A recent segment on NPR's Science Friday featured a science teacher who has her students blog as part of the learning experience. (It's well worth the 45 minutes or so it takes to listen to the entire program.) Since I live in a University community, I've heard students mention the fact that they are sometimes required to use classroom blogs as well. Schools and universities aren't the only ones that can use blogs in the classroom, of course! Sunday school classes, youth groups, Confirmation classes, Bible study groups, or other church groups that meet regularly could use blogs as well to enhance the learning experience. Here are a few suggestions...

My sixteen year old son excels at math and science. He has always enjoyed these subjects and he is readily able to grasp new concepts and ideas in these subject areas. He is also an avid reader, reading pretty much anything that has words. Writing, however, is different. He has never enjoyed writing and has had to work at making himself do it. Although he has the skills and is a good writer, he just doesn’t like to write. As he has struggled with having to write even though he doesn’t like it, my message to him has been, “Even if you are the most intelligent person in the world, if you cannot communicate your ideas to other people, they are meaningless.”

I believe this same concept applies to ministry. You may have planned the most extraordinary Christian Education event your church has ever experienced. Yet if people are not aware the event is happening, they will not come. Although you have heard it before, the message here is worth repeating – communicate, communicate, communicate!

On the brink of Holy Week
I anticipate the excitement,
confusion, disappointment,
fear, anger, sorrow and joy
to come with the remembrance
of past events.

About to fall forward,
I pull myself back and
remind myself to
experience the journey
as it is remembered.

This article by Tim Gossett was originally posted on March 25, 2009.

The "Huh?/Yeah!" Bible Study

These articles by Tim Gossett were originally posted on December 2, 2008 and March 31, 2009.

Start a listserv of your own (Part 1)

Start a listserv of your own (Part 2)

As promised last Monday, here are six more ideas for activities that will appeal to a persons with a variety of learning styles. Last week’s ideas and this list are, of course, only a beginning. As the saying goes, the possibilities are endless. Have you discovered an activity that appeals to youth and/or adults? Share your experience with others by posting a comment below, or sending me an email.

Be brave. Try something new. Encourage class members to be open-minded and willing to try different activities. Note what types of activities work best for your class.

If you have been paying close attention over the past two weeks, you probably noticed that the articles with my name on them have come from the archives of the DifferentVoice.com website. My plan had been to take this month off from writing new articles, because a major life change was to take place in my household. Two weeks ago today, a baby girl was born in a nearby town that had been promised to us by the birthparents. That day was to be the endpoint of our more than 4 year journey to adopt a child. (I've previously described our long wait as our never-ending season of Advent.) Things did not go as planned, however, and the birthparents decided 24 hours after the child was born—and after we had spent part of the day with her—that they were going to keep the child. For the past two weeks, I've been grieving the loss of that child and the relationships we had formed with that entire family. The sadness was deep and like nothing I had ever experienced before in my life.

As is true for many people today, I reached out to share the news through Facebook with my friends, since I had provided occasional updates about the adoption in recent weeks there. Many wonderful and loving comments in response to my messages helped me to begin to move through the grief…but a realization soon dawned in me. While I was grateful for all of the well-wishes and promises to hold us in prayer, I yearned for friends to be physically in my presence. I wished for someone to literally stop by to give me a hug, go for a walk with me, or take me out for a cup of coffee. In short, I needed to experience a more literal "with" in Paul's well-known instruction to "Weep with those who weep" in Romans 12:15. 

The following review written by Tim Gossett was originally posted on July 2, 2009.

Review of The Void and the Vision by Dr. Carl Krieg

Palm Sunday is a fun day for children and adults alike. As we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, we wave palm branches and shout Hosanna! Excitement is in the air. Many children (and adults) leave church on Palm Sunday on that wave of excitement, and return a week later. Easter! He is risen! This is the best news of all. It is another joyous morning of worship and Sunday School.