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AMBS LIBRARY ELKHART, IN MennoMedia 1251 VirginiaAvenue Harrisonburg,VA22802 AnagencyofMennoniteChurchUSA 800-245-7894(USA) andMennoniteChurchCanada Suite204, 50KentAvenue Kitchener,ON N2G3R1 (Canada) [email protected] www.MennoMedia.org November 12, 2014 Colleen McFarland, Director ofArchives and Records Management Mennonite Church USA 1700 S Main St Goshen, IN 46526 Dear Colleen, We are pleased to know that Mennonite Church USA has received a grant to digitize the print files ofGospel Herald and The Mennonite. As you know, Gospel Herald was a publication of the organization then known as Mennonite Publishing House, later as Mennonite Publishing Network, and now as MennoMedia. You have our full permission to digitize all issues ofGospel Herald and make them available for free, with full-text access. Best wishes in this important endeavor! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Warmly, License. The Anabaptist Mennonite Digital Collaborative, coordinated by staff at Mennonite Church USA, Goshen College, and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, is working with Internet Archive to provide digital copies of this title. Amy Gingerich Please seek permission from the copyright owner Editorial Director, MennoMedia if your use of this item is not permitted under the license. MennoMediaseekstoengageandshapechurchandsociety with resourcesforlivingChristianfaithfromanAnabaptistperspective. Digitized by the Internet Archive 2015 in https://archive.org/details/gospelherald199790peac _ January 1997 7, Gospel Herald THE WEEKLYMAGAZINEOFTHEMENNONITECHURCH Education beyond the Sunday school model: Shaping a culture that forms character Rather than simply being a dispenser of biblical content and information, the church must see its educational ministry as centering around what happens in the daily lives of families. Recently a Mennonite publication high- by lighted its theme on the front cover with Sara these bold letters: The Call to Chris- Ifwe thinkofeducationas the thoughtful, intentional tian Education. Because my last two years in Wenger transmissionofacultural inheritance necessaryfor humansurvivalandforagood life together, then we doctoral studies have focused on church-based Shenk must ask questionsabout thequalityoftheculturein education, I set the issue in a prominent place whichourchildren andouryouthare beingformed. on my desk so I'd be sure to read it when I found time. Later I did find time to read at least portions ofit, and I found that it included some important insights about the limitations ALSOINTHISISSUE ofthe Sunday school model and suggestions for thinking creatively about the church's educational ministry. BerylForrester: However, it was the title that kept tripping 'Now I live in a setting where me up. I can't hear or read the term "Christian peacemaking is the norm' .6 education" without cringing inwardly. The . . . . powerful negative feelings it stirs up are in- Sawatzky and Santiago embody convenient, to say the least, since "Christian new style of mission partnership . .9 education" is the field I've chosen to work in and since one ofmy titles at Eastern Menno- Japanese thank Mennonites nite Seminary is assistant professor ofChris- for postwar assistance . 11 tian education. Sometimes I think that, since I The church must be at the center of all education, teaching us what a culture that practices the presence of Christ looks like in the concrete behaviors of our lives. only use the title when absolutely necessary, I said, "you'll be getting a call inviting you to am ill-suited for the job and have badly mis- teach the course. Don't dismiss it out ofhand." judged my calling. Dismissing it immediately would have been my God works in mysterious ways, the sages impulse had he not given me that forewarning. remind us, and sometimes the mysteries are It had never occurred to me to link what I was profoundly discomfiting. So how did I get into writing about family spirituality with Christian this uncomfortable position, and how has it education. Christian education, after all, was goaded me to reimagine the educational minis- an ailing appendage tacked on to the church try ofthe church? program. Most ofmy life I would have been 1 happy to see it entirely lopped offso we could first wentto seminary the fall after gradu- go to the worship service and dispense with ating from college. Gerald and I were mar- Sunday school. ried inJuly. Our honeymoon—was a trip I was compelled to—rethink my caricature of across the country to California on our way to Christian education a caricature that is seminary. We figured there was nothing more unfair to the many churches that have thriving romantic than studying theology together. Dur- programs. Ifwhat I had worked at with such ing my years in seminary, any course in Chris- love and imagination on the home frontwas tian education would have been amongthe last part ofthe territory ofChristian education, I'd have considered, even though my under- then perhaps there was a connection. IfChris- graduate degree was in high school English tian education could be understood as the way education. Christian education, for one thing, we shape and fill our live—s together as families sounded far too much like the stereotypical and church communities and not simply as an — female thing to do. Besides that, it dredged up unwelcome appendage then perhaps I could images—ofeducation as something that is done find my way into it as a discipline ofstudy. So I to you a prepackaged content that is fed to said I would consider it when the dean called, you in small doses to make sure you think the and I've been wrestling with reimagining right thoughts and do the right things. Above Christian education ever since. I do continue to all, it meant being told what to think rather make a point ofnot using "Christian education" than how to think. in describing what I do because I believe the Perhaps because I came ofage in the late term miscommunicates badly. 1960s and early 1970s, I came to deeply dis- trust and dishonor many ofmy Sunday school Why this story about my debut into the and Bible teachers because it seemed they fiel—d ofstudy that now preoccupies thought theirjob was to tell me what to believe me the educational ministry ofthe rather than to imaginatively and lovingly draw church? I believe we must work to develop an me into a relationship with my Creator through educational consciousness that permeates all of the words ofScripture. life, much like the early Hebrews seemed to I distinctly remembertwo Bible teachers, embody: "Recite them to your children and talk though, who were exceptions. They warmed my about them when you are at home and when heartbecause I could sense their deep love and you are away, when you lie down and when you reverence forthe One whom they believed rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix animated the words they were teaching. One of them as an emblem on your forehead, and them wept tears ofdisbeliefand gratitude write them on the doorposts ofyour house and while teaching from Ephesians about Christ on your gates" (Deut. 6:7-9). who is our peace and who destroyed the divid- The centerpiece ofthe church's educational ing wall ofhostility betweenJews and Gentiles. ministry would not then be a program which Before I was asked to teach, I hadbecome assumes that education is dispensed on Sunday interested in the spirituality ofthe family, even morning while discussing the content ofthe written books on the subject. Because ofthat lesson. Rather, the centerpiece ofthe edu- writing, when there was an urgent need at the cational ministry would be actively shaping the seminary for someone to teach the "Founda- content ofthe daily culture ofits families. Edu- tions ofChristian Education" course, the stu- cation then would be primarily about shaping dent representative on the academic committee culture, not about dispensing content. suggested my name, and the dean agreed to Ifthe family has more influence on our char- give me a call. My husband, who also sat on the acter, values, motivations, and beliefc than committee, called me preemptively. "Sara," he either church or school, as many studies find, 2 / JANUARY 7, 1997 / GOSPEL HERALD