Note: This is a reflection I wrote in 2019 about how God changed my life through surfing. Needless to say, the meaning of that experience has continued to open up for me as I've gotten more interested in the power of play as it relates to formation. Enjoy!
If you've studied education / formation, psychology, practical theology, or an untold number of other fields, there's a good chance you've encountered some stage theories. In my little corner of the church and academy, perhaps the most in/famous is James Fowler's Stages
This week will be a bit of a read-long week, and I think an important one. As I believe I've signaled, I called this project "A (Christian) Formation Playbook" in part because the importance of play is part of my (not-quite-yet-a) thesis. 💡I am convinced that
Even without the holiday, I wouldn't have been able to share all my favorite training spaces this week. What I decided to do was save for this final post several I recommend but that I'm also entangled with in various ways from past and present work.
The first thing I'll say about Priya Parker's website is that it's a joy to explore. Beautiful colors. Smart featured posts. A variety of ways to connect and learn from her work (free newsletter, book, online course, etc.). The second thing I'll
Another oldie but goodie today. This site was recommended to me by an experienced church comms pro when I started in this work twelve years ago. I recently re-activated my free subscription to Nonprofit Tech for Good, and I've found it to be as useful as ever. Don&
This week I'm going to keep things brief so I can skill up for a new format I'd like to try. I'm going to be sharing spaces / communities / repositories / publications where you can get strong, often free or low-cost ideas and training in formation,
I've got lots of ideas for where to take A Christian Formation Playbook in the coming weeks and months, both in this newsletter iteration and hopefully soon as a podcast and eventually a book. But I'm absolutely committed to the idea that this space will be
Yesterday I spoke about a kind of micro-responsiveness in my research: how a particular event (a participant recruitment meeting) led to several rapid-fire adjustments to the learning and research plan I brought to our digital storytelling experience at "St. Sebastian's" summer camp. The other example of
In the academic tradition I was formed in, would-be dissertation writers have to propose, implement, and analyze a pilot study before launching their full project. Sometimes this project ends up being very closely connected to what their dissertation eventually becomes. For me, the connection was fairly loose, partly because while
In addition to helping us track how our people are learning, care helps them and us make choices that further benefit their learning. As I said yesterday, we first "read the room." And then we do our best to make adjustments accordingly. In some sense, then, this learner-centered
Why is care paramount in formative spaces? There are a lot of reasons. In some ways, I worry that in Christian education spaces we sort of overlook the concrete dynamics of what care makes possible, because it's just kind of "in the water" that love, regard,