The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Facial Expression To Use When A Parent Wants To Drop Off Their Child At Church And Go For Coffee While You Baby-Sit Them

Bible Cartoon Gallery Idea

Ginger Shields, Director of Children's Ministry at West Market Street UMC in Greensboro, NC, came up with a great idea to decorate her church hallways with the Bible Song art on one side and her kid's art on the other.

If you want to find out how she got the big frames done, contact gshields@wmsumc.org.

 

Rev. Fink is Almost Ready

Had an absolute BLAST yesterday in our sound studio recording the 15 "intros" and "outros" for Rev. FINK's debut as the narrator of our first DVD/app for our Bible Song "The Good News" piece. Haven't had so much time in a decade. Thanks Zach Peterson (director) and Todd Ernster (engineer).

Rev. Fink is going to be the continuing element. He's a bit of a curmudgeon, with a Jewish Jersey accent, but a heck of a guy.dd Ernster (engineer). It's going to be a crazy fun product.

Children Doing Ministry

We had a fun day with 13 Aussies, 1 Kiwi, 3 Canadians and a bunch of US FINKs reinvisioning children's ministry yesterday. We spent the day working on a model that turns children's ministry into "children doing ministry" rather than "children doing programs." The theme was built around Bible Song, and a simple nightly faith practice called "The FAITH 5" (Faith Acts In The Home).

INSIGHT 1: The big insight on the day: Bible Song IS WORSHIP.

bef. 900;  (n.) ME wors ( c ) hipe, worthssipe,  OE worthscipe,  var. of weorthscipe; see worth, -ship;  (v.) ME, deriv. of the n.

It is a vehicle - the ship - that brings worth to God. What age group would you exclude from worship? Every age has needs. Every age has gifts. One might say every age has gifts we need, and every age has needs we gift. (GIFT Worship = Generations In Faith Together Worship) If you just do Bible Song as Sunday School, you are setting yourself up to live with a lot of baggage, expectations, and restrictions in people's minds. You are also setting yourself up to having 0 father's wanting to be there. Amy Kippen of Faith Lutheran in West Fargo told about having 79% of her dads in Bible Song every week. They don't have a separate age-segregated Sunday School. GIFT is GIFT, and dads love it.

INSIGHT 2: The second big insight on the day: Bible Song is FAMILY worship.

If you let everyone know over and over and over that this is a family experience, you remove even more of the mental restrictions that keep dads away (an mom's dropping the kids off for Sunday School) You also are able to solve the "how old do you have to be to come to Bible Song?" questions. Every age is welcome, valued and needed in a family. What age would you exclude from a family get-together? We want to resurrect the word family at its best, and to do that, we need to broaden it to be cross-generational at the core. Imagine a church where EVERY child had multiple grandparents. Every elder had multiple grandchildren. Every single mom or dad had multiple aunts, uncles and cousins for their kids... and every 16 year old had a second opinion!

INSIGHT 3: The third big insight on the day: The MIND = the brain meets the body meets the environment

I've always been fascinated by the fact that Jesus changed the central law of Israel when he added MIND to Deuteronomy 6. (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, MIND, and strength!) What is the mind?

I was fortunate enough to spend all of 2008 working on preschool research and model building. During that time, the most fascinating music-and-the-brain thinker was Dr. Angie Patel of the Neuroscience Institute in San Diego. I asked Angie "What is the mind?" and he said, "It's the brain meets the body meets the environment!"

If you aren't engaging the whole brain, you're not a good steward of assets. That means see, feel, taste, touch, smell, emotions! SIDEBAR: Why just talk to a kid when you can enrich the lesson immeasurably with a prop or piece of art? The ears can process up to 10,000 bits per second of information. The eyes? 7,000,000,000. Yup. Billion.

Likewise, if you aren't engaging their bodies in the learning process, you are losing 1/3 of your mind before you start.

And again, if you aren't consciously engaging and maximizing their environment - that includes the rich elements on the walls, the smell of the room when you enter, the smiles in your eyes, the safe touch - you are losing another 1/3 of your mind before you start.

So think of your Sunday (or weekday) experience with children as a WORSHIP with a FAMILY that engages the whole MIND.

If you do this, you'll get the heart, soul, and strength as a bonus!

Dr. Roland Martinson, dean of Luther Seminary and the grandfather of children, youth and family ministry spoke to us last night on his research of exemplar youth ministries and signed copies of his new book.

