Pastors often lament that only a small portion of their congregations’ adult membership participates in Christian education. Why is that? Dedicated Christians should be thirsty for knowledge!
Perhaps it has something to do with the top/down structure of the church. Maybe lay people are just tired of being talked at in the church setting. This may need to change if Christian education is to become a life-long learning process.
The entire church banks a great deal on the value of a seminary education. How much knowledge candidates bring to their seminary experience is variable. Some have very little church background. Those three or four years of religious training send pastors into parishes as authority figures. In many cases their authority is now over lay people who have faithfully attended Sunday School from the age of two, Vacation Bible School, First Communion Classes, Confirmation Classes, youth ministry, listened every week to more than a thousand sermons, faithfully read devotional books and in all probability tallied ten thousand hours of teaching religion to various age levels.
Yet the church often ranks a pastor’s knowledge as superior.
If a congregation’s leadership structure is all wrapped up in top/down leadership, it is no wonder that many adult lay people resist Christian education options. Many pastors resist further Christian education once they achieve ordination!
At church camp one year, the chaplain was telling the story of Christ’s appearance on the Road to Emmaus. He was talking about the two men who were joined by Jesus as they traveled and invited Jesus to spend the night with them. A camper spoke up. “The Bible doesn’t say ‘two men.'” The chaplain disagreed and turned to the Scripture for proof. Lo and behold, the camper was right. The Bible identifies the gender of only one traveler, Cleopas.
An amazing thing about Scripture is that there is always something to be learned by everyone.
Churches must foster learning by celebrating the discoveries of all its members and leaders when they delve into Scripture. The educational model of Adult Education might be better approached as communal learning.
As equals serving an omnipotent God, we have the greatest chance of understanding the deepest teachings of the scriptures—together.
This topic is drawing a good bit of search engine interest, so let’s address it.
2×2, comprised of members of Redeemer Lutheran Church, East Falls, has visited 42 Lutheran churches in the last 18 months. (We have been able to do this because our denomination locked our congregation out of our church and stripped us of any status or voice in the ELCA as it claimed our property and endowment funds.)
We found the status of children and youth in worship to be shocking.
In most of the churches we visited, the number of children present was few to none, with even weaker statistics for youth.
Most churches are fashioning the worship experience for adults only and dismiss children very early in the service.
This was new to 2×2 because children were always very much a part of our worship and were part of our growth spurt in 2006 and 2007.
We’ve been reading another congregation’s chronicle of their growth which parallels the Redeemer experience.
We are going to compare some major points from this book with our experience over a series of posts.
The first is the experience with children in worship. The book is Scattering Seeds: Cultivating Church Vitality by Stephen Chapin Garner and Jerry Thornell of the United Church of Christ in Norwell, Massachusetts.
When this church began to rethink its ministry, children worshiped separately from adults.
2×2 Ambassadors discovered that this structure has become popular in Lutheran churches in the Philadelphia area as well. This goes against Lutheran philosophy which values the concept of corporate worship being the expression of all the gathered people of God.
We suspect that this key concept of Lutheranism has been abandoned for trendy reasons.
Parents want children to have Sunday School training but do not want to attend education offerings for adults. Answer: teach the kids while the parents worship. Kill two birds with one short hour of church commitment.
The long-term drawbacks of this practice are many:
Children first encounter worship at an age when it will all seem foreign.
Children will get the idea that worship is for other people.
If there is a gap in children’s education from the young elementary years and adolescents, teenagers will be entering church at a time in their lives when they are most critical of institutions and adults around them.
The adults who teach the children never get to worship.
The adults leading worship are distanced from their congregation’s educational offerings.
Adults attending worship do not participate in learning and are less likely to grow in faith and church commitment.
The worshiping body continues to be designed around the preferences of adults and fails to mature and change with input from younger members. It therefore becomes more archaic, which might not be noticed by your congregants, but will be noticed by visitors or children attempting to become involved at a later age.
The Scattering Seeds church decided to change this and stopped offering classes during worship. They encouraged families to worship together.
Pastor Garner tells of his congregation’s initial resistance. The parents complained that it was a strain to get the family out the door on the one day of the week when they wanted to enjoy leisure. (He also notes that one of the biggest complainers had no trouble rolling the kids out at 5 am for hockey practice on Sunday mornings.)
Another reason: parents want to leave religious nurturing of their children to others. Martin Luther would be rolling over in his grave! He taught that religious instruction is the primary responsibility of parents and wrote his catechism to help them.
Still another reason is that many adults are uncomfortable with religious education. They view their confirmation as graduation from religious learning.
The Scattering Seeds church is still working at this, reporting mixed results with significant early successes.
Worship was a bit more chaotic at first as children got used to participating. After about a month, families with children had settled in. Children knew what was expected and adults developed a tolerance for the occasional fussy child.
