The Spiritual Roles of the Christian Teacher
The Spiritual Roles of the Christian Teacher
Teaching is one of the primary functions in the Church, both in importance and necessity. In the early church, the function and calling of teaching was indistinguishable from that of Pastor. But in our age of specialization the role of…
The Story of Us
The internet didn’t exist when I was growing up.
I belong to the final generation who had to use card catalogs to look up books and microfiche.
Wild, I know!
I remember going to the public library a few times…
The biological bases for seeking faith
Jaak Panksepp was the Estonian neuroscientist and psychobiologist known for his work in the area of emotions. In his work “Affective neuroscience of the emotional BrainMind: evolutionary perspectives and implications for understanding depression,” he identified the seven primary-process…
Forget everything you know about teaching…it’s wrong
I’ve been in the field of education, from elementary education to higher education, long enough to see fads come and go and dominant philosophies rise and fall.
Along the way, several unfortunate notions about teaching and learning persist, seemingly immune…
What’s in a Name? Education for Formation?
In 1966 Jerome Bruner, Harvard psychologist and educator, wrote:
“There is a dilemma in describing a course of study. One must begin by setting forth the intellectual substance of what is to be taught, else there can be no…
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…
