How is your congregation helping members of your congregation and community cope in this difficult economy? Many possibilities exist, from setting up job boards on the church website, to offering instructional classes on gardening or canning, to bringing in a financial planner to help the congregation learn about dealing with budgeting or debt. Your approach will depend on the community's situation and the skills and gifts the congregation members have.

Another idea that utilizes the power of small groups is Simplicity Circles. In this type of small group, members gather to learn about living more simply while supporting one another as they change and develop new lifestyle patterns.

When Summer Sunday School is mentioned, it is easy to list reasons not to do it. (You know the arguments, so I’m not going to list them!) Though perhaps not so easily thought of, there are also reasons to continue Sunday School during the summer months.

Daily Voice readers and subscribers are a diverse group of people! We know you stretch from (at least) Honolulu to New York (well, not you personally, of course!), and this message is read by clergy and laity, professional Christian educators and volunteers. We try to craft our emails to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, but the reality is that sometimes the messages may be more basic or advanced than you would like. Starting today, we'll occasionally indicate a topic which is particularly introductory (or simply critical for all Christian educators to understand) as "Back to Basics" or BtB, for short.

First up: Bible-to-Life or Life-to-Bible curriculum?

Sunday School attendance trends are often predictable – increased attendance during Advent and at Easter, decreased attendance in January and toward the end of the school year. It is sometimes tempting to enjoy the decreased class sizes. Not that we would admit that out loud, but sometimes a quieter, less hectic classroom seems like a welcome guest. Why, I wonder, if we take our Sunday School ministry seriously, do we tend to accept decreases in attendance and make excuses for busy families?

Ask a group of Sunday School teachers why they first began teaching, and you are likely to get a variety of responses. “My child’s class needed a teacher.” “The Christian Education Director talked me into it.” “I enjoy working with children/youth/adults.” “I don’t remember.”

 In an age when nearly everyone has access to the web, thereby having access to huge amounts of content related to the Bible, faith, Christianity, doctrine, progressive theology, and much more, what place do Christian education classes (e.g. Sunday school)--especially for adults--still have?

Not all that long ago, pastors and Sunday school teachers were the repositories of religious knowledge. In reality, they often simply just had the study guide! But still, there was an expectation that the teacher would generally have more information at their fingertips that they would impart to the students. At least two developments radically changed that.

Last Monday, Tim wrote about community. Sunday School teachers are a community of individuals who have all agreed (or been encouraged) to teach. One of the values of holding a teacher training session at the beginning of each year (even if all of your teachers have taught Sunday School before) is establishing the identity of these individuals as a group. Here are some ideas to promote connections between your teachers throughout the year.

Facebook, used daily by millions of people around the world, has yet to turn a profit. One of their new attempts to generate revenue is to take their classified ads to a new level—social networking. For example, an individual may list something she is selling with all of the proceeds going to Kiva (a microenterprise loan organization). Her facebook friends or those interested in the item for sale may, as a result, learn about Kiva and discover common hobbies and concerns.

At the website 29 Gifts, the concept of personal sharing becomes a communal experience...

Sometimes simple little things are big things. Today I offer four easy suggestions. None of these are rocket science. (That’s a topic for another day…) They are, however, practices to implement as reminders that the stories and teachings upon which we base our faith are found in the Bible.

When it comes to your adult education ministries, sometimes it's just as important to help your congregation understand why you offer educational opportunities for adults as it is to advertise what your congregation is doing.

Here's a quick little blurb I have used in a church newsletter for this purpose. (Unfortunately, I no longer have a note that indicates whether I originally wrote it or whether I borrowed/adapted it from somewhere. If you recognize it, please let me know so I may give credit where it's due!) This pretty succinctly states what I believe to be true about adult educational ministries. I encourage you to write your own statement which fits your own congregation and your vision for Christian education.