Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I think I heard more voices than ever this year suggesting that we consider toning down the cultural excesses of Christmas gift-giving.  We’ve certainly not eliminated gift-giving in my world of family and friends, but it has become more modest in recent years.  Counterintuitively, Christmas has not become less important to us; if anything, the opposite is true, because it offers us time as family to be together.

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I remember congratulating a young man on his first sermon. The topic was prayer and he did very well for his first effort. Responding to my compliment on his performance, he replied, “Thanks, but I couldn’t loose. Who’s not going to agree that prayer is important?”

Despite his motives for choosing a “safe” topic to address in his first sermon, the young man was right, who doesn’t agree that prayer is important? Prayer is a “given” in the Christian life. It is foundational to continuing spiritual growth, including learning about the Christian life in formal educational settings.

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There is one thing you can be sure of as a primary educator in a local church: inevitably (just as certain as death and taxes), Sunday School teachers will begin to ask for “new curriculum.” This is regardless of the size of the church, the quality of teachers, or even the quality of the curriculum resources teachers currently are using when this mysterious angst strikes!

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Although I no longer serve as pastor of a congregation, invitations to preach come my way from time to time.  The latest instance was yesterday when I helped a Presbyterian congregation surprise their pastor with the opportunity to worship among them, free of leadership responsibility.  The occasion was the thirtieth anniversary of her ordination and the tenth anniversary of her ministry in that place.  Not knowing what the lectionary for the day was, I was pleased to learn that they were accustomed to hearing their pastor preach from it.  I love the tussle with scripture that pushes me to stay grounded in its teaching while saying something useful about its bearing on our lives today. 

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Soul Cakes: A November Family Faith Activity

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We have all experienced effective and non-effective learning groups. Why is it that some are effective and others are not? I would argue that learning experiences that provide more time for critical reflection and dialogue result in more effective learning. Peruse the Christian bookstores and take note of how many resources are now encouraging at least a ninety-minute time frame for group study. There’s a reason for that—learning takes time!

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One of those “Aha!” moments came to me twenty-some years ago while staring at the blank computer screen where Sunday’s sermon should have been making its appearance.  Unfortunately, my thoughts were elsewhere; I had been dealing with the parent of one of our confirmands-to-be, who was convinced that I was not doing enough to impress on his son the significance of the rite he would soon undergo.  Sometimes his critique seemed to be that I didn’t make these 6th and 7th graders suffer enough (they thought they suffered plenty) and sometimes it was clear that the father was actually expecting the confirmation process to fill all the spiritual gaps left in the child’s life by church and home.

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An educational staff person recently asked me about a problem often encountered in the Sunday School program. She had a class of (older) adults whose Sunday School class averaged around 3 persons (but not always the same three persons!). These kinds of classes bring up several administrative issues for those leading a Sunday School program, like (1) they occupy one whole classroom so arguably, not good stewardship of facility space, (2) they bring down the average Sunday School attendance figure (gasp!), (3) they tend to be a “closed” group and therefore are not good at welcoming or reaching out to new people, (4) this size group raises legitimate questions about educational effectiveness (What are they really doing in there? Are they teaching the curriculum?).

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Ryan Hamm, of Faithvisuals.com makes an insightful point about the use of media that educators would do well to consider when using media as participation, not just presentation.

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I’m a fan of late night infomercials. Given that I’m an insomniac that shouldn’t be a surprise. I got hooked when I saw the first Pocket Fisherman infomercial by Ronco, an early (and still popular) product from Ron Popeil (more, more). Since those early days Ron Popeil and company have shaped the infomercial phenomenon with a steady stream of products. Using a successful format for pitching products, which included the teaser, “But wait! There’s more!” Popeil has sold his inventions, from the Veg-O-Matic, Mr. Microphone, the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler to the wildly successful Ronco Rotisserie Oven, that last due in no small part to Ron Popeil’s memorable pitch, “Set it and forget it!”

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