Worship, Family and Heart / Soul / Mind / Strength

Great birthday party last night with He Qi, Yu Hua, 13 Aussies, 1 Kiwi and a number of exotic North Dakotans. The most fun birthday I can ever recall. We sat around toasting and laughing, laughing, laughing at some of the crazy phrases that don't exactly translate from Aussie to English and vice versa (ask me about "rooting for the Twins" and a "Fanny Pack".)

We invested today with Aussies, Candadians, a Kiwi, Coloradoans, Iowans, North Dakotans and Minnesotan's trying to figure out how to kill Sunday School before it kills the church (the parent-less drop-off spiritual baby-sitting service form of Sunday School, that is).

Marvelous insights, cross-pollinization of ideas, and fun. Tonight Dr. Rollie Martinson is coming to talk about exemplar your ministry congregations. Tomorrow is all about adolescents, then families Wednesday and cross-gen Thursday.

If there were no such thing as Sunday School, would you invent it? Or is there a more natural and biblical way of incubating?

My hopes are to create a new post-television worship experience that starts with parents and kids together on Sunday (or Saturday or Wednesday). One that spills over into simple caring conversations and faith dialogue seven nights a week.

One that looks less like class (the church with no class) and more like family, worship and an engagement of heart, soul, MIND and strength.

Songs of Israel Off to the Press

 

At last! Volume 5 of my eight book Bible Song cartoon book set, "The Songs of Israel" left my office for printer prep today at 1:29 pm. Feels great!

Lost sheep. Scattered seeds.
Late night visitors. Buried treasure.
Wedding feasts with empty seats.
Houses built on rock and sand.
Jesus knew how to tell stories.
Some people were delighted by his enduring parables.
Others saw them as dangerous and wanted him dead!

"Humor, vibrance and the delightful drawings of a pastor who never grew up come together in this unique blend of the parables of Jesus and 15 key Psalms."

This book is the third in an eight volume set that will take young people and their families on a nightly journey through Scripture from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. 

It was a lot of fun, but it took a month longer than I remembered the last book taking. I'm taking the weekend off!

DMin Here We Come

I had my entrance interview for the DMin program at George Fox yesterday and it went well. I'm in and ready! The first cohort meeting is in Portland in late August. Between then an now I've got to create the outline for my focus.

Then, the next three years will be invested in Semiotics and the Future with a focus on leadership in the emerging culture. Dr. Len Sweet and 19 folks from a variety of settings, churches and experiences will be along for the ride. It should be a major growth experience. I'm looking forward to the critique and challenges and tough questions that should help polish and propel the last 15 years of our work to a new level.

Speaking of new, here's a sneak peak at some of the work I've been doing combining the parables and the psalms. Kathryn (my daughter) just colored them last night. Keep your lamps ready.

 

Prenatal Confirmation (A womb with a view)

Here's how an amateur neurologist* would design the Christian education/confirmation process... beginning in the womb:

9 Months of Prenatal Confirmation Education: Songs of faith sung to the womb, a massage for mommy every night (hey, why not daddy, too?) while sharing highs and lows. A Bible verse a week, repeated every night,  starting with "You who formed my inward part; knit me together in my mother's womb..." (Psalm 139) Talking aloud about your day, and how the verse might relate. Prayer aloud for the baby (why not name the child as soon as you can?) Blessing the child by name and marking them with the cross.

First Year of Life Confirmation Education: Songs of faith turned to lullabies and sung from the rocking chair. Massage for the baby while looking them in the eyes, smiling, and sharing your highs and lows. A Bible verse a week, repeated every night, starting with "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless God's holy name..." (Psalm 103) Prayer aloud for the baby. Blessing the child by name and marking them with a kiss on your little finger and a cross on their forehead.

Second Year Confirmation Education: Songs of faith turned to lullabies and sung from the rocking chair, along with signing key words from the verse. Massage for the baby while looking them in the eyes, smiling, and sharing your highs and lows.A Bible verse a week, repeated every night, starting with "I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety." (Psalm 4:8) Prayer aloud for the baby, naming them and claiming them for God. Blessing the child by name and marking them with a kiss on your little finger and a cross on their forehead.

I need to put some more thought into the rest of life. Maybe tomorrow.

*Amateur Neurologist? Let's say a very amateur one. As in moi.

