Main Story

Sundoulos: What are some of the current trends in the academic areas of Christian Education that could really help a pastor or an associate or youth pastor at a church?

Kevin Lawson: There’s a lot of work in the study of the spiritual lives of children and trying to better understand the Christian nurture of children. I think children have been marginalized, both in the church and in the academy, and it’s nice to see some renewed interest in research and writing about children as a key part of what Christian Ed. is about.

Klaus Issler: Kevin has been a part of a couple of conferences, one in Thailand and one in Houston, Texas, and some of us have written chapters in a book on children’s spirituality.

Sundoulos: What’s the book?

Lawson: Children’s Spirituality, edited by Don Ratcliff, published by Cascade.

Issler: We’re looking at children’s issues from the empirical and ministry side, and also from the theological side. But the broader issue of spirituality is another area that has great importance for the church, a recovering of some of our heritage, such as Puritans and pietists.

Richard Leyda: Here’s another direction that the discipline is tending to move: For quite a while we were fairly enamored with the social sciences, but I think there’s a movement back to our theological base. It’s exciting to see somebody with an MDiv coming into CE. It’s important to understand that Scripture contains not only the content of education, but also has a lot to say about the method of education and how we’re supposed to do what we do.

Lawson: Ken Gangel, who’s kind of an elder statesmen in the field of Christian Education, especially in the evangelical group, was on a panel at the NAPCE [National Association of Professors of Christian Education] Conference and commented that Christian Ed. is a theological discipline that incorporates the findings of social sciences, rather than a social science discipline that throws a few Bible passages on for support.

Michael Anthony: One of the trends we see is the traditional Director of Christian Education role, which was so prominent in the ’70s and ’80s, transitioning over to other avenues of specialization, of pastor of discipleship, evangelism, pastoral care, even executive pastor. In a mid-size church, someone had to coordinate and administrate the staff, the human relations end of things, the legal and financial parts. You get into the annual strategic planning process and senior pastors just weren’t equipped or didn’t have the time to deal with those things, so it always fell on the Director of Christian Ed. because that individual seemed to have the most management background…

Sundoulos: The most free time? [laughter]

Anthony: No, not necessarily, but in our discipline we multitask, and as a result, many have transitioned into what has now become known as the executive pastor role, the chief operating officer of the church. So the Christian Ed. director of the ’80s has morphed into about six different kinds of professional roles in the church. This makes it difficult to say precisely what a Christian educator in the 21st century church really looks like.

Lawson: I like the way Michael put it a year ago at a conference, where he said it really is a sign of the success, the growth of the field that has resulted in these different specializations, and that’s something that ought to be celebrated rather than bemoaned.

Jonathan Kim: It’s clear that postmodernity brought many unanticipated changes to educational ministry. One of the emerging trends in Christian Education is the comprehensive study of the relationship between culture and spirituality. With the arrival of a new millennium came a major shift in cultural contours — ministry is now global. As a result, many educators are seeking to develop an appropriate pedagogy toward multicultural and global ministry as they seek to explain the relationship between culture and spirituality on the basis of biblical theology.

Jane Carr: I might add that it seems like there are more and more females coming to Talbot to study Christian Education, specifically children’s ministry, because they’re beginning to see that there’s finally an avenue that’s widely accepted for women…

Sundoulos: In a professional role…

Carr: Yes, in a professional role. Children’s and women’s ministries are widely accepted roles for females, but beyond that it is still a struggle for women in most churches. One thing we need to do as a seminary is to begin addressing the theological issues that surround women in ministry. A lot of women in the church are confronted with this issue every day, and yet male leaders have given so little attention to developing a solid theological stance to support their own views.

Leyda: We are seeing an increase in the number of women at the undergrad level who are looking at youth ministry as a viable career, as well as some at the master’s level.