Innovative Ways to Encourage Learning

A Celebration of Learning

The members of your congregation each bring unique gifts and skills… and some are true experts in interesting areas—from gardening, to computers, to carpentry and more. This five-week program highlights and celebrates the sometimes-overlooked knowledge that God has given within the church.

One of the great gifts of God is the ability for people to learn and grow — regardless of age. Our congregations are full of people eagerly learning in many different areas. “A Celebration of Learning” gives your church an opportunity to bless learning wherever it occurs.

Good learners can also make for good teachers. By giving people in your church an opportunity to share their learning and skills with others, these persons are affirmed and blessed.

“A Celebration of Learning” provides a structure for setting up a series of elective workshops across four weeks, with the fifth week providing a service of blessing and fellowship.

Organizing Workshops
Depending upon the expected attendance, invite leaders to host a variety of workshops each week for weeks 1-4. One approach is to offer one workshop each week in each of these areas: cooking, arts, technology and “homework.” The same person could lead in each area across the weeks, or a different leader could lead each week.

The suggested categories are merely broad suggestions—feel free to use none or all of them, or add others. However your workshops are arranged, we suggest keeping them to one hour in length, and tightly focused on one skill. Learners should be able to leave a workshop with a sense that they could actually try their new skill or knowledge on their own.

Check out these sample workshop titles in each category:

Cooking
(dealing with knowledge of foods and food preparation)
• Shopping 101: How to select the best produce (and/or meats).
• The Secret to Great Sauces
• Baking the Perfect Cake
• Barbeque Basics

Arts
(painting, music, sculpture, dance, etc.)
• Learning to Appreciate Art
• Working with Pottery
• Learning to Knit
• A Beginner’s Guide to Painting Landscapes
• You Can Sing Stronger (simple voice training tips)
• Discovering Jazz

Technology
(how to use computers for common tasks)
• Managing Photos with Your Computer
• Internet 101: email and web browsing
• Make a Home Movie
• How to Use Ebay

"Homework"
(home maintenance, gardening, auto maintenance, interior design, etc.)
• Wallpaper Made Easy
• Learn to Paint Like a Pro
• Interior Design: Choosing and Using Rugs (or accessories, furniture, colors, etc.)
• Success with Interior Plants
• Common Landscaping Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them
•Grow a Beautiful Lawn

Enlisiting Leaders
Your choice of leaders will obviously affect the selection of workshops to offer. Take full advantage of the persons in your congregation with skills in the above categories, and allow them to shape the workshop to fit their area of expertise. If your church is missing leaders in key areas where you wish to provide a workshop, feel free to invite an expert from your community.

Be sure to contact leaders several weeks in advance, and make sure they understand the time restraints. They should either cover a batch of simple tips, or take one or two skills and teach them in-depth. After all, these workshops will hopefully only be beginning points for learning for many persons.

Promoting the Emphasis
• Promote the event through your normal channels in the church: announcements, newsletter articles, website, emails, etc.

• This series can serve as an easy way to attract visitors to your church. Promote the series through community mail-outs, your local paper, TV and radio stations

• Your “Celebration of Learning” can be promoted with special announcements from your team of leaders. “I’ll help you learn how to…” brief announcements can get attention and build energy for the event.

• Place posters around the church proclaiming, “You Know More than You Think”, or “Learning is a Gift from God: unwrap your gift at our celebration of learning…”

The Closing Service and Fellowship
After four weeks of workshops, schedule the fifth Sunday (or Wednesday, Saturday, etc) as a celebration event. Create a simple service of blessing for the knowledge God gives, and conclude with a meal or snack. Provide an open invitation for anyone in the church to bring and display an item (painting, recording, plant, quilt, cake, etc.) that highlights an area of learning they have enjoyed. Hold the snacks and fellowship in the same room that contains these displays.