Some years ago one of my boys worked for hours on a work of art on a computer graphics program. When he tried to print out his masterpiece, however, the color printer spewed out a monochrome facsimile of his creation, very different from how it appeared on the computer screen. Apparently, the ink had run out in my color printer’s ink cartridge. Well, I knew what I had to do, change the dreaded ink cartridge. I understood the process: remove the old cartridge and replace it with a new one, which I did. Unfortunately the only reward I got for my trouble was blinking error lights all over the place. The computer flashed an error message telling me the printer wasn’t working (“Thanks. Tell me something I don’t know!”), and more flashing lights on the printer itself indicating something was wrong—but not telling me exactly what.

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I recently overheard a religious leader state that a good Christian education will emphasize teaching children good behavior. Children should learn early how to act in Christian ways: being kind and polite, telling the truth, being honest, etc.

Those are all good things, of course. Who will argue that children should be capable of good behavior? But a Christian education which focuses only on good behavior (orthopraxis) may be as detrimental to the spiritual formation for children as one that focuses primarily on right belief (orthodoxy). Behavior is an outward action which can be totally unrelated to inner values or beliefs. Acting kind is not necessarily an indicator that someone has moved from a state of egocentricity and is capable of being considerate of others—it may be reciprocally motivated— “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.” Acting honest may only be a fear of getting caught and an aversion to being punished (pain-avoidance). And, acting polite may only be a thinly masked skill in manipulation.

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Every once and again I am reminded that I live in a different world than that of my father—and am amazed at the accelerated pace of change that has taken place from one generation to the next. During my formative years when my father went to work he toiled, returning home with grease and grime under his fingernails and embedded in the deep crevices of his rough workman’s hands. During my own children’s formative years “going to work” for their dad meant, more often than not, going downstairs to the study in the den, risking (at best a long shot at that) a blister on the finger from furious tying on a keyboard or a paper cut.

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The move from rigid and isolated “committees” to a “team approach” continues in many congregations. Sometimes that movement is not much more than a re-organization and re-labeling that result in very little change. The fact is, as I like to say, it’s not what you call it, it’s how it functions. But Ginny Ward Holderness and Robert S. Hay provide a sound understanding of the “team approach” in their book, Teaming Up: Shared Leadership in Youth Ministry (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997).

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One of the most chilling areas of psychology, for me (whether clinical, developmental, educational, or those associated with faith development), is child psychology. I’m not sure what it is, exactly. Perhaps it’s a result of my stint at the children’s ward at a state mental hospital during my CPE experience. Or perhaps it’s because a too-close examination of the inner workings of the childhood psyche explodes any naiveté we may want to hold onto related to children’s innocence. Or perhaps it’s the horrifying prospect of witnessing unleashed raw psychic emotional energy from the id without the restraining correctives of the accumulated layers of social constraints adults enjoy which keep them from killing each other—or themselves—at any given moment.

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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 longest word in the English language is antidiestablishmentarianism.

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Does this sound like your experience of church?

Little seems to happen during church services. You eat this bread and drink the wine at communion, even hear in the liturgy that Christ is present, but everyone seems bored. . . . You call nine people before finding a volunteer to take a meal to a senior citizen. So you mutter at the end of the day, “Is this all our church is ever going to be? This church has no power. Little seems to be happening here.” (p. xi)

If this sounds too depressingly familiar, then Robert H. Ramey, Jr.’s book, The Dynamic Congregation: A Manual for Energizing Your Church (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 1999) may be for you.

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Someone recently requested a teaching handout for the concept of the “Identified Patient.” We’re happy to oblige in providing resources if we can. Attached is the handout (a “one-pager” we created:

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