Making Progress in Christian Education

by Rev. Michael VandenBerg

Chicago in June isn’t necessarily the best place to be. I remember growing up in the Great Lakes area of the U.S. and how humid and hot the summers can be there. Spending a long weekend at Loyola University brought back all those memories. I was at Loyola for the gathering of Christian Educators from all over North America, with the task of assessing the present state and future hopes of Christian Education in the RCA.

Normally, in June, the Council on Christian Education of the Reformed Church calls together its educational consultants for a time of training. (Yes, even Educators have to keep going to school.) This year was different in that it was not the consultants and trainers who gathered; it was the front line educators, whom you would find in any church across the denom-ination, who were asked to come to Loyola University to share with the Council on Chris-tian Education the outlooks on the state of education in our churches today.

We were led by Colleen Wiessner, one of the former Council members, and did the assessment using the sharing of stories. Whose stories? Each of our stories. If you have never tried this, I encourage you to do so at your earliest possible time. It is a very powerful tool in telling who we are, where we have come from, and what our hopes and aspirations are. Story, after all, is what Jesus used to communicate His lessons of faith. It is not the words He used that made the lessons powerful, but the windows to His own life and being that made the story, His story, our story.

Many of you may be wondering who the Council of Christian Educators is and why they care what the average Sunday school teacher or superintendent thinks. The Council is a representative body of Christian Educators, with one member from each of the Regional Synods in the Reformed Church. It serves as an advisory board to the Director of Congregational Services, Jeff Japinga. Together they inform, shape, develop, and recommend educational strategies to the denomination. For the first time, Canada now has a representative on this Council—me. I am working hard to see that Canadian churches have the same educational resources and input that the rest of the denomination has. Together, with others such as Marlene Ottens, Susan Damon, and Marc Konynenberg, we are striving to put together an educational network across the Reformed Church in Canada, a network that will keep all those doing Christian Education in-formed, connected, and resourced.

One of the tools available to all of our churches now is a resources library of educational materials. It is housed in my office at Christ Community Church in St. Albert, Alberta. The materials are here for you to review and preview before you decide what materials to use to meet the needs of your congregation. We are also in the beginning stages of putting together an network of Education consultants for our churches, to answer your questions, point you in the right direction, and to offer training from time to time. All of these are available to you by contacting my office at 403-459-8012.

Much of the research we did together on that weekend conference in Loyola will go into future planning, to help make our educational programs more res-ponsive to the needs of our ever changing congregations. A real pleasant side benefit of the conference was the network of friends we were able to make. By Sunday, everyone was exchanging names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. Everyone was promis-ing to send ideas that had worked in their congregation, so that they could be tried in another. The Council came out of the conference with volumes of data, which they now have to wade through, and were pleased with the response of each and every expert, front line educator present. Each of the delegates came away with a new network of educators for support, encouragement, and resources, and I personally came away with a renewed enthusiasm for doing Christian Education in my congre-gation and in the Classis of the Canadian Prairies, where I serve. Many times there is not a lot of help or support for those to whom we entrust the training of our children and of adults, but after this conference, I now believe that there are dozens to whom I can turn for the help and support I need.

The face of Christian Education is changing rapidly in our churches, and it is sometimes overwhelming, to say the least. It is good to know where to go to find the tools that we need, and it is good to meet, face to face, some of the people who have devoted their lives, usually without

pay, to bringing the lessons of faith, theology, doctrine, and love to live in our congregations; they give us some of the best resources available anywhere. We are a denomination that is truly blessed with talent and Godly dedication in those who write, teach, train, and plan for Education.

A personal thank you to Marlene for taking an interest in making educational resources available through The Pioneer, to Sue Damon for writing for LIFE curriculum, to Marc Konynenberg for agreeing to serve as a consultant to our churches in B. C., and to all the teachers, superintendents, Christian School teachers, and Public School teachers who bring their faith to play in all of their educational activities.

Loyola was hot in June, but it has inspired me to heat up our educational programming in the Reformed Church in Canada for 1998 and beyond. Sometime in late October, the Council on Christian Education should begin seeing the results of the research and stories shared that weekend in June on the hot and humid shores of Lake Michigan, and I will keep you informed of our findings. How did I spend my summer vacation? Growing in Christ and in the friendship of God’s people.

Rev. Michael VandenBerg is a Council on Christian Education representative and a Classis of the Canadian Prairies Educational consultant.