I attended a session a few year’s ago at a Christian Educator’s Fellowship meeting where the leader talked about the importance of “good content, good topics, and good technique.” She delivered a very compelling vision of the task of teaching — organized, exacting, and precise. I went to another workshop […]
Deeply etched in an archway in Myrtos-Pyrgos is the Minoan phrase, “Listen to teach, speak to learn.” This counterintuitive instruction echoes through the ages to challenge practices in contemporary Christian education and faith formation. In a culture where speech is valued over listening and where teachers are more highly revered […]
How long does radical transformation take? What is a reasonable time frame for the development, first of competency, then of mastery? Put another way, how long would it take you to become Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods? Think you could reach mastery by attending a weekend retreat or a one […]
Q: What is the number one complaint of seminary students when they serve in the local church? A: What they learn in class they can’t teach in the local church. It seems that the quest for knowledge ends for many at the church door. A significant number of American Christians […]
My definition of Christian education is (and has been for over thirty years): Information needed for formation that leads to transformation. Christian education was a central focus of the research I did on congregational vitality (1999-2006) and I found quite a bit of evidence that confirmed the value of such […]
On one of my many forays to the Nashville Public Library, I witnessed a serious young man hunched at a computer screen surrounded on all sides by textbooks, journals, and reams of Xeroxed articles. What drew my attention was the slightly crazed, mad scientist look – wild, uncombed hair flying […]
I keep getting requests for copies of this article and permission to reprint it so I thought I would just re-post it here. I originally posted it last November. What do you know about God? What have you learned about Jesus Christ in the past few weeks? How readily can […]
United Methodeviations 