Three Posters Waiting For You

Okay, tour friends, it's time to kick this "enlist the parents" project into high gear. Schedule a dinner for the five "driest tinder" households in your church, publish a menu that looks like the nicest dinner they'll have all summer (grilled steaks, tiramasu, key lime pie, a nice California wine), make them Pavlovian Drool, then invite them over to walk through the "FAITH 5" by posting these five words on the board and asking them to unpack the psychology, sociology and theology of the nightly faith practices.

Here are three sample posters. Project your favorits on newsprint and invite some young artists to trace it for you. Then, during dessert at your event, have them paint it "live" as you unpack the five little words that can change the church.

Comments

[Rich Melheim]

MDP - Most dedicated people: There are people who would take a bullet for a kid. They're called parents. You can't hire that out. WHY WOULDN'T you want only the most dedicated people teaching the kids the faith. THEIR OWN kids.
MET - Most effective time. Neurologically, the most effective time for ANY education that is going to stick is NOT Sunday morning at 9:15. It is the five minutes before you go to sleep. Whatever you return to, reflect upon and plant into the young mind right before a good night's sleep will become the filter by which all the events of the day are processed as the memories move from the short-term scratch pad (hippocampus) into the long-term hard-drive (neo cortex) wherein all deeper meaning is made. Whatever we do on Sunday morning needs to simply give the parents the key verse, the key story and the play for the week. We must convince them to return to Sunday's theme for 5 minutes a night, and plant it into the highs and lows, scripture, talk, pray and blessing that we call the FAITH 5.

MEP - Most Effective Practices: If we teach the way the brain learns - multi-sensory learning, opening the kid before we open the book, engaging the kid with the faith community, connecting faith to life, getting the body involved in the scripture song by signing it, getting the kid to create art on the theme and show it off in worship, and returning to the theme 7 nights a week in the five minute home huddle, THEN we will be planting God's Word and wisdom into the whole person - not just the ears, not just the eyes.

If you put the Most Dedicated People to work at the Most Effective Times using the Most Effective Practices, you have Faith Incubation of the most effective kind.

[Peter]

Hi Rich!Just wondering if you can fill us in on all the abreviations in the top cartoon...i.e.MDP,MCT,MEPX7,IHS,M3,57????