One of the comments I have in my earlier posting is how do we define spiritual maturity?
St.Paul’s words come to mind, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (Gal.4:19). Interesting, as if St.Paul have experienced childbirth before! However “Christ is formed in you’ is the goal of spiritual formation, discipleship, and Christian education. It is more than bearing the fruit for the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23). It is becoming like Christ or bearing the image of Christ in ourselves
To take on the character of Christ is to restore the imago dei inside of us. We distorted the imago dei or the image of God when Adam sinned against God. The noun selem is used in the Old Testament means “something made in the likeness of something else…used for human being created “in the image of God”:…it is a moral and spiritual likeness…The concept may also be relational: men and women have the unique ability to image God to one another as well as to image God back to God.” In the New Testament, the Greek word is the noun eikόn which is used to identify Christ as the perfect representation or likeness of God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col.1:15). In kind it is used to refer to the “image” of God in the Christian (1 Cor.11:7), who is being transformed into the perfect “likeness’ of Christ (Rom.8:29; 2 Cor.3:18).”
A fascinating survey comes to mind. The Search Institute in the United States of America conducted an Effective Christian Education Study: A National Study of Protestant Congregations survey in 1989. Its purpose is to examine the effectiveness of congregation based Christian education. The study group states that “the primary aim of congregational life is to nurture-among children, youth, and adults-a vibrant, life-changing faith, the kind of faith that shapes one’s way of being, thinking and acting.” (Benson and Eklin 1990, 9). To do that, they first have to define mature faith, which will be the outcome of the congregational life. They did an open ended survey with several hundreds theology scholars, denomination and local congregation leaders and ended up with “eight core dimensions of faith” which defines a person with mature faith.
These are:
(1) “Trusts in God’s saving grace and believes firmly in the humanity and divinity of Jesus
(2) Experiences a sense of personal well-being, security, and peace
(3) Integrates faith and life, seeing work, family, social relationships, and political choices as part of one’s religious life
(4) Seeks spiritual growth through study, reflection, prayer, and discussion with others
(5) Seeks to be part of a community of believers in which people gives witness to their faith and support and nourish one another
(6) Holds life affirming values, including commitment to racial and gender equality, affirmation of cultural and religious diversity, and a personal sense of responsibility for the welfare of others
(7) Advocates social and global changes to bring about greater social justice
(8) Serves humanity, consistently and passionately, through acts of love and justice”
(Benson and Eklin 1990,10)
These 8 core characteristics are useful markers to measure spiritual maturity.
What do you think?
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Markers of Christian Maturity
One of the comments I have in my earlier posting is how do we define spiritual maturity?
St.Paul’s words come to mind, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (Gal.4:19). Interesting, as if St.Paul have experienced childbirth before! However “Christ is formed in you’ is the goal of spiritual formation, discipleship, and Christian education. It is more than bearing the fruit for the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23). It is becoming like Christ or bearing the image of Christ in ourselves
To take on the character of Christ is to restore the imago dei inside of us. We distorted the imago dei or the image of God when Adam sinned against God. The noun selem is used in the Old Testament means “something made in the likeness of something else…used for human being created “in the image of God”:…it is a moral and spiritual likeness…The concept may also be relational: men and women have the unique ability to image God to one another as well as to image God back to God.” In the New Testament, the Greek word is the noun eikόn which is used to identify Christ as the perfect representation or likeness of God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col.1:15). In kind it is used to refer to the “image” of God in the Christian (1 Cor.11:7), who is being transformed into the perfect “likeness’ of Christ (Rom.8:29; 2 Cor.3:18).”
A fascinating survey comes to mind. The Search Institute in the United States of America conducted an Effective Christian Education Study: A National Study of Protestant Congregations survey in 1989. Its purpose is to examine the effectiveness of congregation based Christian education. The study group states that “the primary aim of congregational life is to nurture-among children, youth, and adults-a vibrant, life-changing faith, the kind of faith that shapes one’s way of being, thinking and acting.” (Benson and Eklin 1990, 9). To do that, they first have to define mature faith, which will be the outcome of the congregational life. They did an open ended survey with several hundreds theology scholars, denomination and local congregation leaders and ended up with “eight core dimensions of faith” which defines a person with mature faith.
These are:
(1) “Trusts in God’s saving grace and believes firmly in the humanity and divinity of Jesus
(2) Experiences a sense of personal well-being, security, and peace
(3) Integrates faith and life, seeing work, family, social relationships, and political choices as part of one’s religious life
(4) Seeks spiritual growth through study, reflection, prayer, and discussion with others
(5) Seeks to be part of a community of believers in which people gives witness to their faith and support and nourish one another
(6) Holds life affirming values, including commitment to racial and gender equality, affirmation of cultural and religious diversity, and a personal sense of responsibility for the welfare of others
(7) Advocates social and global changes to bring about greater social justice
(8) Serves humanity, consistently and passionately, through acts of love and justice”
(Benson and Eklin 1990,10)
These 8 core characteristics are useful markers to measure spiritual maturity.
What do you think?
St.Paul’s words come to mind, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (Gal.4:19). Interesting, as if St.Paul have experienced childbirth before! However “Christ is formed in you’ is the goal of spiritual formation, discipleship, and Christian education. It is more than bearing the fruit for the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23). It is becoming like Christ or bearing the image of Christ in ourselves
To take on the character of Christ is to restore the imago dei inside of us. We distorted the imago dei or the image of God when Adam sinned against God. The noun selem is used in the Old Testament means “something made in the likeness of something else…used for human being created “in the image of God”:…it is a moral and spiritual likeness…The concept may also be relational: men and women have the unique ability to image God to one another as well as to image God back to God.” In the New Testament, the Greek word is the noun eikόn which is used to identify Christ as the perfect representation or likeness of God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col.1:15). In kind it is used to refer to the “image” of God in the Christian (1 Cor.11:7), who is being transformed into the perfect “likeness’ of Christ (Rom.8:29; 2 Cor.3:18).”
A fascinating survey comes to mind. The Search Institute in the United States of America conducted an Effective Christian Education Study: A National Study of Protestant Congregations survey in 1989. Its purpose is to examine the effectiveness of congregation based Christian education. The study group states that “the primary aim of congregational life is to nurture-among children, youth, and adults-a vibrant, life-changing faith, the kind of faith that shapes one’s way of being, thinking and acting.” (Benson and Eklin 1990, 9). To do that, they first have to define mature faith, which will be the outcome of the congregational life. They did an open ended survey with several hundreds theology scholars, denomination and local congregation leaders and ended up with “eight core dimensions of faith” which defines a person with mature faith.
These are:
(1) “Trusts in God’s saving grace and believes firmly in the humanity and divinity of Jesus
(2) Experiences a sense of personal well-being, security, and peace
(3) Integrates faith and life, seeing work, family, social relationships, and political choices as part of one’s religious life
(4) Seeks spiritual growth through study, reflection, prayer, and discussion with others
(5) Seeks to be part of a community of believers in which people gives witness to their faith and support and nourish one another
(6) Holds life affirming values, including commitment to racial and gender equality, affirmation of cultural and religious diversity, and a personal sense of responsibility for the welfare of others
(7) Advocates social and global changes to bring about greater social justice
(8) Serves humanity, consistently and passionately, through acts of love and justice”
(Benson and Eklin 1990,10)
These 8 core characteristics are useful markers to measure spiritual maturity.
