Any new perspectives on Bible school programs?

Here are two problems that I have experienced in smaller churches since I have been working with education programs:

1. Shortage of teachers. No one wants to teach and older Christians invariably say they've done their time.
2. Gaps in Age Divisions. I'm speaking mostly about children's Bible classes here. One traditional age range will have lots of kids, e.g. Holley's class here has 7-9 kids in it. Back in Kosciusko, it had only her. However, other age ranges have 1 or no kids. The problem occurs when you put a 5-year old with a second grader who knows how to read and has been in school for a couple of years.

I am tending to believe that the problem may be our approach to the Bible school (Sunday school) program. The Sunday school is definitely based on a public school model where kids are divided into classes by age and the bigger churches (especially Baptist have historically had great success with it. It works if you have lots of kids and volunteers. But, that creates a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. If we had more kids and teachers we'd have a better program. But, if we had a better program, we'd have more kids and parents who could become teachers.

Is there another way to envision this? Does anyone know of another model?

U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

Since reading Danny's post on this survey last week, I haven't been able to let it go. If you've got a del.icio.us account, I have bookmarked several of the news articles and blogs that I have come across regarding this survey at mine.

Here are some ideas that come from what I've been reading:

Fluidity. This is a keyword into what is going on. People are constantly moving from church to church and churches are losing and gaining at the same time. This helps me understand what I've been seeing on a very local level. People leave and new people come and the net effect is basically even.

Competitive Marketplace. That is what Luis Lugo of the Pew Institute calls what we have in America right now. I initially cringe at this idea of feeding the consumerism in our country, but I want to explore this metaphor (that's what it is) more fully. It may not be all bad. He also makes the point that people are shopping and churches are recruiting. I'm not sure how to see this in light of Jesus' ministry.

From teachings to programs. The point is made that what people are looking for is less about the churches particular teachings and more about the programs offered. Again, the consumer is dictating.

Unaffiliated Youth. Among Christian college students, we've been seeing this for a while. "Give me Jesus but not the church" has been a cry of young people for a while.

Religious Intentionality. Some are suggesting that the survey indicates a pretty high level of religious intentionality in American. This is further bolstered by the fairly small number of Atheists and Agnostics compared to the other categories. I think this means that in general people are looking for something, which presents a great opportunity.

One initial thought I have about all of this is that my congregation is going to have to invest some "soul searching" time. What is it we are really offering? What value do we add to those who come through our doors and interact with our people? If this is a competitive marketplace, I don't think we have the advantages to be able to keep up. However, if people are coming and going and trying on different churches, what is it that we have that will cause them to say, "Of all the churches that we have tried, I like [church name] because of ..." I don't want those reasons to be superficial but deep and meaningful.

  

Today's been, in many ways, like most other Fridays. I generally get caught up in minutia Monday through Thursday, and then, in a moment of clarity, begin working on important things at 1 pm on Friday. That's the way it was today. I'm trying to wrap up financial aid for the fall semester at MBC.

Drew's got a virus that no medicine will treat. The pediatrician said we were in for long weekend. His fever broke today and he's been feeling better. Holley had her Halloween party today at school. Kristy, Holley and I made these cool brownies last night. Hope you enjoy looking at them. They were tasty!

Kosciusko won their high school football game tonite and will host my alma mater, Itawamba, in the first round of the playoffs next Friday night. My family is coming to stay with us. My 15-year-old brother, Caul, is a manager for the HS team and a player for the 9th grade.

Racket

My friend Joel threw out a topic for future discussions: racket. We were talking about a friend who constantly complains about not having any money. He's always in a financial bind. You ask him to go somewhere and his reply is "I don't have the money to do that." Joel commented that that was his racket, kind of a way of life he's talked himself into so that he doesn't have to do anything about his problem. I guess another way I'd say it is "the noise we create so that we don't have to face the truth."

