 One of the important initiatives going to the General Assembly this summer is a two-year emphasis on church growth, “Growing God’s Church Deep and Wide.” If adopted, congregations with the support of the General Assembly Council will be encouraged to deepen commitment in three areas:
• Grow the church: invite person’s to attend, baptize children and adults, and increase membership
• Grow in discipleship: rediscover Scripture, nurture spirituality, affirm our Reformed heritage, embrace stewardship in all of life
• Grow into diversity: welcome everyone, learn from others, reflect the world
This three-fold emphasis has the potential to bring the Good News to the world in new ways and vitality to the mission and ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The question for those of us who serve through Presbyterians Organized in Nurture & Teaching (POINT) and through our call to Christian education is this, “How can we help?”
The first answer for how we help may be this: to start conversations, asking even more questions of ourselves and the congregations we serve and support!
How and what are we doing now to encourage church growth? How do we invite others through testimony? How do we encourage quality growth as we seek quantity? How do we help disciples discover their Bible and live their Reformed faith through practice and Christian vocation? What does it mean to truly welcome and learn from others? How can we reflect the love of Christ to the world around us?
Members of POINT attending 2008 training were asked to have a conversation around one small piece of this bigger picture: “What is the role of Christian education in making disciples through congregations?” Here are some of the thoughts that were shared around the tables.
- Our role is to ignite passion for a relationship with God through inspired teaching, personal testimony, outreach and witness.
- We provide the setting for hospitality and learning to take place.
- Discipleship begins with relationships: teacher to child; mentor to youth; friend to adult. These relationships are our primary role.
- We open the door to growing relationships with God through content steeped in the context of covenant communities.
- We model lives of faith for those who are also seeking, growing and learning.
- Our role through the church is to offer the context and contact where change can take place.
- We are to model, mold, love, build through relationships that are present through crisis, connect during life’s milestones, and celebrate God’s work in our lives and world.
- Christian education can facilitate the opportunities for members to encounter God. This happens best with frequent conversations and planning between leaders, committees and those who define the life of the church together.
- If we love the stories we teach, we will teach others to love the God of the stories.
- Create a safe space for discussion and questions.
These ten ideas are only a few of responses about the role of Christian education to facilitate discipleship. It is an important and holistic role in the life of our congregations!
When we consider the initiative coming before the General Assembly, “Growing God’s Church Deep and Wide,” and think about our role to make disciples through education, we can get excited and a bit overwhelmed. We get excited to imagine the many ways we are called to help congregations as they prepare hearts and minds to respond to God’s presence in the world. We get overwhelmed about the how-to’s and the when and where.
Possibly the place to start is to recommit our own lives to the God revealed in scripture and to reclaim our passion for God’s church that “Growing God’s Church Deep and Wide” will require from each of us. |
