The Opposite of Faith is Certitude
The Opposite of Faith is Certitude
At a recent conference, I shared that, “The opposite of faith is not doubt; it is certitude.” A participant e-mailed me afterward asking me to expand on the concept. He said “I’m trying to get my arms around this concept.”…
Assessing Christian Education in the Church
The 2011 book Move: What 1000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth, by Hawkins and Parkinson explores the question of whether church members actually grow through their participation in Christian education and discipleship programs. The concept behind the book, and the…
Thinking is easy (or is it?)
Quick quiz: What philosopher said, “To think is easy, to act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.”? Answer… None. I pulled that quote out of a fortune cookie at lunch at a local…
Fixing the Problem of Sunday School
My engineer son has a mantra: “Fix the problem.” As mantras go, it’s a pretty good one. Simple, memorable, intuitive, and to the point.
The mantra refers to our tendency to go about addressing problems by doing a lot of…
Meet the Team: The Faces Behind the Center for Lifelong Learning
The Center for Lifelong Learning (CLL) at Columbia Theological Seminary seeks to connect disciples as they learn in community.
CLL courses and programs give lifelong learners opportunities to engage in courses designed to assist with the daily challenges of…
10 Things Every Church Educator Needs to Know
The ministry of the trained, paid, full-time professional congregational Christian educator has seen a dramatic arch over the last 20-some years. Once a viable ministry professional pursuit supported by seminaries, denominations, and congregations it may be on the list of…
What Effective Church Educators Do
Fortunate is the church that can afford to call a paid church educator. More fortunate still is the church that finds an effective educator. That one person will make all the difference in helping a church have a stellar Christian…
Motivation and Learning
Here’s the bad news: The truth is, we can’t teach anybody anything.
The good news, however, is that people are motivated to learn, conditionally. We can’t teach a truth—or even a simple fact—to someone who is not ready to learn,…
Teaching for Faith
A man was out hiking when he fell off a cliff. He managed to grab a thin tree branch sticking out of the side of the rocky cliff wall saving him from plunging thousands of feet below. As his fingers…
Christian Education: Values or Content?
Tucked away in one of my educational psychology books is a Peanuts cartoon clipped from a newspaper years ago. It is a cartoon of Peppermint Patty, that endearing character who represents a teacher’s worst nightmare: the unmotivated student.
In…
Two Theories of Learning
I can trace my intrigue with Christian education to one single moment. That moment was when I stumbled upon a statement by Morton Kelsey that went something like this: For Christian education to be authentic, its approaches need to be…
Using Conversation in Teaching and Learning
When I talk to people about dialogical learning, they often reply, “Yes, we have great discussions in my class.” But discussion and dialogue, as learning methods, are different things. And then there’s conversation.
But conversation too can be…
Use Entry Points to Help Students Get Into the Lesson
How do you help students to get the point you’re trying to teach?
More often than not most of us try the direct approach: “Just tell them!”
But a paradox in learning is that often students do not learn what…
Learning is not an outcome of Teaching
The counter-intuitive notion that learning is not an outcome of teaching can be a challenging concept.
This is natural, for several reasons.
First, due to our experiences, we tend naturally to associate teaching with learning.
Second, despite the logical connection…
On Knowing What You Are Actually Doing
Many folks who find themselves engaged in the task of congregational education tend to be able to jump right in and keep the programs running. And they do an acceptable, if not admirable, job of keeping things going smoothly. Programs…
