The Fatherless Generation

We all know that broken families permeate our society. Today's kids are known as the “fatherless generation.” In your clubs you undoubtedly have lots of children from divorced families, many of whom seldom see their fathers.

The National Center for Fathering (www.fathers.com) has done a number of research studies in this area. They recently released some sobering figures on the problem of absent fathers in today's culture:

1. An estimated 24.7 million children (36.3%) live absent from their biological father.

2. There are almost 17 million children (25%) living with their single mothers.

3. 1.25 million or 32% of all births in 1995 were out-of-wedlock.

4. Today nearly 4 out of 10 first marriages end in divorce, 60% of divorcing couples have children, and over one million children each year experience the divorce of their parents.

5. One out of every six children is a stepchild.

6. There are nearly 1.9 million single fathers with children under 18.

7. 4 out of every 10 cohabitating couples have children present, and of children born to cohabitating couples, only 4 out of 10 will see their parents marry. Those who do cohabitate experience a 50% higher divorce rate.

8. 26% of absent fathers live in a different state than their children.

9. About 40% of the children who live in fatherless households haven't seen their fathers in at least a year while 50% of children who don't live with their fathers have never stepped foot in their father's home.

10. Children who live absent from their biological fathers, on average, are more likely to be poor, experience educational, health, emotional and psychological problems, be victims of child abuse, and engage in criminal behavior than their peers who live with their married, biological mother and father.

What can we do about this plague on our nation? As instructors, we need to educate our teachers concerning this issue. Share the statistics with them in your training programs. Use illustrations about the negative effects of fatherlessness on this generation.

We can also remind teachers to pray for children who are growing up without a father present in their homes. We can encourage positive male role models for these children by challenging more men to get involved teaching Good News Clubs!

We need to teach children what God intended for the family, and especially for the role of the father in the family (Scripture has lots of examples of how NOT to father!).

Most of all, we need to teach children about God the Father, who loves with a perfect, pure love, who disciplines His children for their profit and who has a listening ear and wise guidance for every situtaion.

The statistics paint a bleak picture for this generation. This is all the more reason to challege our teachers to reach the chiildren with the Gospel. Remember, no child is truly fatherless who knows God as his heavenly Father!

Self-Evaluation!

How do you know if your teaching is effective? If you are a new instructor of teachers, you may feel unsure about how well you are communicating the TCE curriculum. If you’ve been teaching TCE courses for a while, there is the risk that your teaching is becoming stale. In either case, it’s important to take time to evaluate how you are doing as an instructor.

Dr. Howard Hendricks, Christian educator from Dallas Seminary, is a strong believer in the process of self-evaluation. He explained its importance in an article for Christianity Today as follows:

“Teaching without evaluation can erode my effectiveness in many ways. Poor methods become ingrained habits. I can assume I'm doing better than I really am and become complacent. I can conclude something works when it actually doesn't. I can lose touch with my audience, teaching in a vacuum. Also, time exaggerates my idiosyncrasies rather than lessening them. And without anything to keep me on my toes, I can get sloppy.”

If Howard Hendricks, with all his many years of teaching experience and credentials, sees such value in evaluation, how much more do we need to consider its importance in our training ministries?

Of course the truest way to test our teaching is by our students. What results are you seeing in their lives and ministries? Are they motivated to teach a Good News Club? Are they applying the TCE principles when they teach children? As instructors, we are not entirely responsible for the actions of our students. There is a point where it is up to them to apply what they have learned. Our job is to make sure we are doing all we can to give proper motivation and equip them to do the task effectively.

Sometimes we don’t see results right away. Dr. Hendricks reminds us that instructors must be patient people! Remember it’s not so much a question of “where are they?” now that I’ve taught them, but rather “are they moving in the right direction?”

Another way to gauge the effectiveness of your teaching is to observe the immediate response of students in the classroom. Do they ask questions? Do you hear them in further discussion about your topic after the class is over? Effective teaching often raises more questions than it answers. It causes students to consider things they never thought about before. If all your students head for the door after class without further comment, you might need to examine what was accomplished in your class session.

One way to raise the effectiveness of your teaching is through your illustrations. Do you illustrate your points with good stories or testimonies? Hendricks says, “Narratives improve communication.” Make sure you are choosing good illustrations from your own and other teachers’ experiences with children in GNC settings. And be sure to update your illustrations from time to time--that will keep your teaching fresh!

