Generations In Faith Together

Life Lines (Faith Stories)

We’re vacationing in the Cayman Islands. I feel blessed and privileged to make the yearly pilgrimage here with my family. I have traveled to many places in the world, but here is where I feel the most calm and experience the most “quiet times” in my life. Each morning I get up and take about a two mile hike along the beach. It’s very rare that I meet anyone. It’s lovely. I am reminded of God, the Creator.

This year, there was something new on the beach. In the distance, I thought it was a tree full of blackbirds. As I got closer I realized it was a tree full of shoes. Lost flip flops, sneakers, Crocs, and all kinds of shoes were hanging on the tree. Someone had taken the time to hang each one. It is a strange sight to see on the beach. I was so taken by it that after my walk I rode a bike back to the spot and hiked across the dunes to get back to it to take a picture.

I couldn’t help but wonder about all the feet that had filled these shoes. And I couldn’t stop wondering how many stories accompanied these shoes. I will never know because I do not know who the shoes belong to, but I can guarantee there are many stories to be told. It made me reflect on the stories we hold inside and the opportunities we have to share them. I wondered about the people, their stories, and their faith. Where do they live? What’s important in their lives? Do they have a faith story?

From my experience, providing small group settings for people to tell about their lives and having a time and place they can be shared, has grown the number of faith stories told in our congregation. We call them Life Lines. It’s providing the opportunity to share when we recognize God’s work in our lives and give him the glory, honor and praise. I never realized the importance of verbalizing our own faith stories until I witnessed the impact they can have on the lives of others. I used to think they were to be kept quietly to ourselves but have discovered the opposite is true.

It all begins with sharing some Highs & Lows and praying together to praise God for the Highs and ask for His guidance for the Lows. Gathering once a week in community to take time to listen and care makes a difference. Listening to one another, praying, and blessing when we are together changes lives.

We are God’s hands and feet in this world. Next time you don your shoes, think about your faith story. Is it a story someone else needs to hear?                                              
It could be a life line for them.

Debbie Streicher is National Director of Children and Family Ministry. She is located in Northern Virginia and happy to address any questions you may have regarding Faith Inkubators’ resources. Please contact her at dstreicher@faithink.com.

 

 

   

 

Cross-Generational in Sunday School

Intergenerational, Cross-generational, all ages, church family…

How many ways can we describe and invite everyone on-board in a Christian education setting?

Statistics show that the church is the last place all 5 generations gather in today’s world.  Many congregations struggle to gather everyone together in a Sunday school setting. It seems some say, “Been there, done that.” Others drop children off and assume Sunday school is for children only.      When we do make the effort to provide for all ages, it is difficult to get people to join us.

So, why even try to get all the ages together?

Try this little experiment to argue for cross-generational learning: Ask people to name a person in their lives who has had an impact on them and whom they would consider to be a faith role model. My guess is they will not name someone their own age. It’s likely that the person named is from another generation and probably an older generation.

Providing opportunities for faith role modeling between the generations is needed.

So, why even try to get all the ages together?                                                                                                                                                       It’s for our future. It’s for the generations to come.

 

Sunday School as Sacred Space

Am I the only Christian educator who gets a little frustrated when during a Sunday school opening I see and hear parents who would rather talk and drink coffee in the background while sending their children up front to “be in Sunday school”?

Have you heard about the little boy who was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up? His answer: “I can’t wait until I grow up to be just like my Mommy and Daddy. Then I won’t have to go to Sunday school anymore!”

Ouch! As a Christian educator with a passion for family ministry and focusing on the dynamics of parents as role models of faith for their children, this is the last thing I want to hear.                 Unfortunately, we can understand why this child can’t wait to be like Mommy and Daddy.

I feel I am not alone in my thinking as I have heard from others who have expressed the same scenario and experienced similar frustrations within their own congregations.  My concern is the message we may be sending to our children about the role we all play in a learning setting when this happens. Although I appreciate the true need for parents to have time to talk with one another and the importance in providing a fellowship opportunity for all, I’m wondering how we can balance wanting parents to join children in Sunday school and wanting them to find our congregation as a place where they can gather each week, meet others, and build relationships.

 My concern lies in the message we send when we tolerate adults and youth congregating in the background and talking while we are teaching and sharing scripture lessons. This doesn’t happen when we gather in a worship service. Those sharing a scripture lesson and prayer for the day deserve respect. I have the hope that everyone present will honor the words shared and role model the reverence of the time together for all. Can we expect everyone to take at least 15 minutes for an opening and introduction to a lesson to pay attention and be present by sitting together and listening with us, not observing us? I believe it can speak volumes to those entering a room.

As you are reading this, you may think I am challenging our basic understanding of what Sunday school is, but I’d like to suggest we ask ourselves what is happening when we gather together in a place for Christian education. Can we consider this to be sacred space? Is it akin to the worship service?  Does worship only happen in the sanctuary? Can Sunday school happen in the worship space? Can worship happen in the Sunday school place? Is it not the place we teach all ages what worship is?

In the Subject Guide found in the back of my Bible, worship is defined as giving reverence and honor to God. It also references praise and prayer. In my opinion, God deserves our reverence and honor through our praise and prayer no matter where we gather to share His Word.  

