Much is said and written today regarding the emerging church. In Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass shares stories from mainline Protestant congregations experiencing renewal and transformation through re-connection with historic Christian practices. In reality, she debunks the myth that only fundamental conservative congregations transform lives.

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The title of Maria Harris’ work, Fashion Me a People: Curriculum in the Church (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), engages the reader from the outset. Here is a work about the Church claiming its identity as the people of God to live out its pastoral vocation. Anyone who is passionate about being God’s people and the particular call “to end our isolation from others by living each day of our lives rooted …in the Christ,” will want to read, explore and most importantly engage this work. However, it is not a book for the pastor’s library or for the Christian educator’s resource shelf alone. It is a work that is written for reading together as the church community and is written to engage both clergy and laity. It is a book written to and for the church with sound theological reason and practical exercises, not only for group reflection but also for group participation.

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The following is from the book Myths: Fact and Fiction about Teaching and Learning by Israel Galindo. How well do you know fact from fiction?

FICTION: The strawberry is a fruit.

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No, this isn’t about dancing—or what passes for dance in much of what I witness today. The “moves” I’m referring to is movement in your teaching. A great communicator once said that how you communicate is just as important as what you say. In terms of teaching that may mean that how you teach is as important as the content of your lesson. It’s easy to see how that can be true in Christian education. To teach about God’s love lovingly is more effective than presenting that same message (content) with an attitude of intolerance and impatience. In the Christian faith, “the medium is the message.”

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We all have that painful memory of a moment when our emotions got the better of us during a moment of reactivity. As soon as we said those words we regretted them, or, if not immediately, then eventually, as the full brunt of the consequences of impulsivity and lack of self control came around to pay us back. Experience is a good teacher and along the way we may carry within us a mental list of things we should never say in the presence of certain others.

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I observe that more congregations are offering “healing services” as part of their ministries. We offered such at my former congregation and every now and then people ask me about it. On those opportunities I stress that it wasn’t a “healing service,” but rather, a “Service of Prayer for Healing and Wholeness.” The emphasis was on the prayers of the Church, not on any notion about our ability to miraculously “heal” people of broken bones or spirits.

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Some time ago we posted a link to a great site called “I used to believe.” It’s a fun look at the naturally quirky world of children’s epistemology. We all used to believe something as children that we no longer do as adults. And certainly, continuing to leave behind naïve beliefs, unsophisticated notions and misunderstandings is a sign of intellectual and emotional maturity.

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The following is from the book Myths: Fact and Fiction about Teaching and Learning by Israel Galindo. How well do you know fact from fiction?

FICTION: The Florida Everglades is an extensive swamp.

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