By Nancy Diaz As I sat and listened to APCE’s 2022 Annual Event speaker talk about our personal cloud of witnesses, I remembered those who took part in my own faith formation, los ancianos de la iglesia, the elders of the church. These were hard working,...
The Advocate reached out to leaders across the church inviting them to share with us, and with our readers, important lessons about faith formation. This week, we present the second blog in this series. “There’s no way I could pay you back, but my plan is to show you...
I didn’t grow up going to church. My mom is Jewish. And to my dad, Christmas and Easter were enough. So, it took a while longer than the kids I would eventually join in youth group for me to understand what faith was, exactly. When I started going to church with a...
Join your APCE colleagues to discuss ideas and strategies for making Advent meaningful for your congregation, especially curriculums and more resources that are available. Register in advance for this meeting:...
Stop Confirming Teenagers to Membership. Start Confirming them to Mission! Mark D. Hinds Remember when Jesus called his disciples and how he baptized them and appointed them as junior community members? Then when the disciples turned thirteen, he convened a crash...
What Will We Tell the Children? It was a Good Friday service I will never forget. I was perhaps eight or nine years old, and since children in my church rarely joined the adults in the sanctuary for any part of worship, my going to worship on Good Friday was a very...
As many of us continue with worship and/or Christian education at home, The Advocate Ministry Team thought these perspectives from Lib Caldwell, long-time APCE leader and friend, provide a timely reminder on the value and importance of nurturing faith at home – it’s...
As churches have made adjustments to their regular Christian education programming since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Advocate blog (and APCE leaders) have offered suggestions for program adjustments. We thought we’d follow up with one congregation who...
by Tori Smit What will we teach this fall? For many of our churches, thinking creatively about how and what our Sunday schools will be teaching this fall as we go online, over Zoom, or become parent-led is a huge and overwhelming concern. As each of us begins to look...
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge Standing on the edge of summer, while many of our churches have not returned to “in person” gatherings, we continue to wrestle with questions about engaging with our families, children, and church communities. Many “tried and true” activities...
