Adult Christian Formation at Plymouth!

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
Psalm 41.1
 
As the Psalmist says, there is a great thirst in the human soul
for connection with the Divine, for a deeper relationship with God.
It is through this deepening relationship with God
that Christians experience transformation
from lives focused elsewhere
to lives of loving God and all of God’s creation,
including others and ourselves.
The Rev. Dr. Mark Lee

For many, many years Adult Christian Formation has been a jewel in Plymouth’s crown of ministries. The Rev. Dr. Mark Lee served as our Adult Director of Christian Formation for eleven years before going back into full-time pastoral ministry in June 2020. Before him came the Rev. Julie Mavity-Maddelena and Alice Clark. Robust Adult Christian Formation has been vital at Plymouth since way before Rev. Hal Chorpenning became Senior Minister and that was 20 years ago now! It is a hallmark of our faith community of worship, learning and service.

When Mark Lee left us, it was the height of the pandemic lockdown. All of the Adult Formation programming was on Zoom: Zoom Adult Forums on Sunday mornings and Zoom study groups during the week. At that time, Plymouth added 8 hours to my 20 hour a week schedule to lead adult formation study group programming. Hal took on staff liaison work with the Visiting Scholar Team. We have been attempting to fill Mark’s shoes ever since. Big shoes to fill! Mark was paid for 16 hours a week; but I know he regularly put in 20, at least. Hal and I do not have an extra 10 hours a piece on top of ministerial duties. Still, Plymouth managed to keep things going throughout these crazy years of pandemic programming, even hosting two wonderful Visiting Scholar weekends on Zoom in 2020-2021. We made it through because of so many lay volunteers. MANY, MANY THANKS

• to the Visiting Scholar Team,* so ably led by Pat Slentz,
• to the Adult Forum Team*
• and to several other stalwart study group volunteers.*

As most of you know, I will be retiring from parish ministry at the end of February 2023. And I want to leave Plymouth with the infrastructure for continuing its long-standing, robust Adult Christian Formation programming. At this point, our staffing plans at Plymouth do not include another Director of Adult Christian Formation due to budget concerns. Our ministerial staff will be back to two full-time ministers after I leave and there is no room in their job portfolios for hands-on adult formation leadership.

So …. what is up with Adult Formation programming now?! We are rebuilding!

How will it continue? With the guidance of the Christian Formation Board and with YOUR HELP! Lay organizational leadership will be imperative to keep Adult Formation up and running. I am working with the CF Board to organize one new ministry team, reorganize another and support a third existing one so Adult Formation programming will continue with high standards even with less staff input. The two full-time ministers will be available for content consultation.

Here is the proposed plan:

• The CF Board is organizing a new Adult Formation Study Group Ministry Team. This team will work gather content for adult study groups: book studies, prayer groups, small spiritual growth groups. These groups will be scheduled to meet during our Sunday morning 10 am education hour and at other times during the week, in person or on Zoom. Content for these groups will be gathered from suggestions from the ministers, from lay leaders and other board leadership, from within the team itself. The team will put together a schedule of studies for the programming year and recruit study group leaders to facilitate those studies, help them schedule rooms and Zoom links. If you have a passion for study and learning as part of your faith journey, you might consider helping this group get and stay going! You can contact me or Elaine Kim, CF Board Co-chair using this form.
  
• Our Visiting Scholar program began in 2012 with a weekend with Marcus Borg. And we have continued to host stellar scholars through the years, John Dominic Crossen, Andrea White, John Bell, Eric Elnes, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, and most recently, John Philip Newell. We need to revive our Visiting Scholar Ministry Team as a year around team that plans two and three years into the future so that the Visiting Scholar weekend is a firmly established ministry of Plymouth. The ministers can advise and suggest names for scholars, even make connections at times. We need a vital team of lay people to organize logistics, create publicity and invite the wider community. If you are interested in helping with this ministry, once again you can contact me or Elaine Kim, CF Board Co-chair using this form.
  
• Finally, we have an amazing, long-standing and dedicated group of folks who make up the Adult Forum Team. They lead and provide programming in the Forum Room every Sunday at our 10 am education hour from September through May. Always open to content ideas, they try to provide a variety of programming that moves from lecture style to discussion to experiencing spiritual practices. Content can be a relevant theological topic, a social justice topic or Bible study. During election season they often offer panels relevant to upcoming local elections. If you are interested in joining this dynamic planning team please contact me or Elaine Kim, CF Board Co-chair using this form.
  

This is a hearty invitation to help us rebuild our Adult Formation programming through your participation and/or leadership!

And….plans are in the works for this coming fall. There will be Adult Forum and at least one study group on Sunday mornings and perhaps more study groups during the week. I am hoping to gather two groups at different times to study Brian McLaren’s new book, Do I Stay Christian? A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, the Disillusioned. (I am almost finished with the book. It is inspiring and enlightening!) And Brian will be with those study groups for an hour of online consultation on Sunday afternoon, September 25! More on Brian McLaren and the fall Adult Formation programming in next week’s reflection! Stay tuned!
 
And with you on the journey,

* A Huge Thanks to all the volunteers who have sustained Adult Christian Formation since the pandemic lockdown in March 2020. Mea Culpa for anyone I forgot!!

2020-2021 Visiting Scholar Team
Pat Slentz, chair
Anna Olsen
Stuart Yoshida
Tom Bylander
Tiffany Ayraud

Adult Forum Team
Sue Rutherford
Bill Tucker
MacKenzie Wiggs
Laura Hill
April Mason
Wayne Carpenter

Book Study Volunteers
Viki Johnson
Marty Marsh
Anna Olsen
Art Rooze
Sara and Peter Mullarkey
Laura Nelson
Sarah Parmenter
Elaine Kim

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Author

The Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson, Associate Minister, is a writer, storyteller, and contributor to Feasting on the Word, a popular biblical commentary. She is also the writer of sermon-stories.com, a lectionary-based story-commentary series. She will be retiring in February, 2023.