What is the future of Christian education

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What is the future of Christian education?

• APCE workshop 50
• Thursday 4-530 p.m.
• Rodger Nishioka, Ph.D.
• Associate Professor of Christian Education
• Columbia Theological Seminary

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• We continue to organize our educational
  ministries as if present experience extends the
  experience of the past, as if old images are
  adequate for the contemporary quest for meaning.
• Charles Foster. Educating Congregations.
  Nashville, TN Abingdon, 1994.

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• 1. Existing approaches to Christian education
  are no longer adequate for the task of building
  up communities of faith to praise God and serve
  neighbor for the emancipatory transformation of
  the world.
• Discuss What are our existing approaches that
  are no longer adequate?
• Tribal education traditioning information as
  if it leads to transformation.

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• 2. With increasing demands on limited resources,
  the education in different congregations will be
  linked more by the participation of their members
  in shared events of the Christian story than by
  denominational strategies for church education,
  curriculum resources, or leadership training
  programs.
• Discuss What are the increasing demands and the
  limited resources? Why are denominational
  strategies on the decline?

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• 3. In our increasingly pluralistic world,
  congregations can no longer assume that their
  values and commitments will be taught and/or
  reinforced by other educational institutions in
  their larger communities. If not hostile, more
  likely the culture is indifferent to us.
• Discuss How is our world more pluralistic?
• More Muslims than Presbyterians.
• Loss of family support.
• Shop in Little Five Points

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• 4. If congregations are to become communities of
  praise and service for the sake of Gods
  transformation of the world, they must assume
  primary responsibility for the education of
  people into the responsible embodiment of those
  ministries.
• Discuss Why is the focus shifting to
  congregations? What does this mean for our life
  together?

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• As we look to the future of Christian education,
  much relies on you, the leaders.

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• To do this, Edwin Friedman says we must
  demonstrate leadership with nerve (healthy
  self-differentiation).
• A Failure of Nerve.
• Leadership in the Age
• of the Quick Fix.
• New York Seabury
• Books, 2007 (revised).

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• Peter Steinke builds on this in his book
• Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times
  Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What.
  Herndon, VA Alban Institute, 2006.

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Why do we not have nerve?

• Friedman and Steinke both claim we live in a time
  of chronic anxiety.
• In a time of chronic anxiety, we focus on fear
  over courage, comfort over challenge, good
  feelings and accommodation over tension and
  dialectical engagement, being reasonable over
  adventure, shrinking resources over innovation
  and change.

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Why do we not have nerve?

• A trend in which the most dependent members of
  any group set the agenda and where adaptation is
  constantly toward weakness rather than strength,
  thus leveraging power to the recalcitrant, the
  passive-aggressive and the most anxious members
  of the group rather than toward the energetic,
  visionary, imaginative, and the motivated.

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• Actually, religious institutions are the worst
  offenders of encouraging immaturity and
  irresponsibility. In church after church some
  member is passive-aggressively holding the whole
  system hostage, and no one wants to fire him or
  force her to leave because it wouldnt be the
  Christian thing to do. It has nothing to do
  with Christianity. Synagogues also tolerate
  abusers because to ask them to leave wouldnt be
  the Christian thing to do. Edwin Friedman

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Why do we not have nerve?

• A devaluation of the process of individuation so
  that leaders tend to rely more on others
  expertise than on their own capacity to be
  decisive. Many consultants and professional
  coaches contribute further to this denial of
  individuation by offering solutions instead of
  promoting their clients capacity to define
  themselves more clearly.

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Why do we not have nerve?

• An obsession with data and technique that has
  become a form of addiction and turns leaders into
  data-junkies and their information into junk
  yards. As a result, decision-makers avoid or
  deny the very processes within their groups that
  might contribute to their institutions
  persistence of form.

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Why do we not have nerve?

• A widespread misunderstanding about the
  relational nature of destructive processes so
  leaders believe that toxic forces can be
  regulated through reasonableness, romanticized
  Christ-like love, insight, role-modeling,
  inculcation of values, and striving for
  consensus. This prevents leaders from taking the
  kind of stands that set limits to the
  invasiveness of those who lack self-regulation.

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How is this failure of nerve manifested?

• 1. Reactivity automatic responses, boundary
  erosion, exaggeration of extremes, loss of
  playfulness.
• 2. Herd Instinct togetherness as the supreme
  value, emphasis on empathy over responsibility,
  harmony over what is just and right, organizes
  around dysfunction, adapts to immaturity, wills
  conflict, polarization, and isolation.

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• 3. Blame displacement fault projected outside,
  quickness to blame, loss of integrity and
  accountability, cynical pessimism, paralyzed by
  fear and unwilling to seek adventure.
• 4. Quick-fix mentality low tolerance for pain
  and hard work, seeks simple answers,
  vulnerability or snake-oil remedies, quest for
  certainty, cut and dried answers, binary logic.

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Results in a failure of nerve as leaders.

• Leaders lack the distance to think out their
  vision clearly.
• Leaders end up running from crisis to crisis.
• Leaders are reluctant to take well-defined
  stands, if they have any convictions at all.
• Leaders are selected who lack the maturity and
  sense of self to deal with sabotage.

