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Creating A Church Education Environment for Youth

Our Ambassadors read a flier advertising a church’s upcoming Vacation Bible School. It advertised classes for children up to age 10. Fourth grade.

Ten!

Ten is still fairly young to be the cut off age for the type of program VBS can be.

Many adults remember very little of their childhood before the age of eight. When these children become parents in another 10 or 15 years, they will have little to remember of Bible School to want to pass on to the next generation.

When Christian education stops at age 10, you end up in a few years with a church of unknowledgeable members—and probably a lot fewer of them. These unknowledgeable members will be expected to lead the church and vote on ministry decisions both within their congregations and in the broader Christian community. Without a strong church education, they will be puppets of the strongest influencers. We will become a Church of followers.

Why is age ten the cut off?

The easiest answer is that’s the age when children become involved in other activities.

But that’s the easy answer. There are other reasons. Some of them involve the Church’s inability to serve this age group.

Admittedly, the Church competes with a broad spectrum of organized activities for older children. It would be a shame if we were abandoning our youth’s faith because we have nothing to offer.

Children, still under the influence of parents, will find time when the family sees Christian education as a priority and when the educational experience meets their developmental needs. It is not acceptable to turn our backs on youth because we don’t know how to serve them and are unwilling to find a way.

Here are the challenges:

Older children are more work! Ten or eleven is the age that children are starting to come into their own and are more difficult for inexperienced volunteer teachers to handle. If we can’t train volunteers to work with our youth, we must find them. (See VBS-Aid concept).

It’s also the age when learning must become experiential. Older children cannot be confined to classroom talk. They must be challenged.

If churches want to continue to nurture youth beyond the age of ten, they must create learning environments and experiences that meet the children where they are developmentally. 

The challenge of teaching older children requires more time. Older children must participate in a program with a sense of accomplishment or they won’t return. They must be free to experiment and discover their abilities. Middle School teaching is known for being hands on. A summer program for youth requires more than five days.

Older children need camaraderie. They want to be part of groups. Five day Bible Schools are not long enough to create a sense of community unless the activity is more intense than a classroom atmosphere usually allows.

Children this age need to be silly. We expect them to try new skills. They are self-conscious and prone to taking themselves seriously. Church education for children this age should give them a chance to laugh at themselves and just open up. Allowing them to be silly gives them a soft place to fall.

At times, children this age need to be dealt with in subdivided groups. While this goes against modern inclusive thinking, other fields are meeting the challenges of interesting youth by developing some separate programming along gender lines. One reason sports is perennially popular for this age is that sports recognizes this need. The music and art world is discovering that boys become involved with enthusiasm when they are not with girls. Ask boys this age to sing with girls and you will get very few volunteers. Allow them to sing with just boys and they sing with an energy you would never see in a mixed chorus. Here is a video posted by one proud teenage boy singer. Boys-only ballet programs are cropping up and improving enrolments. Here’s video about boy dancers. Giving girls a chance to bond as girls has similar benefits. They are maturing at a different rate and may need a forum for what’s on their minds. The challenge is to make sure that their time together is enhancing their potential not excluding them.

Programs that separate boys and girls find that when the groups merge (which should be often) there is greater involvement among both boys and girls.

Churches rarely take the time to consider educational developments like this, but there may be something for us to learn.

If we want our young people to continue their church involvement into adulthood, all congregations must address the challenge. To assume lack of interest on the part of young people without any effort to interest them is short-changing them and our future.

photo credit: rileyroxx (retouched) via photo pin cc
12 Jul 2012

Scalability: Religion Seeks It But Can’t Embrace It

Exponential Growth vs Scalable Growth

The Christian Church has recently focused on the Gospel account of Jesus sending his disciples into the world 2×2.

Jesus’ concept of mission was built on exponential growth. If two people are each successful in reaching two people — for a total of four — and they in turn form teams of two reaching four more— that’s exponential growth. The effort and cost must be repeated again and again. The church will grow with hard work and dedication.

