May 6, 2005
By Pat McCaughan

While the Rev. Johnna Camp allows that Education for Ministry (EFM) has far exceeded initial expectations – boasting some 60,000 participants compared to a 1975 goal of about 600 – the interim program director's eye is on the next generation.

"It feels like we're at a cutting edge time; we have to make decisions about what the program will look like for the next generation," says Camp, who began serving as interim director two years ago.

She hopes that a mere fraction of the 60,000 bishops, priests, deacons and laity who've participated in some way in the popular Christian education program will be on hand for a 30th anniversary celebration June 3-5 in Sewanee, Tennessee.

"We're inviting anybody who wants to come, anyone who's benefited from the program – as students, mentors, trainers, coordinators – to come and celebrate the gift EFM has been to the church for 30 years, and to help us look ahead and see where God might be calling us for the future."

Part of that future involves increased focus on ecumenism and technology, says Camp, who is ordained in the Disciples of Christ Church. It also includes possibilities for partnering with other faith exploration programs like the more recent Via Media, or Alpha seekers programs.

EFM began when Professor Charles Winters, a University of the South School of Theology faculty member, created curriculum to help equip people to connect their Christian faith with their daily lives. Since then, materials for the four-year program, which includes a year each of studies in the Old and New Testaments, Church History and Theology, plus theological reflection, have undergone a continual process of revision "to stay relevant within the life of the church and the culture," Camp said.

"The idea was that all Christians are ministers by virtue of our baptism and the program was designed to equip people to integrate theory and theology with life experience which, we hope, leads to ministry in the world," she said.

It worked in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the Rev. Ann Fontaine mentors the first EFM Online class, scheduled to graduate this May.

"One of our graduates started a hospice program in Fremont City, which we didn't have before," said Fontaine whose involvement with EFM began in the 1970s and who also serves as a supply priest in the Diocese of Wyoming. She plans to mentor three online groups this year, in Idaho, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming.

"It gives laity a good grounding in their theology. It makes it their theology rather than just something they receive," she said. "They begin to operate out of that stance. Another member in one of my online groups is the mayor of a town here. He says he does theological reflection as part of his political decision-making process. EFM makes for more reflective people in the world, in all kinds of settings."

Fontaine believes that partnering EFM with the Via Media or Alpha programs would be helpful because they are intended for different audiences.

"I don't think EFM is designed for people who haven't had a little bit of experience in Christianity before," Fontaine said.

Alpha Course builds relationships

Alpha Course leader Johnetta George is a parishioner at St. Thaddeus' Episcopal Church, a large and historic congregation in Aiken, South Carolina.

She recently described the evangelism and relationship-building benefits of Alpha – a program established in 1976 at England's Holy Trinity Parish, Brompton – in an article published earlier this year by "Crosswalk," the newspaper of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.

"Having attended all six of the Alpha courses hosted at St. Thaddeus, I have witnessed firsthand the impact this program has had on our church," George wrote. "After each course, we have welcomed new families into our congregation and seen many of these newcomers move into leadership roles in our parish.

"And serving on the Alpha Course team has been anything but boring. It seems God deepens the faith of all those involved, regardless of how many times one has been involved in the past."

George notes that the Alpha Course, "described by many as ‘Christianity 101.'.. presents the basic principles of Christianity in a relaxed and informal setting." Each evening session opens with a simple dinner and a time of welcome and music, followed by group study using courses presented on DVD and LCD projector.

Topics include: "Who Is Jesus?," "Why Did Jesus Die?," "How Can I Be Sure of My Faith?," and "Does God Still Heal Today?"

"At Alpha, new relationships are formed and old relationships are strengthened," George writes, noting that a mid-course "Holy Spirit Weekend" retreat helps participants in building community.

The Alpha website, http://www.alphausa.org, reports that more than 5,000 are currently running in the United States, and about 1 million people in the U.S. and Canada have participated to date.

Participants include Anglican, Baptist, Methodist Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and Salvation Army congregations, among others.

Alpha says its curriculum is designed for "those wanting to investigate Christianity, new Christians, those who feel that they have never really got going as a Christian, newcomers to the church, and those who want to brush-up on the basics."

‘Via Media' curriculum

Like Alpha, an inquirers program, Via Media represents a place to start, says the Rev. Kay Sylvester, program director for Every Voice Network, the national ministry which aims to grow the Episcopal Church and which developed the evangelism series.

She said the eight-week adult Christian education program is being expanded to include a "morals and values" curriculum expected to be released soon.

"We'll use the existing Via Media (or middle way) videos but focus the conversation on a different discussion," she said.

Since its release in February, 2004, Via Media has been used for confirmation classes, seekers and inquirers classes, Lenten programs and for Sunday adult forums. It recently went international, spreading to the Dioceses of Montreal and Niagara in Canada, Sylvester said.

The Rev. Hal Hayek, rector of St. Anne's, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said a Via Media training session he hosted recently drew about 60 people from his own diocese and several neighboring states. He has used Via Media for adult education and even hopes to offer it at a local coffeehouse.

"We're the buckle on the Bible belt, and we need a different approach," Hayek said. "We're trying to reach people who aren't churched and we have to go to them instead of waiting for them to come to us. It's a good model for getting the news out. It touches the basic points of what to say and how to say it in a non-threatening format."

Via Media involves conversation, a meal and contemplation of such basic questions as why bad things happen to good people, says the Rev. Rosa Lee Harden, vicar of Holy Innocents, San Francisco, and former executive director of Every Voice Network and a creator of Via Media. She said Via Media was an attempt to use technology as a means of evangelism and to connect with other progressive Christians around issues of faith.

"The idea was to use the internet to connect folks," Harden recalled. A former journalist, she said the opportunity arose with General Convention 2003 and controversy surrounding the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop.

"I started trying to figure out how, as a parish priest in a predominantly gay parish, to help parishioners understand that this theology against Bishop Robinson's consecration was not the only way of understanding it. I wanted to have a way to teach theology that reflected our conversations through centuries – that have formed who we are, using Jewish midrash, the councils at Chalcedon and at Nicea where we sat together and talked and came to understand who God is in conversation."

Reaching out to other denominations

Camp, meanwhile, is reaching out to other denominations, through an online newsletter and by adapting the program for use among Quakers, Lutherans and Methodists who are now engaging EFM.

"We work out of a four-source model where people take their own life experiences alongside the traditions of the church, the messages of secular culture, their own personal belief statements and work to integrate them," she said. "The folks who have been involved in EFM and who have been formed in theological thinking and reflection are able to look at any issue within the life of the church in a way that brings in more than one source and a theologically informed laity is one of the best gifts we could give to any denomination."

For more information about Alpha, visit: http://www.alphausa.org/. For more information about EFM, visit: http://www.sewanee.edu/EFM/EFMhome.html . For more information about Via Media, visit: http://www.everyvoice.net/viamedia/.

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Patricia McCaughan is senior correspondent for the Episcopal News Service. She is also associate rector of St. Mary's Church in Laguna Beach, California.