Last week I had the opportunity to spend a week in Florida and visited three different places designed to both entertain and educate, thus edutainment parks. They were the Holy Land Experience, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in the Universal parks, and Disney World. I could do a blog review of each, because there are definitely positives and negatives to each experience, but instead I was struck by their differing overall aims and how it shaped the way they crafted their experiences for the visitor. Continue reading
Tag: Kathy Dawson
Assessment in Christian Education
How do you know that what you are doing in your educational ministry makes a difference? This is the question at the heart of assessment. Many churches seem to perpetuate the same ministries and programs, because “we’ve always done it this way.” But, are the programs and events we are doing really making a difference in the growth of faith within our congregations? Continue reading
Grief to Bear
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
Loving Gargoyles
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