Dear Friends:

Like for many of you, spring is a favorite season. Bright flowers bloom, the smell of cut grass is in the air, the air is warming, and baseball is being played. In addition, we have the hope that with vaccines now available we might get back to normalcy. All of this helps us to feel our Easter joy and celebrate the gift of life.

Each time we gather as people of faith is also an opportunity to celebrate. We celebrate that we are a part of God's good creation. We celebrate who God is and who we are as God's children. We celebrate what God has done, is doing, and has promised to do in the future. We celebrate the gifts of faith, hope, and love.

What does this mean for religious education? It means that the term religious education falls well short of what we are offering and seeking to create. I prefer to think of our task as religious celebration. Working with young people, especially, is a reminder of the joy and energy that can be ours when we live with an attitude of gratitude and wonder. It means that we are not just filling our minds with facts but embracing education as a process that transforms us into new creatures.

Please join me in prayer, asking that all our endeavors, like next months' vacation Bible school, will be celebrations of the new life which God imparts to us. "Anyone in Christ is a new creation..." (2 Cor. 5.17)

Yours joyfully,
Paul