In a recent post I talked about Anna Carter Florence’s idea of “preaching as testimony.” Recently I have been pondering the idea of Christian education as testimony. I think this idea has some merit and could change the way we understand Christian education.
Christian education can be understood in many different ways. It can be understood as transmitting of knowledge, traditions, and faith from one generation to the next. It can also be understood as nurturing the faith, growing in faith, and growing in ones relationship with God. These are just some if the ways we can understand Christian Education.
If we understand Christian education as testimony the primary focus is God and not us. In her book Anna states that “testimony is passionate truth-telling.” It seems to me that this is the foundation of what Christian education should do. Christian education should strive to tell the truth about God and humans relationship with God. While we will never know the whole truth about God we can see glimpses of God through all of creation. We see it through our interactions with the Holy in each other and in the world. It is these glimpses of God’s truth that provide the foundation for Christian education.
If we now understand Christian education as “passionate truth-telling” about God does this change how we do Christian education? Does it change how and what we teach about the Bible? Does it change how we conduct Bible studies? Does it change our view of teaching? In this view does the teaching take on a different meaning than our traditional understanding? Does this view change what we include in our Christian education ministries?
I am still pondering this idea of Christian education as “testimony”. Still fleshing out for myself what it means and what impact it may have on the changing face of Christian education. As you can see I have many more questions on this topic than I do answers. Please join the conversation-share your thoughts or answer a question or two!
I think that Anna's definition of testimony as passionate truth-telling fits as a definition for Christian education. Part of what needs to change is the notion that only the teacher is the one who has truth to share. Bringing the idea of testimony to a CE setting means that everyone has truth to share. In other words, every person is a vehicle for divine revelation to the community. Such a view then allows the teacher to become more of a facilitator and opens more doors through which the Spirit can enter. However, to make this happen, more than just the teacher must buy into the definition, which, in my experience, is the difficult part.
ReplyDeleteRebekah, I love your idea that "every person is a vehicle for divine revelation to the community"! It does open more door for the Spirit to move and enter into the community. I agree that for this to work the entire community needs to buy into this definition...which as you say is difficult.
ReplyDelete