From Generation to Generation

Mainline Protestant congregations face a profound adaptive challenge. In the midst of significant social, cultural, and technological change, the denominations they represent generally abandoned a view of education capable of maintaining and renewing their faith traditions through their children and youth. New curriculum resources and innovative pedagogical strategies appropriated from the marketplace of religious education options have not met the challenge. A transformation of consciousness is required in congregations seeking a future through their children. It involves the exercise of an ecclesial imagination to reclaim a view of education rooted in the revitalization of their religious traditions in the past and re-envisioning the congregation as a catechetical culture of faith formation.

Charles R. Foster is Professor of Religion and Education emeritus at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He is the author of Educating Congregations, project director and lead author of Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and Pastoral Imagination, and coauthor of Working with Black Youth and The Church in the Education of the Public.