What do you think?
Faith Community in Christian Education (3)
Faith community is the matrix in which people come to have personal experience of God, model, encourage, teach, and build up one another. Here the members teach each other though the leaders may have a curriculum. Its setting is more in informal life situations. This process is also known as socialisation or enculturation.
John Westerhoff from Duke University describes “intentional religious socialisation or enculturation” as “a process consisting of lifelong, intentional and unintentional, formal and informal mechanisms through which persons and communities sustain and transmit their faith (worldview and value system) and lifestyles.” For religious education, he defines it as “deliberate systematic, and sustained efforts within a community of faith which aim at enabling persons and groups to evolve particular ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.” However he thinks that socialisation is broader than education because it includes the hidden curriculum of the community and the overt curriculum of the educator. Therefore he suggested a community of faith-socialisation paradigm as the better alternative to the schooling-instructional paradigm which is being commonly used.
John Westerhoff later began to use the term catechesis which have three components: formation, education, and instruction. He writes,
Formation implies ‘shaping’ and refers to intentional, relational, experiential activities within the life of a story-formed faith community. Education implies ‘reshaping’ and refers to critical reflective activities related to these communal experiences. And instruction implies ‘building’ and refers to the means by which knowledge and skills useful to communal life are transmitted, acquired and understood. Formation forms the body of Christ, education reforms it, and instruction builds it up.
John Westerhoff from Duke University describes “intentional religious socialisation or enculturation” as “a process consisting of lifelong, intentional and unintentional, formal and informal mechanisms through which persons and communities sustain and transmit their faith (worldview and value system) and lifestyles.” For religious education, he defines it as “deliberate systematic, and sustained efforts within a community of faith which aim at enabling persons and groups to evolve particular ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.” However he thinks that socialisation is broader than education because it includes the hidden curriculum of the community and the overt curriculum of the educator. Therefore he suggested a community of faith-socialisation paradigm as the better alternative to the schooling-instructional paradigm which is being commonly used.
John Westerhoff later began to use the term catechesis which have three components: formation, education, and instruction. He writes,
Formation implies ‘shaping’ and refers to intentional, relational, experiential activities within the life of a story-formed faith community. Education implies ‘reshaping’ and refers to critical reflective activities related to these communal experiences. And instruction implies ‘building’ and refers to the means by which knowledge and skills useful to communal life are transmitted, acquired and understood. Formation forms the body of Christ, education reforms it, and instruction builds it up.
Westerhoff has noted that influence of Christian community as an education approach. To achieve Christian formation through intentional assimilation into the Christian worldview, he suggested 8 aspects of communal life:
(1) communal rites (repetitive, symbolic and social actions which express and manifest the community’s sacred narrative along with its implied faith and life.)
(2) church environment (including architectural spaces and artefacts)
(3) time (Christian calendar)
(4) communal life (polity, programs and economic life as well as support behaviour)
(5) discipline (structured practices within the community)
(6) social interaction (interpersonal relations and motivations)
(7) role models (exemplars and mentors
(8) language ( which names and describe behaviour)
Hauerwas, S. and J. H. Westerhorff (1992). Schooling Christians: "Holy Experiments" in American Education. Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans. p. 262-281.
Other educators who espouse the importance of community in Christian education includes C. Ellis Nelson, Charles Foster, Richard Osmer, and Craig Dyskra.
The strength of this approach is that the priesthood of all believers are affirmed and that the Christian faith community is upheld. One weakness is that it is often difficult to intentionally enculturate. Another weakness is that it is assumed that the Christian faith community will remain faithful in obedience to Christ. The danger of this approach is that as the community may shape and influence an individual, an individual may also shape and influence the community.
Faith Community in Christian Education (3)
Faith community is the matrix in which people come to have personal experience of God, model, encourage, teach, and build up one another. Here the members teach each other though the leaders may have a curriculum. Its setting is more in informal life situations. This process is also known as socialisation or enculturation.
John Westerhoff from Duke University describes “intentional religious socialisation or enculturation” as “a process consisting of lifelong, intentional and unintentional, formal and informal mechanisms through which persons and communities sustain and transmit their faith (worldview and value system) and lifestyles.” For religious education, he defines it as “deliberate systematic, and sustained efforts within a community of faith which aim at enabling persons and groups to evolve particular ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.” However he thinks that socialisation is broader than education because it includes the hidden curriculum of the community and the overt curriculum of the educator. Therefore he suggested a community of faith-socialisation paradigm as the better alternative to the schooling-instructional paradigm which is being commonly used.
John Westerhoff later began to use the term catechesis which have three components: formation, education, and instruction. He writes,
Formation implies ‘shaping’ and refers to intentional, relational, experiential activities within the life of a story-formed faith community. Education implies ‘reshaping’ and refers to critical reflective activities related to these communal experiences. And instruction implies ‘building’ and refers to the means by which knowledge and skills useful to communal life are transmitted, acquired and understood. Formation forms the body of Christ, education reforms it, and instruction builds it up.
John Westerhoff from Duke University describes “intentional religious socialisation or enculturation” as “a process consisting of lifelong, intentional and unintentional, formal and informal mechanisms through which persons and communities sustain and transmit their faith (worldview and value system) and lifestyles.” For religious education, he defines it as “deliberate systematic, and sustained efforts within a community of faith which aim at enabling persons and groups to evolve particular ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.” However he thinks that socialisation is broader than education because it includes the hidden curriculum of the community and the overt curriculum of the educator. Therefore he suggested a community of faith-socialisation paradigm as the better alternative to the schooling-instructional paradigm which is being commonly used.
John Westerhoff later began to use the term catechesis which have three components: formation, education, and instruction. He writes,
Formation implies ‘shaping’ and refers to intentional, relational, experiential activities within the life of a story-formed faith community. Education implies ‘reshaping’ and refers to critical reflective activities related to these communal experiences. And instruction implies ‘building’ and refers to the means by which knowledge and skills useful to communal life are transmitted, acquired and understood. Formation forms the body of Christ, education reforms it, and instruction builds it up.
Westerhoff has noted that influence of Christian community as an education approach. To achieve Christian formation through intentional assimilation into the Christian worldview, he suggested 8 aspects of communal life:
(1) communal rites (repetitive, symbolic and social actions which express and manifest the community’s sacred narrative along with its implied faith and life.)
(2) church environment (including architectural spaces and artefacts)
(3) time (Christian calendar)
(4) communal life (polity, programs and economic life as well as support behaviour)
(5) discipline (structured practices within the community)
(6) social interaction (interpersonal relations and motivations)
(7) role models (exemplars and mentors
(8) language ( which names and describe behaviour)
Hauerwas, S. and J. H. Westerhorff (1992). Schooling Christians: "Holy Experiments" in American Education. Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans. p. 262-281.
Other educators who espouse the importance of community in Christian education includes C. Ellis Nelson, Charles Foster, Richard Osmer, and Craig Dyskra.