This was remarkably effective. Within a few hundred years, the Gospel spread to the farthest borders of the known world.

Scalability is a bit different. It is a term that centers on the power of technology. How can teams of two reach a thousand or more people using the same effort it takes them to reach four?

The answer is incalculable—and entirely possible. The tools are in our hands to make mission work scalable beyond the wildest dreams of the early Christian apostles. The same work required to reach or teach 100 people can also reach or teach a million for basically the same outlay of resources.

So why aren’t we doing it?

Roadblocks to Scalability

Sadly, the church is not set up to take advantage of scalability.

Try this, for example. Take an idea to a religious institution. They will have a great deal of difficulty thinking beyond their own constituency. “But don’t you see,” you might argue, “you have the power to reach beyond your congregation, beyond your geographic territory, beyond your denomination.”

They will respond with confusion. “But it’s our job to serve our constituency. We work for [name the regional entity.]”  

They will try to be helpful. Scratching their heads, they will suggest, “Take your idea to [another territorial constituency that might be a bit bigger]. Maybe they can help you.”

Any denomination can reach congregations and clergy of all denominations all over the world with truly helpful information—all for the same effort that they might put into a local symposium or workshop which they would charge 50 people $25 each to attend. They won’t, though, because tradition outweighs potential.

Oddly, the efforts to take advantage of the power of the internet are not coming from the higher echelons of the Church. Many regional web sites are of poor quality and virtually all are self-focused. Some of the flashiest regional web sites focus on only their own work—not the work of their members. They are ignoring the potential to strengthen community. They are also ignoring the potential to reach the unchurched — which is their mission.

Church leadership is accustomed to publishing and teaching coming from top down. There was a time when this was necessary. Not everyone owned a printing press and distribution system. There grew to be a comfort in the control which was part of this outdated system. Because control was once possible in publishing they mistakenly believe that it is necessary. It is not only unnecessary in today’s world; it is impossible.

The system of the past is clumsy and archaic, but the Church’s entire structure is built around it.

Smaller entities—individual institutions, small congregations and even individual church members are making stronger headway.

Examples

One example,  www.workingpreacher.org, a project of Luther Seminary, features guest theologians from many backgrounds, analyzing the weekly lectionary. Directed towards pastors, anyone can study the week’s scripture guided by the insights of a seminary professor.

Another: ministry-to-children.com is a web site started by Tony Kummer, a youth/family pastor. It is a lively, interdenominational exchange of ministry ideas and resources that has a large community participating and helping one another. A small church in Africa asked for 2×2’s help in finding affordable educational resources. We directed them to this web site and they were delighted!

Jason Stambaugh writes a blog, www.heartyourchurch.com. He is an individual layperson who works in social media and is a member of a small congregation. He writes about social media in the church and other church issues.

A college student in Texas, Virginia Smith, has used the internet to help small congregations access used Vacation Bible School resources. She’s just one young person passionately engaged in mission, armed with the web. (www.vbs247.webs.com/) Virginia has been very helpful to 2×2 in networking.

And then there is this site, 2×2, the project of Redeemer Lutheran Church, East Falls, Philadelphia, a church the Lutheran denomination (ELCA) determined was too small to fulfill its mission (the old-fashioned way). Three years after locking our members out of our church building, 2×2 is reaching more than a thousand readers a month with a significant local readership with global reach. (And we are just beginning.) We offer ideas for small church ministry and attempt to prompt dialog on small church issues.

Scalable projects are our passion—not to make vast amounts of money, as is often the aim of online enterprise, but to build an new infrastructure that will provide hope and help for neighborhood ministries that we believe are the strength of the Christian Church. We believe there is fiscal potential that would provide the hands-on resources to neighborhood churches that can’t afford them the old-fashioned way. (And this is a large number of churches!)

Meanwhile, denominations concentrate on building Christian communities of a certain number so that they can afford a pastor/building and support their regional and national denomination.

This is not scalable. And it is failing. But it’s still how the Church measures success!

