What Sunday School Teachers do when you're not looking

One of the goals of the NAECED conference is to help balance professional development with spiritual enrichment. Yes, it is a place for networking. Yes it is a place for resources. Yes it is a place to hear speakers in the field of Christian Formation. But a very important part of NAECED is an opportunity for Renewal. Refreshment. Re-establishing balance.

I am one of the few at the conference (the number is over 70, I learned...not 50) who is a part-time volunteer. Not that there aren't a lot of us out there, trust me. In fact, I think it is more the norm than the exception. But unfortunately, most churches can not afford, or do not feel it is important enough, to send their volunteer Christian Ed Directors to a conference like this.

I am very blessed mine can and does.

I am inspired by these women and men (yup...there are a few of them here too) here who are full time in this ministry and who have devoted their lives to the faith foundation and formation of our young people.

And you know what? Full time, part time, paid, unpaid...we all face the same issues. Small churches and big churches. How do you get children/teens to attend? How do you keep them inspired? How do you stay inspired yourself? How do you avoid burning out and taking time for yourself? How do you convince Vestry/Finance Committee that you need more money in the budget?

Just being together with these people and sharing common experiences, quiets my mind and reassures me that I have support. They understand the pressures I feel, the frustration and the burn out. It is renewing to attend worship together, to share a meal together, to sing together.

More later.

Workshops

Youth Ministry Today: Navigating Statistics, Trends and Popular Culture

Led by Lisa Kimball, the Director of the Center of Ministry of Teaching at Virginia Theological Seminary. What a dynamic and energetic person she is! After listening to her talk, you feel like you can go out and change the world. This workshop focused on the complexity of the world Youths live in today and that just showing up at Youth Group is not helping them in the long term, studies are showing. That being involved with their community and be altruistic and compassionate is all good and well, but are our Youths graduating from our programs feeling the two most basic teachings of the Gospel: 1) That they are loved 2) That they are forgiven.

I found this a fascinating analysis of how, in the pursuit of being free thinking "cool" Epsicopalians, are we failing our kids at church and in life by not being more specific about what it is to be a Christian and how faith can help you in your darkest hours? This generation of young people are living in a world where they are being shown to believe that what we buy and what we have is how they define themselves.

Media in Ministry

This workshop talked about creating movies using free software (such as Windows Movie Maker) to promote your Christian Ed and Church events. That if we don't get on the superhighway of technology we are going to lose our young people to archaic ways of doing things. We talked about Facebook and Twitter and digital cameras and pocket size video cameras. How having Internet access for your program space is becoming essentional for older teens especially because it can be utilized in a hundred different ways. In ways that SPEAK to teens. I loved this workshop. The ideas were flowing at all that you could do if your church was willing to embrace technology.

Keeping Up with The Times Without Sacrificing Quality

Ways to Grow your Minitry was focused on. Keywords were:

Connect, Explore, Trim, Rediscover, Choose, Overcome, Be, Praise, Build, Celebrate.

Christian Ed should always be changing, always be updated, always be building...it should never be stagnate. We explored LOTS of great ideas on how to invigorate the congregation to become a part of the Christian Ed process.

More on other activities...

Workshops & More

When I have some free time I'll recap the workshops in detail...they are keeping us very busy here and free time is scarce. Up at 6am and activities, workshops and worship straight through until 8pm or 9pm.

Some photos of Vallombrosa:

Tapestry Conference: Come Away to the Vineyard

I arrived at the Vallombrosa Center in Menlo Park, right outside of San Francisco, yesterday afternoon. Not exactly sunny California. The rain has been going on all week long here, but today promises to see a break of it and temps in the high 50's. Only 10 degrees warmer than home, but somehow it is enough to warm the Connecticut bones.

I had hoped to blog yesterday, but Internet is sketchy here and the only place we can definitely get online is in the center lobby, so here I sit with my coffee. Morning prayer begins in the Chapel at 7:45am.

We learned that Vallombrosa has been owned by the Catholic Diocese since 1947 as a retreat, but the land and original mansion on site was owned by E.W. Hopkins beginning during the Civil War period.

The name Vallombrosa means "Shady Glen" in Italian, in reference to the beautiful forested area of south east of Florence Italy that Mr. Hopkins visited often.

We counted 5 of us from Connecticut...a noble feat considering the distance to travel. There are about 50 attendees this year from Episcopal Dioceses all over the country. I see familiar faces from last year and have met many new educators already.

Yesterday our host church, Holy Trinity had an open house where we toured their Godly Play rooms. Wow! This is an incredible program. It is being used more and more by Epsicopal Churches and I was so impressed. More on that later.

They also had a beautiful labyrinth chapel. The wooden floor has a carved labyrinth for walking meditation that is a very moving experience. With the soft lights, candles and soothing music, you get lost in your thoughts as you walk it. I almost didn't go over to that building, but I am so glad that I did.

Food is included in this conference, and unfortunately it is incredibly delicious and plentiful. It is served cafeteria style with lots of healthy options as well as not so healthy ones. They even offer wine with dinner :). Coffee, bottled water and fruit are available all day long between workshops.

Last night after dinner was an evening Eucharist led by Bishop Marc Andrus. I have made a mental note to ask David about a few things that were different (like the Lord's Prayer) in this service and is there a "standard" form of it that Episcopal Churches use.

After the Eucharist there was fellowship by the fire at the mansion house, but us East Coasters who had been up at 4am had crashed and burned somewhere shortly after communion and needed sleep badly. My roommate is from the Diocese of Oregon so she stayed to visit while I and the other time change challenged folks, limped off to slumberland.

Today are the workshops. My first one is: Youth Ministry Today: Navigating Statistics, Trends and Popular Culture for the Sake of the Gospel.

Morning prayer is about to begin...I'll check back in later today and let you know how things are going.