Take a look at the following resources for worship, reflection, and action related to the “Educate a Child” National Initiative.
Featured Resource
The Educate a Child Toolkit is Here!
Want to start an education-oriented ministry in your congregation but don’t know where to begin? Already have an education program but want to be more effective? Involved in direct service but looking for a way to participate in local education advocacy? Have great ideas for a ministry but looking for funding sources? Check out the resources in this toolkit!
Into the Words…Recalling our Heritage | Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner
The Domestic Expression of Educate a Child, Transform the World
“The urgency of this work is told in the rates of infant mortality and teenage suicide, in lives doomed from their outset to despair and desperation, and in the squandering of God’s gracious gift of intelligence and imagination – the defiling of the sacred imago Dei.” Read Article
The Vocation of Education | Bruce, Lora, and Emily Whearty
“I’ve realized that I have to believe I am meant to be there, or I won’t last much longer. And I want to last. Even through all the frustrations, I find myself loving my students fiercely.” Read Article
The Prime Time Parade | Rev. Dave Brown, Walking the Church/School Boundary
“Prime Time is a religion-free zone so that it affirms the separation of church and state and so that it embodies Jesus’ teaching to love our neighbors.”
Read Article
“Educate a Child, Transform the World” National Brochure
General Assembly Social Witness Policy
A Vision for Children and the Church
“A Vision for Children and the Church” was adopted by the 205th General Assembly (1993) as a response to a concern for the need for a systematic approach to ministering with and for children.
Loving Our Neighbors: Equity and Quality in Public Education
“Loving Our Neighbors,” adopted by the 219th General Assembly (2010), is the PC(USA)’s most recent comprehensive policy on public education. It was prepared for the Assembly by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). It discusses the challenges to public education posed by growing economic divisions and new demographic realities in our society.
Relevant Articles
Hope in a Child (Presbyterians Today) | Rev. Alonzo Johnson
A call to educate and care for the vulnerable children of the world
Celebrating Jesus’ birth shows that we put our faith in a baby born in struggle and fragility. But there’s good news: the most famous vulnerable child in history becomes the master teacher. Jesus’ story, like Mark’s, beckons us to see the potential of the image of God in all of our young people. As Presbyterians, we heed the corresponding call to the work of education. Continue Reading
Our Theology of Public Education | Rev. Dr. Raymond Roberts
“As we consider the continuing challenges to American public schooling, we do well to retrieve this covenantal understanding that education is a common good.” Read Article
The Cradle to Prison Pipeline | Marian Wright Edelman
America’s New Apartheid
“Christians who profess to believe that God entered human history as a poor vulnerable baby, and that each man, woman, and child is created in God’s own image need to act on that faith.” Read Article
Read statistics about the status of children from the Decade of the Child.
Books for Further Reading
Thus Far On the Way: Toward a Theology of Child Advocacy | Eileen Lindner
This book of sermons by Rev. Dr. Eileen Linder, adapted from sermons delivered at the Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy at the Children’s Defense Fund’s Haley Farm, addresses the key issues of child advocacy and education in a way that is both humorous and heartfelt. Order the book through Amazon
Welcoming Children: A Practical Theology of Childhood | Joyce Ann Mercer
In this book the author examines the theological meaning of childhood. She explores how the church can best affirm and celebrate children as well as the practices that support and nurture children. Order from Chalice Press.
Rethinking Childhood | Edited by Peter B. Pufall and Richard P. Unsworth
Against a backdrop of poverty and the dehumanizing environment of a consumer culture, children are often patronized or idealized by adults. Here 20 contributors from a variety of disciplines provide a multidisciplinary view of childhood in which children have both voice and agency. Includes a chapter by Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, Presbyterian minister and deputy general secretary for research and planning at the National Council of Churches of Christ. Order from Rutgers University Press.
Worship is central to the Reformed tradition. The Book of Order states: