"And did she make my hair?": How my 2-year-old is forming an Image of God

Lately my daughter has been asking about God.  It all started with a conversation about dandelions in late Spring.  I've always found the sprinkle of yellow throughout  green lawn quite charming and I'd gladly adorn a sweet dandelion crown or set the kitchen table with a dandelion bouquet, while I watch others go through environmentally unfriendly efforts to avoid them. So I found myself sitting on the porch with my daughter this spring as she asked me what kind of flowers were popping up throughout the lawn.  She wants to know the names of all flowers.  I don't usually know them, so instead they are "pink flowers" or "big flowers" to me.  But these ones I knew, and so I told her, "They're dandelions.  Many people will tell you they're weeds, but I say they're beautiful because God made them."

"GOD made them!!??" My daughter quickly replied, surprised, confused, intrigued. "Who is God?" She knows about God, at least as much as any 2 year old Pastor's Kid knows about God, but I knew she was looking for me to explain more specifically.  

"Yes, sweetheart, God made everything-- the trees, the clouds, you and me."

"The house?" 

"Well, no, but God made the people who made the house."

For Evelyn, a conversation which she doesn't quite understand, but she feels intrigued by tends to repeat itself.  So every time she saw a dandelion for quite some time, she'd start this conversation over again, "Who made that?!"  She knew the answer but she wanted to hear me say it again. 

This recurred once or twice a day for a week or two. 

"Did God make this spaghetti?"

"Did God make my brother?
"Did God make this potty?" 

To inanimate objects I would always reply, "No, but God made the person who made that (house, spaghetti, potty)," and that answer was acceptable to her growing spiritual mind. 

Finally one afternoon we were having this very conversation when she finally said, "And did she make my hair?" 

I paused as I heard her use her first-ever pronoun for God, and that it was a female pronoun.  I was surprised as I felt a warmth and a pride swell up in my heart, and said, "Yes, she made your hair." 

I very rarely use pronouns for God, believing that God does not fit inside a specific gender. I know that's not easy for everyone, but I happen to think it's worth the effort and after a few weeks or months of it, it becomes quite natural.  Having learned about God so far only in the context of inclusive language, Evelyn hadn't used a pronoun for God either.  She never asked.  She never seemed to question it. It didn't seem to matter to her until this moment, when she finally used a pronoun and it was a female one.  

I find it fascinating to see the way that the image of the Old Bearded Man Sitting On a Throne on a Cloud doesn't have to be the default childhood image of God.  For so long I've believed that must be the universal image of God when a young faith is just blossoming.  That's how God was always painted in murals and how God was constructed in stained glass, and how I saw God until I was...I dunno... 20? and "He" is so much easier to say than adjusting the phrasing of a sentence to render a pronoun unnecessary.  "He" often fits better into hymns and praise songs.  "He" is the default because for so long we have lived in a patriarchal world.  

Cultural constructs around gender are changing, and I see that change is already taking shape in the way my little girl's mind is forming.  She has no idea that women were ever considered less than men.  She has no idea that there's any power differential between her and her brother, between her daddy and I.  She has no reason to believe that the One who created us has to be male.  

I don't know how long she'll see God as female, and that's not what matters to me.  What matters to me is that she develops an image of the Divine that works for her specific and individual relationship with God, and not just what some Sunday School curriculum or picture book has told her God looks like.  I love that she is a part of our church, with our Sunday School teacher, Miss Olivia, who is open to the unique interpretations our kids come up with, and that she's a part of this time and place where cultural constructs are being questioned and challenged, and where people are free to form their own ideas.

--Pastor Joanna

Sermon Reflection | November 17, 2013

Hi Friends!
I don't know how long it takes a normal person to get back into the swing of work after maternity leave, but I feel like I might be finally getting there.  This week is my fourth week back.  I am usually about 15 minutes late every morning, but I do make it to the office, and I am always dressed.  This morning I fit back into some pants I haven't fit in for a while and my 2-year-old exclaimed, "Oh Mommy, congratulations!" followed by, "You're soft; I want to hold you."  I always wonder how those little minds work.  She is certainly back into the swing of toddlerhood and has taken to life as a big sister quite well.  She only likes the baby when he does something, which is very rare at this stage in babyhood.  At least it gives me confidence that she will love him more the older he gets!

