CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Background
Christian Education is one of the essential tasks of the church as directly instructed by our Lord according to the Great Commission as found as Matt. 28:16-20. The Christian Education Desks therefore sees Christian Education as a life-long journey of faith of all Christians to be equipped to participate fully in the Missio Dei (Mission of God).
Luther himself emphasized education, not only present in his development of resources for education like the Small Catechism’s teaching on the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, but continuously harnessed the power of education visible in his treatise and life as teacher and preacher.
Aims
From this background then, the Christian Education Desk aims to:
1.
Create teaching and learning communities based on Bible text which lays the foundation of Christian education such as Deut. 6:4-9, Prov. 1:7, Prov. 22:6, Matt. 28:16-20, 2 Tim. 3:16-17, Eph. 6:4 amongst others,
2.
Equip saints for the work of active ministry (Eph. 4: 12) in their context by capacitation in education, Lutheran identities, pastoral formation, ecumenism, and social justice
3.
Providing theological and liturgical resources and support to LUCSA activities and programmes,
4.
Developing resources for continuous Christian Education and African contextually based Worship, Liturgy and Music for worship life and service in church in communities.
Rationale
The approach that undergirds our Christian Education is dialogical in nature and uses the Liberation Theology methodology of See, Judge and Act where lived reality is in continuous conversation with scripture, God’s grace filled salvific act through Jesus Christ and the eschatological future.
For example, this methodological approach can be applied to the first 3 chapters of the Bible in the following way:
From the beginning of the Bible, we are introduced to a God who can see, and so we worship a God who sees; who sees good in God’s creations (Gen. 1-2), who sees the need for human relationships (Gen. 2), who sees sin and the despairing human condition (Gen 3 ff).
God does not only see, but God also judges, in the sense of reflecting and seeking ways in how to better the human condition, i.e. in chaos God reflects and understand the need for order (Gen. 1-2), God understand the need for human relationships, (Gen 2) and God reflects and understands the need for salvation (Gen 3ff).
God also acts, not only seeing and understanding but actively works toward the order of creation in all forms, creates spaces for human relationships, and covers the shame of human sin.
And so, in the continuous pages of the Bible this cycle of human sinful action is counter-acted on by God’s acts of salvation.
However, in the same way that God is acting, God also acts in and through us, we are also called to act as co-creators with these first chapters, “Go forth and multiply” (Gen. 1:28)
Resources
The Christian Education Desk has also produced resources for Christian Education which includes 3 Sunday School Teachers books each book colour coded and based on the 3 year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary; a Resource book for Confirmation Class, a Resource Book for Youth and Young Adults, a Resource book for Christian Education for lay leaders and clergy, A HIV and AIDS teaching resource for leagues and associations, and the Path Ways to Peace – Manual, a joint project with the Ecumenical Church Leaders Forum of Zimbabwe (ECLF).
Together with the above books the LUCSA Christian Education – Worship, Liturgy and Music Project (2020-2022) have developed various other songs and liturgies. The LUCSA Assembly Song 2022, celebrating 30 years of LUCSA Work also encapsulates the essence of LUCSA existence. The HIV and AIDS candlelight Litany Prayer, a resource for prayerful reflection on Health and Wellness, the Thursday in Black “Ubuntu Song” and Thursday in Black Litany, and the Healing of Creation Litany, all reflect the contextual nature of our work speaking to lived realities of member churches in our region.
This year we also developed Reflection for Lent.
The Liturgies and music together with prices for the Resource books can be requested from christianeducation@lucsa.org