Their biggest success was that youth were soon part of worship. As children matured they felt comfortable taking on new roles in worship and continued to attend after their confirmation.
The most difficult hurdle, they report, was accustoming adults to the idea that they, too, should participate in religious education.
2×2 had discovered many of the same things. Our children often outnumbered adults in worship and were comfortable in many leadership roles. It was not unusual for children to volunteer and let adults know they were ready for more responsibility.
Adults met for worship during the week. At first it was the ladies of the church but men were beginning to stop by and participate as well.
Scattering Seeds reports that their new mantra, Education for All and Worship for All, is making a difference in their church growth and has even resulted in higher giving.
Anyone with adolescents in the house has witnessed the scene where two or three young people are huddled in the rec room, each with his or her own cellphone or laptop, intently texting or instant messaging each other. Their eyes never meet unless something strikes them as funny and then heads fly back with youthful, exuberant laughter. Hearing that volcanic laughter rise out of silence will take adults by surprise. It is representative of just how engrained social media has become in the lives of more and more people.
Pastors can use social media to reach their members and some may enjoy it. Be careful though. Social media such as Facebook are very public and people are still very private on matters of personal faith. A scan of some congregational Facebook pages can reveal all kinds of unsettling personal information.
Nevertheless, Social Media is a tool and according to this article, some pastors are starting to use it. As interesting as this article is, the comments that follow add more dimension, noting that it is not unusual for congregational social media to attract worldwide attention. That realization must be kept in mind at all times!
2×2 uses blogging as the hub of its social media outreach. We “meet” on the blog and correspond by email. We have befriended congregations in Pakistan and Kenya with weekly exchanges of news and mission. We ask permission before publishing anything about our friendship on our web site. We also have regular exchanges with churches across the United States and Australia. Few of them are of our own denomination, but that hasn’t mattered.
We don’t do this on Facebook. It’s too public and freedom of religion hasn’t reached every corner of the world.
It’s still a bit odd. There is a feeling of privacy when there really is none. An innocent exchange could cause trouble.
Worldwide dynamics are going to change the church. Congregations no longer need to wait a year or two to hear a Temple Talk from a sponsored missionary home on furlough. They can follow the work and ministry daily online. This will be a strength of the emerging church. Ironically, it will weaken the structure of the church while it makes the church stronger.
Here are some ideas to help keep your blog active next month. Start writing now!
April begins with Easter but most of your writing about Easter should have happened in March.
Recap your congregation’s Easter. Include photos or video.
Explore weekly scriptures and themes:
April 15, 2012 Acts 4:32-35 • Psalm 133 • 1 John 1:1–2:2 • John 20:19-31
The theme of the second Sunday of Easter is fellowship. The first lesson deals with the distribution of wealth among the early Christians. The Psalm continues the theme: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” The apostle John also talks about the importance of fellowship in Jesus. His discourse shifts to a discussion on sin and includes the familiar words of confession used in many liturgies. The Gospel story is the Thomas, the Doubter, story which concludes with one of the first Christian creeds, “My Lord and my God!”
Write about your congregation’s fellowship outreach and how your congregation works together.
April 22, 201 Acts 3:12-19 • Psalm 4 • 1 John 3:1-7 • Luke 24:36b-48
The impact of Jesus and the Resurrection is a theme of third Sunday of Easter. Sin is overcome by forgiveness and Jesus’ sacrifice. The Gospel is another story about a visit from the resurrected Christ, one where he proves his return to human form by eating fish with his disciples.
April 27, 2012 Acts 4:5-12 • Psalm 23 • 1 John 3:16-24 • John 10:11-18
The theme for the fourth Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday. Explore some art and poetry based on the 23rd Psalm. Several well-known hymns parallel the verses of the psalm. Write about the hymn history of these or other Easter season hymns. The sacrifice of the shepherd, founded in love and caring, can be explored. What examples of this type of love can you find in your ministry?
April 4 is the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. April 14 is the anniversary of Lincoln’s death. Tie the two together.
April 15 is the tax filing deadline in the United States. Tie the need to fund our government with the need to fund our church.
April is Autism Awareness Month. Explore ministry to families with autism.
April is Poetry Month. Feature some religious poetry. Hymn lyrics count.
April 22 is Earth Day. Write about stewardship of the earth. Tie it to service projects.
Look ahead to Pentecost. Will you have a confirmation or first communion class? Feature the class members.
School activities and celebrations peak toward the end of the month. Are there concerts, plays or picnics your members might like to support?
Does your congregation have graduates to honor?
Many churches/denominations have spring convocations. Include news or explore issues that will be discussed.
Start promoting your Vacation Bible School. Write about the theme or any events. Interview teachers about why they are willing to teach.