09 Jul 2012

Why Creative People Don’t Go to Church

The Church has fostered some brilliant creative minds. Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach are ancient examples in the Lutheran tradition. Modern Lutherans even like to take credit for Steve Jobs. His boundless creativity outlived his association with the denomination.

He was probably not alone. The Church is starting to recognize that creativity might be needed to meet the challenges of mission in today’s world. But old habits die hard.

At the heart of creativity is the ability to solve problems. You’d think the Church would be clamoring for creative minds!

Churches like to talk about rebirth and transformation. These desirable qualities will only take root if creativity can blossom. Too often the lauded rebirths and transformations are short-lived. That’s probably because they were engineered for short-term success—an ephemeral way to meet old-fashioned goals—not the product of true creative thinking. “Look, we’ve done the same thing we’ve done for a hundred years one more time!”

Creative thinkers soak up ideas from anywhere and everywhere. They have to surround themselves with things, ideas and people who are different. It is as necessary to their existence as water.

Creative people juxtapose the eclectic. They find in the clash of differences the spark that launches the new. They are usually surprised that other people can’t see what they see — at least at first.

Creative people who insist on using their gifts are often a threat to the status quo and seen as unable to “get along.” Getting along is important to church leaders. Often the discomfort at the presence of friction is a startling revelation to the creative mind. They thrive on friction.

What does the Church do with creative minds? We tend to give them jobs that display talent but not creativity. They become, for example, pastors who do the pastor thing or the organists who do the organist thing. What the Church is looking for is people who can fill jobs they have already defined, sometimes with exceptional flair, but often, just so-so is just fine.

Revelation: some creative people can’t preach or play the organ! These are skills. Creativity is its own skill.

Consequently, change comes about very, very slowly. The temptation to revert to old ways at the first sign of creative discomfort is a magnet. Put a drum set next to the organ, but don’t get rid of the organ!

Creativity is always a bit discomforting!

That’s why creative people don’t go to church. What is most important to them as part of God’s creation is of little value.

06 Jul 2012

Where the Bill of Rights Fails

Freedom to Be Oppressed by Your Religion

America was founded on the principle of Freedom of Religion. Early settlers came to escape state oppression of the emerging sects in Europe. Over the centuries, many faiths have sought refuge on American soil.

The First Amendment in the Bill of Rights prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion.

The legal system lives in fear of stepping on the exercise of religion. In recent court decisions they have gone so far as to determine that religious groups do not have to follow their own rules. That opens a new door. The leaders of religion can themselves become lawless oppressors.

That is the result of a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that determined the case brought by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA against a member church (Redeemer, East Falls, Philadelphia) could not be heard. Yes, they brought a case against a member church and then argued that the case they brought should not be heard.

The court gave SEPA Synod a victory by default —not based on evidence. They determined that it was up to the denomination to police its own rules. Fat chance.

A strong dissenting opinion concluded that if the law is applied, Redeemer’s arguments deserve a hearing. How are members of faith communities to assume that the laws they agreed to upon joining the community mean nothing?

That creates a very real problem for all the faithful. If constitutions agreed upon by religious groups when they go to the legal trouble of incorporating mean nothing, then faith communities are faced with potential lawlessness. The laity are sitting ducks for potential abuse. Clergy will run.

Faith communities can expect to be victimized by hierarchy. It is happening with greater frequency. The conflicts are usually about the value of real estate — not doctrine. Within the ELCA there are several cases of “hostile” takeovers—raids in the middle of the night or by stealth and deceit. One bishop, anticipating trouble, went so far as to call ahead to the sheriff and police department and warn them to expect a call from church members, but that they were allowed to change the church locks.

It is not the Church’s finest hour. As proven by Redeemer’s experience, Church leadership will not hesitate to use their protected status to tyrannize their members — those with the least power, the laity. You won’t read much about this on the pages of The Lutheran.

