Adult Formation – What’s it All About?

Christian Formation of Adults – What’s it All About?

By Cynthia Coe

In the Episcopal Church, we often think of adult Christian formation as the old “adult forum” offered by many parishes – a sage on a stage will lecture for forty minutes or so, perhaps followed by a handful of questions and a fairly brief discussion with parishioners.  Maybe a parish will offer small group Bible studies or some other small group book group or support group.

Is that all we as a church have to offer?  In a previous version of this webpage, I suggested that parishes offer a wider variety of large and small group adult formation programs, including book groups, film discussion groups, and perhaps even retreats and other “one shot” intensive programs.

Times they are a’ changing.  I would still love to see these kinds of programs,  but in our current environment, I honestly don’t see these kinds of programs happening, except for the largest and best staffed and funded parishes.  So where does that leave us?

When one door closes, many windows often open.  As the old adult forum method of Christian formation proves less and less effective for true lifelong Christian formation, I think we need to acknowledge other avenues of formation that indeed are already effective in helping many of us along on our journeys of faith.  In acknowledging that faith formation happens largely out in the world, outside the walls of our parishes, we might better engage our own parishioners and newcomers in the journey of lifelong formation.

How do we learn?  How are we continually formed, re-formed and transformed in faith and works?  If you think about how you change your mind, change your actions, and see life with new perspective, you might find that your “formation” takes place in one of these ways:

• One-on-one communications and experiences: Many of us change our minds and how we see the world as a result of knowing someone, hearing a story, seeing someone’s struggles, making an observation, or seeing the actions of someone we might hope to emulate.  We might remind ourselves to pay close attention to people and situations we find in our paths.
• The Media: Many of us have long found ourselves influenced and challenged by books we read, movies we’ve seen, newspaper articles we’ve read.  In this age of mass, instant communications, we as a church might acknowledge, embrace, and even produce stories that form us as human beings.
• Spiritual Disciplines, including Worship: Alongside any new media, we might deepen and enrich any transformative messages with ancient spiritual practices of liturgy, silence, devotional readings, and prayer.  As Christians, these practices are still at the core of who we are and how we are transformed.
• Retreats, Pilgrimages, and other Intensive Formative Experiences: As parishes are seemingly less and less able to provide “in-house” formation courses, this task might be (and already is, in many cases) more effectively and efficiently be taken up by diocesan, regional, and even national events, conferences, retreats, and pilgrimages.  This strategy would allow planners to make well designed plans, offer excellent speakers and leaders, and would give participants the time and space to actively and intentionally work on spiritual formation.
• Intentional Study, Individually or in Small Groups:  As a curriculum designer myself, I won’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Many parishes are still offering excellent Bible studies.  Many excellent curricula and resources are still being written and published.  It would be crazy not to continue offering weekday or Sunday morning classes and study groups.  What might be different is taking a hard look at when and where these programs are offered – schedules we’ve used for decades may not work anymore.  People really do seem much, much busier than in years before.  Individual study programs are now published, and when all else fails for the busy road warrior, parent of small children, or other overwhelmed and time-limited person, individual studies or DVDs for home viewing could be a good thing.

With that said, here are some fairly new resources for adult Christian formation.  This is not an exhaustive list; these are some personal favorites now available.

Disciple Short-Term Bible Studies – The comprehensive Disciple Bible studies are terrific, but I doubt that many parishes are using them any longer.  I recently used the short term “Invitation to John,” and those in my group thought it was excellent.  It’s an 11 session study, with participant books, a leader book, and a DVD available at a low cost.  Available at www.cokesbury.com

Compass Christian Explorations of Daily Living (Fortress Press).  This series of small but thought provoking books approach formation from a topical approach, with individual books on Eating and Drinking, Traveling, Shopping, Parenting, and other timely and contemporary topics.  These are great for discussion groups or individual study.  Books are small enough to tuck into a tote bag for on-the-go reading.

Jesus, Bombs & Ice Cream, a DVD series with Shane Claiborne, Ben Cohen (founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream) and friends (Zondervan).  Interesting DVDs will, I hope, increasingly become important tools in our formation tool kits.  This 6 session program is fascinating and tackles important contemporary issues.  A workbook is also available.

Nooma DVDs. I’ve seen adult groups riveted to the screen when viewing these short films.  Pop them in your DVD player, and you’ve got a high quality, thought provoking formation experience.  Available at www.nooma.com, and you can now get a whole set digitally for $45.