I'm also feeling as if we're getting back into the swing of things because the church seems to be revving up again.  First of all, yesterday was our largest attendance in two months.*  Second, our little one-room Sunday School is building in consistency and excitement.  We don't have a lot of kids in our church, but the ones we have are so fun and unique and I want them to have a great place to learn here.  Our new CE director, Olivia, is doing such a great job serving kids ages 2 years to 7th grade - a very, very difficult task.  And the best part-- they're coming!  Consistently!  And they're enjoying it. Third, we have many great programs and ideas in place and ready to get started.  I'm afraid several things fell by the wayside when summer came along.  People were out of town, I was tired and pregnant . . . but now we're ready to start book study again, along with a monthly film viewing called "Popcorn in the Pews."  We'll be joining Madison's Prison Ministry by attending worship services at Fox Lake Correctional Facility.  Confirmation class is up and running . . . Well, let's just say it feels like the church is a fun place to be right now!

*Don't get me wrong-- I fully believe that numerical attendance isn't a sign of success in itself but it is still great when people show up!

Okay folks, part of getting back into the swing of things is that I'm ready to get back to my sermon reflections on here.  So here goes!

Read: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17*, Luke 14:28-35
It's important to read The Message Version of this passage, which goes: "May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech."
Listen: "Look What We've Built!"
Dig a little deeper: This week was Stewardship Sunday.  I am always asking the church, "what gifts do you have?" in a rhetorical way, and therefore no one ever responds to me!  This Sunday I asked about surprising gifts, but in an even broader sense.  I asked the question, "What are three things about you that might surprise us?"  Here were some of the many interesting responses we had:

Several people responded about what they want to be when they grow up.

• Maria, who is a musician, said, "As a child I loved to draw house plans and wanted to be an architect."
• Laura, a senior in high school, said, "I tell people that I'm interested in psychology and journalism, (and I am,) but when it comes down to it I truly have no idea what I want to be when I grow up."
• Holly, one of our college students, said, "I want to be a high school guidance counselor when I grow up."
• Casey wants to raise bison and meat chickens and his wife Erin has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up!
• My husband used to want to be a priest but now he wants to be a stay-at-home dad.
• Maggie, a freshman in high school, said, "I want to be a pilot."
• When Robyn, a mother of two, grows up she wants to still be a kid.

Several people talked about fears and things they hate

• Barb is afraid of coffee.
• Kara is afraid of heights.
• Maggie is afraid to become an adult.
• Maria hates coconut.
• Tim hates "labels, and people who hold fast to dogma, ideology, and political parties." (I wasn't surprised)
• Maic "doesn't care for" the Beatles, Harry Potter, Star Trek, and Vodka

And I couldn't believe the things some people said about their eating habits: 

• Stephanie has eaten raw fish eggs out of Green Lake.
• Tim loves M&Ms and bacon, together I assume.
• Andy has eaten raccoon
• Kurt, one of our tall, lean members likes to eat fast food once a week
• Bob loves meatloaf and mashed potatoes (at least some people around here are normal...)

So, what does this all have to do with our faith?  What do you think?  How do you think silly questions like this help us to grow together as a faith community?  Answer in the comments!

P.S.  I didn't have the time to write a sermon reflection on this sermon from last week (From One Generation to Another), but I do think you should listen to it, and if you do you might want to see the following articles, which I referenced in the sermon.
1. NPR "To Stave Off Decline, Churches Attract New Members With Beer"
2. This article on Nadia Bolz-Weber is where I first learned about her, but you're probably better off looking at her personal website.
3. National Geographic show, "Church Rescue"

Introducing Our New Christian Education Director!

Hi Church! 

