Bright Threads Ministries…weaving people of all abilities into the fabric of congregations
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
GenOn 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
It can be a challenge to keep up with the variety of resources out “there” in cyberspace – whether on “insert name of large online bookseller & purveyor of all sorts of things,” various social media outlets, websites, wikis and the like. I’m even having a time keeping up with all the GREAT information being shared on this new, dynamic, social-media integrated hope4ce platform!
Today I offer some resources for 21st Century learners – and leaders of learners. One is an approach to evaluating the resources that come your way. The other is a list of some of my current favorite resources. Perhaps you’ll have others to add to share – I hope so.
In the future, I’ll share some other collections of resources assembled around various topics that just may be of interest to this diverse, energetic group of folks who care passionately about nurturing faith among children of God of all ages.
21st Century Resources for Lifelong Learners
Rev. Sarah F. Erickson, D.Ed.Min.
Director
The Center for Lifelong Learning, Columbia Theological Seminary
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
Israel Galindo asks us to rethink the concept of curriculum in today’s reblog of his post earlier this week in Columbia Connections. Curriculum is more than the printed resources we may choose and use on Sunday mornings. I wonder how you’ve used this concept in your church.
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
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
We struggle to find volunteers to teach Sunday school. Excuses are fired in rapid succession: “My children play soccer,” “I grocery shop on Sunday mornings,” “Sometimes we go away on weekends,” “Sunday’s are my day to sleep in,” “I don’t know enough about the Bible.” Yes, we are busy, but our excuses reflect the low priority of teaching Sunday school. After all, often we say, “We just need a volunteer.”
We need to reframe our teaching ministry. We need to move our volunteers to disciples, where volunteers see themselves as disciples of Jesus. When we make this shift, our goals change, we add clarity to our motivation, and we more accurately define our purpose. We revitalize our teaching ministry with movement and make a transformative impact on those we teach. Continue reading
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
Love comes in many forms. So on this Valentine’s Day I decided to focus on those who may be difficult to love through the means of one of my favorite illustrated books for the child in all of us. Continue reading
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