Joan, Author at Shine: Living in God's Light Curriculum

Tips for Teachers and Leaders

Posted on: August 22nd, 2024 by Joan

Fall is a busy and exciting time of year! As families settle into new routines and schedules, this is an ideal time to reach out to parents and caregivers in your congregation so they can stay connected with what is happening in Sunday school and faith formation classes.

For many congregations, “regular attendance” now means that families attend church one or two times a month, rather than every Sunday. Children are involved in many extra-curricular activities, so families may have scheduling conflicts. Or parents may be seeking to spend time with their children at home after a busy week. Some families may not attend church regularly because of demanding work hours, child custody arrangements, or because one parent spends time traveling for their job. Families can quickly begin to feel disconnected from the church community—even if they are away for just a couple of weeks.

While Sunday morning attendance may look different, there are ways to stay connected with parents, caregivers, and their families even if you don’t see them as often. Last year, my congregation sent a midweek email to parents of kindergarteners through fifth graders to let them know which Bible story the children heard the previous Sunday. We offered suggestions for engaging the story, often using ideas from Shine at Home found on the Shine website. We received several notes of appreciation from parents who had been out of town or who had been at church and wanted to continue conversations from Sunday school with their children during the week.

Here are other ways to connect with families and children in your congregation:

Encourage your congregation to purchase copies of The Peace Table or Shine On storybook Bibles for families so they can read Bible stories at home, especially when they need to be away on Sunday.
Make a video of yourself reading the Bible story for the upcoming week or a story related to the theme and send it to the families in your congregation. Invite your pastor or another adult in the congregation to be the reader!
Create a “Back to Sunday School” packet for children that includes Shine’s “Follow the Peace Path” Cards or a copy of The Peace Table Activity Booklet for children to use at home.
Email or text photos of Sunday school activities to parents and caregivers and invite conversation about the Bible story theme. Include a link to a video or song suggested in Media Connections in the teacher’s guide.
Set up a resource shelf in your library for families. Feature one or two books related to the Bible story theme in your church’s newsletter. Include a short summary of each book or a note telling why you like the book.
Send birthday cards to the children in your class—no matter how often they attend. Or send a note to each child before you begin a new quarter. Children love receiving cards in the mail!

One of the best ways to connect with families is to provide opportunities for building relationships. A fun way to get to know parents and caregivers is to have children help plan a time during the Sunday school or faith formation hour when parents, grandparents, or other adults are invited to eat breakfast or have a snack with the children, followed by a Bible story and an activity for all ages. When the weather is favorable, invite all families with children for lunch on the church grounds or to a nearby park. Or you could organize a simple service project, like assembling relief kits, putting together food boxes, or weeding on the church grounds. Encourage people of all ages to work together!

Finally, we can model the value that Jesus placed on children by including them in worship and in other areas of church life. Find out which children enjoy reading scripture aloud and let your worship team know. Connect with your pastor or worship team and suggest some prayers and songs that are familiar to children to include in worship services. You may even want to challenge the congregation to memorize Bible verses alongside the children and feature those verses during worship.

As you seek to connect with families in your congregation, know that your presence and your willingness to share the love of God will build lasting connections and will support children and their families as they grow in faith.

Joyce Peachey Lind, Shine Curriculum Editor

Illustrations by Shelley Dieterichs

Shine Faith Talk Podcast – Episode #2

Posted on: July 29th, 2024 by Joan

Welcome to Shine’s Faith Talk Podcast! In this episode, the Shine Team shares insights from their reading of Handing Down the Faith by Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk, whose research inspired the Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative of Lilly Endowment, Inc. In 2023, Shine Curriculum received a grant from this initiative for the development of Shine Everywhere, Shine’s at-home faith formation project which seeks to build connections between church and home and between families. Click on the button below to listen!

Visit ShineEverywhere.com!

Posted on: July 25th, 2024 by Joan

Hello, Shine friends! We are excited to invite you to visit our brand new, beautiful website, ShineEverywhere.com! We love the delightful illustrations by Elisa Chavarri and are eager to share them with you.

See what we are doing and share that with others

Click to see for yourself what Shine Everywhere is doing! You can also use the website to share about Shine Everywhere with other faith formation leaders and parents.

