Thanks, previous blogger, for your thoughts on our recent lecture.  One example from Ryder’s lecture that I appreciated was how he viewed conflicts among people of different denominations or perspectives.  Ryder started “BIG,”  he said, with the thought of God.  When he realized that the people in conflict all loved the one God, that common bond became the basis for healing, reconciliation, and a solution to the problem at hand.

I see a connection to our church.  Where there may be many perspectives on what would make our church building more inviting, the fact that we all love God as Mind, Love, Principle, Soul is a basis for us to come together about how to update our church decor.  In addition,  because of our understanding of God, we know that what really attracts people to our church is our natural expression and reflection of love, thoughtfulness, unselfishness, kindness.  Most importantly, our light that the world can see is the light of healing which again is a result of cherishing our spiritual relationship to God.

I have been thinking about our June 29, 2010 lecture.  Ryder Stevens talked about our purpose to be honest disciples, and to bear witness to God’s government everywhere.  That is easy to do superficially  in some situations or with some people, and think we’re doing it effectively. How am I being an honest disciple, seeing, hearing and witnessing to God’s government everywhere I go each day?  That’s an interesting and challenging thought!

He reminded us that Christian Science is not a denomination; it is the knowledge and revelation of God.  He gave examples of how important it is not to be mired in history or to take along baggage from history (including what was done or not done) if we want to move forward (and he referenced the peace negotiations in Sarajevo of which he was a  part).

He also challenged us to cast out demons–demons representing possession — what occupies thought; what may claim we are frustrated, ill, inadequate, limited, hopeless, overwhelmed, reactive, neglectful etc.  We need to cast out those demons and daily be aware of what is occupying thought.  I’ve really been thinking today about what is occupying my thought. I stopped a couple of times during my work, and asked myself what I was thinking about–what was occupying my thought.  I have to say it wasn’t on healing and the highest vision, and some of my thoughts unfortunately were mired down in history.  I think of being mired as being stuck in sticky, thick clayey mud, that slows our progress.

What is occupying our thought in our church?

I thought anyone would be interested in this article written from our friend in Japan, in light of the events in Haiti.  You can copy and paste this link into your browser OR search on spirituality.com:

http://www.spirituality.com/article.jhtml?ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticle/Jan2010/1263414158.xml&ElementName=Prayers%20from%20Japan%20about%20natural%20disasters

Sally, Ric and I went to a talk by Krista Tippett of the radio program, “Speaking of Faith.”  I wanted to share a short summary and a few thoughts that I’m thinking about from that talk, and would love to have your dialogue on these ideas too.

Krista Tippett noted how the media typically have sound bytes and adversarial point/counter point discourse that is not supportive of deep and trusting communication.  She also noted how media can inhibit or rigidify religious ideas more easily than other discussions.   She began her talk addressing three problematic assumptions that the popular media promote about religion (and countering these claims with the practicality of religion and spirituality and prayer to address ambiguity, nuance and suffering in the world better than most other ways):

1. religion is a crutch or retreat away from life’s complexity (vs. being of service to others and learning how to live; religion is not a rejection of logic but rather a realization that disciplines have limited scope; religion orders our astonishments)

2. religion is subjective or “soft”(because the media accords certain hearings more respect we tend to believe this; we must not forget faith’s power to shape life, repair the world and bring light.  Spirituality has practical tools to address suffering)

3.  and, religion is primarily about what people believe vs. what they do and how they live.  A list of beliefs doesn’t go beyond to what we do, how we life, how we pray.  It’s about ways of living. Religious belief lists can flatten out and become blunt instruments, thinking of others as intellectually inferior, or becoming argumentative and inflammatory.

Some other quotes and thoughts from the meeting, “We need science and religion to interpret the surprising and rich way the world is.”

Instead of breaking things down too much into lists or processes, we need to treat things in totality (ie:  referencing the idea of a great painting that could be seen as a whole, or interpreted very differently by chemical composition).

Part of the challenge of holding real and sincere public discourse about religion and spirituality is that “soul needs quiet, inviting and trustworthy spaces to speak.”  That adversarial point/counter point speaking flattens what we hear.  Religion promotes the highest virtues and they matter.

Church is one of the few communal and intergenerational connections that exist in our society. It addresses questions like “What really matters?” and “What sustains me?”  Religion gives deep wisdom about the messy reality of human character and being.  Belief and faith go together for when we disconnect rules/commandments from the transformative experience, things can go wrong.   Faith happens one life at a time.

