On March 23 after worship, Jennifer Sandberg and Vicki Pepper attended a Children’s religious education (RE) workshop presented by Carol Taylor, Acting Lifespan Religious Education Programs Consultant for the Joseph Priestly District (JPD) of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). The workshop was hosted by the UU Church of Loudoun and attended by the Shenandoah UU Church along with UNMC. (Thanks to our friends at Loudoun and especially UNMC’s former RE Director, Betty Jo Middleton for inviting us.)
UNMC’s situation is a little different from the other two churches, which have space problems for the number of children in their programs (we offered to swap them a couple of classrooms for some of their kids!). But all attending churches had some issues in common, such as, a desire to improve involvement and volunteerism in their programs, and Ms. Taylor offered several practical tips to attendees. One suggestion she made was that churches look for other ways to involve seniors who might not want to be Sunday School teachers in their children’s RE programs. Moreover, in response to UNMC’s particular interest in training for volunteers who have limited experience teaching or with children, Ms. Taylor suggested that UNMC ask to join the RE training course of one of the larger UU churches in the metropolitan area. She also said she’d explore putting on at UNMC a one day training course on teaching methods, emphasizing classroom management. (Perhaps UNMC could invite the other small churches we met at the Cedarhurst Seminar in January; they had expressed curiosity about our beloved building.)
To set the tone for the RE workshop, at the outset Ms. Taylor told an anecdote about the “Flying Fish,” based on the ECPs (Essential Creative Principles), which include:
Choose your Attitude
Be Present
Play [experience and share joy]
Make Someone’s Day
The story involves a fish market in the Pacific Northwest trying to figure out how to save its struggling business. A young employee offered a simple solution: “Let’s just become famous?” Applying the ECPs, the fish market began to turn things around, and an inefficiency they discovered in their business is that they found with more customers in their store, it was difficult to get some of the larger fish from the area where they were stored up to the counter. One day, rather than wade through the crowded shop, a burly fish monger just picked up a large salmon and heaved it to a colleague up at the counter. This spectacle set the customers abuzz, which did not go unnoticed by the fish mongers. They decided to continue the practice, and the fish market became something of a tourist attraction in the area. Their business continued to grow and today is thriving.
Now is an exciting time at UNMC. As a result of last year’s strategic planning exercise and this year’s recent follow-on priorities exercise, UNMC finds itself zeroing in on its own “Flying Fish.” If you'd like to know more about children’s RE or how you can get involved, please contact Vicki or Jennifer, and if you’d like to explore other opportunities for more involvement at UNMC to further your own spiritual development, you also may contact Sue Mosher or Paul Hannah, or, of course Pastor Wells.
Posted by Sue Mosher at April 1, 2003 06:09 PM