Religious Education 101

Religious Education 101 A Guide for Religious Education Committees by Connie Dunn Religious Education 101 P-2 What is Religious Education? Religious Education is everything that we do at our churches. From the moment a person drives into our parking lot to when they leave, everything that a person encounters is religious education. Some things are implicit or implied by the environment or interaction with the people in the community. Some things are explicit or are more tangible, such as the programming and/or curriculum. But the sermon that the minister delivers and the small groups that meet for a variety of reasons are all religious education. Virtually anything that happens in our churches can be defined as religious education in some way. That can be overwhelming to some congregations, but reading The Essex Conversations (Coordinating Committee; Essex Conversations: Visions for Lifespan Religious Education; Skinner House Books;, Boston, MA: 2001) can help you understand the importance of implicit and implied religious education messages. What we hope to do in our Religious Education Committees is to intentionally create a learning environment, which is both an environment that is welcoming to our children and their parents. For Lifespan Programming, we would hope to coordinate times, topics and resources for the optimal opportunity to educate everyone. Who is involved in Religious Education? Religious Education is provided by volunteers from the congregation. While many Religious Education Committees believe that the hiring of a DRE (Director of Religious Education) will alleviate many volunteer hours, congregations need to understand that DREs cannot run the program by themselves. A healthy congregation operates on the basis of active volunteers on the Religious Education Committee and in the classrooms. Paid Staff, such as a Director of Religious Education (DRE) or Director of Lifespan Religious Education (DLRE) or Minister of Religious Education (MRE) are given job description that are often too vague or too specific. There is information available from the UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) at http://www.uua.org/cde/. Being aware that your Religious Professional (whatever the title) is still human and cannot run the show single-handed is the best advice anyone can give a congregation. This is not to say that the RE Professional should not take on a leadership role in your RE Program. Quite the contrary! An RE Professional, however, is best used when working in concert with the RE Committee or RE Committees, depending on how your church has arranged its leadership in this area. Religious Education 101 P-3 Just to make sure that everyone is on the same page. An MRE is an ordained minister whose focus is religious education. A CRE is a Credentialed Religious Educator, which means that they have completed the credentialing process developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and Liberal Religious Education Association (LREDA). Credentialing is offered at three different levels. If your Religious Educator (RE) comes in without credentialing, it is to both your congregation’s and the RE’s advantage for the RE to enter into this program. On its lowest level, the commitment is to attend five (5) Renaissance Modules (training for Religious Educators [all – with or without titles, paid or unpaid] include such modules as Worship, Administration, Religious Education Philosophy, UU History, UU Identity and more. The congregation always benefits when your RE person gains more knowledge. While funding Professional Development seems like a frivolous expense to some congregations, it actually is a cost of doing business as a church that almost always pays off. These Professional Funds are often used for attending General Assembly (GA), which includes workshops on just about every topic related to being a UU and in a church; Renaissance Modules, which are intensive 15-hour trainings on a specific topic; week-long summer camps, which often include a Renaissance Module and the community of Religious Educators where information is exchanged in a very relaxed manner along with some fun activities; and LREDA conferences, which also are designed with training and education in mind. Each piece of new information sparks many new ideas from which new programming also springs, including some innovative ideas that have changed the way we do RE! Spirit Play, for example, did not just rise from the dust under the chairs in your RE space! What does the Religious Education Committee do? The RE Committee is generally charged by the church’s Board with overseeing Religious Education (this can be divided into children’s RE, youth’s RE and adult’s RE or some combination of these or just one RE Committee overseeing the entire scope of Religious Education). Often churches see Religious Education as that stuff that happens with kids and they believe that anything that involves children is normally considered RE. To some degree that may be true. But the Religious Education Committee needs to think more along intentional programming. In other words, what do you want to accomplish? Babysitting is fine, but that does not include education. Understanding the mission of Religious Education goes a long way to helping you decide what that is going to look like. Then, and only then, can you decide what the Religious Education Committee is going to do. It is going to break down the tasks and divide them up between the Committee and the Religious Religious Education 101 P-4 Education Professional. This is probably not going to be the same list for any two churches. This is an individual issue in every RE Committee. But looking at the hours that the RE Professional has been hired to do and looking at the long list of tasks will immediately tell you that there are some of the tasks that your RE Professional cannot do. When the list is too long for the committee, then, perhaps, it is time to re-organize the programming and take a hard look at how you can all work smarter. This is where all that training and connecting to other Religious Education Professionals will pay off for you, as a congregation, because your Religious Education Professional should help you brainstorm ideas about how your program can change. What does a Lifespan Religious Education Committee do? A Lifespan Religious Education Committee does everything an RE Committee does but includes all age groups from birth to death. Lifespan offers the exciting idea that parents might learn something of what their children are learning; and therefore, grow as humans and parents and religious educators. Parents are children’s main religious educators. Think about that! Parents are the main religious