My challenge to you is to think about places and spaces you meet in your congregation to praise God and hear His Word. Are they sacred spaces?

Britannica.com’s definition of sacred is: the power, being, or realm understood by religious persons to be at the core of existence and to have a transformative effect on their lives and destinies.

The definition of space according to Merriam -Webster is: a period of time.

In the context and setting of our church buildings, where and when are the times and places you gather all the ages and provide opportunities to experience transformative effects on lives?

Although I know the worship service is our first answer, as a Christian educator, I have also witnessed lives changing and relationships strengthened through prayer and praise for God during a period of time we call Sunday school. It has taken setting expectations and being intentional.

The challenge before us is to help those entering our buildings to feel that transforming love everywhere and create opportunities for this to happen. God’s work happens in amazing ways and in unexpected places. Our work is to provide time for this to happen.

Time for children, parents, and youth…time to praise God together …                                                 then we have our coffee and doughnuts.

I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts about this and what you have experienced.                               

And if you already experience Sunday school as sacred space in your congregation,                              please share how you do it!

FSL:Faith as a Second Language

If you were to approach teaching faith like you would teaching a foreign language, what new methods might you consider? After teaching languages and living in a number of foreign countries, I have come to see a direct parallel between learning foreign languages and learning the language of faith. 

Learning a Foreign Language
Learning English as a Second Language (ESL) is a struggle for most adults who didn’t grow up with the language spoken in their homes. Likewise, many adults in our congregations also struggle learning the language of faith. It's like learning a second language. If they didn’t grow up with it spoken in their home, it seems foreign. It’s not that they don’t want to learn. It simply isn’t their native language, and learning it can make them feel uncomfortable.

Expectations
Families coming through the church doors may feel like they are entering an unknown culture. Immigrant parents often count on schools to teach English to their children. Similarly, parents drop their children at our church doors, counting on us to teach faith to their kids. Immigrant parents do not feel qualified or equipped to teach the strange new language. The same is true for many parents and the language of faith.

Fluency Sets a Standard
For immigrants, standard of living and income levels improve dramatically as they become fluent in English. Becoming fluent in the language of faith can also improve the “standard of living” in homes. Although you can’t measure the “income” in a checkbook, the resulting benefits to the family in terms of grace, forgiveness, communication and sharing can be immeasurable.

Those who become articulate in English can eventually work and assimilate to a life in the community. They begin to speak English with their children in the home. Those who become articulate in the language of faith will eventually live out their faith every day in the home, at work, and in the world.

Effective Ways to Teach
The most effective ways to introduce English are to teach the way the brain learns. That means a heavy reliance on active learning and whole-brain techniques with lots of visuals, games, songs, hands-on practice, motivation and fun.

The most effective ways to teach faith are the same: visuals, games, songs, hands-on practice and fun. Involvement of parents and other adults as role models is key.

The Importance of Immersion
Those who become fluent in a foreign language know that the best way to learn is to be immersed and surrounded in a home where the language is spoken. After living in a culture and being “loved into” the language, you become fluent. It is not forgotten. Wherever you are in the world and hear it spoken, you gravitate towards it and thirst to be with others who speak the same language.

It’s hard to argue educationally that a language can be taught in a one-hour-a-week session. It’s also hard to argue Biblically that faith can or should be taught in a one-hour-a-week session. The key to bringing parents and others on-board to become fluent in faith-talk, is to create an immersion experience that includes the home. Teach a theme at church. Invite parents and ask them to return to the same theme every night in their homes.

Our Instructions
When the Children of Israel were preparing to enter the Promised Land, God gave them a clear set of instructions on how to teach their children:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. — Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Questions for Leadership:
Take this language metaphor to your next leadership team meeting and ask:

·         How is faith taught in our church?

·         Are we aware there may be parents in our congregation learning the language of faith for the first time?

·         Do we see one of our roles to be teaching Faith as a Second Language (FSL)?

 

Family and Blood Relations

 In the April 2009 publication by AARP, there was an article by Michael Caine, the actor, called “Crossing Generations”. In the article he said, “Family doesn’t only mean blood relations; we all have friends who are just like family to us.” He goes on to describe the relationship he had with a very good friend of his and he shares that after his friend passed away, the photos of him are reminders of their friendship. Michael says the photos, “Remind me that family isn’t only blood-it’s the friends you love, across the generations.”

What Michael said about friends and the generations really hit home with me. Not only can I relate to what he said because of my own experiences, but saw a direct correlation with the struggle we have in our congregations to define the word “family”.

Bottom line, it really doesn’t only mean blood relations. It’s about loving one another and being there for one another. How do we get this point across without using the word family? It seems we try to describe family in so many different ways so as not to offend someone who may not be part of a family as society envisions it, mom, dad, and the children. Isn’t it time we use the word as intended?

We ARE family, whether blood-related or not.

Isn’t it time we start using the word “family” in our congregations to mean all of us across the generations?

C’mon, get up and sing the popular chorus by SisterSledge:    

We are famil y. I got all my sisters with me.  

We are family.                                                                               

Get up everybody and sing!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t hear this song without singing and getting up to dance with joy as I think about all the relationships I have been blessed with in my life. How about you?