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How do we as Christian educators lead with
nerve?

• Separate yourself from surrounding emotional
  processes.
• Be clear about ones principles and vision.
• Be willing to be exposed and vulnerable.
• Persist in the face of inertial resistance.
• Self-regulate in the face of reactive sabotage.

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Leadership as Differentiated Leadership

• A differentiated self is one who can maintain
  emotional objectivity while in the midst of an
  emotional system in turmoil, yet at the same time
  actively relate to key people in the system.
• Bowen, Murray. Family Theory in Clinical
  Practice. Northvale, NJ Jason Aronson, 1978.
  p.485.

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What is undifferentiated leadership?

• Reactive, instinctive, defensive, thoughtless
  behavior.
• 1. Accommodates, pleases, or acts to take care
  of the others pain. To maintain a relationship,
  the leader gives in and gives up self is anxious
  about losing the approval of others.
• 2. Focuses outside of self. To stay close to
  others, the leader pays attention to the actions
  and feelings of others, not her own. How someone
  else will react is more important than how she
  can take a position.

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What is undifferentiated leadership?

• 3. Connects emotionally. To sustain a
  relationship, the leader reacts to anything that
  might disrupt or threaten it.
• 4. Sets vague, nebulous goals. To have a
  direction depends on the moment. The climate and
  goals change with events and moods.
• 5. Seeks security. To feel safe, the leader
  acts cautiously so as not to upset anyone.

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What is differentiated leadership?

• Intentional, responsive, responsible, thoughtful
  behavior.
• 1. Takes a stand. The leader works on
  self-definition based on values knowing what she
  believes, the leader takes positions.
• 2. Focuses on self. The leader can see how he
  contributes to a situation being self-aware, the
  leader makes changes in his own behavior has the
  capacity to step back and see his own
  interactions with others.

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What is differentiated leadership?

• 3. Stays connected to others. The leader
  relates to others by listening, exchanging ideas,
  and working toward goals greater capacity for
  cooperation and altruism.
• 4. Sets clear goals. The leader knows where she
  is headed not sabotaged by others reactivity
  because she lives with a purpose in mind stays
  on course.
• 5. Seeks challenge. The leader seeks adventure
  she knows that tension stretches a persons
  growth and stimulates the imagination.

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Key Non-anxious presence

• The non-anxious presence is an anomaly, never a
  full-blown reality. It is the capacity to
• Manage our own national reactivity
• Use knowledge to suppress impulses and control
  automatic reactions
• Keep calm for the purpose of reflection and
  conversation
• Observe what is happening, especially with
  oneself
• Tolerate high degrees of uncertainty,
  frustration, and pain
• Maintain a clear sense of direction.

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• To be less defensive and automatically reactive
  to the attacks of others requires tremendous
  discipline. Nonanxious practices include
• Being thoughtful before acting
• Staying calm and poised
• Using I statements
• Maintaining awareness of self
• Focusing on larger purposes rather than winning
  an argument
• Asking questions.

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• When dealing with reactive people who are
  attacking you, remember that justifying,
  explaining, or any verbal defending (J.E.D.) will
  simply add fuel to the fire. Withdrawing and
  blaming have the same effect.

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Old World vs. New World

• Friedman argues that for families as well as
  institutions (and even for our nations), our
  chronically anxious civilization inhibits
  well-differentiated leaders from emerging and
  wears down those who do. He discusses old
  world superstitions and juxtaposes them against
  new world understandings.

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Old World vs. New World

• Old Leaders influence their followers by the
  model they establish for identification and
  emulation.
• New A leaders major effect on his or her
  followers has to do with the way his or her
  presence affects the emotional processes in the
  relationship system.

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• Old The key to successful leadership is
  understanding the needs of your followers.
• New A leaders major job is to understand his
  or her self.
• Old Communication depends primarily on ones
  choice of words and how one articulates them.
• New Communication depends on words as well as
  emotional variables such as direction, distance,
  and anxiety.

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• Old Stress is due to hard work.
• New Stress is due to taking responsibility for
  the relationships of others.
• Old Hierarchy is evil and is about abuse of
  power.
• New Hierarchy is a natural systemic phenomenon
  and can be empowering for all.

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Emerging models for the future of Christian
education

• Religious instruction emphasizing study of
  scripture and theology. Could be in classes
  (academies especially for large churches with the
  reliance on expert teachers) but more likely will
  be small groups, many intergenerational, in home
  settings (early church). Specific role-oriented
  or seasonal instruction (church officer,
  confirmation, teacher training,
  Advent-Christmas-Epiphany, Lent-Easter).
• Emphasis on worship as the focus for the
  community. Intergenerational with consistent
  education. Emphasizes formation through ritual
  and traditions.

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• Spiritual development focusing on spiritual
  disciplines and spiritual practices more episodic
  in nature and, like the ancients, more ascetic.
• Missional opportunities to enact the scriptural,
  theological, and liturgical practices through
  participating in ongoing missional activities.