This is an amusing and thoughtful prayer reflection that I’ve used to open my Fall teacher training workshops. I hope you enjoy it!

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It seems to me that people are quick to answer, “Help the homeless” in regards to what we think we should be doing as Christians who are called to “care for the least of these.” On the one hand, this seems like a good answer. But, on the other hand, experience has taught me that this isn’t “black and white”. In fact, it is very grey.

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Michael J. Anthony, Professor of Christian Education at Talbot School of Theology is the author of Perspectives on Children’s Spiritual Formation (Broadman & Holman, 2006) presents in counterpoint form four contemporary views of children’s spiritual formation and four related methods of Christian Education.

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It is my privilege to serve on the Development Team of Cross Over Ministry, a non-denominational, Christian-based organization that serves the needs of the uninsured in the Richmond, Virginia metropolitan area. The mission of Cross Over Ministry is “To provide health care, promote wellness and connect the talents and resources of the community with those in need in the name of Jesus Christ.”

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I’ve been reading up on heresies lately. In the course of my readings I was inspired by the words of confession from the Athanasian Creed (also know as the “Quicumque vult”). The creed is authoritative to Catholic, Anglican, and some Protestant churches. I remember it as one we would recite on occasion in our Baptist church when I was a liturgically overly-attentive child.

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I often tell people that I’ve never had a bad job, and I can say that honestly. I even enjoyed my years in parish ministry, due in great part to having landed in a great congregation. Although pastoral ministry remains one of the most unique and challenging jobs today (and according to the National Opinion Research Center it is a job that reports a higher level of satisfaction than more “prestigious” careers), like most any job is has its plusses and minuses.

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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.

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The final book in the Harry Potter series was released June 21st. I have followed the series since book one although I confess that I came in after four of the books had been released so I only waited around for three of them. After reading the first book, I was hooked. It was well written and I made a lot of theological connections. Those connections and my fascination with Harry have not stopped.

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In a recent post Marty identified the “domains of effectual faith” found in a couple of my books (The Craft of Christian Teaching and in How to Be The Best Christian Small Group Leader). Marty’s treatment was accurate, and the schema is very helpful for addressing educational issues from curriculum design to lesson planning. These domains are more subtle and dynamic than we usually get into when introducing the concept of Effectual Faitih in workshops. The risk there is in leaving people with simplistic or one-dimensional misunderstandings about this schema on the nature of faith.

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Emotional Intelligence is one of the fields of research that currently is being applied to pastoral leadership. I think it holds great promise to effective pastoral leadership because the nature of leadership in the (systemic) context of congregations is more about understanding emotional fields than about anything else typically associated with what constitutes “leadership” (management skills, education, intellect, good looks, personality style, etc.). But I think in many cases, “common sense” may be as valuable an asset for the leaders as a high score on any emotional intelligence inventory.

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