June 30, 2010
Merge2Day Day 3
Yesterday was the last day of Merge2Day where I spent 2 and a half days “storying” with chidren’s leaders from around the country. For me there were 2 highlights to yesterday. First, we experienced the Tabernacle in a way that used all of our senses and helped us understand both the earthiness of early Hebrew worship and the majesty and holiness of God manifest in it. It was an amazing experience as we prayed together and were reminded of God’s continuous provision for us (something I need to be reminded of these days)
The second highlight was the brainstorming and discussion with other Children’s Ministry leaders about how to get kids to enter the Biblical story and find out what it means for them in their context. Helping them to find themselves in God’s story. I loved listening to the creativity floating around the room and listening to who others are wrestling with some of the same spiritual formation issues I wrestle with. I think change is in the air in the world of children’s ministry.
Thank you to all that made this event both practical, inspiring, and formational.
June 29, 2010
Merge2Day Day 2
This has been a jam-packed day and i’m quite tired. But it has been a good day being immersed in experiential education and in the Biblical story.
This morning we entered into the stories of Adam and Eve and the serpent and the story of Noah and the flood. During our debrief/reflect/wonder about the story time I wondered about differentiating Bible stories from news stories. Does how you do this depend on how much of a Biblical literalist you are? Which genre dominates in one’s mind seems to have something to do with the types of questions one has about the story. But let us remember that just because something is first a story that does not mean it is not true. In fact it might have more truth in it than that written piece claiming to be a consistent representation of the facts as they actually happened.
In the afternoon we visited a park, a cemetery and a junk yard as a way of exploring how God enters in to the “disruption” of our world and our lives. This brought us back to the “disruptions” created in the earlier Bible stories.
During the children’s ministry collaborative we’ve shared amazingly creative ideas about helping children to enter into the Biblical story in meaningful ways in order to help them find their own meaning in the story. Looking forward to more discussion tonight. Just hope I can stay awake.
June 28, 2010
Merge2Day Day 1
Yesterday evening began the Merge2Day Collaborative in Grand Rapids, Michigan. With the help of Amy and Kelly Dolan and Michael Novelli we’re exploring the transformative power of the Biblical story when we just allow the story to be the story. Last night we listened to the Creation story and explored it devotionally allowing ourselves to wonder about and hear things in the story perhaps we’d forgotten or never noted before. I was especially struck by the 2 trees, particularly the Tree of Life because the text does not tell us much about that particular tree. (i suspect I was spurred on to this because I’ve just begun reading Pete Rollin’s provactive reading of the Fall story)
The question that was raised in my thinking last night was the whole question of how do we keep our own theological points of view out of the story when we don’t tell it exactly as the text is written (at least as much as we know knowing that no translation is purely
objective.) If we want children and youth to explore the story on their own without giving them a preconceived application, do we still influence the outcome when we embellish the story even just a little bit? That’s what I’m thinking about today.
June 22, 2010
Merge2Day Conference
I’m heading to Chicago the day after tomorrow. On Sunday I’ll head to Grand Rapids for Merge2Day Conference to talk about the spiritual formation of children and youth and Story. I’m really looking forward to this and plan to blog about what I’m learning.
June 19, 2010
No Impact Man
Last night I watched the film No Impact Man. I’d read the book earlier this year but was still excited to see this documentary. Essentially it is the story of a Manhattan writer, his wife and young daughter who attempt to live for a year withou making any negative impact on the environment. It’s interesting to watch them learn to live without electricity, shopping, eating out and other conveniences that we often take for granted and rarely think about when we use them.
But I’m not writing this post to comment negatively or positively on the project. Instead I was struck by something the writer said at the beginning of the film when asked why he decided to take on this project. He answered by saying that he wanted to find ways to live out his values intentionally. This got me to thinking about the families in our churches and what the world would look like it they became thoughtfully intentional about living out Jesus’ values.
It’s a good film if you are looking for a model of how to live thoughtfully thinking about how your actions effect others and the world we live in. He also has some interesting things to say about community toward the end of the film.
June 18, 2010
Millenials and Broadway
In last Sunday’s New York Times (when I get better at this I might even begin to provide links) the Arts section had a short article on how teens and young adults-the Millenial Generation- seem to see the Broadway musical as something “cool” rather than “geeky.” I loved the musical genre as a teen but as a baby boomer teen that was certainly considered “geeky.” The authors of the article chalked this interest up to at least 2 things. They cited the television sensation “Glee.” This TV show has introduced lots of teens and young adults to genres of music ( and Broadway musical actors and actresses) that they ordinarily wouldn’t pay any attention to. And they cited the amazing tolerance of this generation for other people’s lifestyles and interests meaning that one doesn’t need to hide his or her love for musical theater because friends are not going to make fun of it. Since I have a special interest in the millenials and the next generation coming up behind them (any one know if a name has been settled on for them yet?) I find any little tidbit about them interesting.
But this new found love and interest of these teens in musical theater does raise one question for me. Plays don’t have ratings the same way movies do and some times I think there is a question of appropriateness even in the muscial genre. For example, a week or so ago I attended a matinee of Promises,Promises. This is a revival of a musical that was a hit in the sixties. The plot is about married business men in New York looking for a place they can take their girlfriends. And there is a darker back story about one of these girl friends attempting suicide on Christmas Day. Not all musicals are about leprechauns in Ireland — which is exactly my point. At this matinee the balcony (where I was, the cheap seats) was filled with high school groups on school trips to NYC. I wondered to myself if the person who chose to take the kids to this play knew the plot or only knew that it was a musical starring a likeable TV star (Sean Hayes, Jack from Will and Grace). And Kristin Chenowith who had been in the young girls favorite musical Wicked and who had made a recent appearance on Glee. I’m not saying these kids were so innocent that they didn’t know that married men sometimes have affairs or that people some time commit suicide. What I am saying is that just because a play is a musical with famous and likeable leads doesn’t make it appropriate for all ages. I remember having the same uneasiness a few years ago when Equus was revived on Broadway with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) in the lead. This play has an extended male/female nude/sex scene in it which I didn’t think was appropriate for the 14 and 15 year olds I saw standing in line for the play because they wanted to see Harry Potter live. I don’t mean to sound like a prude — I’m just asking the questions.
June 17, 2010
Welcome to My Blog
This is my second attempt at blogging. For a while I was doing it on my website and then I let that go to seed as I got busy in a new church position. Then I was doing weekly podcasts and much of what I used to blog about went into the podcasts. Now for about 2 years or so I’ve done neither. I’ve decided it’s time to get my voice back out there.
I hope this blog will be about several things. First, I hope to comment on things that are happening in the church world and in the rest of the world that somehow pertain to the spiritual formation of children and youth. Sometimes I might review a book or movie. Other times I might comment on a newspaper article, magazine article, or something found in another blog. If anyone reading this listened to my podcasts of a few years back — I hope this blog will continue the commentary I started there.
Sometimes the blog might just be personal observations about something.
And sometimes it may be personal. For example, I find myself out of a job. I planned for this so I’m fine for a while. But I don’t want to waste too much time so I’m deep into job hunting. I plan to chronicle a little bit of that journey in this blog. Frankly, I’m going stir crazy. I can’t job hunt 8 hours a day and I’m used to being fairly busy. Right now I’m contacting my network and I have quite a large network so that is taking time. I’m also trying to ramp up my speaking/consulting/writing business in the interim.
I welcome civil comments. I want this blog to truly be a conversation. I want feedback.
I hope to blog most days but that may not happen. Some days I may not have anything to say.
June 16, 2010
Hello world!
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Ivy Beckwith's Blog 