Start on the home page where we say, “Shine Everywhere is a community of churches and families who discover and practice the everywhere habits that grow faith in children.” Then, download “An Introduction to Shine Everywhere” on the About page. This is a PDF of a slide show summarizing what Shine Everywhere is about, resources you can use, and how to join.

Find ways to join

Under the Join tab, you’ll find ways to participate in Shine Everywhere. Sign up to receive news and updates or to join our Shine Everywhere Facebook group. Consider doing a “Leaders Listening” Project with the parents of your congregation. I will help you clarify what you want to learn from them, how to go about it, and ways to use what you learn. This is a great way to benefit from Shine Everywhere and contribute to our learning at the same time!

Learn at-home practices and resources

Browse the Six Practices that Grow Faith at Home and the “Follow the Peace Path” card deck in the Practices tab. We have a handy resource for you in the downloadable “Six Practices” Bookmark! You’ll find our “Shine at Home” weekly faith practices, which are also featured on the Home page.

Coming this fall

Watch for an opportunity to partner with Shine Everywhere and be invited to collaborations, test new resources, and receive the help and guidance of Shine staff. Details will be added to the website next month. In the meantime, visit our “shiny new” website and get to know Shine Everywhere!

“Follow the Peace Path” Cards to the rescue!

Posted on: June 18th, 2024 by Joan

Wondering how to keep the kids occupied on that long car ride to the beach? Need something new for family game night? Are you looking for something to give to families before they head off on summer vacations? Look no further—Shine has you covered!

We are excited to share more about the new “Follow the Peace Path” Cards that are a part of our Shine Everywhere initiative. This deck of 52 “Peace with Creation” cards is packed with ideas for families to do at home together. Whether your church has summer Sunday school or not, these cards are a great way to stay connected with families and provide parents and caregivers with an easy and fun faith formation resource to use at home.

Not only is this product a part of our Shine Everywhere initiative, but it is also a companion piece to our new storybook Bible, The Peace Table. We wanted to create a resource to encourage children to follow the peace paths woven throughout the storybook Bible: Peace with God, Peace Inside, Peace with Others, and Peace with Creation. This card deck follows the Peace with Creation peace path. An information card provides simple instructions on how to use the cards. The cards for each path—Nature Trail, Let it Grow, and Water Wonders—are marked with the path name and a colorful border.

A fun feature of this resource is the Let’s Pray and Let’s Play cards. There are three Let’s Pray cards with interactive and fun prayer activities and three Let’s Play cards with instructions for three simple card games that parents and children can play together. Besides these six cards, there are three cards for each of the 15 Bible stories. Each of these cards has matching art on the back.

Families can read the Bible story from The Peace Table or a translation of their choice. Each card includes both the Bible reference and the page numbers in The Peace Table. Families will also find a variety of activities on each card. Activity categories include Care, Move, Create, Enjoy, Learn, Play, and Pray.

Our hope is that you will find ways to connect with your children this summer around these Bible stories. We envision these cards being used around the table at meals, in the car traveling to or from activities, or as an easy-to-pack resource for vacations or long trips in the car. Parents are encouraged to facilitate or do the activities with their children, but the activity cards are written with simple language for young readers.

One of our friends, Jennie Wintermote, created a video sharing her ideas for using the cards. We would love to hear about your family’s experiences using the card deck. Email us at contact@shinecurriculum.com or share a post on the Shine Facebook or Instagram pages.

Illustration by Ingrid Hess

What’s New for Summer and Beyond!

Posted on: March 20th, 2024 by Joan

Path to Peace Curriculum

It has been our goal to build a suite of products around The Peace Table: A Storybook Bible. Shine’s new Path to Peace Curriculum is one of three such products that will debut this summer and fall. This new curriculum allows teachers and children to follow the peace paths in the storybook Bible and includes faith formation materials for the PreK–Kindergarten and Elementary age levels.

The 2024 unit is built around the “Peace with Creation” Peace Path from The Peace Table and includes three five-session modules: Nature Trail, Let It Grow, and Water Wonders. Each session includes songs, prayer, instructions for telling the Bible story, wondering questions, three activities, and media connections. Path to Peace leader guides will be available in both print and digital formats. Both include access to music and other digital resources. Each age-level leader guide includes black and white printable student pages, two per session (one for younger children and one for older children). The cost of each age-level unit is $59.99 USD.