I've got some racket of my own. I always say "I've made a lot of mistakes with my money" (and I'm still making them) or "My finances are crappy." Every time Joel calls I tell him this. He must be tired of my racket. I could stick to my budget and pay off my debt and move on with life. But I like the racket!

I'm too busy...more racket. I've been saying this since I began working with Gary way back in '96. Once again, I don't want to do anything about it. I like the racket!

One more: I want to go into full-time ministry. Can I have an Amen on this racket? If you know me, this noise has been around for most of my adult life and yet I haven't done a proactive thing about it.

I guess racket's good when you haven't got another song.

In most cases, I can be considered a good Christian without ever putting my confidence in Jesus Christ.

John 13

I liked Gary's post about John 13. What would it look like for me?

Why can't I be like everyone else and just sit in my seat without having to organize worship, lead worship, run the sound, teach two classes each week, preach, lead prayer, serve communion, lead VBS, and organize the children's classes? What am I trying to prove?

Honestly, that I'm useful, that I matter. It would be devastating for me to drift into the background and do nothing. I'd feel so useless. I've lost my heart in all this trying to prove my usefulness. Most of what I do I do for others not because I have the passionate desire to do them.

I think I'm also trying to prove that I care. I've heard so much harping on service and being active that I think I'd feel guilty if I wasn't. What if I just came and sat there? I'd feel like I was letting God down, like I was unfaithful, like I wasn't really being a true Christian.

Not to mention the pressure I felt recently. A group at church meets regularly to eat and organize service projects. They have invited us several times to be a part of it. I think it's a good thing, but I'm already involved in several things that the church does. So, we only visited once and don't plan to go back. It's funny, but I feel like the group is looking down on us for not attending. I bring this up to say that there's a lot of pressure from the congregation here to prove your usefulness by being involved in everything. That's a temptation for a guy like me.

Because of all this, I walk around in a haze most of the time, mindlessly moving from one task to the next. I've been trying to envision a different way. There are people who are visiting that my heart goes out to, people I want to help. But because I'm trying to prove so much, I don't have time to spend with them. I've actually been wanting to resign from all my responsibilities so that I can respond freely to people that I feel need help. I want to create margin so that I can respond when I see a need.

Thinking about that...I think that was part of the problem with the priest and Levite in the Good Samaritan. No time, no space, no margin to respond to need.

Teen Conversations

Sorry I'm so sporadic with my posting. Everyday I resolve to do better.

I had my best class with the teens tonight that I've had in a long time. I heard a guy say recently that we need to help teens be better conversationalists with people who really disagree with them. He encouraged the audience to help teens become better listeners. I've been mulling that over. How could I do that?

Well, tonight I had class prepared but I decided to experiment. Boy, did it go good! I actually engaged them. I told them we'd talk about anything they wanted as long as they liminted it to "religious" topics. They began to talk about conversations they'd had with friends recently about worship, conversion, etc. I was impressed at the complexity of some of the arguments they were giving. Teens always surprise me that way. You don't think they're getting a thing and BAM! they've been listening all along.

Anyway, I hope to engage them further. I think they're giving all the pat answers to their friends, but I think its only what they've heard. I want to explore further with them.

I had a few minutes while waiting on my cup of Starbucks to finish brewing in the coffee maker. Oh yes! I love coffee and I love Starbucks. I've gotten to where I can't (won't) drink the other stuff.

It feels weird this morning. I took off most of the day yesterday (I had to go in a finish financial statements for February. You wouldn't believe how fun that is(that's sarcasm)). All day yesterday, Kristy and I were thinking it was Saturday. Since I've worked at the college, I haven't had a lot of Saturdays. We've missed that. Having free Saturdays is good for us and we need to do it more. Growing up, we always cleaned the house and yard in the morning and just relaxed the rest of the day. That's what we do now when we have the chance.

We're having Keith and Carlee Denton over tonight. I think I'll grill some steaks and shrimp. It'll be fun. They're planning to move back here. We are all excited!