The strength of this approach is that the priesthood of all believers are affirmed and that the Christian faith community is upheld. One weakness is that it is often difficult to intentionally enculturate. Another weakness is that it is assumed that the Christian faith community will remain faithful in obedience to Christ. The danger of this approach is that as the community may shape and influence an individual, an individual may also shape and influence the community.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The Mission of the Trinity
CHRISTIAN VISION PROJECT Christianity Today
The Mission of the Trinity
Singaporean theologian Simon Chan says 'missional theology' has not gone far enough.
Interview by Andy Crouch posted 6/04/2007 09:26AM
Simon Chan may be the world's most liturgically minded Pentecostal. The Earnest Lau professor of systematic theology at Trinity Theological College in Singapore is both a scholar of Pentecostalism and a leader in the Assemblies of God, but his recent books, Spiritual Theology and Liturgical Theology, engage with wider and older Christian traditions as well. Worship, Chan believes, is not just a function of the church, but the church's very reason for being. Our big question for 2007 focuses on global mission: What must we learn, and unlearn, to be agents of God's mission in the world? Christian Vision Project editorial director Andy Crouch interviewed Chan while Chan was a visiting scholar at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, to find out whether fully joining God's mission may require that we unlearn some of our assumptions about mission itself.
You have written a great deal about liturgical theology, but missional theology seems more popular these days.
I think that missional theology is a very positive development. But some missional theology has not gone far enough. It hasn't asked, What is the mission of the Trinity? And the answer to that question is communion. Ultimately, all things are to be brought back into communion with the triune God. Communion is the ultimate end, not mission.
If we see communion as central to the life of the church, we are going to have an important place for mission. And this is reflected in the ancient fourfold structure of worship: gathering, proclaiming the Word, celebrating the Eucharist, and going out into the world. The last, of course, is mission. But mission takes its place within a larger structure. It is this sense of communion that the evangelical world especially needs. Communion is not just introspection or fellowship among ourselves. It involves, ultimately, seeing God and seeing the heart of God as well, which is his love for the world.
In many services today, the dismissal into the world is quite perfunctory. But if you go to an Orthodox service, you'll be amazed at the elaborate way in which the end of the service is conducted. It's not just a word of dismissal—there are whole prayers and litanies that prepare us to go back out into the world.
If liturgical worship is such a good preparation for mission, why are Pentecostalism and evangelicalism, which hardly follow the ancient structure of worship, growing so fast?
In the modern age, the free churches are evangelistically successful, but in the broader history of mission that hasn't always been true. Europe was evangelized in the early centuries by missionaries who were certainly not free-church evangelicals. And think of the spread of the Orthodox Church from Russia to northern Africa.
In Singapore, we keep very close statistics about the growth of the Assemblies of God, which is currently the second-largest Protestant denomination in the country. We are good at evangelizing, bringing people in, but we have also noticed that many of those people that we have brought into our churches would over time go to more traditional churches and seeker-friendly megachurches. Our net growth isn't really that much, but in terms of bringing people in, yes, we have significant numbers of people being brought into the church for the first time. It may be that in God's providence he is using free churches, Pentecostals, and charismatics to reach out to the world, but I still believe that his aim is to embrace them all within the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
Surely part of Pentecostalism's success is its ability to adapt rapidly in a technological culture.
Pentecostals are definitely very adaptable. They are quick to seize upon new opportunities for the sake of the gospel. They make use of the technologies of the times. There is a certain habit of mind that enables them to readily leave behind things that don't work and to move on to things that they think will work. Whereas the liturgy creates a different habit of mind, a habit of stability. This has its strengths and weaknesses, just as the Pentecostal mindset has its strengths and weaknesses. But in my view, in the modern world especially, the danger of a short memory far outweighs the danger of not being willing to change.
What do we need to learn and unlearn about making disciples?
We need to rediscover this ancient word, catechism. In a way, it is very straightforward. Its purpose is to help people become the body of Christ and be incorporated into the church. And I don't think that the modern church can improve very much on what has already been given: the creeds, the great commandments, the Lord's Prayer. Those are the basic things that help the church develop its identity as the church of Jesus Christ. We can certainly add other training programs, but I think the catechism should be central to any training of disciples.
Now, the traditional approach was rote learning, asking questions and memorizing the responses. That may not be the most useful approach now, although it's surprising how some of those things we learn by rote stick at the back of our minds for a lifetime. But there are many other things that need to be addressed as the church enters into new contexts. The basic content of the catechism needs to address contextual issues.
For example, in some parts of the world, in the course of catechetical instruction, when we come to the Christian's renunciation of the world and of idolatry, that can quite literally mean that you have to give up your fetishes and idols. It's not metaphorical. Similarly, exorcism, which is still practiced in a liturgical way in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches when people are being prepared for baptism, may be much more than just a ritual in some parts of the world. People who are involved in black magic and the like actually have to renounce these things and have demons cast out of them.
In our context in Singapore, the act of baptism is seen even by non-Christians as the most critical moment of a person's life. Traditional Chinese do not mind their children going to church. In fact, they'll say, well, the church can teach you good things—but don't get baptized. Because the moment you get baptized, you burn your bridge with traditional religion. They understand baptism better than some of our evangelical Christians!
I'm an advisor to a local Assemblies of God church, and I know some of the people in our church who have been in our church for years, who have even taken up leadership positions in the church but who are not baptized.
What does the Asian church have to contribute to our understanding of discipleship and mission?
I believe the traditional Asian family structure, with its emphasis on extended family and authority within the family, could be very helpful to the Western church and its tendency to atomize the Christian community into autonomous individuals. Western people have great difficulty understanding that a hierarchical structure is not necessarily opposed to individual freedom. They tend to think of hierarchy as an arrangement of domination. But that is not the way we see it in Asia.
Likewise, in our more traditional cultures, the value attached to marriage helps us in instructing people in the importance of baptism. When you go through that process, there's a profound and permanent change of relationship and status. But in the context where marriage is a kind of convenient arrangement, it's very difficult to teach sacramental theology. So in a way, I can see why free churches in the West talk a lot about the church and leave out the sacraments.
Can't modernity be described as a loss of sacramentality? There's nothing particularly special about the world, and we can remake it as we will.
That's right. But I think in many traditional societies outside the West, the sense of the sacred is still strong. It is beginning to give way as modernity comes in, especially in urban places. But in many other contexts, the sacred is still there. I think that provides a good point of contact for linking them with the Christian faith. This is one of the reasons why Christianity has a special appeal among what we might call tribal societies, where there is still a strong sense of the sacramental universe.
What does the church need to learn and unlearn about mission in your cultural setting?
Unfortunately, when Asian churches start to be involved in cross-cultural mission, especially churches in the more affluent societies like Korea and Singapore, many of them seem to repeat the mistakes of earlier missionaries. For example, after Cambodia opened up to the rest of the world, mission groups, many originating in Asia, rushed in. There are countless mission groups working in Cambodia. But they simply perpetuate the denominationalism that they so strenuously condemned in their own countries. So we haven't quite learned our lesson.
Asian Christians, too, can come with the same colonial mentality that Westerners once did, thinking that we've got all the answers because we have the money.
It's kind of reassuring as a Westerner to know we're not the only ones who make these mistakes.