“I have the power,” Bishop Burkat was heard to say as she prepared to raid Redeemer. If so, it is a power allowed by courts side-stepping the issues. It is not a power given by the ELCA constitutions/articles of incorporation or by God.

It’s legal because the law exempts the church. Perhaps there is hope.

The law has finally stepped in on the Roman Catholic Church and its handling of crimes within its ranks—but not before a great deal of damage was done to both victims and the Church.

On this Independence Day, it is worth noting that the Bill of Rights does not protect the members of faith communities from the abuses of their own leaders. This can be stopped by the members of the faith community, but experience is proving that the religious don’t care unless they are directly affected. They are free to use other provisions of the Bill of Rights such as Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly. Odds, in the current atmosphere, are against it.

What a waste of the First Amendment.

04 Jul 2012

A Tale of Two Churches in SEPA Synod, ELCA

East Lansdowne — East Falls

Today there was a celebration in East Lansdowne, a Philadelphia suburb.

Over the past seven years, the aging Lutheran congregation, Immanuel, found new life by hosting a community of African immigrants led by a pastor, who himself had immigrated from Liberia.

They named their community Faith.

Today they officially merged with the remnants of Immanuel to become Faith Immanuel. Congratulations to the new congregation, its lay leaders, and Pastor Moses Suah-Dennis.

Tuesday’s Inquirer carries the story and quotes the previous bishop of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA), the Rev. Roy Almquist, who is ready—even in retirement—to take credit for the new congregation.

In a telling quote he reveals SEPA policy.

“Under normal circumstances, you would close a church that size,” Almquist said. “But they were determined not to close. They wanted to find a way for their church to minister in a changing neighborhood.”

He does not say who the “you” is who would close the small church. Constitutionally, it is the congregation itself that must vote to close.

In 2005, as Bishop Almquist was nearing the end of his second term, he recommended the arrangement which lead to the congregation’s merger.

At the same time, there were other opportunities beating relentlessly on his door that he just plain ignored. His inaction has been costly to his synod and to the neighborhood of East Falls.

East Lansdowne’s story is similar to that of Redeemer, less than ten miles away. The only difference is that Redeemer did not have to come crawling to SEPA, begging for help. In fact, Redeemer had more money than SEPA at the time Bishop Almquist was trying to help little Immanuel. In 2005 —and much of Bishop Almquist’s two terms — SEPA was in severe financial crisis.

Redeemer was every bit as passionate about “staying open” and had nearly four times as many members as Immanuel. Why help East Lansdowne and refuse basic services to Redeemer?

Redeemer had received a large bequest in the late 1980s and SEPA had eyes for it, actually withdrawing $90,000 from our bank account in 1998. Redeemer protested.

This conflict was unnecessary and fateful. Redeemer was left with a reputation of being “trouble.” Few Lutherans take the time to analyze the source of the trouble or to ask themselves what they might do if the Synod visited their bank without their knowledge.

SEPA returned the money (after two years of needless conflict with Redeemer) but refused to serve the congregation from that point on. Their strategy was to wait for Redeemer to die a natural death. Bishop Almquist’s message was clear: Do things my way or else. Redeemer was shunned.

Bishop Almquist refused to help the congregation find a pastor to call. Redeemer was left to fend for itself.

The rest of the story is not at all unlike Immanuel’s. Immigrants from East Africa began to join the little neighborhood church—first one family, then extended family, then friends. Redeemer found two pastors, both from Africa, willing to serve the congregation.

Having received 49 new members with many more interested, Redeemer approached the new bishop, Claire Burkat, and asked to call one of the pastors.

Bishop Burkat’s head was buried in Bishop Almquist’s play book. She took no time to consider that things might have changed since Bishop Almquist deserted his duty in East Falls.

She reviewed our reports with prejudice fueled by a six-figure deficit budget. She decided that only our white members should be counted. She assigned trustees who reported falsely that the congregation had just 13 members. (In court they are trying to hold us to a quorum for more than 70.)