After being so blessed by a wonderful interim Christian Education Director, we have hired Olivia Wetzel to fill the permanent position.  Olivia was the obvious choice for us, as she has been such a great nursery attendant, working with our other nursery attendant Nalani for the last several months.  Our little ones think she and Nalani are just awesome, and we're really glad that Olivia can step up and work with them more often throughout the week.  Olivia will be delivering children's messages, teaching Sunday School, continuing her work in the nursery, and coordinating family/church family activities.  She will also be posting monthly on this blog. This position is in constant re-definition right now as we work to understand what Christian Education means in our community, and Olivia and I are excited to work together with the Christian Education Committee to make that happen.  

Please come meet her and get to know her during coffee hour on Sunday, August 25th.  

Here is the introduction that Olivia contributed to the August edition of The Spire, our church newsletter. 

"Hello UCC Community!

            My name is Olivia Wetzel and I will be serving as the Director of Youth Christian Education! I just finished my undergraduate career at Ripon College and I am currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the field of professional school counseling. During the school year, I provided nursery care to the church community, but I am extremely excited to take on this new position as a Christian educator. One of my favorite things about the UCC church is the open and caring environment. In this environment, I feel that I have the unconditional support to help inspire the youth of the church community to engage in their own faith journeys.

            I am greatly looking forward to working with not only the youth of the church, but also its adult members in discussing different topics in faith and also organizing events for the church community as a whole. To kick off the start of Sunday School, I would love to meet you at coffee hour after the service on August 25^th! Hope to see you there! Continue to have a safe and fun summer!" -- Olivia

Peace to you all!
Pastor Joanna

            

Sermon Reflection | July 28, 2013

Hello Church! 

Let me tell you some things that are exciting me:

• Our youth had a brat fry fundraiser on Saturday and they raised $637.35!!  Along with a Matching Grant from the Webster Foundation, which matches up to $500, we were able to just barely break our goal of $1100!  How cool is that?  I'm really proud of them.  
• With this money, they will be going to Chicago to participate in a weekend of mission experiences including serving at soup kitchens and food distribution centers, witnessing the wealth disparity in the city of Chicago as they drive through both wealthy neighborhoods and neighborhoods in poverty, and on Sunday morning attending worship at Lawndale Community Church, a church much different in worship style and size from our own.  The program that is leading this trip is called Center for Student Missions.  You can learn more about it here.
• The community-wide VBS is coming up! I'm anxious to see how this goes, as it will be my first year seeing it in action.  The goal is to host 200 of the communities children in this way, and so far there are already 133 registered!  If you're interested, go here to register: http://www.riponvbs.org/
• We have officially hired our new, permanent Christian Education director, Olivia Wetzel!  Her job at the church is to work with the Sunday School kids and help develop opportunities for fellowship for everyone, but especially for young families, in the church (ie: ice skating, trivia nights, movie nights, retreats, etc.).  Olivia is a recent graduate of Ripon College and is going on to get her Master's Degree at the University of Oshkosh in professional school counseling.  She'll be posting here on the blog once a month, so look out for her posts!

Okay, what's really cool is that this is a lot of stuff about youth and children!  I like that kinda stuff because it's an area where I see our church evolving in the next few years, and I'm feeling confident that we have the right people-- from volunteers to paid staff like Olivia-- to lead the way.  

Now, sermon reflection. 

Read: Psalm 85 and Luke 11:1-13

Listen: Help me and Thank you

Dig a Little Deeper:  

     The book that I referred to during my sermon, "Help Thanks Wow" by Anne Lamott can be found here on Amazon.  I might suggest checking your local bookstore first (I see nothing wrong with Amazon, but I always try local first!) but if you don't find it there or don't have a chance to get out anytime soon, now you have the link.  Also, Amazon has a Kindle Edition. 

