a focus on family ministry
We know from research that family religiosity can be a powerful predictor for youth to remain religious themselves as they enter adulthood. We know that Unitarian Universalists who come to our churches as adults have had little, if any, exposure to our religious education curricula, theology, or history. We know that a number of writers in the mainstream Christian community identify a focus on Family Ministry as one faithful response to 21st century realities.[1] In light of all this, incorporating an intentional strengthening of family ministry seems a faithful direction to lean.
Family Ministry identifies the role of the church as a chief support in the spiritual development of congregants of all ages. With particular respect to children and youth, the congregation’s role is to provide support and partnership to parents, who own the primary responsibility for their children’s spiritual growth. It requires us to live into a belief that our religious education programs are supplemental faith formation programs and not intended to be the sole system of delivery. Changing the Sunday School-centric model of religious education creates space for our churches and religious professionals to intentionally and explicitly equip parents to be their children’s first and most consistent religious educators all week long.
In Unitarian Universalist congregations, we routinely make commitments to share in the growth and development of children and families in our baby dedication and child naming ceremonies. Full Week Faith challenges us to live into those covenants, and discern our role in equipping parents to be religious educators in their homes. It invites congregants of all ages to be active participants in their own faith formation journeys, and to be both witness and support to their siblings in the pews. Encouraging the practice of a Full Week Faith helps deepen and solidify religious identity between worship times, and invites congregations to lower their church’s walls and to explore relevance and presence in the places where our people live, work, and learn.
mission driven church
Some first century church practices and characteristics may serve our contemporary congregations quite well as we move forward into an uncertain future. Here are some of those characteristics, and how those principles apply as part of a Full Week Faith approach to our faith formation ministries.
One of the characteristics of the first century church was a first-hand experience of transformational ministry. Some of those church leaders actually witnessed Jesus’ ministry, or perhaps knew someone who had. Those stories of witness to the transformational power of acts of faith were incredibly powerful. We have those stories too. Not stories of changing water to wine, no, but stories of the transformative power of love in action; powerful stories of the saving Grace of Unitarian Universalism. Part of the work of religious professionals in a Full Week Faith paradigm is to find ways to lift up those stories not only as part of a Sunday School lesson, but through a variety of means, in varied places and platforms.
The early church met in small groups, in intimate gatherings in homes where members were comfortable and connected as family. Providing opportunities to know one another deeply is one of the hallmarks of our Small Group Ministry programs, whose materials have been developed to be used across generations. Being part of a small congregation, or intentionally creating small touch groups within a larger congregation, enables us to hold each other closely in support, accountability, and fidelity to our spiritual growth.
First century church leaders knew exactly what their call was – to go forth and spread the Good News. For Full Week Faith to be most effective in our congregations, each of our churches must be able to identify their call as well. In their book, Holy Conversations, Alice Mann and Gil Rendle aver that healthy congregations will be able to answer three questions: Who are we? What is our purpose? Who are our neighbors? Knowing your congregational mission is essential to faith formation ministries. Each of our churches will have a unique answer to these questions. Out of their engagement with these questions will emerge with more clarity what that congregation’s call in the world might be. From there, our religious educators can choose appropriate curricular materials and the entire staff team and lay leadership can lead the congregation in identifying its gifts and bringing them to the world. Connection to Spirit, one another, and our own faith journeys will be deepened.
Then, as now, people experience a deep craving for intimacy, authenticity, and for the opportunity to be of service. Our people today are yearning to make a difference, to be part of something that matters. There are myriad ways that one may choose to enact those yearnings. Our faith offers opportunities to create beloved community while we grow as moral and spiritual beings. Our faith has a saving theology and stories that this world needs. There are many voices clamoring to be heard out there in the world, and we must not be shy about adding our own if we hope to not only survive, but thrive; to be faithful to our ancestors and relevant to those who will take up and light the chalice for generations yet unborn. We, too, have Good News to share.
faithfully leveraging technology
Today’s technology allows us to make our social networks more visible, and gives us access to networks we might not otherwise have. Social media has tremendous potential to deepen connections and to magnify ministries, but it is important to engage these tools faithfully, to remember that those of our siblings who do not have access to technology, either by circumstance or by choice, must not be left behind.
Millions of people around the country access social media sites every day, and they do so at least in part out of the deep human craving to see and be seen; to know and be known. Social media technology allows loved ones separated by long distances to be in one another’s company again. It enables circles of love and support in times of a health crisis. It crowdsources funds for everything from heritage trips, to justice projects, to building repairs. It provides a platform for our message of love and faith to be part of our people’s everyday lives. It lowers our congregation’s walls and invites others in. It democratizes our experience of faith and anoints us each to be messengers of a saving and transcendent Love.
Living with intention as a family of faith, learning to seek and accept the mentoring of generations both before us and behind, meeting the world in all its hurt and need and potential for transformation out where it lives: these are the values served by Full Week Faith.
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[1]. Some examples of this are John Roberto’s Faith Formation 2020 and his companion website http://www.21stcenturyfaithformation.com; Intergenerational Faith Formation by Mariette Martineau, Joan Weber, and Leif Kehrwald; Reggie Joiner’s Think Orange books and complementary web-based resources and conferences; and Christian Faith Formation and Education in the United Church of Christ (United Church of Christ, 2012), http://uccfiles.com/pdf/UCCChristianFaithFormationandEducationReport.pdf.