Bishop Burkat pontificated, “White Redeemer must be allowed to die. Black Redeemer, we can put them anywhere.” Destroying Redeemer was the priority — not mission.  She set things in motion to force the church to close. It has now been locked for nearly three years.

Why not reward success?

The answer: SEPA was passing massive deficit budgets fairly routinely, relying on closing churches, seizing assets and selling property to make up shortfalls. Redeemer was known to have money and a valuable property.

We celebrate the successful union of Faith and Immanuel and wish them the best.

However, a wise church would also review its failures. The concurrent neglect and harmful policies practiced in East Falls are routinely swept under the rug as if the mess was all the fault of the people. This is wrong and innately dishonest.

01 Jul 2012

June 30: Social Media Day—July 1: Social Media Sunday?

Do We Need Social Media Sunday?

Three years ago, the Social Media company, Mashable, created Social Media Day. In 514 cities, Social Media enthusiasts will gather (many in a bar) to put a real live face and warm handshake to the entities that drive the keyboards and hide behind little square avatars. It will happen again tomorrow, June 30.

Perhaps we will someday declare a Social Media Sunday, a time when Social Media Ministries physically welcome the people whose lives they touch from a distance.

It raises an interesting concept? What kind of program would a church’s SM Sunday promote?

There would be a temptation to do things the way the Church always does things.

They would hold a big worship service centered around a few people doing a few things in the chancel while everyone else sits or stands (as able) on demand. They would ask the strangers to break into ancient song at appropriate times, prompted by an overpowering organ. They would focus the newbie’s attention on the scriptures as interpreted by one person for fifteen, twenty, or thirty restless minutes. They would require that they shake everyone’s hand without really knowing a thing in the world about the hand they are shaking. They would bless them as they turn to walk out the door to be greeted warmly (perhaps) by a caring pastor and one or two others before returning to total anonymity.

That’s how a church service might seem to the uninitiated. Churches all over the country do this every Sunday, many with feeble results.

(And people say Social Media doesn’t create true community!)

How would you plan a Social Media Sunday?

29 Jun 2012

Reverse Evangelism: How to Shrink Your Numbers

2×2 has written before about math in the church. Often when church leaders with a flair for management put pencil to paper they end up recommending the merger or consolidation of faith communities.

Looks good on paper. It might make sense on the map. But the equation is faulty.

We’ve experienced the failure to understand Church math before in East Falls. We’re seeing it again. This time our Roman Catholic neighbors are the victims of Church managers wanting what is best for the bottom line —their bottom line— rather than the congregational mission.

It is textbook church math, where 1 + 1 can equal 0.

The proud neighborhood school of St. Bridget’s had fairly steady enrollment for the last six years, dipping slightly to 198, a loss of only 26 students in the midst of a terrible recession. Not bad!

Two or three miles away, Manayunk’s Regional School—already the product of several closed churches or church schools—had experienced a much sharper decline during the same period (about 50%) — 213 down from 419.

So the Roman Catholic Blue Ribbon Commission looked at the map and the numbers. Here’s what they came up with. Pick a new name for the Manayunk school (where consolidation is already failing) so that there is no heritage or loyalty. (Where has Redeemer encountered that logic?).

Which direction should the schools merge? Real estate is hot in East Falls. There are likely more lucrative options with that property in a collegiate neighborhood. Decision: Send the East Falls kids to the crowded streets of Manayunk.

The magic number to make the new St. Blaise viable was 255. Manayunk already had 213. They needed — a mere 42 willing Fallser children.

Except it doesn’t work like that with families and their passion for their children’s education, their faith and their loyalty to their neighborhoods and traditions.

Despite desperate pleas from parish priests in Manayunk and East Falls, the math wasn’t working. In this case, 213 + 198 = 155. Neither school community liked the idea. They fell short of the minimum by 100 children. Nearly all the families in both neighborhoods decided that some unknown solution was superior than the one dictated to them by the Church. There will be no St. Blaise. No Holy Child. No St. Bridget. No Saint Lucy, Saint Mary the Assumption, Saint John the Baptist or St. Josaphat. The last four disappeared in previous downsizing.