     There are about 10 million ways to talk about this passage from Luke.  I do have an appreciation for the preachers who dissect the Lord's prayer and help us remember why we say it every single Sunday.  I even appreciate the preachers who do a sermon series on it, using one line from the Lord's prayer each Sunday for several weeks.  But it didn't seem like quite the right time for that here, this week.  Instead I wanted to talk about asking God to help us in times when we feel completely overwhelmed.  I've met a lot of overwhelmed people since coming to Ripon.  This is a town full of people who DO THINGS.  Lots and lots of things.  And while I know they are often fulfilled and glad to serve, I also see people get overwhelmed more often than not. 

     So I wanted to share my image of God the Organizer.  My new favorite image, at least for this point in my life.  This is the God who sorts and stacks and arranges and helps to make our lives make more sense.  I hope you like this image of God too.  

Several Pastoral Thoughts

Hello Church and Blog Readers!

First I'll offer the inevitable Blogger Apology-- I'm so sorry I've been absent!  I want to say that it's because I've had a couple of Sundays when I haven't preached lately, which is true, but the other truth is I've been rather inundated with *stuff.*  A lot of church stuff, but mostly life and family and pregnancy *stuff.*  For some reason (nostalgia, perhaps?) I thought I loved being pregnant last time.  This time around there's a little less love and a little more whining and complaining.  After I get through with my daily whining and complaining, it seems I have little time left to write a blog entry!  Chin up; press on! 

Some compassionate words from the Gospel of John (who doesn't know first hand what he's talking about; but still manages to be sweetly sympathetic.  Good man, John.  Good man.):  

Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 

As long as I'm already rambling about my pregnancy, I'd like to share a link to a blog entry from the Young Women Clergy Network: Your Pregnant Pastor: Ten Things You Should Know

Okay, moving on.  

Some really cool things are happening here at the church.  I might as well start by moving up just a tad in the age bracket from the pregnancy subject-- we are starting a new program called Tiny Spirit Saturdays for babies and toddlers.  I am so excited about this opportunity for our church and the community.  There's wisdom in those little souls and it's time for us to explore it!

Cool thing that's happening, number two:  A relocation of our church library!  We will still have the main stash of library books down in the Adult Lounge, but since we know that very few people frequent that area we've decided to move a couple of bookshelves up to the main hall outside the sanctuary.  This will happen in upcoming weeks.  On that note, we'd love some book recommendations because it's been a few years since we stocked our library.  What theological books have you loved to read recently?  Motivational novels?  Prayers and devotionals?  

Cool thing that's happening, number three: We have a new projection system installed in the sanctuary!  How awesome is that?  This system was made possible through an anonymous donation.  It looks so beautiful and the opportunities it provides for worship abound.    

The first week with the projector went really well.  The service itself was unique and beautiful because it was Children's Sunday.  The children shared their "This I believe" statements that they have been writing during Sunday school-- simple statements about what they believe about the goodness and possibilities of the world, and especially what the church should be striving for as we try to become more like Jesus.  Here are the statements they came up with: 

I believe that people who have a lot should give up something to help people in need. 

I believe there is no right way to pray. 

I believe we should be friends.

I believe we should get food every day.

I believe you can do anything as long as it isn't bad.

I believe people should go outside more.

I believe brothers and sisters should be kind to each other.

I believe life is good.

I believe God is in everything. 

I believe everyone should be able to learn to the best of their abilities.

I believe we should hold open doors for others, let other cars into our lanes, and give others the opportunity to go first. 

I want to share a few other links to this week's children's sermon.  The Children's Choir sang "We Are the Church" <http://bit.ly/12Fsjoh>. In a reversal appropriate for the day, I gave an Adult's Moment <http://bit.ly/Z6qz9v>. And for the offertory Nalani and Esther played a piano duet, "The Water Is Wide" <http://bit.ly/10OHskh>.  

After the worship service, we had a church picnic in which we heard music from Nalani's band, "Rock Candy" and had face painting!  It was such a fun day!

Some of our youth and children listening to the band.

Beautiful girls!

Remember that thing John said up there ^^ about not remembering the anguish?
There she is-- my human being!  Joy abounds.  