At the same time, there's a lot to be thankful for. Many Asian churches are devoting huge amounts of money to the mission field. I was telling a colleague here at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary yesterday that some megachurches have mission budgets that are bigger than the budget of Trinity Theological College! And they are using that to go and preach the gospel. We can be thankful for that. But at the same time, we need to look at mission in the longer term and engage in things that are going to bear lasting fruit. There are still many parts of Asia, especially tribal regions, where the Bible is not available in the local language. I believe that the key to long-term mission success is to place the Bible in the hands of people in their local language. But this kind of work requires years and years of commitment. And I'm afraid that many of our churches are just not patient. They want to get things done quickly. They want to have results. They want statistics to show.
read complete article
The Mission of the Trinity
Singaporean theologian Simon Chan says 'missional theology' has not gone far enough.
Interview by Andy Crouch posted 6/04/2007 09:26AM
Simon Chan may be the world's most liturgically minded Pentecostal. The Earnest Lau professor of systematic theology at Trinity Theological College in Singapore is both a scholar of Pentecostalism and a leader in the Assemblies of God, but his recent books, Spiritual Theology and Liturgical Theology, engage with wider and older Christian traditions as well. Worship, Chan believes, is not just a function of the church, but the church's very reason for being. Our big question for 2007 focuses on global mission: What must we learn, and unlearn, to be agents of God's mission in the world? Christian Vision Project editorial director Andy Crouch interviewed Chan while Chan was a visiting scholar at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, to find out whether fully joining God's mission may require that we unlearn some of our assumptions about mission itself.
You have written a great deal about liturgical theology, but missional theology seems more popular these days.
I think that missional theology is a very positive development. But some missional theology has not gone far enough. It hasn't asked, What is the mission of the Trinity? And the answer to that question is communion. Ultimately, all things are to be brought back into communion with the triune God. Communion is the ultimate end, not mission.
If we see communion as central to the life of the church, we are going to have an important place for mission. And this is reflected in the ancient fourfold structure of worship: gathering, proclaiming the Word, celebrating the Eucharist, and going out into the world. The last, of course, is mission. But mission takes its place within a larger structure. It is this sense of communion that the evangelical world especially needs. Communion is not just introspection or fellowship among ourselves. It involves, ultimately, seeing God and seeing the heart of God as well, which is his love for the world.
In many services today, the dismissal into the world is quite perfunctory. But if you go to an Orthodox service, you'll be amazed at the elaborate way in which the end of the service is conducted. It's not just a word of dismissal—there are whole prayers and litanies that prepare us to go back out into the world.
If liturgical worship is such a good preparation for mission, why are Pentecostalism and evangelicalism, which hardly follow the ancient structure of worship, growing so fast?
In the modern age, the free churches are evangelistically successful, but in the broader history of mission that hasn't always been true. Europe was evangelized in the early centuries by missionaries who were certainly not free-church evangelicals. And think of the spread of the Orthodox Church from Russia to northern Africa.
In Singapore, we keep very close statistics about the growth of the Assemblies of God, which is currently the second-largest Protestant denomination in the country. We are good at evangelizing, bringing people in, but we have also noticed that many of those people that we have brought into our churches would over time go to more traditional churches and seeker-friendly megachurches. Our net growth isn't really that much, but in terms of bringing people in, yes, we have significant numbers of people being brought into the church for the first time. It may be that in God's providence he is using free churches, Pentecostals, and charismatics to reach out to the world, but I still believe that his aim is to embrace them all within the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
Surely part of Pentecostalism's success is its ability to adapt rapidly in a technological culture.
Pentecostals are definitely very adaptable. They are quick to seize upon new opportunities for the sake of the gospel. They make use of the technologies of the times. There is a certain habit of mind that enables them to readily leave behind things that don't work and to move on to things that they think will work. Whereas the liturgy creates a different habit of mind, a habit of stability. This has its strengths and weaknesses, just as the Pentecostal mindset has its strengths and weaknesses. But in my view, in the modern world especially, the danger of a short memory far outweighs the danger of not being willing to change.
What do we need to learn and unlearn about making disciples?
We need to rediscover this ancient word, catechism. In a way, it is very straightforward. Its purpose is to help people become the body of Christ and be incorporated into the church. And I don't think that the modern church can improve very much on what has already been given: the creeds, the great commandments, the Lord's Prayer. Those are the basic things that help the church develop its identity as the church of Jesus Christ. We can certainly add other training programs, but I think the catechism should be central to any training of disciples.
Now, the traditional approach was rote learning, asking questions and memorizing the responses. That may not be the most useful approach now, although it's surprising how some of those things we learn by rote stick at the back of our minds for a lifetime. But there are many other things that need to be addressed as the church enters into new contexts. The basic content of the catechism needs to address contextual issues.
For example, in some parts of the world, in the course of catechetical instruction, when we come to the Christian's renunciation of the world and of idolatry, that can quite literally mean that you have to give up your fetishes and idols. It's not metaphorical. Similarly, exorcism, which is still practiced in a liturgical way in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches when people are being prepared for baptism, may be much more than just a ritual in some parts of the world. People who are involved in black magic and the like actually have to renounce these things and have demons cast out of them.
In our context in Singapore, the act of baptism is seen even by non-Christians as the most critical moment of a person's life. Traditional Chinese do not mind their children going to church. In fact, they'll say, well, the church can teach you good things—but don't get baptized. Because the moment you get baptized, you burn your bridge with traditional religion. They understand baptism better than some of our evangelical Christians!
I'm an advisor to a local Assemblies of God church, and I know some of the people in our church who have been in our church for years, who have even taken up leadership positions in the church but who are not baptized.
What does the Asian church have to contribute to our understanding of discipleship and mission?
I believe the traditional Asian family structure, with its emphasis on extended family and authority within the family, could be very helpful to the Western church and its tendency to atomize the Christian community into autonomous individuals. Western people have great difficulty understanding that a hierarchical structure is not necessarily opposed to individual freedom. They tend to think of hierarchy as an arrangement of domination. But that is not the way we see it in Asia.
Likewise, in our more traditional cultures, the value attached to marriage helps us in instructing people in the importance of baptism. When you go through that process, there's a profound and permanent change of relationship and status. But in the context where marriage is a kind of convenient arrangement, it's very difficult to teach sacramental theology. So in a way, I can see why free churches in the West talk a lot about the church and leave out the sacraments.
Can't modernity be described as a loss of sacramentality? There's nothing particularly special about the world, and we can remake it as we will.
That's right. But I think in many traditional societies outside the West, the sense of the sacred is still strong. It is beginning to give way as modernity comes in, especially in urban places. But in many other contexts, the sacred is still there. I think that provides a good point of contact for linking them with the Christian faith. This is one of the reasons why Christianity has a special appeal among what we might call tribal societies, where there is still a strong sense of the sacramental universe.
What does the church need to learn and unlearn about mission in your cultural setting?
Unfortunately, when Asian churches start to be involved in cross-cultural mission, especially churches in the more affluent societies like Korea and Singapore, many of them seem to repeat the mistakes of earlier missionaries. For example, after Cambodia opened up to the rest of the world, mission groups, many originating in Asia, rushed in. There are countless mission groups working in Cambodia. But they simply perpetuate the denominationalism that they so strenuously condemned in their own countries. So we haven't quite learned our lesson.
Asian Christians, too, can come with the same colonial mentality that Westerners once did, thinking that we've got all the answers because we have the money.
