Educating Christians: The Intersection of Meaning, Learning, and Vocation

In this introductory treatment of Christian education, the authors assume that "religious education begins with the basic human need to make meaning. The church and its education fail when they do not take into account people's life experiences and their search for faithfulness." Teachers and pastors learn first to understand how their own meanings have been shaped, then to name and clarify how religious meaning is transmitted and transformed through personal experience. Several personal and congregational "stories" are woven throughout the text to help the reader better understand how meaning, learning, and vocation converge as Christians grow in faith and understanding.

Readers are encouraged to apply new insights to their own lives through activities that are suggested throughout the text. A Key Concept Index provides easy access to primary terms and ideas.

Margaret Ann Crain was ordained in 1997 and is a deacon in full connection in the Northern Illinois Conference. She served churches in Missouri and North Georgia before joining the faculty of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary where she taught Christian education and qualitative research. As Director of Deacon Studies, she created a program that supported, advocated for, and trained many deacons when the new order was created in 1996. Crain retired as Professor Emerita. Her most recent book is The United Methodist Deacon: Ordained to Word, Service, Compassion, and Justice. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jack L. Seymour is Professor of Religious Education at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois and Editor of Religious Education.