A new unit will be published each summer (2025–27), focusing on the remaining peace paths. While these flexible units are great for summer use, they are undated and can be used at any time of year.

“Follow the Peace Path” Cards

Churches can extend learning with this deck of 52 “Follow the Peace Path” (with Creation) Cards packed with ideas for families to do at home together. Whether a church has summer Sunday school or not, these cards are a great way to stay connected with families and provide parents and caregivers with an easy and fun faith formation resource. This product will be the first at-home resource that we will test with families as part of the Shine Everywhere initiative. The cost for the card deck is $10.99 USD.

View sample sessions of the Path to Peace curriculum and the “Follow the Peace Path” Cards at https://shinecurriculum.com/samples.

“Prayer and Peace” Poster Pack

We have received many requests from teachers and church leaders for posters of the “Extras” in the back of The Peace Table to display in classrooms and meeting spaces. At least one poster pack will be available for purchase, beginning the fall of 2024. This “Prayer and Peace” Poster Pack will include the “Types of Prayer,” “Ways to Pray,” “Peace with God,” “Peace Inside,” “Peace with Others,” and “Peace with Creation” spreads from the book. A second poster pack will include a Books of the Bible poster, timelines, and maps. Look for more information on these poster packs when you place your order for fall quarter materials.

Shine Everywhere Intro Webinar

Posted on: March 5th, 2024 by Joan

You are invited to a webinar about Shine Everywhere! Please join us on Thursday, March 14 at 4 p.m. Eastern Time.

If you are a pastor, Sunday School teacher, or faith formation leader who would like to understand better how to help parents nurture faith at home, Shine Everywhere is for you! And, if you are a parent or caregiver who cares about growing in faith with your children, Shine Everywhere is for you!

On March 14, we’ll talk about what Shine Everywhere is, how it got started and what we are planning to do with it. We’ll also share six practices that grow faith at home so you know where to invest your energy either as a congregation or as a household. And, we’ll tell you how you can participate in our first Shine Everywhere test product: activity cards based on Bible stories in The Peace Table.

Introducing Shine Everywhere!

Posted on: February 14th, 2024 by Joan

We did it! We have named our new initiative “Shine Everywhere.” We love the fact that it builds on “Shine” and extends the light metaphor of living in God’s light!

Shine Curriculum started in children’s Sunday School, has moved into the home through ShineFamilies.org, and now through Shine Everywhere is moving out into the everyday and “everywhere” places in which we live, work, and learn—everywhere we practice our faith.

We want Shine Everywhere to become a community of churches and families who discover and practice the everywhere habits that grow faith in children. Faith grows through our relationship with God, the church, and each other, so Shine Everywhere will primarily be a community of believers whose focus is learning to know Jesus and become more like him.

What are you learning about Jesus? What helps your kids learn to know Jesus? We want Shine Everywhere to be a place you can share these things and know you will be heard.

Join us! Sign up below to express your interest, get on our mailing list, and keep in touch with what we are learning about the everywhere habits that grow faith in Jesus! Next week, we’ll launch new ways to be in touch, so please stay tuned!

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You’re invited!

Posted on: January 18th, 2024 by Joan

Hello everyone, I’m Shana Peachey Boshart, the project facilitator for Shine’s new grant-funded initiative, Everywhere Faith. I’m thrilled to join the Shine team because I’ve known Shine and admired its creative team ever since it started. In those days, I was the conference minister for Christian formation for the Central Plains Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA. I was a Shine trainer, showing teachers the features of the new curriculum and how to use it.

During the pandemic, I was impressed with how quickly and competently the Shine team adapted the curriculum to the new realities with Shine at Home Curriculum. By that time, I was denominational minister for faith formation for Mennonite Church USA and in 2021 co-hosted a webinar with Shine editors introducing the new features of Shine.

We’ve been calling this new initiative “Everywhere Faith,” but we are strongly considering “Shine Everywhere” instead. Stay tuned to see what we decide! Our goal for the initiative is to build a community of families and churches who discover and practice the everywhere habits that grow faith.

