Welcome to Ed1 online!

I hope that this class will be both a fruitful learning experience for you, and also a refreshing change from other courses you have encountered.

Education One is an odd bird in our curriculum at Luther. As a half course at the beginning of your degree work it is designed to introduce you to the specific content of educational leadership. At the same time, it is also designed to provide a context in which you can explore and reflect upon your own learning processes so as to better engage the rest of your time at Luther.

Six weeks is an incredibly short time in which to accomplish all of this. I hope that this class will whet your appetite for further exploration of the riches of the discipline of religious education, at the same time as it provides room for honing understanding of your own faith and learning.

It always helps me to know where a teacher is coming from, so let me share a bit about what I believe educational leadership is.

I start from the conviction that Christian leaders and communities are called and shaped by a living God who initiates relationships with people of all ages in a world of many cultures. Christian education is not about “giving” faith to people, but rather about helping people to explore their relationship with this God.

Towards that end I believe that educational leaders support communities in:

• tending to the narratives of God’s relationality and action

• learning the stories of God’s people over time

• nurturing the faith of persons and communities across ages and contexts

• discerning God’s call to personal and communal vocation and mission.

In the time we spend together in this class, we’ll work together at becoming more effective educational leaders.