Rock Candy! 

The Lone Pinata.  He's beheaded now. 

Thanks to everybody for reading a somewhat rambling post.  I'm happy to say that after this week we'll be back on the regular sermon reflection schedule!  Grace and peace to all of you! 

Pastor Joanna

A Prayer for Boston

So I'm a few days late on posting this week, but I'm asking for your grace and understanding. This has been a difficult, emotional week for me. Allow me to egocentrically explain:

On Saturday, I was on Long Island for a dear friend's bridal shower. It was fantastic to see my best friends again--to celebrate the promise of things to come, to hear good news, and to belly laugh the way you do with people who have shared every aspect of your life for the past 7+ years. It was also incredibly painful for me to realize how temporary this was, and made me yearn for just a little more time with them. Another week seemed perfect. And so on Saturday, I was on the phone with Southwest Airlines, hoping that they might generously postpone my flight home until next Saturday, so I could go to Boston, visit more friends, cheer on the Marathon runners, and listen to my beloved gospel choir in their concert on Friday night. I was heartbroken when Southwest wanted to charge me another $300 in order for that to happen. Which wasn't going to happen. I'll be honest, I cried. It wouldn't be the last time this week, either. 

My heart is in anguish within me,

the terrors of death have fallen upon me. 

Fear and trembling come upon me,

and horror overwhelms me.

And I say, 'O that I had wings like a dove!'

Then...well, we've all heard the news. Pressure cooker bombs. Cell signals overrun. Three dead, hundreds injured--and how many more unreported with broken spirits, injuries unable to be cured in a hospital? Families separated. Complete chaos, utter fear of the unknown. Exceptional first-responders. Marathoners giving blood in the minutes after they finished the race. Students organizing to walk the final five miles for those who didn't get to finish. TV personalities expressing solidarity with the city in their own way. 

And then there's the rest of it. Factories exploding, even more school shootings, earthquakes around the world, controversial legislative votes. The Onion actually expressed my thoughts on the week well (warning: explicit language, if you're offended by that stuff). 

Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech;

for I see violence and strife in the city.

Day and night they go around it on its walls,

and iniquity and trouble are within it;

ruin is in its midst...

And then I woke up this morning and found out my beloved city was on lockdown. As David and I listened to Boston radio stations online (Thank God for the internet), I could barely keep it together. As we saw descriptions of neighborhoods we knew well, pictures of buildings in which I've worked or shopped or walked by, I was so scared for my city. My home. And I felt torn. I know my family is grateful that I didn't stay the extra week in Boston--and I am, too, to a certain extent--except that I'm not really. My heart, mind, and soul are stuck 1,157 miles east of here. It's isolating. Heart-wrenching. Like a mother who can't stand to watch her children suffer, I can't bear sitting so far away as I watch the place I love, the place where I grew up, where my friends still live, become a police state. 

But I call upon God,

and the Lord will save me.

Evening and morning and at noon

I utter my complaint and moan,

and [God] will hear my voice.

The Psalm I've been referencing is Psalm 55, a lament--a song of grief, loss, suffering--attributed to King David. In my own words, I like to imagine the composition of the psalm as something like this: "Hey, God, it's me. And you're going to listen to me right now. I know you're busy or whatever, but I need you right now. Things are really rough around here--like, really bad. Have you SEEN the news? Everyone's dying or suffering or being scammed. It's hard to deal. Even people I thought I knew well are saying things that don't make sense anymore. They're so calm when they talk about terrifying things, hateful things. And I want to ask you to destroy them, to enact revenge, but...well..instead, I'm asking you to be with me. I need you right now--we all need you right now. That's all I'm asking. Remind me that I'm not alone."

I will trust in you. 

We are not alone. GOD is with us.
Behind locked doors in an East-coast city, God IS with us.
Stranded 1,157 miles away from your heart's yearnings, God is WITH us.
As we wrestle with how we should react to the past week's events, God is with US.

Amen.

"Maybe I'm NOT Starving..."