It's kind of reassuring as a Westerner to know we're not the only ones who make these mistakes.
At the same time, there's a lot to be thankful for. Many Asian churches are devoting huge amounts of money to the mission field. I was telling a colleague here at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary yesterday that some megachurches have mission budgets that are bigger than the budget of Trinity Theological College! And they are using that to go and preach the gospel. We can be thankful for that. But at the same time, we need to look at mission in the longer term and engage in things that are going to bear lasting fruit. There are still many parts of Asia, especially tribal regions, where the Bible is not available in the local language. I believe that the key to long-term mission success is to place the Bible in the hands of people in their local language. But this kind of work requires years and years of commitment. And I'm afraid that many of our churches are just not patient. They want to get things done quickly. They want to have results. They want statistics to show.
read complete article
The Mission of the Trinity
CHRISTIAN VISION PROJECT Christianity Today
The Mission of the Trinity
Singaporean theologian Simon Chan says 'missional theology' has not gone far enough.
Interview by Andy Crouch posted 6/04/2007 09:26AM
Simon Chan may be the world's most liturgically minded Pentecostal. The Earnest Lau professor of systematic theology at Trinity Theological College in Singapore is both a scholar of Pentecostalism and a leader in the Assemblies of God, but his recent books, Spiritual Theology and Liturgical Theology, engage with wider and older Christian traditions as well. Worship, Chan believes, is not just a function of the church, but the church's very reason for being. Our big question for 2007 focuses on global mission: What must we learn, and unlearn, to be agents of God's mission in the world? Christian Vision Project editorial director Andy Crouch interviewed Chan while Chan was a visiting scholar at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, to find out whether fully joining God's mission may require that we unlearn some of our assumptions about mission itself.
You have written a great deal about liturgical theology, but missional theology seems more popular these days.
I think that missional theology is a very positive development. But some missional theology has not gone far enough. It hasn't asked, What is the mission of the Trinity? And the answer to that question is communion. Ultimately, all things are to be brought back into communion with the triune God. Communion is the ultimate end, not mission.
If we see communion as central to the life of the church, we are going to have an important place for mission. And this is reflected in the ancient fourfold structure of worship: gathering, proclaiming the Word, celebrating the Eucharist, and going out into the world. The last, of course, is mission. But mission takes its place within a larger structure. It is this sense of communion that the evangelical world especially needs. Communion is not just introspection or fellowship among ourselves. It involves, ultimately, seeing God and seeing the heart of God as well, which is his love for the world.
In many services today, the dismissal into the world is quite perfunctory. But if you go to an Orthodox service, you'll be amazed at the elaborate way in which the end of the service is conducted. It's not just a word of dismissal—there are whole prayers and litanies that prepare us to go back out into the world.
If liturgical worship is such a good preparation for mission, why are Pentecostalism and evangelicalism, which hardly follow the ancient structure of worship, growing so fast?
In the modern age, the free churches are evangelistically successful, but in the broader history of mission that hasn't always been true. Europe was evangelized in the early centuries by missionaries who were certainly not free-church evangelicals. And think of the spread of the Orthodox Church from Russia to northern Africa.
In Singapore, we keep very close statistics about the growth of the Assemblies of God, which is currently the second-largest Protestant denomination in the country. We are good at evangelizing, bringing people in, but we have also noticed that many of those people that we have brought into our churches would over time go to more traditional churches and seeker-friendly megachurches. Our net growth isn't really that much, but in terms of bringing people in, yes, we have significant numbers of people being brought into the church for the first time. It may be that in God's providence he is using free churches, Pentecostals, and charismatics to reach out to the world, but I still believe that his aim is to embrace them all within the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
Surely part of Pentecostalism's success is its ability to adapt rapidly in a technological culture.
Pentecostals are definitely very adaptable. They are quick to seize upon new opportunities for the sake of the gospel. They make use of the technologies of the times. There is a certain habit of mind that enables them to readily leave behind things that don't work and to move on to things that they think will work. Whereas the liturgy creates a different habit of mind, a habit of stability. This has its strengths and weaknesses, just as the Pentecostal mindset has its strengths and weaknesses. But in my view, in the modern world especially, the danger of a short memory far outweighs the danger of not being willing to change.
What do we need to learn and unlearn about making disciples?
We need to rediscover this ancient word, catechism. In a way, it is very straightforward. Its purpose is to help people become the body of Christ and be incorporated into the church. And I don't think that the modern church can improve very much on what has already been given: the creeds, the great commandments, the Lord's Prayer. Those are the basic things that help the church develop its identity as the church of Jesus Christ. We can certainly add other training programs, but I think the catechism should be central to any training of disciples.
Now, the traditional approach was rote learning, asking questions and memorizing the responses. That may not be the most useful approach now, although it's surprising how some of those things we learn by rote stick at the back of our minds for a lifetime. But there are many other things that need to be addressed as the church enters into new contexts. The basic content of the catechism needs to address contextual issues.
For example, in some parts of the world, in the course of catechetical instruction, when we come to the Christian's renunciation of the world and of idolatry, that can quite literally mean that you have to give up your fetishes and idols. It's not metaphorical. Similarly, exorcism, which is still practiced in a liturgical way in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches when people are being prepared for baptism, may be much more than just a ritual in some parts of the world. People who are involved in black magic and the like actually have to renounce these things and have demons cast out of them.
In our context in Singapore, the act of baptism is seen even by non-Christians as the most critical moment of a person's life. Traditional Chinese do not mind their children going to church. In fact, they'll say, well, the church can teach you good things—but don't get baptized. Because the moment you get baptized, you burn your bridge with traditional religion. They understand baptism better than some of our evangelical Christians!
I'm an advisor to a local Assemblies of God church, and I know some of the people in our church who have been in our church for years, who have even taken up leadership positions in the church but who are not baptized.
What does the Asian church have to contribute to our understanding of discipleship and mission?
I believe the traditional Asian family structure, with its emphasis on extended family and authority within the family, could be very helpful to the Western church and its tendency to atomize the Christian community into autonomous individuals. Western people have great difficulty understanding that a hierarchical structure is not necessarily opposed to individual freedom. They tend to think of hierarchy as an arrangement of domination. But that is not the way we see it in Asia.
Likewise, in our more traditional cultures, the value attached to marriage helps us in instructing people in the importance of baptism. When you go through that process, there's a profound and permanent change of relationship and status. But in the context where marriage is a kind of convenient arrangement, it's very difficult to teach sacramental theology. So in a way, I can see why free churches in the West talk a lot about the church and leave out the sacraments.
Can't modernity be described as a loss of sacramentality? There's nothing particularly special about the world, and we can remake it as we will.
That's right. But I think in many traditional societies outside the West, the sense of the sacred is still strong. It is beginning to give way as modernity comes in, especially in urban places. But in many other contexts, the sacred is still there. I think that provides a good point of contact for linking them with the Christian faith. This is one of the reasons why Christianity has a special appeal among what we might call tribal societies, where there is still a strong sense of the sacramental universe.
What does the church need to learn and unlearn about mission in your cultural setting?
Unfortunately, when Asian churches start to be involved in cross-cultural mission, especially churches in the more affluent societies like Korea and Singapore, many of them seem to repeat the mistakes of earlier missionaries. For example, after Cambodia opened up to the rest of the world, mission groups, many originating in Asia, rushed in. There are countless mission groups working in Cambodia. But they simply perpetuate the denominationalism that they so strenuously condemned in their own countries. So we haven't quite learned our lesson.