To self-evaluate, try using these three questions:

1. What did I do well? Don’t just highlight your failures. Affirm and reinforce the good!

2. What did I do poorly? Did you sense a place where you didn’t connect or communicate clearly? Think about why and what you can do about it the next time.

3. What should I change? Do you need more or better illustrations or newer ones? Do you need more class involvement or more variety in your methods? Make the necessary changes in your lesson plan NOW while it’s fresh in your mind.

Evaluating our teaching takes time and discipline, but it’s necessary if we are going to have effective ministry. Just remember this thought as you evaluate yourself: You’re never quite as bad as you think; nor are you quite as good. But, with evaluation, you can always be improving!

What are your thoughts on self-evalution? Click the Comment link below this post and share your thoughts with us!

Wonder Time

Were you carefully discipled when you came to know Christ as your Savior? So many Christians were not. Many testify that they came to know Christ, but then floundered in their faith for several years until someone began to teach them how to grow in significant ways. For some, it was many years before anyone told them how to have an effective quiet time with God. Consequently, many Christen adults do not make daily time with God a priority in their lives.

We trust, as you are teaching TCE classes, you are helping your students know how to use the devotional books in club and how to have an effective Wonder Time. Brief information on Wonder Time has been included in the TCE manual in the class on the GNC Program, but you may want to give more detailed helps.

The CEF download site has a full seminar on Wonder Time, including student and instructor notes and PowerPoint visuals. We encourage you to get these materials and make that training available to your students. The clubs that are having the most success with children consistently doing their devotional books are ones who make time in club for an effective Wonder Time every week.

We frequently receive testimonies of how children’s lives are being changed by their daily quiet time with God. The picture above was sent in by a proud mom who sent the following testimony:

"I went in to check on the kids before I went to bed. Jordan, age seven, was reading her Bible and doing her daily devotion. I told her to finish it up and go to sleep. She said OK … check out what I captured with my camera. Have you ever seen such a sight? My sweet Jordie got caught with her Bible open! She got her 60-Day Wonder Devotional Book Friday at the Good News Club after school program and she has been doing it everyday. She even worked ahead and is on day 8 now."

Just last week we received another testimony from a GNC teacher of how God used a particular devotional in one clubber’s life:

Logan, age seven, gave his life to the Lord last month on Jan 15th, his dad’s birthday. Logan's Dad said, "Those little devotional books that Logan receives are great, and it was at the end of his current Wonder Time that he responded to the devotional titled, How Can I Be Ready for Jesus' Return?" Logan’s parents had the joy of leading him to the Lord! Logan had been coming back (for counseling) during the invitation at club, and was very close to a decision the last time he responded, asking more intense questions. What a birthday present for his Dad. How awesome, not only is he his daddy's son, on his spiritual birthday he became his daddy's little brother too!'

You just never know how God is going to speak to a child during his quiet time. Share testimonies like these with your teachers to inspire them to emphasize the devotional books in their clubs.

Wonder Time is being done in many GNCs around the world! Pictured here are children in clubs in Poland and South Africa with their devotional books.

Challenge your teachers to make sure they are having their own daily quiet time with God. They may even want to use the same Wonder Devotional Books their clubbers are using. If daily time with God is not important to them, they won’t make it important to the children!

Remind your teachers that, through Wonder Time, they have the opportunity to help children develop a lifelong habit that could have far-reaching implications.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

This month marks the first anniversary of the Instructors’ Café! Back in 2006, we in the education department were talking about how we could communicate more regularly with our instructors in the field. Sending out mailings has become expensive and time-consuming. One member of our department had started her own blog and that started us thinking about the possibility of having an instructors’ blog.

It took time to decide on a name and a look for the blog. Our creation and design team included Pat Johann, Cheryl Oetting, Carol Nolen and Lynda Pongracz. We settled on the name Instructors’ Café because it sounded like a cozy, friendly place to spend some time—and that’s what we want the Café to be!

Next came the difficult task of designing the header—Carol’s tech skills were greatly appreciated at this point! Then we had to decide on the content and layout. Since most of us had never worked in “blogdom” before, this was quite a challenge! Some of us have become quite handy with “html” code! Finally on January 22, 2007, everything was in place and the blog was officially launched!

