Lighten my load...

Working toward credentialing as a religious educator, I've made a slightly ambitious goal of completing the basic reading requirements by the end of July. So I'm hunting down the last few books - the ones I haven't found in a church (or public) library, or in the hands of a friend.

One such friend is in seminary, so I wanted to see what overlap our lists might have. Not much, really. BUT -- holy cow, is a lot of the ministerial list available online in PDF form! Including a few of the books I need. So yippee - another five pounds I don't have to take on vacation!

(What can I say? I'm easily amused.)

Ministerial reading list: http://www.uua.org/leaders/leadership/ministerialcredentialing/16224.shtml

And the RE list:

http://www.uua.org/documents/recc/reading_list_annotated.pdf

Anyone know if those pursuing RE credentialing get the same 10% GA bookstore discount that aspirants and candidates get?

Loving the Internet...Let me count the ways...

No, I'm not actually going to count. But lately I keep noticing how internet makes my life happier.

Example: I've spent the past two weeks trudging through the print book of the Commission on Appraisal's Engaging Our Theological Diversity.

The commission did a lot of work. Surveys and talking sessions and lots of really good thought... and the book put me to sleep repeatedly. The content was excellent but...boggy. It could have been organized zap bing cool into a dynamic website - probably with ongoing opportunities for discussion?! Wild!!

(As far as I can tell, I'm the first person to read this book, a letter to the congregation still tucked inside the front cover...)

I'm still digesting any of a number of things I read, but the one that's stuck in my head right now is the idea of instrumental and terminal values - specifically in regards to community. Lots to think about there.

(I am doing a bunch of reading towards the credentialing process for Unitarian Universalist religious educators - if you'd like to know what that list looks like, check out

http://www.uua.org/documents/recc/reading_list_annotated.pdf )

Balancing work and the sabbath

For six days you may perform melachah, but the seventh day is a complete Sabbath, holy to the L-RD ... it is an eternal sign that in six days, the L-RD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. -Exodus 31:15-17

When you work for a church, Sundays tend to be busy and/or stressful and/or exhausting. There's an awful lot going on from the little logistical wrinkles to a congregant's unexpected and deep need.

Many of us take off Monday as a personal sabbath. Some take another day off (knowing that there will be too many loose ends hanging about on Monday...). I'm in the Monday crowd, myself, but I was coming home a wreck every single Sunday. And then I had a Well DUH moment.

What if I really really looked at the WORK of my average Sunday and moved as much of it as I could to another day? As the RE director, obviously, I would still need to love people, to make sure classes were covered, to do the story for all ages-- But there was no need to be making copies, cutting construction paper, freaking about snack supplies--I would definitely be less stressed if I went into every Sunday knowing that the class supplies were 100% ready, my various worship obligations were completely prepared AND printed out AND where I could get them easily. I'm not necessarily the most organized person in the world, so this took more work and rethinking than even I would realize. I'm not all the way there yet, but hey, I have some spare energy this afternoon. Time to go see IronMan2.

Bonus Book: Teaching Godly Play

I had four meetings yesterday with four hours between numbers three and four. Perfect time to grab a book! (Oo--blog post to consider - what are the perfect times to grab a book? I can think of at least fifty...)

On the "loaned/promised back" pile was Jerome Berryman's Teaching Godly Play: The Sunday Morning Handbook. It's a thin book, few big words, and even some line drawings. Oh, happy times!

Put simply, Godly Play is Montessori learning theory in a Christian religious education setting. The classroom is very carefully arranged to be child-sized, well-organized, and to have exactly the elements needed to help a young child express existential thought. It is a rather amazing system. (Nita Penfold created SpiritPlay as the Unitarian Universalist version of Godly Play, if you're wondering why this sounds vaguely familiar.)

The book was a good choice for a break in the high action of my May. There's a strong feeling of calm and of love. Of knowing that what you have is worth sharing, and of being willing to do a lot of hard work to get there. I'm too lazy to (get off the couch, walk across the house, find the book, find the page, and) quote, but Berryman, an Episcopal priest, makes theology easy enough for children, but compelling enough that the adult instructors are pulled in and their own faith deepened.

Overall, the book inspires me in its intentionality. I'm going to a one-day introduction to Spirit Play in August, and this was a really lovely scaffold for future knowledge.

