CenterView: How Your Congregation Learns

by Tim Shapiro  Congregations, or perhaps more precisely, congregational leaders, need to learn new skills all the time. Such are the demands on congregational life. What do you do when your congregation either needs or chooses to do something new?…

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Pastor as Teacher, Congregation as Learning Community

Part of what drew me to the ordained ministry was a particular image of that calling: the minister as a field-based teacher and scholar. It is in many ways a rabbinic model. Rabbi means “teacher.” Rabbis were teachers who were…

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Toward Transformative Continuing Education

How many times have you come home from continuing education events, laid your folders and notes on your desk, become consumed in the demands of everyday ministry, and—six months later—found those notes and thought, “Oh, I remember that event. What…

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CENTERview: How Do Congregations Learn?

by Tim Shapiro Two congregations in Indiana are from the same protestant denomination. They are located in similar neighborhoods.  One congregation has increased their mission giving by ten percent this year, supports a group of 20-somethings who meet weekly for prayer…

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The Case for Multifaith Education

As a rabbi who directs a multifaith center in a Christian seminary, I often get asked about multifaith education. People ask me, “What curriculum should I use?” or “How can we teach our students about other religions?” Even more often…

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God Beyond Borders: Interfaith Education and Congregations

One Friday during Lent, Greg Foraker, director of adult formation ministries at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church in Tucson, Arizona, entered the Islamic Center, the city’s largest mosque, to participate in worship with its 500 members. To the…

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