Written by Kenneth Kremer
The cameras were primed for capturing the thoughts of ten Christian parents—all WELS members.[i] The professional interviewer got right to the point: “Who do you think is responsible for your child’s spiritual education?”
One father shared this view: “I see myself as being in charge of the logistics—getting my kids to school or Sunday school. I believe in letting the experts teach and the parents be the facilitators.” Most of the others nodded in agreement.
The interviewer pressed on. “So what prevents you from being the expert?”
The mother of a five-year-old seemed up for the challenge. “It’s not that I don’t have the knowledge. This is the [church’s] organized thing—the formal process. Our church leaders talk about wanting to try things outside the box. Well this is the box we’re in: you take your children to Sunday school, enroll them in a Christian day school; later you send them to the pastor’s confirmation class. They learn that this is where you go to get the [spiritual] knowledge you will need for the rest of your life.”
Empirical data supports the anecdotal evidence for making this compelling case: Many, if not most, Christian parents no longer function as the primary faith-nurturers of their own children. Barna (2010), for example, reports that fewer than one out of every five [Christian] parents believe they are doing a good job of training their children morally and spiritually; and not even half (46%) of them state that their faith is important in their lives.[ii] The trend is worrisome. One question that clearly needs to be pursued is whether the church culture we’ve created continues to align with God’s model for engaging parents in the faith life of their own children.[iii] This raises the question: To what degree has the church itself contributed to the paradigm shift? Is it possible that we have inadvertently suggested that formal religious training by the church’s so-called experts can somehow replace the influence of parents?[iv] And, finally, has the organized church recognized the threat? If so, what efforts are being made to equip parents for their challenging role?
Cause and Effect
This didn’t happen overnight. More than a century ago the pragmatic humanist John Dewey (1859-1952) saw education as the anvil on which an emerging industrial American society would be forged. Under the structured tutelage of well-trained teachers (experts), Dewey envisioned the classroom as the place where students could more fully realize their potential.[v] Christian education resisted Dewey’s humanistic views regarding morality and religious faith, but it was not altogether impervious to his pedagogy. Several Christian denominations similarly began to regard parochial classrooms as the most effective (or efficient) way to shape their church culture. In many ways it was effective for the nation as well as the church. A largely illiterate population was transformed into a technological juggernaut through high-quality schools and a strong curriculum, especially later in the disciplines of science and math. Many people who made use of Christian schools also shared in the many blessings that resulted both for the children and for the church in general. But, with this view as a given, it is easy to understand how, over time, the influence of the home was quietly being replaced by the influence of the classroom and trained professionals. This unintended outcome still resonates among the attitudes of the current generation of Christian parents.[vi]
As industrial America grew, the workplace also began to change. In an agrarian economy, every family member contributed to the household income as a general laborer. But by the early 1900s the steady introduction of complex new technologies created a growing demand for workers with more sophisticated and specialized skills. The idea spread quickly from one sector of the economy to another. Six generations later, nearly everyone with a job filled a niche that required some degree of specialization. Today nearly everyone in the jobs sector has cultivated a laundry list of specialized skills for specific tasks. From a parental perspective, the take-home message has been that if you want things done right, give the task to people (teachers, coaches, mentors, pastors, surrogates, etc.) who have the right skills for the job. Regardless of what the Bible has to say about the matter, theology has been viewed as just another area in which parents feel they are poorly equipped for the task at hand. As this second shoe dropped, an ever-increasing number of Christian parents quietly abdicated their faith-nurturing role—a role that necessarily engages them in both theology and pedagogy—to trained professionals, whom they now viewed as the primary faith nurturer of their own children.[vii] Though, admittedly, the circumstances were quite different, the apostle Paul would have no truck with those who tried to excuse themselves from sharing the gospel in their personal contacts. Paul wrote: “I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another” (Romans 15:14). The confidence of Christian parents will need to be reconstructed if there is to be any hope for restoring their faith-nurturing role to them.
A Roadmap to the Future
History helps us understand how and why the cultural landscape has changed so dramatically in such a short time. What it cannot do is provide a roadmap for reshaping the church and home culture so that negative aspects of the current paradigm can be addressed. The following three imagined snapshots of a future church culture are meant to serve as the springboard for a discussion aimed at creating a badly needed new map for Christian parents.