I’ve been on the job now for two weeks, and have been spending my time getting acquainted with the initiative, learning to articulate what it’s about, and starting to dream about exactly what it will look like. Right now, I can tell you that over the next five years, some of the ways you could participate are surveys, focus groups, and cohorts of Shine users who share with us the joys and challenges of equipping parents and caregivers to share their faith with their children and youth.

This summer, we will be asking for your feedback on our first at-home resource for families, “Follow the Peace Path” cards. This card deck invites families to follow the peace paths in The Peace Table: A Storybook Bible. Even sooner, in February and March, we plan to host some interest sessions on Zoom where you can share what appeals to you about participating with us in this exciting initiative and you can hear more details about what we’re going to do.

The whole Shine team is excited about having new opportunities to hear from congregations and families who use Shine and to incorporate what we learn from you into new Shine materials and products. We invite you to be part of this Everywhere Faith (or Shine Everywhere) community! Let us know you’re interested below. We look forward to growing in faith together!

Shine Everywhere sign-up

Name(Required)
First Last
Email(Required)
Congregation's Name(Required)
Congregation's Affiliation / Denomination(Required)
Are you . . . ? (check all that apply)(Required)
- Parent / Caregiver
- Pastor
- Faith formation leader
- Faith formation volunteer
- Church staff
- Other role
If you chose "Other Role," name or describe that role here:
I want to be part of Shine Everywhere because . . .
Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Welcome Shana Peachey Boshart!

Posted on: December 13th, 2023 by Joan

Harrisonburg, VA — Shana Peachey Boshart has been hired as the new Project Facilitator for Shine Curriculum. This grant-funded, full-time position was created to facilitate the development of the Everywhere Faith project, a new faith practice resource. She will begin her work with Shine on January 2, 2024.

Peachey Boshart will work closely with churches and households to assess ministry needs and challenges in Christian education. Cohort churches and families will join focus group meetings, and the feedback will be processed between the Everywhere Faith network and Shine content developers. Focusing on recruiting and supporting contract facilitators to reach diverse families and parents, Peachey Boshart will work with current Shine staff and contractors to develop faith practice resources.

Peachey Boshart served for 20 years as conference minister for Christian formation in Central Plains Mennonite Conference, and for four years as denominational minister for faith formation for Mennonite Church USA. She earned a graduate certificate in theological studies from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, has formal training in spiritual direction, and is a qualified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory. She is a credentialed leadership coach and owner of Wisdom Calls Coaching. Peachey Boshart has a long history of networking and resourcing faith formation leaders. She is married to David Boshart, the president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, and together they have three sons and four granddaughters. They attend Prairie Street Mennonite Church, where Peachey Boshart is chair of the executive committee.

Shine, a curriculum partnership between MennoMedia and Brethren Press, was awarded a grant of $1,250,000 in August 2023 from Lilly Endowment Inc. MennoMedia is the publishing arm of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada; Brethren Press is the publisher for the Church of the Brethren.

From the Archives

Posted on: November 1st, 2023 by Joan

Spiritual practices help children and youth pay attention to God’s activity in their lives and show them ways that they can shine their light to others. For this blog post, we’ve taken a stroll through our curriculum archives to bring you some of the best of Shine’s spiritual practice activities!

Junior Youth

Junior youth most often have faith experiences that are influenced by the expectations and judgments of others (both peers and significant adults). They tend to believe what the church—and their friends—believe. Junior youth need to ask important faith questions to help move them toward making a thoughtful and personal commitment to follow Christ. To do that, junior youth need to feel that they belong and are loved and accepted in the church. Spiritual practices help them understand God’s intentions for the world, process questions, and develop a personal relationship with God.

Here are some ways of praying that invite junior youth to notice and reflect on God’s activity in the world and in their lives.

