Autumn greetings!
Fall is here! The program year has started as well as the Narrative Lectionary cycle of readings! If you have yet to decide on faith formation resources, then you can certainly still order materials for Living the Word (Narrative Lectionary) for Fall or Winter, or Spirit and Truth: Teaching Kids the Heart of Worship! The beautiful thing about digital materials is that as soon as your payment is processed, you can download and start using them! If you still want to try out our Fall resources, check out a money-saving coupon below! If you still haven’t decided on the faith formation resources you are going to use in 2016-2017, please check out our sample lessons and testimonials to see if we have the right tools for you!
But, if you have already decided on your curricula for this year (including your Christmas program), then please just check out this month’s reflection on faith practices at home and our Ministry Partner!
Practice: Faith Formation Outside the Church
By Gregory Rawn, Publisher
Last month, my reflection discussed integrating your congregation’s various ministries intentionally under the umbrella of faith formation. While I was specifically talking about official congregational ministries, this same idea applies to the ministry and work of your congregation when they are not at church or doing something under the congregation’s name. As faith formation leaders, how do we help everyone (from children to seniors) to see their work and lives as faith formation, and how do we help them form faith that is Jesus-centered and life-giving?
Everything Forms Faith
In reality, I argue that much of what we do every day is faith formation. Faith, from our human perspective, is an understanding of how the world is and what life is about, and a decision on how to live our lives (including, what or whom we put our trust in). So, in some ways, our jobs as faith formation leaders is not so much to form faith in others, but to encourage and support formation into a specific faith, a Jesus-centered faith. There is much that has been said about faith, worldviews, and ethics that is not life-giving or Jesus-centered, so I’m not going to go into that. Also, there are a wide variety of perspectives on what a Jesus-centered faith contains or looks like. I will leave that to you and your tradition. My focus is more on what we can do to support faith formation and how to do it.
What Can We Do?
I’m assuming that the majority (if not all) of you reading this are faith formation leaders in a congregation or other ministry (paid or volunteer). This means you probably have some influence on how people in your congregation or ministry think of faith formation, but probably very little influence over what people actually do outside of church. What can we do? How can we help people form a Jesus-centered faith in their homes, schools, works, and everywhere else they go? The main answer to this is “faith practices.” Faith practices (or spiritual practices, if you wish) are just that, activities that we practice to form our faith. If you want to run a 5K, then you need to practice running. If you want to perform a Mozart piano concerto, then you need to practice playing piano. And, that’s not just practicing once, or even once a week. Effective practice requires daily commitment and dedicated action. Just so with faith. If you wish to live and act as a disciple of Jesus, then that requires daily commitment and dedicated action as well.
What do faith practices look like? Well, there are long and sometimes ancient lists of practices, many of which fall into the categories we use in our Living the Word faith formation series: prayer, worship, fellowship, and service. It is very good to look at ancient, intentional faith actions and habits in faith formation. Daily prayer, whether it is spontaneous or formulaic, silent or spoken, meditative or petitionary, is wonderful and critical to faith development. So are all of the other traditional forms of faith practices. People in your congregation should be exposed to the variety of different intentional faith practices, be allowed to practice them in the safety and structure of the classroom, sanctuary, or small group space, then encouraged (perhaps with accountability) to go and do likewise at home. Encourage home devotional times with space for prayer, worship, and Bible reading. Help people get connected with service opportunities that fit their passions and gifts. Actions, repeated with discipline, become habits, and habits change our thoughts, the pattern of our lives, our very selves.
But, we shouldn’t limit faith practices to the traditional set handed down to us. We shouldn’t divide our lives into the sacred and the profane, the religious and the secular. Everything is spiritual, every action gives us the opportunity to practice our love for God and for each other, or not. Mother (now Saint) Teresa is credited with saying “Do small things with great love.” Everything we do forms faith, we just ought to be conscious and intentional about what sort of faith we are forming.
Challenge: What faith practices does your congregation train and encourage its members to do? What practices can you incorporate into your teaching or leadership (and perhaps your own life)? How can you help the people you work with to see their entire lives as faith formation?
Product Announcements
ALREADY THINKING ABOUT CHRISTMAS?
If you are already thinking about Christmas programs, consider the unique option from our Spirit and Truth: Teaching Kids the Heart of Worship series. Although the Spirit and Truth: Christmas Program is designed to fit seamlessly into that full year curriculum, it is easily used alone. What makes it unique? Instead of putting on a “show” (as great as that can be), this product gives your congregation a tool to help the students (of all ages) plan a special worship service to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord! Let students write the prayers, figure out how to tell the story, and put on a skit! Check out a sample and learn more!
COMING EARLY 2017!
Check out our newest product, Chosen Together: A Cross+Gen Confirmation Experience. More information coming in the next few weeks! Reply to this email if you would like to receive information as it comes out!
We are also hard at work on our Living the Word (Year 4, 2017-2018) materials. Look for pre-orders starting in January!
NOW READY FOR DOWNLOAD!
All Living the Word: (Year 3, 2016-2017) materials!
Event Announcements
- Sticky Worship– Do you live in or near South Dakota? Gregory Rawn, owner of Spirit and Truth Publishing, will be leading a retreat at Joy Ranch, South Dakota on November 10-11, 2016, sponsored by the South Dakota Synod of the ELCA. The topic will be Sticky Worship: Worship as Cross+Generational Faith Formation. Sign up through the link above!
- Do you know of any other faith formation events going on this fall? Let us know!
Promotions
Receive 30% Off ALL Living the Word: (Year 3) Fall Products using code: 30FALL2016
Receive 15% Off your order of ANY PRODUCTS using code: ALLFALL15
Coupon codes valid until October 31, 2016. Not valid with other promotions.
Product Review
You have done a terrific work for the Lord with the publication of the Living the Word Bible studies paired with the Narrative Lectionary. I started using the NL in 2012 because I wanted my preaching & teaching to tell the whole story of the Divine Narrative, from Genesis to Revelation, with a focus on each one of the Gospels. My Sunday morning adult Bible study class considers the NL text for the following Sunday to help me prepare my sermon. By using the Living the Word: Small Group Guides, our adults not only have a text to examine, but also a great deal of additional information and avenues to explore as we talk about the passage in context, in history and in application to today’s world. Living the Word is true to the title–for our adults, and for me as a preacher, it helps make the Bible come alive for us! For those pastors and congregations who utilize the Narrative Lectionary, Living the Word: Small Group Guides is a sound investment for preaching, teaching, catechesis and small group studies.
– Rev. John Ramsey, Trinity Lutheran Church, Grafton, OH
Faith Formation Partner Links
Illustrated Children’s Ministry creates illustrated resources for the church and the home – encouraging creativity and an active engagement with faith. They began with a focus on creating illustrations of Bible stories, and that has since grown into creating giant coloring posters, coloring sheets, curriculum, devotionals for families and more. Children’s ministries, youth groups, churches, college groups and retirement homes have all used their unique hand-drawn coloring posters and have found them to be a great way to cultivate intergenerational community and to foster conversations at church and at home. Join their email list today and receive a sample pack of their resources for free! You can do that at their website, http://www.illustratedchildrensministry.com/freebie/.
Do you want to read our previous newsletters? Find them in our archive here!