Start promoting your Church Camp.
Review the activities of various church committees and groups. Ask them to guest post!
Our little church has been called a lot of names over the last decade and put through our own share of hell — by the people who are supposed to support us.
Despite the years of degrading name-calling we are really just a community of believers who wants to worship in our own church, in our own neighborhood, fashion our own ministry with our own “discernment,” paid for with our own resources — the very things promised to us by the ELCA. As we approach our third Easter locked out of our house of worship, we revisit a 1990s quote from Apple. We don’t think we are crazy or geniuses. We just believe in our mission — what all church members are asked to do.
Enjoy! We also made a Wordle out of the words — just for fun.
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
If your congregation wisely chooses to invest time and passion in social media, be prepared for many things to change. We’re not talking about self-centered Facebook prattle; we’re talking about online interaction that looks outside your parish to the community and, by the nature of the internet, the world.
This may be the hardest thing for the Church to grasp. The internet connects individuals with the world. There is no intermediary. No church council, no pastor, no synod or its equivalent, no bishop, no national church can control congregational interconnectedness.
This means that congregation’s must be more mindful of things which may have been neglected. While it is easy to reach the world, one mission of the individual Christian community will become more intense—the care and nurturing of individual Christians.
Congregational Education is vital. A congregation must be confident in knowing who they are and what thy believe if they are to engage neighbors or the world in their mission. This has always been a focus of parish life, but educational components of many churches have been dropped in the last few decades. As long as the focus of congregational life was local, it didn’t seem to matter. This needs a remedy. Education must be intertwined with every activity.
Social Awareness must be nurtured. You will begin to hear from Christians from places you never considered as being Christian. Congregations must understand, for instance, the challenges Christians face in Islamic nations, where Christians can be ostracized from their families or jailed. While freedom of religion is taken for granted by many Americans, some religions maintain cultural holds on their people even IN America.
The Church needs to become attuned to the minute causes of community as well as the big picture. We live in an age where anyone can bring a cause to the public’s attention. Yellow ribbons, pink ribbons, donation cans, something-a-thons become very focused. Keeping up with them will be an ongoing mission challenge.
Personal faith must be deepened. Savvy companies teach every employee that they are a representative of their company culture. The Church needs to foster the same sense of ownership among members. Every member reflects on the congregation. Congregations will want their members to be knowledgeable and engaged as representatives of their church.
The biggest change is that many congregations will be able to rebound from survival mode and see themselves as important. Their interconnectedness will give them energy, resources and renewed purpose.
Rev. Carlton Rodgers led worship punctuated by music from many genres, with a fine seven-member choir, which the congregation often joined in song. Pastor Rodgers has been serving Tabernacle for nine years.
The pianist, Peter Charalambidis, was excellent and moved effortlessly from liturgy to gospel song to praise hymn to mainstream hymn. A deacon, Samuel Barham, led much of the service and singing with a resonating voice.
The pastor referenced hardship with no specifics. One member told us they had recovered from two fires. We saw on their website that one had occurred in 1969 and destroyed their large stone structure. Redeemer had also recovered from a devastating fire so we know something about recovery. We rebuilt our sanctuary without any outside help and went on to build an education building a few decades later, also with no synodical help.
Tabernacle is a “transformation” church which means they are receiving some special attention in reviving their neighborhood ministry. Our congregation had undergone a transformation that synod refused to recognize, probably because it was largely lay led, but we had begun to attract many new members with dedicated work of our membership.
The people of Tabernacle made a special effort to greet us. The passing of the peace was not part of the service but we were passed the Peace of the Lord by almost everyone we passed as we left the sanctuary.
Attendance was about 30 although we made no effort to count. There were about five children and youth.
The congregation led prayer with a number of people leading lengthy and heartfelt prayer requests. A book we are about to review, Scattering Seeds, points to the ability of lay members to lead unscripted prayer as a sign of congregational vitality. Tabernacle has that.
The congregation seemed to enjoy each other’s company and many plans for congregational events were discussed.
We are polishing our crystal ball again. This is what we see . . .
The Church of tomorrow will have only two sociological geographies — the local church and the worldwide church. Intermediary layers will be defined by local congregations as needed — not by hierarchies.
Denominations and regional authorities will become expensive drains on local churches with waning benefits.
They and national church offices — at least as we know them today — will become archaic, outliving their purpose and mission. Once the hub of thought leadership, educational/resource publishing, and social ministry implementation, they are already being phased out by economic realities. Any congregation can form alliances with a multitude of social causes locally, nationally and internationally. Any congregant can publish.
Congregations will become identified by their works which will make them more relevant and help them grow. If they are to survive they will find vitality — quickly!
