From Generation To Generation [Hardcover]

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. From Generation to Generation begins in lament for all that has been lost in education and spiritual formation . . . and ends by reimagining those tasks and laying out the practices that will form the faith of the next generation. . . . From Generation to Generation makes an important, creative, and practical contribution to that conversation. --Michael E. Williams, Senior Pastor, West End United Methodist Church No one has more wisdom about congregational education than Charles Foster, and in this challenging book he turns to one of the most urgent questions of all: how can we enable our children to be formed in the Christian faith? He is aware of the obstacles--the shifting religious and cultural landscape, troubled denominational structures, theological amnesia, the decline in intergenerational mentoring--but fortunately, he is also able to describe a wise and hopeful path ahead toward equipping children with vital, imaginative, and courageous faith. --Thomas G. Long, Professor of Preaching, Emory University Charles Foster makes a compelling argument for the development of catechetical cultures in congregations capable of helping their members to anticipate, prepalƒ"