RESPECTIVE ROLES: A church culture that acknowledges parents as the primary spiritual nurturers of their own children, and Christian education programs serving in supportive, encouraging, and equipping roles that will also prepare parents for the critical role that God himself ordained.
CHARACTER FORMATION: A church culture that understands that Christian character has its origins in the community of the home, where, as infants, children first learn about love from the actions and behaviors of parents and siblings.[viii] [ix]
HOME CONVERSATION: A church culture that lovingly holds parents accountable for leading an ongoing, honest, open, and meaningful spiritual conversation about Jesus, the Bible, and other faith-related topics in their own homes.[x]
Kenn Kremer is an adjunct professor at Martin Luther College’s Graduate Studies Program, a retired editor from Northwestern Publishing House, and a member of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Greenville WI.
[i] Recorded group interviews conducted for Bethany Lutheran Church (WELS), Appleton, Wisconsin. Report: “Christian Education: Market Research and Recommendations,” Brenda Haines, Blue Door Consulting, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, April 29, 2011
[ii] “Revolutionary Parenting: Raising Your Kids to Be Spiritual Champions,” George Barna, Tyndale House, 2010
[iii] One of the clearest expressions of God’s principle for nurturing the faith of children occurs twice in the Book of Deuteronomy. It clearly places the onus of responsibility on parents: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
[iv] Martin Luther wrote, “ . . . They [parents] should consider that they are under obligations of obedience to God; and that, first of all, they should earnestly and faithfully discharge their office, not only to support and provide for the bodily necessities of their children, but, most of all, to train them to the honor and praise of God. Therefore, do not think that this is left to your pleasure and arbitrary will, but that it is a strict commandment and injunction of God, to whom also you must give account for it . . . For this purpose He has given us children, and issued this command that we should train and govern them according to His will, else He would have no need of father and mother. Let everyone know, therefore, that it is his duty, . . .” (Concordia Triglotta: The Large Catechism, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo, 1921, p. 629)
[v] “The School and Society,” 1900. “The Child and the Curriculum,” 1902. “Moral Principles in Education,” 1909. [Texts of the second and third citation available on Wikipedia. See “John Dewey.”]
[vi] To this specific point, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary professor emeritus Joel Gerlach echoed Luther when he wrote, “ . . . The critical location for Bible teaching is not the classroom but rather the household; it is the walk, the sitting together on the porch, the snuggling into the warmth of bed, the joy of rising to a new day. It is in life itself where Bible truths have meaning for us as whole persons. And this kind of learning is rooted, not in education, but in the socialization process.” (“Teaching for Cognitive and Affective Outcomes,” unpublished essay)
[vii] Dr. Joel Biermann shed light on this particular issue in an unpublished dissertation: “Theology is more than relevant for Christian living; it is integrally and intimately bound with it . . . Luther operated with the assumption of the absolute relevance of theology for the life of the believer. Not surprisingly, this attitude is displayed especially in Luther’s Catechisms.” (“Virtue Ethics and the Place of Character Formation within Lutheran Theology,” Joel D. Biermann, A dissertation, Concordia Seminary, St Louis, 2002, p.248)
[viii] “All the processes of change, imagination, and learning ultimately depend on love . . . Parental love isn’t just a primitive and primordial instinct . . . Our extended life as parents also plays a deep role in the emergence of the most sophisticated and characteristically human capacities . . . It isn’t just that without mothering [and fathering] humans would lack nurturance, warmth, and emotional security. They would also lack culture, history, morality, science, and literature.” (“The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us about Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life,” Alison Gobnik, 2009, p.5)
[ix] “If we do not teach the catechism, if our people do not learn to participate in the liturgy, if our children do not know the Bible stories and cannot sing along in worship, if we do not begin to recover practices of [character] formation, ways of prayer and meditation and fasting and celebration, that bind daily life with the worshipping assembly in a priestly mode of the common life, then our churches will simply fade into spiritual inconsequence over the coming decades, however many new members we have and whatever the outcome of our ecclesiastical politics.” (“Sacramental Lutheranism at the End of the Modern Age,” David S. Yeago, Lutheran Forum 34, Christmas/Winter, 2000, p. 15)
[x] One of the most remarkable culture changes of our generation came about as the result of a simple five-word theme: “The marketplace is a conversation.” [“The Cluetrain Manifesto,” Thesis Four, 1999]
I was to of town but am home again!