Congregations will soon realize that the dollars they are sending to regional bodies are better spent in ways they can monitor and become involved with directly. Giving will improve when results are more visible.
This is all the result of the internet.
Every congregation has the same power at its fingertips. Soon churches will realize they will get more help and better advice if they bypass the systems of the past.
Part of this is driven by economics of scale. Business has a saying: “Go big or go home.”
The church will discover this, too.
In the past, each individual judicatory duplicated similar services supported by its own 100-200 congregations. Better services will be supplied by pooling resources of more churches than one regional body can support. Local churches will bypass judicatories and go directly to enterprising thought leaders who no longer need denominational affiliation to gain an ear.
The economic failure of judicatories will return talent now stagnating in management to work in congregations.
The best ideas will be too expensive for regional bodies to implement. They will, for a while, keep trying to do things the same way . . . and fail. Frustration will turn the tide.
Denominational lines will blur as the internet helps ideas cross traditional lines. Congregations will find their own sister congregations . . . and they could be anywhere.
In the past, denominations might have worried that doctrines and traditions would be compromised without layers of oversight. No longer! Everyone has access to the same technology. This will create its own checks and balances.
Turf wars are likely at first. They could be ugly. But the realization that hierarchies are no longer needed will begin to set in.
For a while, middle management judicatories will flex muscles, trying to rein in congregations as their power weakens. There will be casualties that will be an enduring shame…but a new church will emerge.
The local congregation will become more important than ever. It will be the local hands-on expression. They will display renewed vitality as they tap resources beyond the offering plate. They will identify mission and form alliances with like-minded organizations.
We’ve spent decades in interdenominational dialogue to achieve what the internet will achieve in just a few years!
Talking with clergy lately, we heard some terms we doubt many lay people have ever used or heard.
Some terms universally understood among clergy describe congregational health. These terms include “hospice,” “caretaker ministries,” and even “undertaker ministries.”
Ask a lay person, “Is your church on hospice?” and they will probably look puzzled. As it dawns on them that hospice is a service provided to dying people, they will start to realize that the clergy person is asking if their church is dying and unlikely to receive meaningful support from their denomination.
They will keep listening as they recover from shock and anger sets in.
“Who’s your pastor?” might be the next question. “Is he/she part time?”
If the answer is “Yes, that’s all we can afford right now,” the clergy might nod and mutter, “Ah, —sounds like you have a caretaker ministry.”
The lay person has probably never heard this term either. When it is explained that “caretaker ministers” are assigned to churches to hold members’ hands as their congregations die, the sense of shock and anger is rekindled.
With any sensitivity, the clergy person does not use another term used among clergy — “undertaker ministers.” This type of minister has NO intention of growing a congregation’s mission and the assignment, in all probability unknown to the congregation, is that this minister is there with the denomination’s understanding that the congregation’s ministry be brought to a close with as little muss and fuss possible.
This is a prescription for church conflict.
Laity NEVER consider their congregations as dying. They are usually aware that they face challenges, but when they call a pastor they are ALWAYS looking for help with their ministry. Lay people understand that the mission is to serve. They think every clergy person they talk to or call — even on a part-time basis — has congregational health and outreach as their goal.
Laity need to use a bit of “clergy talk” when calling their ministers. If they sense the candidate understands that the mission under consideration is to close the church—not grow the church—the congregation needs to move on and make sure their denomination understands that the congregation considers mission and ministry the goal.
LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool similar to Facebook but with a professional focus.
It packs a powerful punch for anyone wanting to connect with people in a specific sphere of interest. You can use LinkedIn to find professionals who might be willing to help you. Say, for instance, you are looking for someone who has worked in ministry with disabled people or who can preach in Arabic. You can look for people with those specific skills.
Conversely, you might have a skill you feel is underused. You can feature your special interest in your profile.
LinkdIn is an “opt-in” medium. The user chooses to particpate in the online community. Users can look for connections, accept referrals, and ask for introductions.
LinkedIn users can join groups . . . also entirely opt-in. Professionals can only connect by getting someone they already know to introduce them. Even then, the person of interest must accept and initiate any resulting communication.
It’s a fairly safe way to form relationships with peers that can be helpful in your work.
One would think that anyone going to the trouble to complete a LinkedIn profile would be serious about using this amazing networking tool. Most groups are filled with names willing to be found or to help others in their searches.
2×2 found a very odd exception. We looked at a group formed around a Protestant denomination. The group had hundreds of members with very detailed profiles. Most of them had their identities shielded!
What a waste of communication potential!
Again, the Church fails to understand how the tools of today’s world can be used in mission. What are church LinkedIn members afraid of? Why bother joining a professional network and then back away from any ability to take advantage of its potential?
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You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
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at
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or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
Christian education can be an enigma.