Down. Down. Down. More damage is likely as the churches suffer from the loss of community and tradition which the schools created and fostered.

And still church leaders turn first to closing churches and merging churches — as if fiscal sense makes evangelical sense.

It doesn’t.

25 Jun 2012

God Speaks to Peter’s Successors

God speaks to Peter's Sucessors

One bishop hears something entirely different.

24 Jun 2012

Danger Zone: Trust in the Church

“In God we trust. All others pay cash.”
That’s a fairly common American sentiment.

The Church has a way of warping our innate sense of caution. The old hymn teaches us to “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus.”

The concept of trust in God, foundational to our faith, gets projected onto trust in people, trust in leaders, trust in the hierarchy. People may not be asked to trust church leaders, but there is an expectation that they are worthy of trust. So why not?!

There are good answers to that question.

Why not?

Because Church leaders are people. Church leaders are subject to the same temptations and challenges in life. They are just as capable of self-interest and foolishness. Donning a collar or a fancy robe or hat does not change human nature.

Placing unquestioning trust in Church leaders is all the more dangerous because trust in people becomes intertwined with trust in God. If we challenge people in the Church, are we challenging God?

Recent struggles in the Church suggest that blind trust in Church leadership is no more fruitful than blind trust in politicians. Children have had their lives shattered because they trusted men whom the Church presented as trustworthy. It took decades for Church leaders to come to grips with the problem. There is no reason to mention the expense. The price paid by the victims is so much higher.

Stories that make the news are not isolated. The Church shatters relationships with the faithful in other ways as well. It is just as slow to self-correct. It may even be impossible.

Seth Godin wrote yesterday on the subject of trust. He made a valid observation. Trust grows in times of crisis, when leaders stand by their people, when the going is tough, when it would be easier to run or hide, abandoning the faithful—or to lie.

Indeed, it is in times of crisis that trustworthiness shows its mettle. It is rarely seen in today’s Church.

photo credit: jrodmanjr via photo pin cc
24 Jun 2012

In Praise of Church Artists (and that includes you!)

Educators in the arts are trained to understand the development of the human mind. Every child is born an artist, a musician, an athlete or dancer. From the time a toddler can grasp a fat crayola, the need to express ourselves is part of our humanity. Every child pumping themselves into the air on a backyard swing while belting out a song of her own invention is a musician. Every boy with a new pair of sneakers knows he is an athlete. Every girl spinning before a full-length mirror is in touch with her inner dancer.

Something happens to the human spirit on the path that leads from kindergarten to college. The need to master math and reading leaves the artist in many of us behind.

Ever notice how most adults who haven’t pursued art in school still draw like a nine-year-old? That’s because that’s about when the American education system stops stressing the arts in favor of academics. Art and music teachers know that this is a critical age for stressing art and music skills. The ear and eye need to be exercised along with the muscles and brains.

There may be a similar atrophy in the Church. We encourage our littlest members to try everything. But as they approach adulthood, the rule books and traditions start to erode interests and abilities rather than building on them or exploring untapped talents.

  • Preaching? That’s the realm of theologians. Male thinkers only, some still argue.
  • Music? We have a music director and organist, thank you. You can join the choir, if you like.
  • Instrumental Music? Well, as we said, we have an organist.
  • Design? We buy templates from the national church.
  • Dance? We’re not sure God would approve.
  • Leadership? What do we pay the preacher for?
  • Service? There’s a list of ways you can serve on the back of the bulletin.
  • Prayer? Just read the one from the worship book.
  • Poetry? You can’t improve on the Psalms.

Pretty soon you have a church where people come, sit in the pew, praise the leaders for their talents and go home.

After a while, they just stay home.

Perhaps one approach to reversing religious apathy is to discover the artist in each of us. We are what we can become. Only God knows our limits.

photo credit: Jason Paluck via photo pin cc
18 Jun 2012