Reinventing Worship for a Post-Television Generation

Well, I've got Carmichael, CA, and Tacoma left on the Maniacal Melheimian Mystery Tour - and then the 79 cities and 2009 tour is history.

I'll do a complete recap of what I learned on the road, but here's a sneak peak:

The hottest hot button I hit this year on the road was the concept of re-imagining worship for a post-television generation with our brain-based learning on arts-based platforms. I.E....

Bible Song AS worship.

The reasons this seemed to resonate with people on the tour this year:

• Most Christian education directors get NO time in worship.
• Most Senior Pastors spend NO time in Children's Ministry.
• Most families are doing NO intentional Christian education in the home.
• And most Worship Leaders KNOW that the so-called "contemporary age-segregated let-me-put-on-a-show-for-you" worship service isn't impressing the baby boomers, isn't drawing the baby-busters, and isn't engaging the hearts and minds of the post-television generation.

Basically, I'd like to launch a national conversation about reinvisioning worship (Old English weorthscipe, from weorth worthy, worth + -scipe -ship) as an activist, constructivist, engaging community vehicle that brings worth to God by unveiling the key Bible theme for the week on Sunday with a blurring of worship and education where parents and kids stay TOGETHER, followed by sending the theme home to households committed to "every night in every home" FAITH 5 faith encounters seven nights a week. What we must create is an worship/education blur where instead of trying to put on a show for the post-television generation in worship, and instead of sending kids and parents into separate rooms for education, families (and adopted grandparents, singles, etc.) come together an hour-and-a-quarter  GIFT (Generations In Faith Together) event that looks something like this:

    1.  Open with the theme/song/verse/story for the week unveiled in an energetic, fun, engaging encounter with the text where the brain meets the body meets the environment (20 - 25 minutes), then
    2.  Break into small group to model the FAITH 5 every week (5 - 10 minutes of modeling and connecting this week's text with their highs and lows), then
    3.  Engage in the creation/interpretation of the key theme through the arts (15 - 20 minutes)
    4.  Celebrate the week's new theme through a "show and share and tell and prayer" closing - with sacraments and the prayers of the people coming directly from each group's "highs and lows" (15 - 20 minutes), then
    5. Send the theme home seven nights that week  - now that they have a frame of reference... Er... Frame of reverance -  to form the core of the FAITH 5 nightly encounter with the text (the theme verse) and the context (their highs and lows). Explain that Sunday is just the time to get the new "play" for the week. Now that you know it, go and live it!

This, of course, means the preacher isn't going to be the only preacher and interpretor of the text on Sunday morning. The preacher is going to have to be willing to share the spotlight with a whole church full or people engaging with and interpreting the text. The IHS (one hour service) is going to have to shift from a spectator sport attempting a quickie religious fix into the kick-off of a week of the Bible theme followed by a week-long engagement with the text and context (the peoples' highs and lows).

SIDEBAR: What preacher in his or her right mind wouldn't want the majority of the households engaging with and applying Sunday's text to their lives seven nights a week? What worship leader in his or her right mind wouldn't want the majority of households singing and signing the text from Sunday seven nights a week? What Christian education director in his or her right mind wouldn't want to send Sunday's theme home for 5 - 10 minutes a night - every night? What Christian education board in their right mind wouldn't want a highly motivated teaching team engaging in faith incubation every night of the week in caring, intimate, loving settings? A GREAT teacher to student ratio? And faith encounters at the most effective time for Christian education - the five minutes each night before the brain goes into Maximum Meaning Mode on a good night's sleep.

Now that's Christian education. That's worship. That's family ministry as families DOING ministry rather than families doing programs! That's faith incubation.

I've got two days off in Tacoma next week and have started putting the RCL texts and Bible Song texts together on a spreadsheet to see how they meld/mix.

I'll post it when I'm done, then let's look at some dates in the cold, dead winter to gather some movers-and-shakers-and-systems-breakers in Florida or Puerto Rico to think this through.

Maybe we could kick off a post-Lenten experiment with a dozen churches ready to blur the lines between Worship and Education... and finally create the worship to education to home link that will replace Sunday School forever.

Kill the drop-off Sunday School before it kills the church.

God Sees All Snacks

 

Susan Mathew at First UMC in Van Wert, OH, is making food out of every Bible Song lesson. Here's "God Sees All" (Elijah and the Ravens) one in mini chocolate chip cookie dough, pretzels, animal crackers, red hots and red licorice, plus a pretty cool raven.