January/February 2007
Diocesan Year of Church and Home: One in Spirit
This year's Diocesan theme-–to be launched in a special ceremony on the January 6-7, 2007 Christmas weekend-–is wonderfully pertinent to Sunday School because it's all about developing a more spiritually centered family life in the home (whether your household consists of 1 person or 10) as well as strengthening the connection between church and home. Share the following background material with your staff at a meeting set aside for that sole purpose; contact your pastor and parish council for more information on "Church and Home" initiatives from the Diocese.
Encourage your families to attend the special liturgy (January 6 or 7; each parish will choose the date they prefer) at which the theme year will be launched. Not only will they then be able to share the joy of Armenian Christmas with fellow parishioners but they will learn more about the theme year in a special sermon and will receive a beautiful Armenian miniature on the Presentation of our Lord (featuring the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the elderly Simeon and Anna) to place in their homes.
Click here to download a PDF file of ideas.
Olympic Training
What would happen if athletes showed up at the Olympic Games equipped the way Sunday School Teachers often enter their classrooms? Some would be gripped by fear, since they’d never really competed before. Others might quickly study the rule book as they waited for the starter’s gun. The image is absurd.
But now turn the image around and think what might happen if we took passing on faith to our children as seriously as Olympic athletes take passing on a baton in a relay. Imagine how strong a volunteer team you could have if you prepared volunteers with an Olympic-style workout program.
Click here to download a PDF file of ideas.
Evaluation
An educator says, "Evaluation is neither a putdown nor a pat on the back." Evaluation is merely a look back at a teaching session to determine the results. And, if needed, to do it better next time. It is not an easy task because, unlike football games, Christian education has no Scoreboard and there are no winners and losers. Something good nearly always happens, but the stakes are high, so we need always to improve. Learning to do better begins with not being afraid of evaluating ourselves. Don't be like the teacher who once said, "I'd give up teaching if I asked myself how I was doing."
Click here to download a PDF file of ideas.
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