Last weekend, five members of our confirmation class, two friends from Our Saviour's UCC, and four adults went hungry. For 30 hours. More specifically, we participated in World Vision's 30-Hour Famine, a “a worldwide movement of students who are serious about serving God and fighting hunger—all on an empty stomach.” And we, just like 18% of our world's population (or 20% of U.S. children), we went hungry for a day. 

Now, it's not like we sat around and stared at each other for 24 hours, listening to our stomachs growl. We played games, watched videos about world hunger, visited tenants and served lunch at a local assisted living facility, and watched a fantastic documentary about hunger in the United States called "A Place at the Table" (go check it out!). By my observation, this documentary is what really hit home with our groups that weekend. By the time we sat down to watch it, we hadn't consumed anything--with the exception of some apple juice or grape juice--for about 26 hours. We had just served lunch to 40 senior citizens, and beef stew had NEVER smelled that good. As Thomas A. Dorsey sang, we were tired; we were weak; we were worn.

And while we dozed in and out of catnaps through the documentary, one thing became abundantly clear to us: we are not starving. We were hungry, sure. But for those of us locked in the church that weekend, we had taken solace in knowing that, once 6 p.m. rolled around, we'd have food from Fat Bruce's waiting for us. And some of us had been getting text messages asking what we'd want to eat at home after the unimaginable action of not eating had been completed. 

But you know what? Unfortunately, it isn't unimaginable. Nearly one billion people go hungry every day. In our own nation, the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, fifty million people--one in four children--don't know where their next meal is coming from. ONE IN FOUR. This enrages me. And this weekend, it shocked some of our youth, as well.  Praise God.

In our discovering injustices like this, a holy anger can develop. And I do believe it can be a holy anger. As we all know, learning doesn't always lead to happy celebrations. Sometimes, learning something new can open a Pandora's Box to the injustices of the world, imbalances among God's children, and complete breaches from what God has called us to do. Isaiah proclaimed this very same holy anger throughout his prophetic lifetime. God's word spoke through Isaiah, who called out to the people unaware of injustices in his time in this way:

Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke? 
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 
if you offer your food to the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
   and your gloom be like the noonday. 
The Lord will guide you continually,
   and satisfy your needs in parched places,
   and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
   like a spring of water,
   whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58:6-7, 10-11)

What is the fast we choose? Is it to share our food with the hungry? Is it to satisfy the needs of those who are really hurting? And what does it really mean to do those things? Over the course of the weekend, we spoke about what it might mean for us--and by all means, talk with the youth about their thoughts coming out of the weekend! They'd be happy to share. But these are demands that we should all be taking under consideration. 

What is the fast that you choose?

Tradition on Fire

As a part of my own ordination process in the UMC, I recently had to go through a "barrage of tests" to determine various aspects of my personality and learn how traits might impact my ministry. It was a long and draining process, but a blessing to see an outsider's view of what my gifts--and challenges--could be while pursuing my vocation.

While much of the results seemed right on-point (I'm energetic, creative, a big-picture person, and not-always-good on follow-through), one seemed ridiculously out-of-place. According to the results, I don't like history or tradition.

I was floored. Me, the Church-History-Scholar, anti-tradition. Mrs. "I wrote my senior thesis on renaissance music and to this day geek out over Tudor England," against history. I could tell you more than you'd ever care to know about the development of far too many hymns and hymnals. And yet, there was my paper reflection looking back at me, claiming my dislike of what came before. Obviously, the results were off. But why?

It seems the tests missed that my love of history stands beside my yearning for relevance. History, on its own, is never enough. A meditation by Franciscan friar Richard Rohr reminded me that we must always have one foot in our historical faith communities and one foot in the larger world; one foot rooted in a good tradition that will hold you accountable to honest (though often difficult) truths and one foot in our own worlds of service, occupation, and subgroups. Christianity, more than anything else, is a lifestyle which should move beyond mere belief and styles of worship and into new systems to support each other as we live lives contrary to dominant culture. As Rohr said,

"How else can we imitate the surrender of Jesus, who did exactly the same in relation to his own Jewish religion? He never left it, and yet in some ways he always left it when it did not heal or help people. He formed his own little "parachurch" within and yet alongside the Jewish priestly system, which became, rightly or wrongly, its own separate religion which we now call Christianity."

