The union that created the United Church of Christ occurred when I was a toddler. By the time I was an elementary school student, the church was in the process of rolling out new Sunday School Curriculum, commissioned and produced at a significant expense as a part of that union. Professional educators, curricula designers, and writers were employed to produce what, at the time, was a significant advance in Christian education. There were hard-cover books for each age group, soft cover books to take home, and posters created by professional artists and archivists. The artwork that accompanied the curriculum was, at first, controversial, especially in some more conservative congregations that had grown used to gentle pictures of a European-looking Jesus in a field of sheep or a circle of children. The use of more symbolic artwork was jarring to some church members.

The curriculum was, however, effective. We learned significant amount about the Bible and the traditions of the church. We were encouraged to tackle tough questions and consider the meaning of our own faith. Of course no single curriculum can contain all of the elements necessary for lifelong learning, and there were serious flaws in the materials produced for my generation of children. Furthermore the church’s track record with children and youth of my age is not very strong. Despite a big influx of baby boom children, the majority of those children did not grow up to be lifelong members of the church. The decline of mainline Protestant congregations occurred in the midst of huge budgets for educational programs.

For whatever reasons, however, the teaching ministries of the church have been central to my understanding of my career. At our ordinations, we took the vows that Christian ministers have taken for centuries. We promised “to teach and preach the Gospel.” Note that the word teach comes first. In our part of the church, we have a strong tradition of educated clergy. At the time we were ordained, the minimum educational credential for ordination was a three-year master’s degree. A masters degree is a teaching degree the same degree required as a minimum for a college professor. From the beginning of my career, I felt that teaching was a central part of my calling. I have promoted education within the church all along. I have taught classes for children, youth, and adults. I have promoted biblical literacy. I have been a strong advocate for the educational ministries of the church in all of its settings. I served on Conference education committees. I was a professional Educational Consultant deployed by the national setting of the church for two decades. I have written and edited thousands of lessons published as a part of educational curricula for our church and many other churches.

It isn’t a path that was chosen by many of my seminary colleagues. At the time of our ordination, the educational ministries of the church were often viewed as second class positions. In general ministers of education were not ordained and did not have the educational background of senior ministers. And senior ministers tended to mostly ignore the work of educators. In an effort to strengthen educational ministries, we worked hard to promote certification of educators. For a number of years, the congregation we served in South Dakota was the congregation of the United Church of Christ with the largest number of certified educators. We also worked on commissioning, a formal recognition of the calling and qualifications of professional educators. Both of those credentials have not been maintained in recent years, but they were significant programs of preparation and support for ministers of education.

As funding and support eroded from the national setting of the church, the support of educators faded. The same church that employed a strong team of professional educators and teachers when I was a child became a church that had not even a single professional educator in its national setting by the time of my retirement. It is, in my opinion, a sad story.

The language of education has changed as well. Ministers of Education are now called Ministers of Faith Formation. Faith Formation has replaced Christian Education as the preferred way to talk about the process of teaching and learning. At one point, I wrote volumes of lessons for a curricula where we did not use the terms “teacher” and “student,” replacing them with “leader” and “learner.”

Through all of these changes, the Association of United Church Educators (AUCE), a voluntary organization within the church, has worked to promote the teaching ministries of the church. Over the years, I have served the Association in a variety of positions, including developing the Association’s first web site. I also served on the Association’s National Coordinating Committee for several terms. Now reorganized, the National Coordinating Committee has become the AUCE Board. It is made up of representatives from each region of the church as well as several positions elected by the membership such as Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, and Secretary.

Today I begin three days of meetings of the AUCE Board as the newly-elected representative of the Western Region of our church. Because of the pandemic, the Board Meetings will take place over Zoom. I’ll be spending quite a bit of time in front of the computer in several three-hour blocks, working on a variety of projects and programs to support education in local congregations. As the denomination’s official support of educators has declined, AUCE has taken up some of the slack, reviving a certification program, offering support for ministers of education seeking ordination, and providing educational programs for church leaders. Although the United Church of Christ has what is called “The Faith Education, Innovation, and Formation Team” (Faith INFO), there is little information about the work of this team. The national web site contains a few brief descriptive paragraphs and a link to the AUCE website. Increasingly, AUCE is becoming the major provider of resources and support for the educational ministries of the church.

I am old. I am at the end of my career. But there is still much that remains to be done. I’m not a fan of meetings, but I’ve agreed to serve on the board because I passionately believe in the educational mission of the church. Our generation may not be one of great advances in Christian education, but the educational work of the church is worthy of our time, energy, and passion. Being semi retired, I’ve got plenty of time and passion. I’ll have to keep working on the energy part.