Listening and curiosity are spiritual virtues and a civic discipline.  We are all at our worst when we’re fearful.  Fear manifests as anger and aggression.  There are hard things and big questions we have to work through together. We must be patient with each other and cultivate the virtue of compassion.

Religious traditions are vessels of spiritual truth across time; but of course, organized religious traditions are also constructed by humans and thus are imperfect and have flaws.  Faith has power to shape the common life and must be part of the honest relationship and discussion of public life.

I was reflecting on our lecture and some of the ideas our lecturer shared.  If you didn’t get to the meeting (and it was wonderful to have a conference line option for people to attend at a distance) here are some things I’m thinking about:

No one is left out.

All is in the NOW–the event has begun; the blessing has begun.

We are a gracious church, a praying church, an available church and a wise church.

We should treat ourselves and others as if we were the Messiah.

We should be grateful.

As I read the lesson today (because of the wonderful snow day from work) I was drawn again to the citation from the Bible in section 6 where Jesus is eating with many publicans and sinners. “. . . for there were many, and they followed him [Jesus].”  Jesus replied to the Pharisees and scribes who questioned why Jesus was doing this, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick:  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Mark 2:  15 to 17.  We need to follow this example of Jesus too when welcoming newcomers into our church home and family.

I was grateful to see the movement forward on the qualities of welcome and light, as expressed in our church meeting where we approved use of the remodeling fund for changes in lighting and funds for the Sunday School. I am grateful for our church whose members work together harmoniously.  I’ve heard of other churches where personal sense and personal judgment has taken the focus away from the purpose of healing into wrestling about small things; but we don’t have to believe that.  It is always the intent of error to work as our own self-righteous thought.  Error has no footing or root.  This work with the remodeling/redecorating committee has been very interesting. I’ve come to realize that this work and these discussions of what type of church we want really have nothing to do with a physical structure.  What have you been thinking about in regard to our church?

Teaching Sunday School:  early elementary

Have you ever wanted to hide in the hall when the board sends out a need for people to teach in the Sunday school—especially in the younger classes?  Do you think that you don’t have anything in common with younger children, or that the work will be too demanding?  If you catch yourself feeling mentally resistant to working with young children in Sunday School, here are a few ideas that might help to create a bridge to that wonderful opportunity.

Start by  simply loving and cherishing children and the child-like thought.  Observe children’s innocence, joy, enthusiasm, kindness, creativity.  See the qualities of God expressed.  Remember how Christ Jesus loved little children and wanted them to come to him even though he was so busy in his healing work.

Get to really know the children in your church and neighborhood, by taking time to talk with them in ways that are not just superficial or repetitive.  One child told me that the adults in church always ask her the same questions about how old she is or what grade in school she’s in.

Pray for inspiration and more love.  Let God lead you gently forward to help the younger ones and communicate with them effectively.  You know what to do.  You know you’re not the one in charge.  God is the revealer and the healer. God is the teacher.  You don’t have to know all the answers.

Try teaching. Accept a position as a substitute but don’t feel you have to go in cold. Ask other teachers about what has worked for them in their classes and something about the children in the class.  Replace trepidation with expectation of good for everyone in the class, including you!

Think about management and pacing of the hour.  Some teachers of younger students start their class with enthusiasm, for the objectives for the day. They might have the objectives written down in colors that they post on the wall for children to check off as they go along.    They start with a few minutes of getting to know the children or hearing about their week, but don’t let 20 precious minutes go by talking about the plot in a current movie.  Each student might have 2 to 3  minutes to share anything they want to share (with a timer for students to time themselves with); after that time, all agree to give  a high five, and leave the rest of the “outside talk” till after Sunday School, and then  all move into the learning part.

Sometimes for a younger class, having a poster of items the children will be memorizing through the year, to put stickers on is helpful, so they can see their progress and also clearly know what they are working toward (see the photos of one classes’ list).

I’ve found it helpful to have big picture goals, as well as daily objectives.  Both can provide a framework within which the teacher and student see progress and connect with the ideas in different ways over time.  Having a framework doesn’t need to limit the learning and  teaching.  Sometimes, a topic or need will be so clear right from the start that that’s the way the class moves and the inspiration moves it that way for the whole period.  Other times, children are working on learning about the Bible, the 10 commandments, prayer, and so on, in a more deliberate way, or there is a combination of approaches.

