A pastor reflects on the success of his church’s ministries of Christian education and formation
Read More
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?…
Read MorePastor 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…
Read MoreBeyond Rubber Band Workshops: Finding a More Transformative Way for Continuing Education
I no longer attend continuing education events because I’m tired of rubber band workshops.” A pastor was describing his experience attending events in the past, being stretched and excited by what he heard, only to return home to the tyranny of…
Read MoreToward 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…
Read MoreCENTERview: 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…
Read MoreAdrift in a Sea of Resources: The Quiet Crisis in Clergy Continuing Education
by G. Jeffrey MacDonald On a crisp winter morning in 2009, pastors from across the country gathered in Herndon, Virginia to explore how clergy learn—and don’t learn—in the twenty-first century. As it turns out, learning routinely happens in a hodgepodge of…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreWhy Would Laypeople Want Theological Education, Anyway?
In this new world, this global village we inhabit, growing ever more complicated and accessible through science and technology, many of us think daily about the meaning and purpose of our lives. We are mindful of the decisions that need…
Read MoreTen Lessons about Being a Learner-Centered Teacher
I still remember what a shock it was to discover just as I was finishing my graduate training to be a theology professor, that I was about to have to start to learn to be a teacher. Suddenly I was…
Read More