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!

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.

Last Monday, I wrote about the need to include activities that appeal to different learning styles and different intelligences in Sunday School and other small group studies across the age spectrum. My guess is that in many churches, the discovery will be that children’s classes offer a variety of activities, while youth and adult classes use one, two or maybe three types of activities the majority of the time. If your church is an exception, and you are consistently including all learners of all ages, then I say to you, “That’s great!” And then I invite you to post a comment or send me an email sharing what steps you took to get to this point and any other advice you can offer to churches that would like to move in that direction.

For the rest of us, I offer half a dozen ways to add variety to youth and adult classes. These are general ideas to start you thinking. Remember that you don’t need to do incorporate all of the activities in one lesson! The goal is to work towards variety so that over time you will offer activities that meet the needs of all learners.

I recently had a discussion with a youth Sunday School teacher concerning his frustration with how youth Sunday School was going. He was out of ideas about how to engage the youth and maintain their interest and attention. During our discussion, he admitted that the activities the class had done consisted mostly of presentation of a topic and discussion, with an occasional video thrown in. This didn’t surprise me. First of all, I know this teacher well, and these methods are his preferred learning styles. (I don’t fault him or any teacher for favoring activities that appeal to his or her learning methods. It is a natural tendency, but one of which we must be aware.) Secondly, many youth and adult classes use these methods of learning.

The public library is one of the best resources available to a Christian educator. In fact, there are so many good reasons to use your local library that I think it's worth scheduling a weekly or bi-weekly time to work from there, as I do most weeks. (My wife, though, firmly believes our library needs to have a smaller limit on the number of items one can have checked out!) Here are some of the reasons I hang out there so frequently.

Regardless of whether you are teaching a story from the Old or New Testament, it is important to keep in mind that the story was not originally written down for you or me or our students. The intended audience for the Bible when it was written was different from us in many ways. They lived in a society with different customs, lifestyles and expectations. They wore different clothes, ate different foods and had different occupations (no computer programmers back then). For these reasons, it is important when teaching Bible stories to keep context in mind.

What makes Sunday School at a progressive church different than Sunday School at other churches? It is not necessarily the curriculum that is used in Sunday School, but the manner in which it is taught that sets a progressive Sunday School ministry apart from its counterparts.

Our motto at Different Voice is: “Embrace life. Nurture Spirituality. Inspire change.” These are also worthy goals for a progressive Sunday School ministry. In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, I explored ways that progressive Sunday School ministries embrace life and nurture spirituality.

A progressive Sunday School ministry also inspires change.

What makes Sunday School at a progressive church different than Sunday School at other churches? It is not necessarily the curriculum that is used in Sunday School, but the manner in which it is taught that sets a progressive Sunday School ministry apart from its counterparts.

Our motto at Different Voice is: “Embrace life. Nurture Spirituality. Inspire change.” These are also worthy goals for a progressive Sunday School ministry. In Part 1 of this series, I explored ways that progressive Sunday School ministries embrace life.

A progressive Sunday School ministry also nurtures spirituality.

Many congregations offer only one worship service, preceded or followed by a Sunday school hour. Those who have two services generally hold Sunday school between them. Either way, when the time comes to add a new class for adults (something you really should be doing regularly!), the assumption tends to be that it should meet during the Sunday school hour. However, you might want to experiment with adding that class at another time: the hour before or after the service that is not already dedicated to Sunday school. Why? Here are 6 reasons. 

A few weeks ago, I was asked by a long-time Christian educator what trends were emerging in Christian education. Little did he know that trend-watching is a subject I took a significant interest in many years ago, so I was more than happy to respond with a list of some of the trends I am watching or expecting to develop. Each of the ten trends below has implications for faith formation in your congregation, so I encourage you to take this list and discuss it with your ministry boards and staff.  In truth, some of these trends have been around for several years now, I'd say, but they are beginning to move from the larger congregations to the mid-sized and smaller churches. 

After you read my list, post a comment and tell me about the Christian education trends you are noticing in your corner of the world. Agree or disagree, I'd love to hear your opinion! (I'll run a Part 2 with some additional trends based on your feedback and ideas.)