Category: Developmental Designs

Educational designs/lesson plans and resources for specific ages

Holy Week Box

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This is a wonderful idea for sharing the story of Holy Week with young children. Thank you Camille LeBron Powell and Linda LeBron.

Camille LeBron Powell's avatarCamille LeBron Powell

This is an idea that my mom, Linda LeBron (a fabulous retired church educator), came up with a few years ago. We’ve used it with our moms’ Bible study group. It’s something that families could make together at home, in a class, or even as part of a worship service with interactive prayer stations.

Our family made one with my daughter when she was 3 1/2 years old. It led to some great conversations about communion and ultimately to her taking communion for the first time that Easter.

Here it is:

All of the supplies can be found at a regular craft store: cardboard box with lid (approximately  2″x2″x3″), marker, white fabric, green paper, scissors, simple wooden doll (they came in a bag of 12)

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Cut the green paper to resemble 2 or more palm branches. Shout “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!”…

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Interactive Worship Ideas

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At Faith Presbyterian (https://www.facebook.com/faithpresgso), we embrace our traditional worship style and space while making our service accessible and engaging for all. Children and their families are welcome at the front of the sanctuary with activities geared toward their age level. Our family worship guide follows the pattern of the service and offers extra enrichment ideas and activities for children and active learners of all ages.The outline of a traditional worship service centered around The Word is beautiful and quite freeing when we remember that The Word is The Living Word of God – incarnate in Christ, written in scripture, and enacted in the world.

For Lent, we are using a themed sermon series inspired by Rev. Whitney Wilkinson following the “Landscape of Lent.” Each week, we add a new visual element to represent some aspect of the scripture – ashes, wilderness, wind, water, mud, cave, palms, bread – and we will close with Easter in the garden. Continue reading →

Bright Threads Ministries

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Bright Threads Ministries…weaving people of all abilities into the fabric of congregations

McMullen Worship Center

Are there people with disabilities in our congregations?  If we have two families with children with disabilities there are at least twenty more nearby without a church home. If there is one adult with a disability in worship on Sunday there are at least forty more in the surrounding neighborhoods. Continue reading →

Intergenerational Ministries Free Resources

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GenOn Ministries smallGenOn Ministries’ (formerly known as The LOGOS Ministry) fifty year history has produced many excellent resources and training events to equip church leaders in developing young disciples. GenOn provides resources to lay a firm foundation for faith formation which includes an intentional evaluation and planning tool as well as curriculum for ordered, cumulative learning. GenOn’s primary training event, the LOGOS Encounter, emphasizes three key practices in effective ministry (The theology and practice of Christian Relationships, a Balanced Ministry approach to spiritually nurture the whole person, and a scriptural, prayerful Process of Call to identify volunteers to serve). Many free resources or samples of resources are available on GenOn Ministries’ website: Continue reading →

Grief to Bear

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I am about to attend the second of two memorial services this week –people of strong faith who I’m sure are with God and who are no longer in pain. While knowing that they have moved from life into life, it is still difficult to bear their loss. Our beloved former president of Columbia Theological Seminary, Steve Hayner, will soon be lifted up in communal remembrance. He and his wife, Sharol Hayner have let us walk with them in this journey through pancreatic cancer by means of the CaringBridge website. In tribute to their incredible witness of faith, I lift up here a portion of one of Sharol’s posts from October 8, 2014 on discipleship during difficult times: Continue reading →

Online Collaboration Tools

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At the 2015 Association of Presbyterian Church Educators annual event  I conducted a hands-on workshop that explored internet collaboration through the use of low-cost video and audio teleconferencing tools. These could be used to enable virtual meetings, classes, and webinar presentations in your congregation. Participants explored the basics of Skype, Google Hangouts, and join.me. We also explored best practices for a virtual teaching presence. Continue reading →

Digital Lenten Spiritual Discipline

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These days, one of the most popular ways to connect with others via social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat) is by sharing meaningful photos. The Church has caught onto this trend with themed photo challenges. One of the most widely-known challenges is from the United Methodist Church’s rethinkchurch.org. With the rise in photo-sharing popularity, other organizations, denominations, and even individual congregations have created their own “photo challenges” for Lent and Advent. Each challenge usually assigns a word and Scripture passage to a day in the season, and tasks the participant with seeking out an image that fits the word. When shared, participants are encouraged to use the hashtags provided by the facilitating organization. When a participant clicks the hashtag (e.g. #pictureLent, #Lent2015), all hash-tagged posts appear together. Continue reading →

Underground Railroad Educational Model

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From time to time in these postings, I’m hoping we can take a step back and explore new models for educational ministry. This is one of those days. Several years ago, I was privileged to hear the attached paper presented at the Religious Education Association’s annual meeting. I hear a lot of academic papers presented, but this particular one has stayed with me and sparked creative ways of thinking of our process of Christian education and the roles that we play in guiding others in faith. Continue reading →