Beyond Christian Education

About the Book

Beyond Christian Education is about raising up committed servants of God’s Justice and Peace. Our present efforts at nurture in the local church are suffering from ineffectiveness. The time has come to go beyond what we have known as Christian Education and bring about a more effective approach called Christian Nurture. This book is a call to nurture a deeper connection with the source of the power in the person’s relationship with God as well as what it means to be a loving servant.

Through solid grounding in theology and a functional understanding of the dynamics of nurturing Christians, the Nurture approach brings together teaching and essential spiritual guidance. The approach emphasizes the role of the whole congregation in nurture and a stronger focus on the place of the home as a foundational locus of nurturing Christians. It proposes a balanced curriculum including inner formation, traditioning, prophetic sensitivity and servanthood. These emphases become a source of creativity in the congregational environment, the home, intentional nurture experiences and servanthood immersions. Beyond Christian Education is important reading for local churches concerned about the future of their efforts at nurturing Christians.

About the Author

Dr. R. Ben Marshall, a retired United Methodist Elder and Minister of Christian Education, has been involved in nurturing Christians for over 50 years serving in various size churches and on the conference level. Ben has a Doctor of Ministry in Christian Education from Perkins School of Theology and a certificate in spiritual direction from Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. He is a charter member of the National CEF, and member of the United Methodist Association of Scholars in Christian Education. Presently, Ben is teaching and participating at Northaven UMC, Dallas, and is founder and co-director of the Christian Nurture Project for which this book serves as the basic guide. Beyond Christian Education is the result of the last 15 years writing and working to explore how we can improve the effectiveness of our nurture efforts in the local church. Ben is married to Karan, a Christian educator in her own right and early childhood specialist. They have two children and two grandchildren and live in Dallas, Texas.