In February, the Presbyterian Publishing Corp. plans to roll out a new series of studies from The Thoughtful Christian — with these intended for use with teens (www.thethoughtfulchristian.com/main/home1.asp ).
The launch of this new line, at the annual meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Christian Educators in San Diego Feb. 13-16, signals the hunger among Presbyterians for study materials on contemporary issues, according to David Maxwell, editor for The Thoughtful Christian.
In focus groups conducted last summer with leaders at the Youth Triennium, the publishers were encouraged to prepare materials for juniors and seniors in high school who are getting ready to leave home and will have to decide, once they’re on their own, what role faith will play in their lives. So the new lessons will hit on subjects such as consumerism or cheating, and “the pressure on kids now with all these pre-college classes,” Maxwell said.
Or there’ll be a lesson on Harry Potter, looking at “what other people told him he was and how he knew who he was. … What do other people think you are? What do you think you are?”
Or “what does it mean to live out your faith” — not only to talk about faith, but to really live it?
The Thoughtful Christian series for adults, which hit the market in 2005, grew from the Publishing Corporation’s desire to enter the world of electronic publishing and because Christian educators and pastors “were saying for quite some time they wished we could give them more materials on contemporary issues,” Maxwell said.
“A number of people aren’t using curriculum anymore but they still want to study biblical issues, theological issues,” Maxwell said. When the publishing representatives assembled focus groups to consider what kind of resources to prepare, “they said, ‘Do not shy away from any issue,'” even if it’s controversial. “But get us past the sound bites.”
So authors for The Thoughtful Christian — including seminary professors, pastors, journalists, and Christian educators — write about issues ranging from the death penalty to “Is there life after death?” to the theological undercurrents of films.
Some are big names in the theological world, for example, scholar Martin E. Marty writing about the history of religion and politics in America, or Old Testament professor Walter Brueggemann and Christian educator Carol Wehrheim writing about “Sabbath as resistance.”
Some are tools for Bible study, such as the lesson, “Four Accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection.” Some provide resources on aspects of spiritual living, on “‘tween spirituality,” for example, or forgiveness or Christian fasting. And some deal with issues in the news — avian flu, reality TV, stem-cell research.
Riverdale Church in the Bronx, N.Y., for example, has studied “Should the Ten Commandments be Displayed in Public” and “Books that Didn’t Make the Bible, and Why,” among other lessons. While turnouts are small — “we are a small church with lots of busy people,” according to Myra Joyce, who chairs the adult Christian Education committee — “the people who attended the sessions enjoyed them.”
Congregations can subscribe to the materials, giving them full access to The Thoughtful Christian Web site, allowing them to use as many of the resources as they want to, or can pick and choose, buying just a few of the study guides for just a few dollars apiece.
Susan Joseph Rack, pastor of the 40-member Christ Presbyterian Church in Martinsville, N. J., is using Thoughtful Christian materials for an adult Bible study she’s teaching on responses to war. She e-mails the study guides to people ahead of time, and said, “As the solo pastor of a very small church, I don’t have a lot of time to do extra preparation. I depend significantly on the material being quite thorough enough.” And she’s found that people from her congregation “want to know what the Bible does say about war,” as they struggle with what to make of the conflict in Iraq.
According to Maxwell, about 4,000 congregations have purchased some materials from The Thoughtful Christian Web site, with annual subscriptions available for $350 for the first year, $225 for renewals and $250 for congregations whose average weekly worship attendance is under 100.
And the audience is increasingly ecumenical with distribution arrangements in the works with the United Methodist and Episcopal publishing houses. “They can help us get to the grassroots,” Maxwell said. There are some denominationally-specific studies, for example, “What do Presbyterians Believe” or “Can United Methodists be Homosexual?”
But, surprisingly, the purchasers of those materials sometimes cross denominational lines; Presbyterians, for example, may want to understand more about what Scientologists or Mormons believe.
The best authors are seminary professors who go to church, Maxwell said, “because they know the subject well and they know how to explain it. And most of them love it. They want to be able to teach that audience” outside the classroom, the people in the pews.
In her work as an interim pastor in Cincinnati, Barbara Tesorero has used The Thoughtful Christian resources with both adult Sunday school classes and with youth groups, as a way “to encourage teachers to think outside the box and try different things.”
For example, she e-mailed a lesson on “The Music and Message of U-2″ to teachers of a senior high group, “and they loved it,” she said.
Tesorero said The Thoughtful Christian resources, which usually are intended to be used for a session lasting one to three weeks, fill a niche in the market. There are resources available for long-term, serious Bible study, she said, or for groups that want to follow a single curriculum for an extended time. But there’s less available for short-term studies or those on issues in the news.
“I think younger adult groups don’t want a six or eight or 10-week study,” she said. “They don’t want to be disruptive to the class if they haven’t made it in two weeks.” And people are more likely to volunteer to lead a study if it will last for only a week or two.
Referring to the numerous Sunday morning studies, an early ad for The Thoughtful Christian resources said: “It’s 10 o’clock on a Saturday night. Do you know what your lesson plan is?”
While more preparation is best — some Sunday school classes or small groups e-mail out the materials in advance, so people can read them and be ready — “we’ve watched when people are buying the studies,” Maxwell said. “And a lot of them are buying them on Saturday night and Sunday morning.” The leaders’ guides are written so that someone can study it for an hour or so and still be prepared to lead a class, he said, which allows small groups to rotate leadership among their members.
The Thoughtful Christian also produces studies for Advent and for Lent — last year, approaching Advent through different types of guided prayer and meditation; this year, exploring how different characters from the biblical story prepare room for what’s to come.
