Ideas

I get a lot of ideas. Constantly. When I talk about ideas, I mean ministry related, spiritual formation, prayer, Bible/culture kinds of ideas. Not, "Hey, I should wash the floor" ideas. I never have those kinds of ideas at all!

The shower used to be a popular place for me to get Spirit inspired ideas (at least that's how I have learned to interpret these particular ideas). However, the shower in this apartment is not conducive to idea development. Sometimes it's not even conducive to becoming clean! I don't know about other people but I find it difficult to let my mind take little idea adventures while I'm having my backside scalded (try not to think about this too hard). 

So in this new apartment my ideas germinate in other places (in the apartment). But regardless of the location the ideas keep coming and coming.

• Brief aside: At this point I need to comment on how hard I'm trying to use contractions in this post (I'd, don't, I've, etc.). I've been writing academic papers for so long that even my casual emails or notes on the fridge are written out in full.  So I hope you (whoever you are) appreciate that I'm attempting to write like a normal individual. :)

Back to my ideas. 

I get a lot of ideas, but it seems my brain is most fruitful when I am not in a place where I can put the ideas into practice. This was my experience in my undergrad years at Canadian Mennonite University and was frequently my experience in my first year of seminary. Studying often sparks scads of ideas and I was incredibly grateful that AMBS had internships so the ideas had a place to go. At Belmont Mennonite church my ideas could bounce off of others, be informed, be challenged, be reshaped, become something completely different etc. It was these types of experiences that helped me to see that whatever ideas are sparked within me, they are always incomplete unless they come into contact with the believing community, whether that is a commission, or a task force, or a Sunday school class, or a group of young children on retreat. What I mean by this is, I can't just be a thinker, a writer, an academic (not that academics are as isolated as is sometimes believed. They really don't have ivory towers. Brick maybe, but not ivory). I am at heart a theological practitioner. While I enjoy studying and writing about Christian Formation, I have come to recognize that my vocational home is in the practice of Christian formation and in teaching and empowering others in that practice.

In my last year at seminary I did an independent study on children and prayer. As part of that study my supervisor and I decided I should write a journal-style article that would at least have the potential to be used in the future and not yet another paper to join my binders full of academic papers collecting dust in the office. When the article was complete my supervisor suggested I look at getting it printed in a journal, perhaps one on family spirituality, or Christian formation. I thought about it for awhile. But I decided I would rather have it published somewhere where it would have the potential to be read by people who actually pray with children. I know who reads academic journal articles on children and prayer. I do! And a small handful of others who put enough effort into digging through a database that they actually find those articles. So I went with The Mennonite instead (I really wanted the Canadian Mennonite, but oh well, you take whoever responds!). If anyone is interested in reading the article here is the link Children and Prayer

That article is one of the outcomes of a year-long experiment. An idea of what it might look like to introduce a group of children to various prayer practices. I spent 2010-2011 praying with the most fabulous group of grade 2+3's (11 of them!). I have to say that was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life and a highlight of almost every week. So many insightful comments, so many purposeful gestures, so many holy moments. And the fun continued in the fall of 2011 when Belmont gave me the opportunity to volunteer my time at the church using my gifts in whatever ways I felt I was being led. There were prayer retreats, a worship class, individual spiritual guidance with children and a parent/child prayer class. And all of those opportunities took place alongside co-teaching Human Development and Christian Formation with Andy Brubacher Kaethler at AMBS.

It was 1 1/2 years filled with learning (much of it on my behalf), experimenting, testing, and re-imagining what God is calling me to do, and what God is leading us towards in terms of Christian formation in the Mennonite church today. 

And now I'm in Winnipeg. Missing my friends and church family in Elkhart, yet so glad to be back home. Not yet employed, not yet settled in a church. And my brain is flooding with ideas!

And since this post is SO LONG, I'll save sharing those ideas for another day!