I have a draft of the intro to Power-Hour that we were able to make available at our ELS Convention. We’re happy to share it with those who are interested!
Confirmation has long been a hobby horse of mine, and it is an area that I think we send a strong message to our parents: “You can’t handle this. Your job is to make sure that you drop them off and let us professionals handle it. Maybe we’ll let you do some busy work, like listening to your child’s memory work.” There are lots of good confirmation resources out there, but I have seen precious little that would fit into the church’s proper role — “supportive, encouraging, and equipping.” I’d love to see some resources developed that could be placed into a parent’s hands: “Here is everything you need to teach your children this unit. When you finish this unit, let’s talk, then I’ll give you the packet for the next unit.” I’d love to see this option built into the new catechism that is being discussed!
Rik – correct me if I am wrong please, but was not Luther’s reasoning behind writing the Small Catechism to give a tool for parents to use in the home in teaching their children the truths of the Bible. That being said, I concur that having resources developed and place in parent’s hands is important and ongoing work for the professionals.
Perhaps it is the pendulum swinging back and forth to the extent that parents are at times more hands on and then hands off with their children’s catechesis and thus opinions sway about who is responsible for children being brought up in the faith. The message of parental involvement and responsibility must continual be maintained by the church and put before the congregations.
What a compelling article! Thank you, Kenn. Our congregation just completed our third year of a program we created to help fill this need in our church family and in our community. We call it Bethany Lutheran Preschool Power-Hour and our families love it! The following is a very rough first draft of what we are creating for congregations who are interested in creating a Power-Hour program of their own. We would love to hear your feedback and are in the process of compiling our curriculum so that it can be shared with other congregations. It’s coming soon. God willing it will be more complete by the ELS Synod Convention.
God has blessed our work here and we are anxious to support others who are interested!
Please feel free to contact me if you would like more information!
Melissa Pittenger
Bethany Lutheran Preschool Power-Hour
151 Tremont W.
Port Orchard, WA
(360)876-1300
What is Power-Hour?
Our Mission Statement sums it up well: Bethany’s Preschool Power-Hour exists to strengthen families with young children by offering them an affordable program rich in spiritual, intellectual, physical, creative, and social parent/child bonding activities.
One way we present ourselves-
We are the only program of this kind in our area!
Why?
We believe that parents are the first and most important teachers in a child’s life.
Trained teachers work with both the parent and child at the same time.
The program is like a hands-on parenting workshop. When the class is over, parents have the tools to keep developing these skills in their children.
What does it look like?
We offer a unique learning experience for both parent (mom, dad, grandparent, nanny) and child. Activities are age appropriate for 2-5 year olds. (Younger siblings are welcome to join us!) We meet weekly for one jam packed hour.
Our schedule:
Sign-in
Welcome Song
Music and Finger Plays
Bible Story
Lucas! (Our much loved puppet)
Craft
Choice time: Three activities to support growth in Literacy, Mathematics and one of the following: Large or Small Motor Skills, Science, or Social Studies
Story Time
Rocking Song
Followed by 30 minutes of supervised free play for children while parents attend a parenting class held by Pastor.
Our classroom cap has grown to 12-13 students. Originally it was 10. Because of the size of our program we offer two time slots our Thursday mornings look like this:
9:00 Class 1
10:00 Finish
10:05 Parenting Class & Play time for students from Class 1&2
10:35 Parenting Class Finish & Class I leaves
10:45 Class 2
11:45 Finish
We have had families express an interest in evening classes if this fits your congregations schedule better.
We base our music, craft, choice time activities, and story off of a theme that we draw from our weekly Bible lesson giving continuity to our day and an opportunity to model for parents how to talk to their kids about Jesus all day long.
We meet for four consecutive weeks in the fall and in the spring, take a little break, and have another four consecutive weeks. Parents can sign up for four or eight week blocks.
What do you need?
A compassionate leader or team who is eager to support young families with the tools they need for this life, and most importantly enthusiastic about sharing Christ with kids while equipping their parents to do the same. (Our teachers are volunteers. You could structure your class fee to compensate a teacher. We have had 2-3 teachers each season.)
A pastor who is willing to lead a Parenting class for caregivers and welcome new families.
