Faith Formation in Religious Diversity:
Difference, Questions, and Personal Experience

Instructor: Dr. Colleen Windham-Hughes
Website: Cal Lutheran Faculty Profile

 

Let’s explore the space for specific faith commitments in a diverse world together. This Intensive Care Course helps congregational leaders think about faith formation by taking young people’s questions seriously as well as the experiences of our neighbors. It will include site visits to local communities of faith and walks through how to include site visits as part of faith formation in your congregation.

Today all development in identity and faith occurs in a context of religious diversity. People who are formed according to different faiths and none at all meet each other every day—in school, at the grocery store, on the field. People of every age have questions about religious differences alongside questions about their own faith identity. We can accompany people in their questions even when we don’t have all the answers.

Fear of young people’s questions has kept wonderful and wise adults from everyday conversation with young people. The worries are many: What if I don’t know the answer? What if they get confused? What if it threatens my faith or blasphemes? What if they subsequently leave our community and reject what they’ve learned? How do I know what’s true?

It takes effort to articulate a good question. Usually the way a good question takes shape is by having the space to voice it, chew on it, and work on it with someone else. The most valuable thing you can give to someone with a question is not an answer; it’s their own question back, clarified through your listening. You do not need to share the faith of another to accompany them in their questions. In fact, it is a great gift when someone who is different from you trusts you with their preoccupations—whether they be in the form of passions or questions. You can show trust in them, too, as you narrate your faith journey.

We will spend time together talking about faith formation and make room to consider how it takes shape in our different contexts. We will visit communities of faith different from ours and reflect on our experiences. We will commit to a modest plan to explore further and/or include intentional engagement of religious diversity as part of faith formation.

Dr. Colleen Windham-Hughes is Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA where she teaches in the areas of Religion and Public Life and Practical Theology. Colleen is also the Director of the program in Theology and Christian Leadership, where she works with students, congregations, and community organizations to develop internship experiences and the principle investigator of the Teagle Grant to develop Interfaith Studies at California Lutheran University.

Passionate about Interfaith relationships and faith formation across the lifespan, Colleen’s scholarship and church leadership focuses in these areas. An ordained Deacon, Colleen is active in both Lutheran and Methodist contexts and has written various curriculum and provided leadership for the ELCA’s Practice Discipleship initiative, spoke at various synod gatherings, and continues to partner with congregations through her work with students.

Colleen has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, a M.Div. from Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA, and B.A. from Whittier College, CA. She is married with two boys and lives in southern California.

Intensive Care: Faithful Metrics

Instructors: Peggy Hahn and Pastor David Hansen
Website: waytolead.org

 

Are you a busy leader who knows there’s more to ministry than just numbers and money? Are those metrics actually keeping you from doing what you know matters most?

This Intensive lets you do something about it. Every leader sets goals – intentionally, unintentionally – or relies on goals from the past. In this session, we’ll be creating new, faithful metrics, metrics that matter and that open up space for imagination and creativity.

What do the future metrics of faith formation look like? By paying attention to hot spots, setting different types of goals and metrics and changing the stories used to interpret metrics, the future can look very different.

This course will be a sacred space for ministry leaders who want to walk away with a new framework for measuring what matters. It is a hands-on learning experience that will include developing personal awareness about the ways we are judging success as well as what it takes to move ourselves and others into a learner mindset. You will be introduced to a new, digital dashboard, to tools that can help you fast track your path forward and to new friends for the pilgrimage. Leave with a concrete plan for reshaping your personal and congregational metrics.

Peggy Hahn—Executive Director, peggy@waytolead.org

Peggy Hahn serves as the Executive Director for LEAD, aligning passionate leaders, resources, and practices to grow Christian leaders who grow faith communities in our world. Peggy is a frequent speaker and author who is never without a pile of books to read and seeks coaches and mentors for herself in an ongoing quest to learn and grow. Peggy is committed to listening to pastors, youth ministers and leaders of all ages for insight into the ways they are growing in their own faith and learning together, and what LEAD can do to support them in their development as leaders.

Peggy has served as a volunteer with the ELCA Youth Ministry Network for over 24 years in various roles and has served as the team leader or on the team for the servant events for the 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2018 ELCA Youth Gatherings. As the innovator of Camp Hope Day Camp Ministry, she is committed to growing student leaders and believes congregations can be leadership incubators.

David Hansen—Director of Communication and Innovation, david@waytolead.org

First and foremost, David is a congregational pastor. This is his passion and the calling he gives his time and energy to. He believes the church is more than congregation and when we can help each other to share the Good News and grow God’s Kingdom, we should. This conviction has brought him across the country as he helps congregations and organizations communicate more effectively and pass the faith on from generation to generation.

David has served as a volunteer on the communications team of the Gulf Coast Synod for many years, as well as on the Social Media Team of the 2015 and 2018 ELCA Youth Gatherings. He is passionate about helping the church use digital tools to share the Gospel.