Lay out a baking sheet covered in sand or dry dirt and invite youth to sit around it and feel the sand, tracing their fingers through it. Encourage them to feel its dryness, its lifelessness. Ask: Where are you feeling dry or lifeless today? Where do you need God to renew you? How is God with us in our most forsaken or dry-feeling times? Invite silent reflection on these questions and the thoughts about God that come to mind as you play a reflective song, such as “Quiet Place,” (track 8) from Songs for the Seasons.
Distribute Bibles and gather everyone in a circle. Discuss different forms of prayer—sometimes we pray aloud using our own words; sometimes we pray silently. Other times we can use the words of scripture as a prayer. Invite youth to open their Bibles to the book of Psalms. There are many types of psalms—psalms of joy, gratitude, wisdom, law, prayer, praise for God, repentance, as well as psalms expressing strong emotions. Give youth several minutes to skim through the psalms, looking for one that catches their eye. Provide time for youth to read silently through one psalm in its entirety. Invite everyone to share one or two verses that they found most interesting. Conclude with a prayer of thanks for the ways God speaks to us through the Bible.

Spiritual practices for junior youth tend to be reflective. Here is a practice that encourages youth to share prayer concerns with each other and engage in corporate prayer for a situation of their choosing.

Give each person a LEGO® brick or other interlocking block as you move into a time of prayer. Invite the youth to sit quietly for a few moments to become aware of God’s presence with them. Have them offer thanks to God as they feel each bump on their block. Next, have them pair up with another person and share one prayer request they have. They can pray for each other as they put their blocks together. Then have pairs join with another pair and talk about a situation in their school, church, or community to pray for, putting their blocks together as they pray. Finally, gather the whole group and decide on a situation in the broader world for which the group would like to pray. Invite the youth to put all the blocks together into one structure as they offer brief prayers for the identified situation.

Elementary

Because younger elementary children are concrete thinkers, spiritual practices that connect to their everyday, sensory experiences are most effective. Older elementary children respond to God in deeply personal ways. They can express their feelings through art, prayer, silence, and faith conversations. In a safe and respectful environment, they are able to share their spiritual experiences with others. These spiritual practices provide tangible ways to connect with God.

Distribute drawing paper and writing or drawing utensils. Invite everyone to write or draw about a “mountain” (positive experience) and a “valley” (difficult experience), or both from their week. Children may want to draw a large M on their paper to make two mountains and a valley. After a few minutes of drawing and reflection, offer a prayer to God for both the positive and difficult experiences from the week.

Teach children a simple breathing prayer that can be used at bedtime or anytime they feel anxious. Show children how to slowly breathe in and out.

As you breathe in, say, “O God” quietly inside your head. As you breathe out, say, “hear my prayer.” You have to say the words inside your head in order to match with breathing in and breathing out. You can pray this prayer at bedtime in the dark and at any other time. There are many other short prayers about things we desire from God. Here are some ideas for you to use throughout the next weeks.

Have children breathe in and out as you practice praying these phrases:

O God . . . give me courage.

O God . . . make me strong.

O God . . . help my family.

O God . . . heal my friend.

O God . . . send your love.

End with “O God / hear our prayers.”

PreK-Kindergarten

Young children experience God through the people who care for them. Caring relationships are built as you engage in activities and practices together. During the summer quarter of 2019, preschool children were encouraged to use their whole body to pray.

Demonstrate first, then say the prayer and do the actions together.

God, we can love you when we reach up high. (Reach arms overhead.)

We can love you when we reach down low. (Reach arms down to knees.)

We can love you when we curl up small. (Make yourself small.)

We can love you one and all. (Cross arms then reach to hold each other’s hands.)

While holding scarves or ribbons, pray with actions. Demonstrate this movement prayer, then try it with the children once or twice. Pray:

God, you are with us. (Hold the scarf in two hands.)

You are with us when we are upset. (Wave the scarf in a jagged path.)

You are with us when we are calm. (Make gentle waves.)

You are with us all the time. (Wave in a circle shape.)

Amen. (Bunch the scarf up in your hands.)

Tell children that we can praise God in many ways and with our whole bodies. Pray:

God, we praise you with our feet. (Stomp your feet.)

We praise you with our hands. (Raise your hands.)

Thank you for your love. Amen. (Hug yourself.)

Looking Ahead

Yikes! It’s November 1! Preparing for Advent is our theme for the month of November. We’d love to hear how you help children and youth prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth. What tips do you have for learning during this season of waiting and anticipation? Send your tips and ideas for Advent to blog@shinecurriculum.com by November 15 for inclusion in a future blog post. Feel free to include a picture!

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