(I am doing a bunch of reading towards the credentialing process for Unitarian Universalist religious educators - if you'd like to know what that list looks like, check out

http://www.uua.org/documents/recc/reading_list_annotated.pdf )

Friday Book: Creating Congregations of Generous People

Today's reading was Michael Durall's Creating Congregations of Generous People - I cracked the book open and realized that I had read most of it years ago - indeed, this book was my second introduction to the work of stewardship. (My first, of course, was being a steward in my home congregation's annual campaign. These things happen when your best friend chairs the stewardship committee.)

Since my first read, I've read a pretty full handful of other books/manuals, sat in on a one-day Durall seminar, and helped with a few more stewardship campaigns, from "just" asking to gathering folks for hopes-and-dreams brainstorming and writing a case statement. Fun times.

So, in a way, the re-read is somewhat nostalgic. Nodding my head at ideas that resonate even after a dozen iterations, face-palming at the same foibles and stumbles again and again. I'm reminded of how easy it is to take the easy path, and how hard to change culture.

I love the quotations collected at various congregations, and I'm intrigued by some of the questions asked -- now to continue the work of making a sacred space where those questions can be honestly and safely examined!

(I am doing a bunch of reading towards the credentialing process for Unitarian Universalist religious educators - if you'd like to know what that list looks like, check out

http://www.uua.org/documents/recc/reading_list_annotated.pdf )

Whom* do you adore?

I don't (just) mean this in a romantic way. Whom do you adore? Who makes your world a sweeter place?

Do they know you adore them?

Do their (other) loved ones know the stories you tell, the happy memories that get you through?

Tell them.

(Who sounds better, and comes up in more google searches, but my inner English teacher INSISTS that it should be whom. Whatever. You get my point... I hope?)

Soul?

The May big question over at the UU Salon (uusalon.blogspot.com) is
What is a soul?

Does it exist before we are born? Does it disappear when we die? It is unchangeable, or capable of growing/shrinking/strengthening? Can you lose your soul, or gain one?

I’m at a stage in life where I’m most distracted with the questions of this life (Is there enough bread for toast? When are my library books due? How can I better practice what I believe and still make it to carpool?)– I’m perfectly fine with a sense of mystery for the before/afterlife.

As a religious educator and a parent, I know that we are all born with a soul, each one unique and beautiful. It is the job (and great honor!) of a religious community to hold these souls, carefully but loosely, supporting them and helping them to discover the world.

I would not say that souls shrink, but I do think they can get buried (and perhaps a bit wrinkled or spindled) under all the Other Stuff of life. Sometimes they’re purposely covered up as a last-ditch effort at protection. Sometimes they’re just set aside and forgotten in the too-much-to-do, gotta-get-through-the-game-of-life.

And again, there is work for the religious community. How do we elevate the care and maintenance of souls? How do we encourage our congregants to value their own, as well as those of others? How do we make a safe space for souls within our doors, and out in the world?

UU Salon: May 2010, "What is a Soul?"

Come Read A Book With Us!

The first experiment in RE group reading will be Essex Conversations -- essays around the questions of

-As Unitarian Universalists enter the 21st century, what is central to our evolving faith?

-What are our goals for lifespan religious education?

-What are the vital components of our curricula?

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/32946.UU_REads

The plan is to read an essay or two each week and discuss as the spirit moves us. Most essays are about ten pages each, so it should not be an onerous task.

This week we're reading the introduction and the first essay -- Rev. Dr. Barry M. Andrews - Educating for Faith. It's the fourth passage I've read this week pulling from William James - guess I better read up on him, too...

Finding Balance

One of the Tapestry of Faith curricula is Moral Tales -- a great collection of sessions, each exploring a moral value, with a story from one of many traditions. As a visual, you create a Moral Compass - it looks like a compass, divided into 16 wedges, each for a different value. Perseverance, Responsibility, Courage, etc. I made the compass at the beginning of the year, and printed out each of the values in 36 pt and set them in a specific spot so I could just add a slip to the weekly basket...

And then life got busy and my office piles took over and that one specific spot, well, something else must have needed that spot, or perhaps there was a strong breeze. No idea. I only know that we had a few weeks where we couldn't find the slips of paper.

Of course, when you can't find anything in your office, it takes three times as long to get anything done, and geez, it makes it hard to be in a good mood. I started coming into work EARLY EARLY one day each week, spending an hour or so attacking the mess before anyone else was in the building. The art project Mable forgot to take home. Pictures from thirty years ago that someone wanted me to have. A few thousand papers I should have recycled way back when. That sermon from that guy in St. Louis that I had been meaning to read for three years. OH, the stuff...

Finally I found the slips of paper! Or at least, most of them.

Balance has gone missing. I'll type up a replacement slip for now, and know that I can't check that one off my to do list quite yet.