{"id":325,"date":"2007-06-15T00:12:50","date_gmt":"2007-06-15T04:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/325"},"modified":"2007-06-18T09:20:50","modified_gmt":"2007-06-18T13:20:50","slug":"levels-of-adult-ce-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/325","title":{"rendered":"Levels of adult C.E. programming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Someone asked me for a list of congregations who had \u00e2\u20ac\u0153strong adult education ministries.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I knew what he was asking, but the more I thought about it, the less able I was to compile a list. I got stuck on the question because what constitutes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153adult Christian education\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in congregations is all over the map&#8212;and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s without even talking about effectiveness related the philosophy, objectives, and goals.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>One clue for finding those congregations is whether or not they have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real educator\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on board&#8212;clergy or lay, volunteer or staff&#8212;who is responsible for shaping and overseeing the ministry. By a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real educator\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean a nice person who is willing to do the job, rather, a person who knows the <i>field of education<\/i>: educational theory, organization, programming, curriculum theory, and theories related to the effective practice of teaching and learning. <\/p>\n<p>Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the dilemma of identifying what constitutes a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d program. By good do you mean \u00e2\u20ac\u0153popular\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153well-attended\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153large\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153effective\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? The reality is that most congregations will offer the adult education program they are just able to given resources (budget, staff, personnel) and context (a university church will be able to offer something much different than a remote rural congregation by way of adult education). Unless you have an objective criteria that informs that question, then to identify what constitutes a &#8220;strong adult education&#8221; program may be comparing apples to oranges. <\/p>\n<p>In terms of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153formal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d adult Christian.Education. programming, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a quick and dirty schema (off the top of my head, a non-scientific mental doodle) to assess how progressive, and perhaps effective, an adult program may look like:<\/p>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/adult-ed-chart.jpg' alt='adult-ed-chart.jpg' \/><\/p>\n<p>Share your thoughts. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where is your church on this chart? <\/li>\n<li>What, in your thinking, constitutes effective adult Christian education?<\/li>\n<li>Do you consider your church&#8217;s adult education program to be effective? Share why.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.galindoconsultants.com\"><img src='http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/galindobanner3.jpg' alt='galindobanner3.jpg' \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Someone asked me for a list of congregations who had \u00e2\u20ac\u0153strong adult education ministries.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I knew what he was asking, but the more I thought about it, the less able I was to compile a list. I got stuck on &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/325\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-education","category-retreats","category-sunday-school"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}