My favorite Sunday school teacher was Bunny Matson. That was her real name. Bunny. She was born on Easter. Bunny welcomed us into our classroom at Clovis United Methodist Church. I was in 1st-3rd grade, if my memory is correct. She always smiled. She was sitting in a low chair with all of us. She greeted us by name and then I remember “doing art.” My favorite was something called “think and do.” There were egg cartons on the tables and thick white paper with bottles of glue. We would listen to a story from the Bible and then music would play. We would “think” and “do art.” No other instructions. Whatever we did was beautiful and celebrated. We were invited to choose to take our art home or leave it in our classroom. Over the year, our art wall grew. At the end of the year we agreed – we would divide up our art and take it all home – some we had created and some from others. I believe the formation I received was that the Bible and Art and Music were meant to be together. My experience told me that I could learn about the Bible through listening and creating.
At The Table, if our children simply learned to know and say the right things about the Bible and following Jesus and knowing God, without an inner formation and transformation as they grew to know and love God more deeply, I would consider our work a failure. My fear is that we might raise a new generation of “right believers” in this way, but that is not our goal. My goal is to raise children who have learned scripture and stories through creative play and who have been supported to make their own journey of discovery. From this each child is able to form their own theological meaning. When they move into adulthood and join a Kitchen Table I hope they will be able to share their faith.
It has been a long time since I sat with Bunny Matson in our classroom. But she and others have formed me in ways in which I am forever grateful and able to be a witness to my faith in God.
How has your faith been formed and how might you share your witness this week?