Toolbox For Faith

I got a call last Wednesday from a person who was asking for advice on which Sunday School material she should use at her church. I shared with her that we were using Hands-On Bible Curriculum from Group Publishing, but I also shared with her that the reason we were using Hands-On Bible Curriculum was because it matched the gifts of the teachers.

At times in the past, I have helped pick one curriculum series and used it for each of our classes. While that was a little easier, it didn’t take into account the gifts that each teaching team brought to the ministry. These days we select several theologically appropriate sets of material and then see which set provides the best match between teaching strengths and curriculum. The result has been happier and more engaged teachers and students.

Pastor Philip Bottomley shared this idea with me a few weeks ago and I thought it was worth passing along. Congregations often talk about Vacation Bible School as a way to reach out to new families, but what if instead of asking the families to come to the church building, Vacation Bible School actually went out to the people you were trying to reach.

Apparently there is a church in Northern Virginia that runs a neighborhood Vacation Bible School. Host families agree to have a VBS team set up in their front yard and then they invite the neighborhood kids to come and take part in the crafts, music or lesson. As it was described to me, you’d have rotating teams each focusing on a different topic/activity and they would move around to each front yard station. If you scheduled it correctly, one team could lead the same one hour activity at ten different locations during a week. Just imagine how many new families could be touched with the good news of God’s love in just one week.

Make sure you have a “guest helpful” bulletin

Attending different churches has taught me again how important it is to have a “guest helpful” bulletin.

One church was using what they described as a blended service with congregational responses from different worship material. Because of this, the bulletin really needed to help guide the people worshipping but it was anything but helpful. The Hymn of Praise that was used had WOV with a number beside it. I knew that WOV stood for “With One Voice,” one of the hymnals used in some Lutheran churches, and the number was for the page. But as I searched for the hymnal to find the music, I noticed it was not in the pews. The words were in the bulletin but even though I had sung it before, I did not know it well enough to sing it without the music. I kept thinking, “Why put WOV with a page number if the hymnal is not in the pew?”

Two other selections for the service music were in the hymnal in the hymn section but by the time I found them, we were on the last line both times. I kept thinking that a person new to a Lutheran service would have been completely lost! The irony is that, according the bulletin, the church had purchased the copyright to copy all of the service music used and could have downloaded everything—words and music–for their bulletin. Guests, even long time Lutherans, need help with a new and different service.

Think about your bulletin. How helpful is it to someone new to your worshipping community?

I read a very interesting article in USA Today discussing research done by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader, sociologists at Baylor University for their book, America’s Four Gods: What We Say About God - and What That Says About Us. The researchers propose that in America today there are four predominate views of God. These views are not confined to Christianity, but encompass all people of faith. As soon as I read the four views, I immediately connected my own theology as belonging to one of the views and recognized each of the other three views as opinions I have encountered in my discussions with other people of faith. Froese and Bader define the views of God as:
• The Authoritative God - They see God as actively “engaged in history and meting out harsh punishment to those who do not follow him.” (28%)
• The Benevolent God - They believe “God is engaged in our world and loves and supports us in caring for others.” (22%)
• The Critical God - They believe “God keeps an eye on this world but delivers justice in the next” life. (21%)
• The Distant God - They believe “God booted up the universe, then left humanity alone.” (24%)

You can take the God Test to see which view is most closely aligned to your view of God.

While Froese and Bader are interested in how these opinions affect attitudes on key issues, I am fascinated by the ways in which these views affect matches between congregations and pastors and the health of congregations and denominational bodies. Obviously, without the specific research it is all speculation, but I wonder . . .
• How much conflict or disengagement arises when you have a pastor or denominational leader with one view - Benevolent God, for example - trying to lead a congregation or denominational body with another view - Critical God, for example.
• Could it be that conflict in synods/local judicatories arises when we try to gather congregations and pastors with vastly different views of God and try to convince them to act upon a single shared vision of God?
• Could it be that a shared view of God helps overrides denominational differences and allows local congregations to work together even when denominational bodies cannot agree on a national level?

Here are two possible application I see for the research on a synodical/judicatory level and within a congregation.
1. Imagine how helpful it would be when matching congregations and pastors to know if they shared the same view of God.
2. In planning for ministry, knowing in general how a congregation viewed God could help leaders determine which strengths to build upon.

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