Adult Formation
Cynthia Carson, Formation Director
July 1, 2010
During this time of transition at the Cathedral, one of the critical questions is how do we grow and become a healthy community in the face of many of the challenges inside and outside our Cathedral community? In order to address these challenges, we need to see ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ who are committed to life long formation.
If we look around the congregation as we gather each Sunday, what percentage of people are engaged in Christian formation of any type? Are you? Statistics show at any given time, a healthy congregation has at least fifty percent of its membership engaged in some kind of adult formation. It under girds our ability to be a learning community and to make disciples in the 21st century.
By formation, we do not mean generic educational programs offered to consumers who move on if they do not find what they want, but a participatory faith that gathers strength in times of stress and upheaval and develops models and spiritual practices that feed the growing hunger for knowledge, spiritual growth, maturity of faith, and vision. Formation in the Church needs to provide the building blocks for transformation and conversion of hearts.
In the past, we have used a schooling model that informs people about faith. Today, we are looking for a formation model that forms people of all generations as faithful Christians. We are looking for a way to touch peoples’ lives with ideas and practices that result in people living a radically different life.
The building blocks of transformation are many: building relationships, a commitment to lifelong learning, small groups that involve the congregation in meeting its needs, learning communities that share common values and beliefs and have the ability to adapt and evolve. We find people learn best through experiential learning, in relationship with other learners they trust and who are committed to the same goals, educating the whole person, recognizing different learning styles to account for a broader range of human potential, emphasizing spirituality and spiritual formation in order to incorporate those who do not belong to a faith community and are not attracted to the standard Sunday morning service, cultivating multicultural and global education that goes beyond mere charity to advocating for justice, emphasizing mutual ministries beyond the sanctuary, integrating Christian formation with systems of transformation, shifting to a concept of baptismal living as something we do in the world beyond Sunday morning and emphasizing the promise of new life in Christ.
Christian Formation is an essential building block of congregational life. At the same time, if we do not revision what it means to be the Church, our efforts are likely to fizzle. The reality is most of our church life systems are designed to maintain the Church as an institution and to keep the round of worship services and activities of the church going. Someone can spend a lifetime in it and still have a very minimal relationship with God, a minimal understanding of the Christian faith, and a minimal engagement with baptismal living.
We need to re-vision Church to be a community of people who are transformed by Christ and actively engaged in serving the world in Jesus’ name. That means looking at everything we do as a congregation and asking: Is this an absolutely essential part of being a Christian community that worships God and forms people for life in Christ? Or is it just a part of maintaining the institutional church? Would we be a Christian community if we stopped doing this, or did it another way?
The Cathedral Formation Team is asking these questions of itself and invites you to participate in the excitement of planning a year-round formation program for 2010-11. We need people to help bring provocative speakers to the community. We need people committed to bringing newcomers into our fellowship by learning about our local Cathedral customs and history as well as inquire into the broader diocese and communion of the Episcopal Church. We need people who are committed to helping catechumens prepare for baptism at the Easter Vigil and confirmation at the spring regional gathering and are passionate about their Christian identity. And we need people committed to actively serving the world in Jesus’ name.
If, like us, you are passionate about discipleship and on-going formation, please talk with us about your ideas and how you can participate in re-visioning formation at the Cathedral. We look forward to hearing from you. Contact: Cynthia Carson, (808) 237-9362 or raksha@googlemail.com
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Education for Ministry
Cynthia Carson, Formation Director
July 1, 2010
The program year for the Cathedral’s 2009-10 Education for Ministry Program (EfM) is drawing to an end, and enrollment for the 2010-11 year is beginning. This year, one of our participants, Patricia Newlin, will be graduating from the four year EfM program with a certificate of Theological Education at a Distance from the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. We invite everyone from the Cathedral who has participated in EfM at any time to attend the 10 am service on July 4 to lift up Pat in celebration for her dedication and movement into a new phase of ministry.
EfM is a four year distance learning theological education program of the School of Theology of the University of the South. Graduates of EfM fulfill many ministries and bring to the Cathedral community and the broader church a laity that is prepared to make decisions and to fulfill the Great Commission—to bring Christ to the world—in an effective and loving manner. EfM’s 33,000 plus graduates worldwide have become a source of informed, committed and prepared leadership for today’s Church.
Participants commit one year at a time to meet regularly in seminars led by trained mentors. During the four years, participants study the Bible, church history, and theology, while learning to engage in theological reflection in small learning groups. EfM provides a comprehensive experiential education in the foundations and message of our Christian faith.
Each seminar group usually meets once a week during a nine-month cycle to reflect theologically, discuss the materials they read, and worship together. Students follow a lesson and a study guide that are read each week. There are no tests or papers to write because EfM presupposes that adult education best takes place when the student is responsible for his or her own learning. Most students spend between two and four hours in study and preparation each week. In the seminars, members have an opportunity to share their insights and discoveries as well as to discuss questions which the study materials raise for them.
EfM invites people into small, mentored communities that help us understand our lives and shape our actions as we deepen our Christian faith. We believe a gracious God calls us into relationship to serve the world. Through study, prayer, and theological reflection, EfM enables us to discover and exercise our gifts for ministry where we live and work. It works because it adapts to a variety of situations under a wide range of leadership styles and expectations from students.
New EfM learning groups of six to twelve people each are now forming at the Cathedral. We encourage you to consider whether EfM can help you prepare for discipleship and baptismal living to which we all are called. Baptismal living is that vocation for which we pray at the end of the Eucharist: “And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord” and for which we ask God during Confirmation to “Renew in these your servants the covenant you made with them at Baptism. Send them forth in the power of the Spirit to perform the service you set before them.”
EfM is an opportunity to gather a few other like hearted people with whom you can examine your beliefs and relationship to our culture and the traditions of our Christian faith, so that you can become effective ministers in the world.
Everything we do has the potential for manifesting the love of Christ, and in EfM, we discover together our ministry is at hand wherever we turn. Through study, prayer and reflection, EfM groups move toward a new understanding of the fullness of God’s kingdom. The Education for Ministry (EfM) program provides people with opportunity to discover how to respond to the call to Christian service and carry out their ministries.
Please ask any member of the Cathedral Formation Team or program participants about EfM in 2010-11 or contact Cynthia Carson for a prospectus or with questions at (808) 237-9362 or raksha.the.wolf@googlemail.com.