Asian Christians, too, can come with the same colonial mentality that Westerners once did, thinking that we've got all the answers because we have the money.
It's kind of reassuring as a Westerner to know we're not the only ones who make these mistakes.
At the same time, there's a lot to be thankful for. Many Asian churches are devoting huge amounts of money to the mission field. I was telling a colleague here at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary yesterday that some megachurches have mission budgets that are bigger than the budget of Trinity Theological College! And they are using that to go and preach the gospel. We can be thankful for that. But at the same time, we need to look at mission in the longer term and engage in things that are going to bear lasting fruit. There are still many parts of Asia, especially tribal regions, where the Bible is not available in the local language. I believe that the key to long-term mission success is to place the Bible in the hands of people in their local language. But this kind of work requires years and years of commitment. And I'm afraid that many of our churches are just not patient. They want to get things done quickly. They want to have results. They want statistics to show.
read complete article
The Mission of the Trinity
Singaporean theologian Simon Chan says 'missional theology' has not gone far enough.
Interview by Andy Crouch posted 6/04/2007 09:26AM
Simon Chan may be the world's most liturgically minded Pentecostal. The Earnest Lau professor of systematic theology at Trinity Theological College in Singapore is both a scholar of Pentecostalism and a leader in the Assemblies of God, but his recent books, Spiritual Theology and Liturgical Theology, engage with wider and older Christian traditions as well. Worship, Chan believes, is not just a function of the church, but the church's very reason for being. Our big question for 2007 focuses on global mission: What must we learn, and unlearn, to be agents of God's mission in the world? Christian Vision Project editorial director Andy Crouch interviewed Chan while Chan was a visiting scholar at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, to find out whether fully joining God's mission may require that we unlearn some of our assumptions about mission itself.
You have written a great deal about liturgical theology, but missional theology seems more popular these days.
I think that missional theology is a very positive development. But some missional theology has not gone far enough. It hasn't asked, What is the mission of the Trinity? And the answer to that question is communion. Ultimately, all things are to be brought back into communion with the triune God. Communion is the ultimate end, not mission.
If we see communion as central to the life of the church, we are going to have an important place for mission. And this is reflected in the ancient fourfold structure of worship: gathering, proclaiming the Word, celebrating the Eucharist, and going out into the world. The last, of course, is mission. But mission takes its place within a larger structure. It is this sense of communion that the evangelical world especially needs. Communion is not just introspection or fellowship among ourselves. It involves, ultimately, seeing God and seeing the heart of God as well, which is his love for the world.
In many services today, the dismissal into the world is quite perfunctory. But if you go to an Orthodox service, you'll be amazed at the elaborate way in which the end of the service is conducted. It's not just a word of dismissal—there are whole prayers and litanies that prepare us to go back out into the world.
If liturgical worship is such a good preparation for mission, why are Pentecostalism and evangelicalism, which hardly follow the ancient structure of worship, growing so fast?
In the modern age, the free churches are evangelistically successful, but in the broader history of mission that hasn't always been true. Europe was evangelized in the early centuries by missionaries who were certainly not free-church evangelicals. And think of the spread of the Orthodox Church from Russia to northern Africa.
In Singapore, we keep very close statistics about the growth of the Assemblies of God, which is currently the second-largest Protestant denomination in the country. We are good at evangelizing, bringing people in, but we have also noticed that many of those people that we have brought into our churches would over time go to more traditional churches and seeker-friendly megachurches. Our net growth isn't really that much, but in terms of bringing people in, yes, we have significant numbers of people being brought into the church for the first time. It may be that in God's providence he is using free churches, Pentecostals, and charismatics to reach out to the world, but I still believe that his aim is to embrace them all within the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
Surely part of Pentecostalism's success is its ability to adapt rapidly in a technological culture.
Pentecostals are definitely very adaptable. They are quick to seize upon new opportunities for the sake of the gospel. They make use of the technologies of the times. There is a certain habit of mind that enables them to readily leave behind things that don't work and to move on to things that they think will work. Whereas the liturgy creates a different habit of mind, a habit of stability. This has its strengths and weaknesses, just as the Pentecostal mindset has its strengths and weaknesses. But in my view, in the modern world especially, the danger of a short memory far outweighs the danger of not being willing to change.
What do we need to learn and unlearn about making disciples?
We need to rediscover this ancient word, catechism. In a way, it is very straightforward. Its purpose is to help people become the body of Christ and be incorporated into the church. And I don't think that the modern church can improve very much on what has already been given: the creeds, the great commandments, the Lord's Prayer. Those are the basic things that help the church develop its identity as the church of Jesus Christ. We can certainly add other training programs, but I think the catechism should be central to any training of disciples.
Now, the traditional approach was rote learning, asking questions and memorizing the responses. That may not be the most useful approach now, although it's surprising how some of those things we learn by rote stick at the back of our minds for a lifetime. But there are many other things that need to be addressed as the church enters into new contexts. The basic content of the catechism needs to address contextual issues.
For example, in some parts of the world, in the course of catechetical instruction, when we come to the Christian's renunciation of the world and of idolatry, that can quite literally mean that you have to give up your fetishes and idols. It's not metaphorical. Similarly, exorcism, which is still practiced in a liturgical way in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches when people are being prepared for baptism, may be much more than just a ritual in some parts of the world. People who are involved in black magic and the like actually have to renounce these things and have demons cast out of them.
In our context in Singapore, the act of baptism is seen even by non-Christians as the most critical moment of a person's life. Traditional Chinese do not mind their children going to church. In fact, they'll say, well, the church can teach you good things—but don't get baptized. Because the moment you get baptized, you burn your bridge with traditional religion. They understand baptism better than some of our evangelical Christians!
I'm an advisor to a local Assemblies of God church, and I know some of the people in our church who have been in our church for years, who have even taken up leadership positions in the church but who are not baptized.
What does the Asian church have to contribute to our understanding of discipleship and mission?
I believe the traditional Asian family structure, with its emphasis on extended family and authority within the family, could be very helpful to the Western church and its tendency to atomize the Christian community into autonomous individuals. Western people have great difficulty understanding that a hierarchical structure is not necessarily opposed to individual freedom. They tend to think of hierarchy as an arrangement of domination. But that is not the way we see it in Asia.
Likewise, in our more traditional cultures, the value attached to marriage helps us in instructing people in the importance of baptism. When you go through that process, there's a profound and permanent change of relationship and status. But in the context where marriage is a kind of convenient arrangement, it's very difficult to teach sacramental theology. So in a way, I can see why free churches in the West talk a lot about the church and leave out the sacraments.
Can't modernity be described as a loss of sacramentality? There's nothing particularly special about the world, and we can remake it as we will.
That's right. But I think in many traditional societies outside the West, the sense of the sacred is still strong. It is beginning to give way as modernity comes in, especially in urban places. But in many other contexts, the sacred is still there. I think that provides a good point of contact for linking them with the Christian faith. This is one of the reasons why Christianity has a special appeal among what we might call tribal societies, where there is still a strong sense of the sacramental universe.
