Saying Goodbye (& Hello) to a Formation Course, Part 1

This is the last week of my final time offering Adapting Christian Formation, the required semester-long Christian education class I've been teaching for four or five years at CDSP. (It depends how you keep count—the first year it was called Postmodern Christian Education and incorporated a bit more material from the course of same name by my predecessor, the great Susanna Singer.) We're making the transition to a new curriculum, so for logistical reasons I taught it in an interesting split-semester format during first and third quarter.

Let me be crystal clear: This is not a bad thing. Christian formation will still be taught at CDSP as we complete the transition. But I don't know if any of Adapting Christian Formation's resources and activities will come along for the ride. So allow me, with gratitude for the past and enthusiasm for the future, to pour one out for Adapting Christian Formation—and ask for a little input from those who are willing to offer it.

A syllabus is nothing if not a set of priorities, and this course really effectively captures mine. Here are the learning objectives, interspersed with a little commentary. These represented, at the time I wrote them, my deepest goals for what future leaders in the Episcopal Church would be able to know and do while facilitating lifelong formation in their current and future contexts.

1. Understand the changing cultures and contexts of religious and spiritual education within and beyond faith communities, and draw on relevant theory and practice to design equitable, participatory, sustainable approaches to fostering learning and growth in these settings.

This is the big one for me. Our approaches to Christian formation need to respond effectively to what's happening in our churches and our culture. They should put a premium on getting everyone involved, and they should spring from some fundamental beliefs about how people learn and grow.

2. Demonstrate competency in the core leadership tasks of Christian formation: 

1. identifying learner and community assets;
2. negotiating faith-informed short- and long-term objectives relevant to learner, faith community, and world;
3. creating, curating, and connecting educational resources;
4. designing and facilitating active, community-based learning experiences;
5. attending to healthy, supportive relationships among leaders and participants;
6. ritualizing learning assessment, reflection, and recommitment.

This course is unabashedly a semester-long series of opportunities to practice, in ways that are as authentic as possible to the shape of the actual work of leading formation. I'm particularly proud of the material on ritual and assessment of learning, which I think makes a somewhat dense topic approachable and relevant to the peculiar character of life in an Episcopal congregation.

3. Come to see yourself as a teacher and learner of faith accompanying the people you serve, and develop self-awareness about how your own preferences, commitments, biases, strengths, and limitations impact others.

More courses in people-centered disciplines should have self-knowledge learning objectives. There's nothing wrong with teaching from our own convictions and personal priorities (indeed, authenticity is a must!), but I truly believe that where most teachers get themselves in trouble is in not quite understanding how their own story is intersecting with and shaping the work—often for better, but sometimes for worse.

4. Create a personal “Formation Philosophy” artifact informed by Christian theological values and traditions, educational scholarship, social theory, and wise practices from diverse ministry contexts.

The fourth is like unto the third a bit. When there's a really important summative project in a course, I like to get it into the learning objectives in order to draw attention throughout the semester and especially to emphasize the importance of taking that artifact with you beyond the course. "How do I want to lead formation in the future, in light of what I've learned?" Let's get some guiding answers down on paper now!

5. [Final learning outcome to be proposed individually by students according to relevant personal or community interests.]

I include a self-selected learning objective, because self-guided learning is how formation leaders will continue to grow into their ministerial identity and refine their skills and knowledge in the future. I want them to get some practice now setting their own priorities and following through, in a format where they can get a little guidance from me. It's about establishing good habits now.

Now I've got an objective for you! What do you think might be missing from this list? What do you wish you had known more about, or developed more skills in, when you were first starting out in this work. Of the above (or from your ideas), what are the most important ideas I should take with me into the future of my work.

This is not just engagement bait. I'm truly at a crossroads moment here and would genuinely appreciate your input. In a future post, I'll have a similar question about the course's "big ideas" and organization.

Thank you in advance for helping me reflect on, and celebrate, a course that has meant a lot to me!