Even though I am all in for moving beyond a Sunday-school-centric model of Christian formation, I do have a significant reservation about one particular consequence of the shift. What's incredibly valuable about the Sunday school model is the ability to design in to an experience over time a
I was speaking with a bishop recently for my day job, and they talked a lot about the role partnerships play in making ministry sustainable—now and in the future. I think that's probably true quite generally from a ministry leadership perspective, but it feels especially important to
I have overseen exactly one online article that "went viral" in a reasonably rigorous understanding of that word. Stop me if you've heard this one. I was exhibiting on behalf of the CMT@VTS at the 2013 Forma Conference when our table got a visit from
A little more than twelve years ago, I was sitting in a conference room in Aspinwall Hall at Virginia Seminary. Lisa Kimball, who had just hired me to be the new digital missioner in the Center for the Ministry of Teaching at Virginia Theological Seminary, was convening a group of
I've been doing recommendation week over on Facebook. If you're interested in my favorite resources for Bible, prayer, visuals, and music, you've got two options: 1. join the conversation on Facebook; or 2. become a paying subscriber to this site. One of the benefits
"OK, Kyle, so learning theories are great, but how do we actually use them?" I've tried to share a few answers to this question along the way this week, some typical moves corresponding to several of the theoretical perspectives. But it's worth asking this
Here's a teaching tradition you probably don't know about, at least by name. The funds of knowledge tradition builds on the ideas we've been playing with this week. It's both constructivist (build on existing knowledge) and liberatory (e.g., blurs lines between
There's a decent chance you've heard of Paulo Freire. Many believe he was the most influential educational thinker of the twentieth century. Certainly I've been assigned his principal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, over the years more than any other. Freire contrasts two models
"He must increase, but I must decrease." – John the Baptist I wanna start with the important quote from today's learning theorist: The goal is to teach in such a way as to produce the most learning from the least teaching. This is the best encapsulation I
The third leg (really the first leg) of my little curatorial tripod is LEARNING. This week I wanna walk through a couple theories and resources that I think are most important for formation leaders to know. I definitely think anyone who guides others' learning needs to know about constructivism.
Editor's note: With this edition, I'm starting to think about how to incorporate wisdom from people who chime in on my Facebook posts. Let me know what you think! Let's talk about YouTube! There's a lot made of the fact that YouTube
OK, so what are faith leaders and community group leaders to do in light of the decline of social media? What is a new playbook for reaching, teaching, and engaging in online and hybrid spaces? I have a few thoughts: Focus your best efforts on methods that maximize your reach