What does the church need to learn and unlearn about mission in your cultural setting?
Unfortunately, when Asian churches start to be involved in cross-cultural mission, especially churches in the more affluent societies like Korea and Singapore, many of them seem to repeat the mistakes of earlier missionaries. For example, after Cambodia opened up to the rest of the world, mission groups, many originating in Asia, rushed in. There are countless mission groups working in Cambodia. But they simply perpetuate the denominationalism that they so strenuously condemned in their own countries. So we haven't quite learned our lesson.
Asian Christians, too, can come with the same colonial mentality that Westerners once did, thinking that we've got all the answers because we have the money.
It's kind of reassuring as a Westerner to know we're not the only ones who make these mistakes.
At the same time, there's a lot to be thankful for. Many Asian churches are devoting huge amounts of money to the mission field. I was telling a colleague here at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary yesterday that some megachurches have mission budgets that are bigger than the budget of Trinity Theological College! And they are using that to go and preach the gospel. We can be thankful for that. But at the same time, we need to look at mission in the longer term and engage in things that are going to bear lasting fruit. There are still many parts of Asia, especially tribal regions, where the Bible is not available in the local language. I believe that the key to long-term mission success is to place the Bible in the hands of people in their local language. But this kind of work requires years and years of commitment. And I'm afraid that many of our churches are just not patient. They want to get things done quickly. They want to have results. They want statistics to show.
read complete article
Religious Instruction In Christian Education (2)
Religious instruction is the most commonly used approach in Christian education. This is because of its historical link with catechism classes, the Sunday schools, and the schooling education system.
The main purpose is to transmit religious content. This is often done in a formal education setting.
The strength is that a comprehensive curriculum can be designed and carried out. The teachers have control over the learning experience.
One of weakness of this is that many qualified, committed teachers are needed. Another is that though teaching may have been conducted, learning may not have occurred. The commonest form of the religious instruction approach is the schooling-instructional model.
Religious Instruction In Christian Education (2)
Religious instruction is the most commonly used approach in Christian education. This is because of its historical link with catechism classes, the Sunday schools, and the schooling education system.
The main purpose is to transmit religious content. This is often done in a formal education setting.
The strength is that a comprehensive curriculum can be designed and carried out. The teachers have control over the learning experience.
One of weakness of this is that many qualified, committed teachers are needed. Another is that though teaching may have been conducted, learning may not have occurred. The commonest form of the religious instruction approach is the schooling-instructional model.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education (1)
Seymour and Miller in their book, Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education, describe 5 different approaches or key metaphors in understanding Christian education (Seymour, Miller et al. 1982). These approaches are listed below:(1) Religious instruction where the main activity is the transmission of the religious information done in the context of the classroom.
(2) Faith Community is used to describe the creation of a community where a member can be nurtured to learn and develop his or her faith.
(3) Spiritual development is the various modalities that can be used so that a person can grow into maturity in Christ.
(4)Liberation is the process in which the person and the congregation are allowed the freedom to become who they are to be in Christ.
(5) Interpretation is the process where the members’ perspectives (their life stories) are connected to the Christian perspective (the Christian Story).(Seymour, Miller et al. 1982)
I shall examine these five metaphors or approaches so as to give a general overview of Christian education. As Seymour and Miller have pointed that, there are more than these five approaches in Christian education. These approaches tend to overlap and are not mutually exclusive (1982, 16). New Zealand Christian educator Allan Harkness sees Christian education as a three strand cord of knowledge, personhood, and community (Harkness 1996, 16-36). This is similar to Pazmino’s Educational Trinity of content, persons, and context (Pazmino 2001, 141-145).
Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education (1)
Seymour and Miller in their book, Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education, describe 5 different approaches or key metaphors in understanding Christian education (Seymour, Miller et al. 1982). These approaches are listed below:(1) Religious instruction where the main activity is the transmission of the religious information done in the context of the classroom.
(2) Faith Community is used to describe the creation of a community where a member can be nurtured to learn and develop his or her faith.
(3) Spiritual development is the various modalities that can be used so that a person can grow into maturity in Christ.
(4)Liberation is the process in which the person and the congregation are allowed the freedom to become who they are to be in Christ.
(5) Interpretation is the process where the members’ perspectives (their life stories) are connected to the Christian perspective (the Christian Story).(Seymour, Miller et al. 1982)
I shall examine these five metaphors or approaches so as to give a general overview of Christian education. As Seymour and Miller have pointed that, there are more than these five approaches in Christian education. These approaches tend to overlap and are not mutually exclusive (1982, 16). New Zealand Christian educator Allan Harkness sees Christian education as a three strand cord of knowledge, personhood, and community (Harkness 1996, 16-36). This is similar to Pazmino’s Educational Trinity of content, persons, and context (Pazmino 2001, 141-145).
Defining Christian Education
The challenge in considering contemporary education strategies in Christian faith communities is to define Christian education. Rodney McKean from Azusa Pacific University challenged the usage of the words, “Christian education” when he quoted the graffiti, “Christian education is neither.” What the graffiti implied is that Christian education is neither Christian nor is it education. When used as an adjective, the word “Christian” mean many things to many people. Describing something as Christian does not mean it has to be associated to a church; neither because it is focused on the Bible or theological content; does not equate the United States of America; associated with puritan social values nor western culture. In fact, McKean writes, “In turn, much of what passes for Christian education is merely a condensation of classical western thought and institutional structures with Bible content or orthodox theology (which was also developed and written with a Western world view)”.
What then is the proper definition of Christian education? According to McKean, in the Middle Eastern culture, a person’s name is related to his ancestry and character. “Christ-ian” will mean “son of Christ” and so will have the character of Christ. Education means a learning process is taking place. Learning lead to growth and liberation as learners takes ownership of what they are learning, develop co-explorer relationships with each other, and develop problem solving skills in their daily life. Therefore Christian education means a learning process towards growth and liberation done in the character of Christ.
Robert Pazmino, Valeria Stone Professor of Christian Education at Andover Newton Theological School, surveys the numerous definitions of Christian education and found that these definitions form a continuum.
At one end is formal education which is schooling, “characterised by classroom sessions, learning agendas, teacher directed methodologies, and required courses of study” to informal education at the other end where learning focus is “on acquiring skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values growing out of student interactions with experiences or environment.” Informal education occurs spontaneous in daily living. Somewhere in between is nonformal education which includes intentional educating where there is some structured teaching by teachers to socialisation where the community becomes the teacher. Gary Newton notes “nonformal education relates to deliberate educational strategies based on meeting people’s needs outside of the formal schooling model. Since it tends to be highly functional, change orientated, and learner-driven, nonformal education is a versatile educational approach.”
Pazmino offers the following definition:
Christian education is the deliberate, systematic, and sustained divine and human efforts to share or appropriate the knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, sensibilities, and behaviors that comprise or are consistent with the Christian faith. It fosters the change, renewal, and reformation of persons, groups, and structures by the power of the Holy Spirit to conform to the revealed will of God as expressed in the Scriptures and pre-eminently in the person of Jesus Christ, as well as any outcomes of that effort.
In this definition, Pazmino intentionally placed his definition of Christian education in the centre of the continuum. It is more than schooling but less than socialisation. It allows room for community instruction, and for self-instruction. It is also Trinitarian in its theological emphasis.
