), author of the spiritual classic The Life God in the Soul of Man included the following prayer in that work:
“Good God! What a mighty felicity this is to which we are called! How graciously hast thou joined our duty and happiness together, and prescribed that for our work the performance whereof is a great reward!”
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I met up with some old friends recently, who’d brought along some of their friends I appreciated meeting. It didn’t take long to get to that awkward point in the conversation that follows the “What do you do for a living?” Well, maybe not awkward for most jobs, but typically for the ones I’ve held (funeral home manager, local church clergy, and now seminary professor). At least people clean up their language.
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It is not a stretch to realize that churches are probably the longest standing user of volunteer services. From teaching Sunday school classes, staffing committees to operating the various mission efforts churches are almost completely dependent upon unpaid volunteers. That is why the future of program and ministry leadership in churches is in jeopardy.
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I’ve just received in the mail a copy of Learning the Way, by Cassandra Williams (Alban Institute, 2009). I was asked to write the forward to this book. Here is an edited version:
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We’ve just added a link to the School of Christian Ministry at BTSR on our Organizational links listing. The School of Christian ministry provides quality continuing education courses, programs, and events for clergy and lay church leaders. Many convenient online learning opportunities here! Check out their offerings, there’s probably one you need. You can register online.
A perennial struggle for religious educators and pastors is finding ways to connect orthodoxy to orthopraxy. Achieving “right belief” (head knowledge) seems so very easy compared to achieving “right behavior.” Too often there is a disconnect between what congregational members say they believe about the Christian life and how they actually live their lives. It has become a high compliment to say of someone that they “walk the talk.”
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In 1990 I was asked to design a course for Trinity College in their adult education program (yes, I’m still tossing out files. I’m doing pretty good on this New Year’s Resolution no. 7. Not so much on the others). This was a degree completion course for adults in mid-career and mid-life. The project of designing that course turned into some on-going consultation work, and eventually led to the creation of a life-changing retreat.
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