We've been talking at First Congo a lot recently about what our mission is to be NOW. Who we are, where we've been, and what we want to be. And a big part of that is determining how to share our identity, our message, with others beyond our walls. As anyone familiar with 12-Step programs can tell you, we don't really embrace an idea ourselves until we actively carry it with us and teach it to others. We have to find the Love, and then give the Love away. 

It's amazing to me how these two things don't always happen in the same group.  And yet, both grounds are so, so important. Our history, our tradition, is what makes us who we are, is our well-spring and home base. The other, the outside, is the channel away from home that keeps our well from pooling up or becoming brackish. God may lead us beside still waters, but those waters are never stagnant. As composer Gustav Mahler is accredited with once saying, "Tradition is tending the fire, not worshiping the ashes."

And so we must. We must all put on our Educator hats, and go forth from this place to give the Love away to those in search of it. With that mission, however, a slew of questions. If our world looks different than it did last time we thought about such things, how does that change how we share our same tradition? How does our tradition's depth of beautiful worship, history of social justice, and identity within the gospel shape our responses to the world outside? And how can our gatherings at our well-spring better prepare us to go forth as Love-givers in the community?

May we carefully--and creatively?--tend the fire, and set the whole world aflame.

So what exactly IS Christian Education?

"Christian Education" is a funny thing, isn't it?

I mean, educating an identity--any identity, really--is a funny thing. Some people are Christian, some aren't. Some aren't sure what they are. Some feel drawn to Christianity some days more than others, and--if you've been following this week's NPR series on the rise of the "nones" (another really interesting [and important] discussion, if you ask me)--some consider Christianity more a part of their past than their present.

So we've got an identity. And for many people in various places along the "Christian identity" spectrum mentioned above, we've got some sort of education. Sunday School, Bible studies, books of all kinds, movies, retreats, and gatherings all serve, in some way, as a method and means of education into what it means to identify with this religion/community/way of life. And that's where we start to get ourselves in trouble.

Being human means that we get caught up from time to time in worrying that we're doing something "right:" that we're feeding our kids well, that our parents are being cared for, that we're doing our part to keep God's Creation beautiful. And just like it extends to education in general, our concerns for doing something "right" will just as often extend to Christian education.

What does doing it "right" consist of? For some, it means memorizing as many Bible verses as you can. Telling those great stories we remember learning in Sunday School. Singing the "Good Old Hymns."  For even others, it means making sure our kids are willing to say grace before dinner and bring an offering on Sunday. Oh yeah, it means that they'll be well behaved all the time, too. *cough*

For me, I think Christian Education is many of these things. But I also think that Christian Education is something larger. Christian Education, primarily and fundamentally, is about learning how to recognize God in, around, and among us. That's why we learn so many of the Bible stories--through them, we see how God was at work with others that are a part of our world, our larger history as a community. That's why we sing those hymns--these are the most heartfelt testimonies of others of how God was/is/will be working in lives. And (spoiler!) it's not something that can--or should--be done by one person at one department at one church. It's something to be done by all. 

We are a part of the family of God. We are God's own. If nobody else can see the movement of the Holy Spirit at work in this world, we have to stand up and say, "I see you, God. I see you at work in the world. I see what you're doing, God, and I won't just sit idly by." And if we can do that after reading together, beautiful. If we can do with towels on our heads, dressed up as shepherds in a Christmas pageant, awesome. If all it takes is coming together as a community for a fun afternoon of ice-skating for us to see the work of God in our lives, than I think my job is complete.

What does doing it "right" mean to you with regard to Christian Education? What are your most memorable "epiphanies" from any of your CE experiences? Questions, comments, recipes?