The Third Children's
Spirituality Conference: Christian Perspectives
Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois, June 14-17, 2009
Highlights of the 2003 Conference
Beth Becker (at laptop) met many of us at the registration desk,
where she coordinated dozens of staff and volunteers,
and hundreds of other details for the conference.
The conference began with a wonderful
banquet,
the first of three wonderful evening meals.
Jerome Berryman, author of Godly Play and
related books and curricula,
was the first plenary speaker, but was only able to attend the first evening
because of recent hip surgery (pictured with his
wife, Thea)
Klaus Issler (right), Professor at Talbot
School of Theology and
author of Wasting Time With God, described biblical and
theological
perspectives during the first morning plenary session.
Marcia Bunge (second from left),
Associate
Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University
and author of The Child in Christian
Thought,
spoke on
historical perspectives of children's spirituality in the second
morning plenary session, from her ground-breaking book on the subject.
As occurred several times during the conference,
break-out groups followed plenary sessions,
in which participants discussed the ideas presented by plenary speakers.
Participants chose from 15 alternative
seminars.
The one pictured was the research methods
roundtable moderated by Don
Ratcliff,
Professor of Education at Biola University and author of Children's
Spirituality.
A recording of this session is available
by clicking
here
or here
(for the streamed version you hear immediately) or
here
(for the download version you can save but requires some waiting)
Another session on research methods--led by
Shirley
Morgenthaler, Professor of Education at Concordia University
and author of
Exploring Children's
Spiritual Formation
--is
available by clicking here
or here
(for the streamed version you can hear immediately) or
here
(for the download version you can save, but requires some waiting)
The Mount Sinai Scripture Drill Team opened
the
Monday night session (they are lining up outside the
auditorium, preparing to enter, in this picture).
Walter Wangerin, author of The Orphean
Passages
and Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?
spoke on the use of story in
the spiritual formation of children for the evening plenary session.
There was a ministry models poster session in which 13 models of ministry with children
were on display. Here Scottie May, Professor at Wheaton College and Graduate
School,
is pictured with her model. Scottie also coordinated the poster session.
Following the poster session, participants
were able
to attend a workshop about the ministry model of their
choice. Pictured here is a Godly Play demonstration.
A plenary session led by Rebecca Nye (center) from Cambridge University,
and author of The Spirit of the Child, emphasized the social science research of children's spirituality.
Brenda Salter-McNeil, founder of Overflow
Ministries and author of The Heart of Racial Justice,
was the final speaker for the conference, with a session
titled "Remember the Children"
After her message, people broke up into small
groups
and as individuals to pray for children in crisis.
Many thanks to everyone who helped make the conference a success--the planning team, the on-site conference team, the presenters, the plenary speakers, and Concordia University. Also many thanks to the Louisville Institute for providing the initial grant for conference preparation, the groups that helped sponsor meals and shared resources with us (Concordia Publishing House, Cook Communications International, and Group Publishing), Talbot School of Theology at Biola University for help in securing, managing, and dispersing grant funds and with conference promotion, and World Vision for scholarship funds. Finally, thank you to everyone who attended--you also helped make this conference a great success. THANKS!