We know from research that family religiosity can be a powerful predictor for youth to remain religious themselves as they enter adulthood. We know that Unitarian Universalists who come to our churches as adults have had little, if any, exposure to our religious education curricula, theology, or history. We know that a number of writers in the mainstream Christian community identify a focus on Family Ministry as one faithful response to 21st century realities.[1] In light of all this, incorporating an intentional strengthening of family ministry seems a faithful direction to lean.
Family Ministry identifies the role of the church as a chief support in the spiritual development of congregants of all ages. With particular respect to children and youth, the congregation’s role is to provide support and partnership to parents, who own the primary responsibility for their children’s spiritual growth. It requires us to live into a belief that our religious education programs are supplemental faith formation programs and not intended to be the sole system of delivery. Changing the Sunday School-centric model of religious education creates space for our churches and religious professionals to intentionally and explicitly equip parents to be their children’s first and most consistent religious educators all week long.
In Unitarian Universalist congregations, we routinely make commitments to share in the growth and development of children and families in our baby dedication and child naming ceremonies. Full Week Faith challenges us to live into those covenants, and discern our role in equipping parents to be religious educators in their homes. It invites congregants of all ages to be active participants in their own faith formation journeys, and to be both witness and support to their siblings in the pews. Encouraging the practice of a Full Week Faith helps deepen and solidify religious identity between worship times, and invites congregations to lower their church’s walls and to explore relevance and presence in the places where our people live, work, and learn.
mission driven church
Some first century church practices and characteristics may serve our contemporary congregations quite well as we move forward into an uncertain future. Here are some of those characteristics, and how those principles apply as part of a Full Week Faith approach to our faith formation ministries.
One of the characteristics of the first century church was a first-hand experience of transformational ministry. Some of those church leaders actually witnessed Jesus’ ministry, or perhaps knew someone who had. Those stories of witness to the transformational power of acts of faith were incredibly powerful. We have those stories too. Not stories of changing water to wine, no, but stories of the transformative power of love in action; powerful stories of the saving Grace of Unitarian Universalism. Part of the work of religious professionals in a Full Week Faith paradigm is to find ways to lift up those stories not only as part of a Sunday School lesson, but through a variety of means, in varied places and platforms.
The early church met in small groups, in intimate gatherings in homes where members were comfortable and connected as family. Providing opportunities to know one another deeply is one of the hallmarks of our Small Group Ministry programs, whose materials have been developed to be used across generations. Being part of a small congregation, or intentionally creating small touch groups within a larger congregation, enables us to hold each other closely in support, accountability, and fidelity to our spiritual growth.
First century church leaders knew exactly what their call was – to go forth and spread the Good News. For Full Week Faith to be most effective in our congregations, each of our churches must be able to identify their call as well. In their book, Holy Conversations, Alice Mann and Gil Rendle aver that healthy congregations will be able to answer three questions: Who are we? What is our purpose? Who are our neighbors? Knowing your congregational mission is essential to faith formation ministries. Each of our churches will have a unique answer to these questions. Out of their engagement with these questions will emerge with more clarity what that congregation’s call in the world might be. From there, our religious educators can choose appropriate curricular materials and the entire staff team and lay leadership can lead the congregation in identifying its gifts and bringing them to the world. Connection to Spirit, one another, and our own faith journeys will be deepened.
Then, as now, people experience a deep craving for intimacy, authenticity, and for the opportunity to be of service. Our people today are yearning to make a difference, to be part of something that matters. There are myriad ways that one may choose to enact those yearnings. Our faith offers opportunities to create beloved community while we grow as moral and spiritual beings. Our faith has a saving theology and stories that this world needs. There are many voices clamoring to be heard out there in the world, and we must not be shy about adding our own if we hope to not only survive, but thrive; to be faithful to our ancestors and relevant to those who will take up and light the chalice for generations yet unborn. We, too, have Good News to share.
faithfully leveraging technology
Today’s technology allows us to make our social networks more visible, and gives us access to networks we might not otherwise have. Social media has tremendous potential to deepen connections and to magnify ministries, but it is important to engage these tools faithfully, to remember that those of our siblings who do not have access to technology, either by circumstance or by choice, must not be left behind.
Millions of people around the country access social media sites every day, and they do so at least in part out of the deep human craving to see and be seen; to know and be known. Social media technology allows loved ones separated by long distances to be in one another’s company again. It enables circles of love and support in times of a health crisis. It crowdsources funds for everything from heritage trips, to justice projects, to building repairs. It provides a platform for our message of love and faith to be part of our people’s everyday lives. It lowers our congregation’s walls and invites others in. It democratizes our experience of faith and anoints us each to be messengers of a saving and transcendent Love.
Living with intention as a family of faith, learning to seek and accept the mentoring of generations both before us and behind, meeting the world in all its hurt and need and potential for transformation out where it lives: these are the values served by Full Week Faith.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[1]. Some examples of this are John Roberto’s Faith Formation 2020 and his companion website http://www.21stcenturyfaithformation.com; Intergenerational Faith Formation by Mariette Martineau, Joan Weber, and Leif Kehrwald; Reggie Joiner’s Think Orange books and complementary web-based resources and conferences; and Christian Faith Formation and Education in the United Church of Christ (United Church of Christ, 2012), http://uccfiles.com/pdf/UCCChristianFaithFormationandEducationReport.pdf.