Emily Grubbs: How can we make the Christian calender real to the students, and how can we teach and help families use these celebrations and traditions in their own homes?
Usually when we celebrate the Christian holidays, we have certain traditions that we keep to remember why we celebrate each holiday. I know that every year my church at home performs an Easter play to invite others into remembering the death and ressurrection of Christ. In the reading Pritchard brings up an important point about how usually we emphasize learning about these Christian traditions (such as the celebrations of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter) as opposed to truly celebrating them. She believes that the best way to learn about something is to experience it for yourself. Engaging students in what is being taught has a lasting impact on young people than just hearing a lesson. By taking a part of the Christian calender and bringing it to life for the students, it can truly help them to learn how to engage in worship. That being said, how can we make the Christian calender real to students, and how to we make it practical for families to be able to use these celebrations and traditions in their own homes?
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I feel that making the Christian Calender come alive to children is a very important aspect for our ministry. I believe that in the process of showing them the different holidays, we can develop and instill in them the importance of the different times. But I believe that in our ministry it is not just showing them what it is all about and us teaching them it is about preparing and guiding familys in developing the tools and methods to make them be able to experience the Christian calender. We need to establish in the families the traditions of the calender and the importance and meanings behind the different aspects of the calender.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian Calendar, as we discussed in class is usally over looked, or called "Catholic". I believe that celebrating the Christian Calendar, utilizing it, cano debunk the myths of it being solely Catholic as well as teach the students. I know for me, going through the Calendar in class, I knew of all of the events on the Christian Calendar, but I did not know why we celebrated them. Therefore, celebrating the Christian Calendar with your youth group, childrens' group, can let the students partake in the events and learn why they are important and what they mean to the Christian faith. Naturally you cannot have huge events for each event on the Calendar, though some churches do, but at least incorporating some into your ministry can be vital, otherwise the students may never learn about them or know why people celebrate them.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is good to not only involve the children but the whole entire family by telling them exactly what the holiday is and why it should be celebrated. I like the book, too, because it has so many good ideas on how to involve everyone and to make participation fun and easy. I like that we went over it in class. I feel like I learned so much more about the holidays and how to use simple concepts and tools to teach them and learn about them. I also like them because I feel like it does prepare your heart for what is coming.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian Calender should be recognized in churches. I think that it shows us more of the spiritual side of the holidays rather than the commercialism that the rest of the world places on them.
ReplyDelete(For example, when we talked about Easter it said that Easter should actually be called Resurrection Day because Easter is actually celebrating a fertility goddess. So does that mean when kids are seeing the Easter Bunny they are seeing a symbol of fertility?)
I think that we should research the different holidays and rituals so that we can know what they mean and can avoid being a part of pagan practice. We should also understand the symbolism of Christian Holidays so that we can see the spiritual reasons for celebrating them. Then we should pass this information on to others so that they can know and understand these celebrations. As leaders in the church we can try and inspire people to look into these holidays and we can live them out ourselves to be an example.
Julie's handouts helped me realize more about the calendar than I did. There are necessary traditions that I feel should be part of spiritual maturity and to tie in with our disciplines, this gives us an easy "rule of life" if we adhere to the Christian Calendar. Perhaps I feel like today we try to Christianize everything again as far as holidays, marketing tools, etc. but with the tradition that is around 2000 years rich I feel fully comfortable sharing this with my family and encouraging others to do the same.
ReplyDeleteI fully appreciate the Christian calendar and did not grow up with an appreciation of it until my sophomore year in high school. Our youth pastor fought tooth and nail to be able to have a Christmas Eve service, which we did have previously. With that came Advent and the rest of the holidays worked in for the next few years. (The reason being was because previous pastors were trying to distance the church from, like Jake said, it's "Catholic" counterparts.) Ritual was not something that went over very well in that congregation.
Jessica:
ReplyDeleteI didn't understand why we celebrated certain traditions that we did growing up. I think that it is important to explain why we celebrate the calendar. We can make it real to the students by involving everyone including their families. This can be done by giving a handout, similar to the ones in class, to the parents so they know what the meaning is. They can learn about the holiday at church and practice it, and then be able to turn around, go home, talk about it and continue to practice it. It can become a part of their family traditions. Giving them practical advice and ideas is extremely helpful. We don't want to just go through the motions, we want to believe what we are doing, and know why.
Understanding the Christian Calendar should go hand in hand with learning the history of the church. I believe it is important to have at least a basic understanding of where the church came from to go along with christian education. In terms of the calendar, I think it is a good thing to find a modern way to celebrate those special dates without it becoming so focused on like it is in roman catholocism.
ReplyDeleteZachary:
ReplyDeleteThe Christian Calendar can, and should, play an important role in the life of the church and the individual believer. To often, other than Christmas and Easter, the holidays on the Christian calendar are over looked or refereed to as a "Catholic" celebration. I feel like the Christian calendar provides, when followed, a true connection with the narrative of God in relationship with human history. It can help people to establish a connection with all of these holidays. It gives them meaning when you see them all celebrated and began to understand the meaning behind each of these. These can really help a church grow throughout the year as they reflect on the different holidays in relation to God.
The Christian calendar has become lost besides Christmas, Lent and Easter. I think too many people feel it is Roman Catholic and they don't want to have anything to do with them. I feel that we need to make an effort to show students the importance of the other parts of the Christian calander. I think it would help to make it a family thing to where they would all make an effort as a family to celebrate teh other parts of the calendar together for the Glory of God.
ReplyDeleteI was rasied to not really know anything about the Christian calendar. I thought that things such as Lent and Advent were only for Catholics. I remember hearing people say things like that and never questioning it; I would have never known any different had I not explored it a little on my own. I think this is the problem with a lot of people today, they don't understand what the Christian Calendar is so they just go with whatever they were told and don't explore it for themselves. I want to be able to incorporate this into my ministry and also be there to help others understand that it is not just a catholic thing after all.
ReplyDeleteI think that as pastors and leaders in churches we can equip them with materials to really teach them about the Christian Calender. We can let them experience the events, get them involved in what being a Christian means by celebrating such events. Being able to experience will give them different way of learning.
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