What then is the proper definition of Christian education? According to McKean, in the Middle Eastern culture, a person’s name is related to his ancestry and character. “Christ-ian” will mean “son of Christ” and so will have the character of Christ. Education means a learning process is taking place. Learning lead to growth and liberation as learners takes ownership of what they are learning, develop co-explorer relationships with each other, and develop problem solving skills in their daily life. Therefore Christian education means a learning process towards growth and liberation done in the character of Christ.
Robert Pazmino, Valeria Stone Professor of Christian Education at Andover Newton Theological School, surveys the numerous definitions of Christian education and found that these definitions form a continuum.
At one end is formal education which is schooling, “characterised by classroom sessions, learning agendas, teacher directed methodologies, and required courses of study” to informal education at the other end where learning focus is “on acquiring skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values growing out of student interactions with experiences or environment.” Informal education occurs spontaneous in daily living. Somewhere in between is nonformal education which includes intentional educating where there is some structured teaching by teachers to socialisation where the community becomes the teacher. Gary Newton notes “nonformal education relates to deliberate educational strategies based on meeting people’s needs outside of the formal schooling model. Since it tends to be highly functional, change orientated, and learner-driven, nonformal education is a versatile educational approach.”
Pazmino offers the following definition:
Christian education is the deliberate, systematic, and sustained divine and human efforts to share or appropriate the knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, sensibilities, and behaviors that comprise or are consistent with the Christian faith. It fosters the change, renewal, and reformation of persons, groups, and structures by the power of the Holy Spirit to conform to the revealed will of God as expressed in the Scriptures and pre-eminently in the person of Jesus Christ, as well as any outcomes of that effort.
In this definition, Pazmino intentionally placed his definition of Christian education in the centre of the continuum. It is more than schooling but less than socialisation. It allows room for community instruction, and for self-instruction. It is also Trinitarian in its theological emphasis.
Defining Christian Education
The challenge in considering contemporary education strategies in Christian faith communities is to define Christian education. Rodney McKean from Azusa Pacific University challenged the usage of the words, “Christian education” when he quoted the graffiti, “Christian education is neither.” What the graffiti implied is that Christian education is neither Christian nor is it education. When used as an adjective, the word “Christian” mean many things to many people. Describing something as Christian does not mean it has to be associated to a church; neither because it is focused on the Bible or theological content; does not equate the United States of America; associated with puritan social values nor western culture. In fact, McKean writes, “In turn, much of what passes for Christian education is merely a condensation of classical western thought and institutional structures with Bible content or orthodox theology (which was also developed and written with a Western world view)”.
What then is the proper definition of Christian education? According to McKean, in the Middle Eastern culture, a person’s name is related to his ancestry and character. “Christ-ian” will mean “son of Christ” and so will have the character of Christ. Education means a learning process is taking place. Learning lead to growth and liberation as learners takes ownership of what they are learning, develop co-explorer relationships with each other, and develop problem solving skills in their daily life. Therefore Christian education means a learning process towards growth and liberation done in the character of Christ.
Robert Pazmino, Valeria Stone Professor of Christian Education at Andover Newton Theological School, surveys the numerous definitions of Christian education and found that these definitions form a continuum.
At one end is formal education which is schooling, “characterised by classroom sessions, learning agendas, teacher directed methodologies, and required courses of study” to informal education at the other end where learning focus is “on acquiring skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values growing out of student interactions with experiences or environment.” Informal education occurs spontaneous in daily living. Somewhere in between is nonformal education which includes intentional educating where there is some structured teaching by teachers to socialisation where the community becomes the teacher. Gary Newton notes “nonformal education relates to deliberate educational strategies based on meeting people’s needs outside of the formal schooling model. Since it tends to be highly functional, change orientated, and learner-driven, nonformal education is a versatile educational approach.”
Pazmino offers the following definition:
Christian education is the deliberate, systematic, and sustained divine and human efforts to share or appropriate the knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, sensibilities, and behaviors that comprise or are consistent with the Christian faith. It fosters the change, renewal, and reformation of persons, groups, and structures by the power of the Holy Spirit to conform to the revealed will of God as expressed in the Scriptures and pre-eminently in the person of Jesus Christ, as well as any outcomes of that effort.
In this definition, Pazmino intentionally placed his definition of Christian education in the centre of the continuum. It is more than schooling but less than socialisation. It allows room for community instruction, and for self-instruction. It is also Trinitarian in its theological emphasis.
What then is the proper definition of Christian education? According to McKean, in the Middle Eastern culture, a person’s name is related to his ancestry and character. “Christ-ian” will mean “son of Christ” and so will have the character of Christ. Education means a learning process is taking place. Learning lead to growth and liberation as learners takes ownership of what they are learning, develop co-explorer relationships with each other, and develop problem solving skills in their daily life. Therefore Christian education means a learning process towards growth and liberation done in the character of Christ.
Robert Pazmino, Valeria Stone Professor of Christian Education at Andover Newton Theological School, surveys the numerous definitions of Christian education and found that these definitions form a continuum.
At one end is formal education which is schooling, “characterised by classroom sessions, learning agendas, teacher directed methodologies, and required courses of study” to informal education at the other end where learning focus is “on acquiring skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values growing out of student interactions with experiences or environment.” Informal education occurs spontaneous in daily living. Somewhere in between is nonformal education which includes intentional educating where there is some structured teaching by teachers to socialisation where the community becomes the teacher. Gary Newton notes “nonformal education relates to deliberate educational strategies based on meeting people’s needs outside of the formal schooling model. Since it tends to be highly functional, change orientated, and learner-driven, nonformal education is a versatile educational approach.”
Pazmino offers the following definition:
Christian education is the deliberate, systematic, and sustained divine and human efforts to share or appropriate the knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, sensibilities, and behaviors that comprise or are consistent with the Christian faith. It fosters the change, renewal, and reformation of persons, groups, and structures by the power of the Holy Spirit to conform to the revealed will of God as expressed in the Scriptures and pre-eminently in the person of Jesus Christ, as well as any outcomes of that effort.
In this definition, Pazmino intentionally placed his definition of Christian education in the centre of the continuum. It is more than schooling but less than socialisation. It allows room for community instruction, and for self-instruction. It is also Trinitarian in its theological emphasis.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Your Presence An Absence
In Your presence there is an absence
silencing my greatest fear.
It is with You that I know the essence
of what is life, now that You’re near.
It is in the absence of Your presence
that I rekindle my desire;
and it is when I am without You
that I burn, an inextinguishable fire.
In Your presence there is an absence
of all that preys upon my mind;
for my heart’s desire before me,
and I leave all else behind.
It is in the absence of Your presence
that I have learned to be apart.
It is without You that I am with You;
for You are Joy within my heart.
Janet Rimmer
silencing my greatest fear.
It is with You that I know the essence
of what is life, now that You’re near.
It is in the absence of Your presence
that I rekindle my desire;
and it is when I am without You
that I burn, an inextinguishable fire.
In Your presence there is an absence
of all that preys upon my mind;
for my heart’s desire before me,
and I leave all else behind.
It is in the absence of Your presence
that I have learned to be apart.
It is without You that I am with You;
for You are Joy within my heart.
Janet Rimmer
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