Think about agreements and rules.  Teachers  set up expectations and agreements together about the use of time and how people will treat each other in the class.  I tell my current class  at the beginning of the year the difference between rules and agreements.  Agreements are things we all agree to follow because we want to; they don’t usually need outside enforcement. Rules have to be enforced by the teacher.  We decide that we don’t want too many rules, and we work part of the first day on creating some agreements.  We might have as some of our agreements, for example,

“We will listen to others before talking ourselves (not interrupt),”

“We will use inside voices not outside voices,”

“We will sit at the table till our story time or standing time,” and

“We work together to keep our focus on the objectives,”

We post the agreement list for reference as needed.  It’s easy to turn to the posted list and say, “Let’s see, it seems we’re not following one of our agreements… which one do you think we’re forgetting?”   This method moves discipline into the child’s sphere, rather than into personal push-pull talk or win-lose struggles.  Agreements become ours as a class that we are all part of creating and following.  On the other hand, rules can be perceived as the teacher’s which need imposing.  The list we collaboratively create will need tweaking through the year.  We revisit the ideas together often.  We talk about why we need agreements to be a disciplined disciple.  Agreements help us all to have a classroom of respect and learning, and they uncover things that are common sense expectations but may not have been made clear before.  Visitors get a quick introduction to our agreements by the children.

Use the space in the room.  In our class, we have “table time” and “floor time” and “stand and deliver time” for about 10-15 minutes each,  which keeps the pacing energetic and the students engaged, and we include a conclusion of a few minutes where we revisit what we learned.   During table time, we’re typically looking up things in books or discussing.  The floor time is to cuddle together for stories from the Bible, from Mrs. Eddy’s life, or from children’s articles or testimonies.  Stand and deliver time is for students to stand up by the wall and share what they have memorized, or to use maps or posters or the Bible cards.  The time is broken into different experiences with different foci, within which, the students clearly understand the structure around them.  This type of organization can keep the class from disruptions, because the students know what’s coming and they know there will be some time for movement and expression in every learning hour. There are so many ways to learn; we don’t have to just sit at a table and listen.  Soul gives the creative ideas to each of us along with the reception (see the photo of a reading corner).

Have students memorize some key knowledge like the Lord’s Prayer with its spiritual interpretation, Psalm 23, the 10 Commandments, so that wherever situation they are in, they have effective tools and resources, and they also have a strong foundation of understanding how to pray.  To help students get a visual understanding of the Old and New Testament, Bible characters and events, I used note cards with Velcro glued on the back.  Each card is the name of a book of the Bible.  After we learn something from the Bible, students quickly illustrate what they’ve learned and connect it to the related book of the Bible.  Their note card is attached below the book of the Bible on the wall.  One student introduced a visitor to her class by telling her some things she would learn, by going over some of the child-illustrated Bible stories using the wall cards.  It’s a good review tool for those last 5 minutes of class, too.

Simplify the wording of the Commandments. The goal is for children to understand and remember what the important ideas are, so they can apply them, rather than to parrot exact phrasing with long words.  Our class came up with this list for the Ten Commandments that they can reference in their daily lives

Have one God

No graven image or idol

Honor God’s name

Keep the Sabbath holy

Don’t kill

Keep your promises

Don’t steal

Don’t lie

Be satisfied

With each of these we had stories and examples of putting them into practice or missing the mark.  One Sunday, a student mentioned an experience in which she quickly identified how a Commandment was broken. What a great outcome for that lesson!

Use visuals and color to the learning, and add ways for wiggly kids to move. In memorizing the 23^rd Psalm, for example, students stood and used gestures and movements to help them move through the ideas.  They illustrated walking beside still waters, feeling restored, a cup running over, putting oil gently on their head, and living in the house of the Lord forever.   This connection helps some children remember the ideas better.  I had one child mention to a visitor how to remember the ideas in the Psalm, and illustrated the psalm with gesture and movement  A mother noted to me that when working in the garden, her daughter noted as she held the hose, “My cup runneth over. See how that works, mom?”

Stand at the entrance to your room and see what it is saying to those entering.  Is there welcome and beauty, or is it kind of blah? Is it comfortable?  Is it clean?  Can everyone see and read easily?  Everything speaks, we want it to speak well about the joy and beauty that is there for them.  References are useful, but we found we had to make some of our own references. For instance, we have a booklet of hard words that we come upon.  Instead of using a dictionary, we put the meaning simply and in our own words with a simple illustration that means something to the children. They are more likely to remember the meaning that way.

Involve parents and relatives in the conversation about what is being learned.  Talk in the lobby or parking lot with them, so they know you and you know them.  Send home emails with reminders of homework or things to read before bed.  Remember their special days and events with a card and inspirational thoughts.

I just wanted to share that I wrote an artile that is published on spirituality.com.  The title to search for, is Working with The Resources You Have.  Hope it is helpful to you.  Love, Katie

Finding a secure place in God’s economy.
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