A room or contained space that is safe and attractive to children.
A comfortable room or space for parents to meet for parenting class.
Little Lambs Curriculum: Published by CPH $39.99 (one time investment) includes both an illustrated teacher’s guide and a reproducible children’s book.
http://www.cph.org/p-1707-little-lambs-teacher-guide.aspx
This includes all the Bible lessons you will need for a two year, four season, rotation.
A lamb puppet and a lidded basket to keep him in
A CD player or iPod and these three songs found on iTunes.
Michael Card’s Barocha, affectionately known as the Rocking Song
Hap Palmer’s Tap Your Sticks
Hap Palmer’s The Bean Bag
Bean Bags, one per child -We made our own (fall)
Rhythm Sticks, two per child -We cut ours from dowels and sanded the edges (spring)
A computer and printer to create weekly newsletters for families.
A library card
We also recommend:
A large area rug for circle time. Carpet or foam squares also work.
It needs to be large enough to seat parents and children.
(This is the rug we purchased with the money from our first season and we love it! http://www.rtrkidsrugs.com/Jesus-Loves-the-Little-Children-Rug-p/cfk720xx.htm?1=1&CartID=0)
Four or five tables set at child appropriate height with enough preschool sized chairs for each of your students. You may have these already for your Sunday School. We use two for our craft area and three for our choice time stations.
A table top cross or crucifix
A basket of fabric pieces to use as headdresses to aid in Bible story telling
“Letter Links” to create name tags and a sign in area that builds phonetic awareness. http://www.amazon.com/Letter-Links-Alphabet-Learning-Childrens/dp/1573791431
Toys and books for free time and for use during choice time. See curriculum for specific items used in choice time. We have a book shelf of books, a kitchen, dolls, dress up clothes, play dough, puppets, blocks, cars and a train table. Most of these items were donated.
Using your pastor, teachers and other community leaders to come and read your story during story time!
Why do it?
Power-Hour fills two great needs. It supports and strengthens our own member families as they fill their vocations as Christian parents and children. It also provides a great outreach opportunity to those in our community who need to know or better know their Savior.
We have what parents want. As Christians we have the joyful opportunity to invite young families into our church buildings where we have the tools to support the whole child as they grow: physically, social emotionally, academically and spiritually . All parents love their children and many are looking for encouragement and support. We get to serve those parents as we honor them in their role as their child’s first and most loved teacher and we get to equip them with the tools that they need to prepare their children for this life, and for the Life to come. In the meantime relationships are fostered between church members, pastors and teachers in a very organic and non threatening way that translate into witnessing opportunities. Those same relationships make church attendance more comfortable when they come to worship with us. At Bethany approximately half of our Power-Hour families are non-members, and many have expressed appreciation as they have learned how to talk to their children about Jesus. They love that they have time set aside each week to strengthen the relationship they have with their children through crafts and other learning activities. Another valuable piece is that the ideas they get at Power-Hour are a springboard for continued learning at home. We do have what parents want. More importantly, we have what they and their children need, a Savior who has come to take our place, forgive our sin, and give us Heaven.
What does it cost?
Obviously there are some set-up costs incurred by a congregation as they start a Power-Hour program. See the “What Do You Need?” section listed above. At Bethany we were blessed to quickly see those dollars back again and generate more funds to improve our program every season.
We charge $25 for 8 one hour classes and an end of the season party or $15 for 4 one hour classes. If there is more than one child in the 2-5 year range then parents get $5 off the tuition for each additional child. In three years that money has allowed us to pay our own expenses, printing costs, craft materials etc… It has also paid for duplicate copies of Little Lambs, three quality preschool tables, an area rug, two teachers’ tuition for a one credit early childhood class offered in our area by Martin Luther College. We are now in a position where we can purchase other items that can also be used by our school, Sunday school, preschool, etc…
Our parents have told us that they would pay $40 for eight weeks. You may need to structure your fees differently, especially if you compensate your teacher.
We chose not to have a drop in program for ease in planning and continuity for students and teachers.
You can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bethany-Lutheran-Preschool-Power-Hour/127032437331077?ref=hl
Melissa, thank you for your extensive comments. If you are willing to share your email address, I would like to further discuss your concepts with you and share a concepts that is currently under development. KJK
I would LOVE that! Mepittenger@hotmail.com