educators! We know that parents make up most of the volunteers in religious education at most churches. Expanding the volunteer pool often includes expanding the minds of those who have been reluctant to teach because they are afraid they might give the children the wrong answers. Lifespan has been a major focus at the UUA level. For example, changing from using lifespan to faith development removed any age barriers and allowed more flexibility in including young adults. Religious Education 101 P-5 What does the Director of Religious Education do? The DRE job can involve just children, just youth or just adults or encompass lifespan. The following job description is a generic job description that can be altered within any specific congregation. GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES 1. Provide executive direction of the Sunday morning Religious Education program 2. Coordinate and oversee the implementation of the RE curriculum 3. Ensure safe learning spaces for RE 4. Recruit, orient, direct, train, and support volunteers for infants-through-senior youth programs (lifespan – and young adults and adults) 5. Plan special and intergenerational events with the minister 6. Plan and execute children’s worship (youth and young adult worship, as well) 7. Provide leadership for setting goals and developing philosophy of religious growth and learning 8. Attend district and area religious education conferences ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES 1. Oversee the maintenance of RE resources, supplies, and equipment 2. Track Re attendance trends and communicate them FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES 1. Develop and present annual RE budget to the Board of Trustees in late winter or early spring 2. Execute RE budget and maintain up-to-date files and records 3. Arrange for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenditures for budgeted items with appropriate receipts for the Treasurer COMMUNICATION RESPONSIBILITIES 1. Advocate for the children and youth (and young adults/adults) 2. Promote and publicize the Re program through the newsletter and other means of communication available, such as an Order of Service, Website, or E-mail List 3. Actively welcome and orient new children and their parents to the congregation 4. Provide outreach to parents 5. Provide monthly status report, including key activities and budget update to the RE Committee and Board of Trustees 6. Attend meeting of the RE Committee, Board of Trustees, and Staff 7. Maintain awareness of activities within the church community 8. Support participation of the congregation in activities within the larger UU community, especially those pertaining to RE and youth group activities. Religious Education 101  P-6 Who chooses curriculum? Why? This is normally a joint decision between the DRE/DLRE/MRE and the RE Committee. The DRE usually makes recommendations based on previous experience and knowledge. The RE Committee represents the families and children. The actual process of selection is determined by each individual RE Committee and may vary from year to year. For example, some churches might undertake reading all the curricula to determine which ones fit and which ones do not. The RE Committee also actively seeks input from the congregation to determine subject material and method of delivery. This is done formally and informally, by distributing evaluation forms, by listening to the summary prepared by other committees, such as a stewardship or canvass committee, and by interviewing teachers and parents informally or from a survey. Generally, the minister and the DRE/DLRE/MRE are connected to the larger UU world community, and each brings information to RE about the directions of RE in the larger UU community. Because the RE Committee is the overseeing body for RE, it is the best entity to choose the curriculum. However, the DRE should be involved, because as a professional, she/he should be familiar with the widest array of materials available. Part of being a DRE/DLRE/MRE is to stay up on new curriculum and new models of Religious Education. Models of RE include pillars (large topics used on a rotation basis to give children in a 1-year, 2-year or 3-year plan a comprehensive look at being a Unitarian Universalist); workshop rotation (individuals who are workshop leaders do the same workshop for several age groups on a rotation basis); small group ministry (looks at RE as an opportunity to provide worshipful experience that is then linked to activities – emphasis in this model is on the child rather than on the content); Way Cool (an experiential approach that includes worship, outreach [field trips], classroom and art); and Spirit Play (offers the spiritual environment with trained storytellers that tell our UU stories and the sacred stories from many different religions). Religious Education 101 P-7 What individual tasks are done by the RE Committee? Much of the individual task list is determined by the makeup of the committee, such as individuals on the Committee are there because of a specific portfolio, such as class coordinators, supply person, snack coordinator, youth advisors and the list can go on. Each person on the RE Committee provides a specific task or group of tasks, which divides up the work of providing Religious Education. RE Committee positions can also include a Chair and Secretary. Ideally, an RE Committee would also have someone representing the different ages, such as a youth representative who can speak about youth issues. What does Registration have to do with the RE Committee? Registration is important to any program, because only when you have accurate numbers can you use these statistics to back up increases in budgets and personnel or adjust the budget and personnel to accurately reflect the size of program that you have. The RE Committee should be involved in the registration process. How involved may depend on how your RE Committee is set up and how many hours per week your Religious Education Professional is working. For example, if you only have a half-time DRE but you have a huge program with a huge number of children in attendance, then you will have to have an active RE Committee to accomplish the Registration task. Many RE Committees have someone on the Committee who acts as the registrar. What this involves varies from church to church and in the information that each RE Committee decides to get from parents. Some of the basics are name and address of the student, plus both parents. Good phone numbers for home and work, including cell phones. Health information, especially pertaining to allergic reactions to food and bug stings is essential. Using the Registration Form to help recruit volunteers is also fairly standard practice.