Back to School Workshop

Donna Lindsay, Director of Christian Education at Ladera Community Church in Portola Valley, led a thought-provoking workshop on August 15th exploring what we want our children to learn at church & providing some ideas for how to encourage development of quiet time to pray, meditate & hear God’s voice.

Donna discovered in her thirty-plus years in Christian Education that we often place the emphasis in Sunday School on providing information to our kids, but lack giving them the chance to quietly experience God. According to John Westerhoff in his 1976 book Will Our Children Have Faith, we can teach religion, but faith must be experienced.

At the workshop, we experienced a sampling of Donna’s ideas while quietly listening to sacred music: coloring intricate pictures of crosses, following a finger labyrinth, reading prayers & meditating, writing letters to Jesus, reading books, & meditating on a question while focusing on a photograph or lit candle.

I invite everyone—parents or not—to explore the ways in which we experience God & to remember to take (or make) the time to do it each week. For as we know, we all—not just children—learn best what we practice & experience in our daily lives.

Some materials from the workshop:

• Berryman Diagram on Silence
• CarMa My Monastery is a Minivan
• Drawing as Meditation
• Finger Labyrinth instructions
• Flower and Candle
• Helpful Hints for Young Children
• Helpful Resources on Meditation
• Meditation with Young Children
• Prayer Butterflies

Intricate pictures of crosses to color - right-click to download