Fashion Me a People: Curriculum in the Church

Rating:
Summary: Necessary for every church
Review: A wonderful book and a valuable tool for all leaders of the church. Harris points out to us in her book that the church curriculum is never ending; education is a lifelong process and found in all forms of ministry. If this is truly the case, then we need to be aware of how we are educating people and how we can improve upon that education in all areas of ministry. Harris' book helps us to do just that.

I found this book to contain many practical ideas and ways of building or improving a church curriculum. There are many sound suggestions that any church could use and useful tools are supplied to help you determine how to best use those suggestions to meet the needs of your church.

I found three things to be especially helpful and important in this book. First, Harris begins with a scripture verse that guides her theories and the foundation of that scripture is apparent throughout the book. Secondly, Harris places simple exercises at the end of each chapter to help readers go deeper into the ideas presented in each chapter and to discern how they can best apply the ideas to their programs. Finally, Harris separates the book into three sections and then chapters, which makes the book very organized, focused, and understandable.


Rating:
Summary: All curriculum, all the time!
Review: Calls for one to look at curriculum in a whole new light. Curriculum is more than the printed page. The entire experience of 'Church' in Harris' view is curriculum. She includes a discussion of the multiple meanings of curriculum and curricular challenges.

Rating:
Summary: Teaching the Bible to Adults and Youth
Review: Dick Murray's book, Teaching tthe Bible to Adults and Youth, presents a wide expanse of ideas and possibilities in Bible study. In this book, an educator should find an array of scenarios to open the Bible up to people. His comments on how Biblically illiterate adults and youth have become in our society are right on. He further commented on how we learn the Bible in seminary (limited as it may be), but we learn to teach from teachers.

Rating:
Summary: Teaching the Bible to Adults and Youth
Review: Dick Murray's book, Teaching tthe Bible to Adults and Youth, presents a wide expanse of ideas and possibilities in Bible study. In this book, an educator should find an array of scenarios to open the Bible up to people. His comments on how Biblically illiterate adults and youth have become in our society are right on. He further commented on how we learn the Bible in seminary (limited as it may be), but we learn to teach from teachers.

Rating:
Summary: Life-long learning
Review: Fashioning is challenging. It is awakening. And it is a life-long process to education. Fashion Me a People is for the church community that is willing to explore what education can truly be for itself and for the greater community and world.

This book presents a thoughtful educational plan for our church community, recognizing our churches offer different strengths and each have the need to develop their shortcomings. As a part of a community, one body in Christ, striving to do the work to which we are called, how do we become a community of communities, a worshipping community, a teaching community, a proclaiming community and a community of service?

Each of these areas of education and service is described in Ms. Harris' book. In her description of these five different forms we are inspired to see the possibilities within our church community. There are thoughtful and challenging questions and engaging activities included to assist in further practicing and implementing the themes of each chapter.

This is a valuable resource to have AND to use.

Rating:
Summary: Life-long learning
Review: Fashioning is challenging. It is awakening. And it is a life-long process to education. Fashion Me a People is for the church community that is willing to explore what education can truly be for itself and for the greater community and world.

This book presents a thoughtful educational plan for our church community, recognizing our churches offer different strengths and each have the need to develop their shortcomings. As a part of a community, one body in Christ, striving to do the work to which we are called, how do we become a community of communities, a worshipping community, a teaching community, a proclaiming community and a community of service?

Each of these areas of education and service is described in Ms. Harris' book. In her description of these five different forms we are inspired to see the possibilities within our church community. There are thoughtful and challenging questions and engaging activities included to assist in further practicing and implementing the themes of each chapter.

This is a valuable resource to have AND to use.

Rating:
Summary: A helpful resource
Review: Maria Harris did a very good job of laying out the fundamental "curriculum" aspects of a church. It was most helpful to have the exericses after each chapter for the reader(s) to put what have been learned into practice. As the author herself mentioned, "the direction of education is shifting." She laid out the ground work and it is up to the educator(s) to utilize what she has written accordindly to a learning evironment.

"Insightful, and practical." There are times when one would read a very good book and then ask the question, "How do you use this in the church?" Maria Harris did that. It is up to the reader(s) to apply what he/she has learned into his/her specific situation--whether that is a Sunday school class, Bible study, or in a classroom.

Rating:
Summary: Good General Introduction
Review: This book shows is a good general introduction to the idea of Church Curriculum. What is most interesting is that her best chapters are about non-traditional ways of looking at how the church teaches. For example, teaching in worship, service and other areas.
However, this book is highly dependent on Thomas Groome's Christian Religious Education. So I would see this book as a a first step in order to understand and better appreciate his book.

Rating:
Summary: Good General Introduction
Review: This book shows is a good general introduction to the idea of Church Curriculum. What is most interesting is that her best chapters are about non-traditional ways of looking at how the church teaches. For example, teaching in worship, service and other areas.
However, this book is highly dependent on Thomas Groome's Christian Religious Education. So I would see this book as a a first step in order to understand and better appreciate his book.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not overly helpful
Review: This book was a very interesting look at the curriculum that exists in the church. I feel that the author did a wonderful job exploring the issue that faces the church. The focus of the book was on five main curriculum areas, which discussed how to develop these areas in an education realm.

The nice part about the book was the inclusion of activities that could be done in order to create a better understanding of the topic at hand and also how to improve upon an existing curriculum that is in place in a church.

I ultimately did not believe that this book was very helpful. The information was not completely new to me and that made it difficult. If you have been exposed to churches for a long period of time, this book probably will not help you out a great deal.