The first month, we had around 153 visits to our site. The numbers have slowly grown over this first year. Now we average around 200 visits a month. We have tried to get the word out about the blog every chance we get. We are so grateful to those of you who stop in to visit regularly.

Our biggest challenge now is to get our instructors in the habit of checking the blog each week. Many people confuse a blog with a Web site. The blog is much more dynamic and is constantly being updated. We encourage our instructors to bookmark the site and get into the habit of checking in at least once a week. If you know other instructors in your area, please encourage them to visit the blog regularly.

Besides increasing traffic at the blog, our other goal for this year is to get our visitors to interact much more frequently. We encourage you to leave comments on various posts, and respond to others' comments. Think of the blog as an online conversation!

We have noticed that some are utilizing the “shoutbox” feature, leaving scrolling messages and responding to others. That’s great! The more we can open dialogue between instructors the better. We are a family and we need each other! Maybe your comment will be just the encouragement someone else needs to hear. At other times, sharing your burden or question will allow others to minister to you.

If you have ideas or suggestions for the blog, please let us know. We try to offer a variety of information, education and encouragement in our posts. If there is something you’d like us to talk about, please drop us a note. We’ll do our best to implement your ideas. Please send your blog ideas to Lynda.Pongracz@cefonline.com.

Maintaining the blog takes time and work, but it's also been fun! We look forward to the year ahead and all the opportunities we will have to visit with you at the Café. Together, let’s make the Instructors’ Café THE place to be for all our IOTs!

PS: Be sure to vote in our blog poll in the sidebar!

Schedules 'R Us!

One of the most time consuming parts of setting up a TCE course is developing the schedule. As you know, many times you have to modify schedules to fit various situations—it’s definitely not a “one-schedule-fits-all” world!

Of course when you modify a schedule, you have to be careful that you're keeping the order of classes correct so one session builds upon another as originally intended. You also have to allow students adequate time to prepare for assignments and practicums.

Once you have the basic schedule worked out, you have to print it in some readable form, with instructor names, and send it in to Lynne Herlein, our intrepid TCE Program Director, who checks it over thoroughly to be sure it is complete and correct. If there’s a problem, she will contact you to fix it.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone could come up with a whole bunch of different schedules and set them up so you could just type in the instructors’ names and print them out! Well, your wish is our command! Lynne has kindly taken the time to work out a whole bunch of different schedules for TCE Level 1 and set them up in block form so all you have to do is enter the instructors’ names in each block.

No more wondering how to fit everything into a shorter schedule! No more checking and re-checking to see if you left any classes out of the schedule! No more wondering if you have the classes in the right order! No more waiting for that dreaded call from Lynne saying you have to fix the schedule!

So, what kind of schedules are we talking about? Glad you asked! Here's a list of the formats that are available:

• 3 weekends
• 4 weekends
• 6 days
• 7 days (three versions)
• 8 days
• 2 1/2 weeks
• 4 weeks
• 4 weeks (3 nights each week)
• 5 weeks (two versions)
• 9 weeks
• 10 weeks
• 12 weeks

How do you get your hands on one of these wonderful fool-proof TCE Level 1 schedules? It’s easy! E-mail Cheryl Oetting (Cheryl.Oetting@cefonline.com) or call her (636-456-4321 ext. 291) and ask her to send it to you! At this time only Level 1 schedules are available.

When you’re preparing to set up a TCE Level 1 course, just select the schedule that fits your time frame (you can modify individual starting and ending times if necessary), add the instructor names and send it to Lynne for approval. We’ve taken the guesswork out of it for you!

So, stop sweating over those TCE schedules. Contact Cheryl and let her know what you need. That’s one major detail of teaching TCE you can check off your list! Say thank you!

You’re welcome!

Are You PowerPoint Savvy?

Many of us use PowerPoint regularly in our TCE courses, as well as in other training venues. In TCE, you most likely use the PowerPoint slides provided by our office. But there may be times you add your own slides or times you are making up a promotional or other presentation from scratch. As PowerPoint has become more widely used in business, research has been done to determine what techniques enhance presentations and what might detract from them.

Steve Williams, a discipleship specialist with LifeWay Christian Resources, has studied the use and trends of PowerPoint teaching and he offers some sound advice for presenters. Steve says, “People comprehend three times as much when they see an image." In other words, they not only remember it—they understand it! Isn’t that what our goal is in our training ministries?

To assist presenters, Steve has identified what he calls, “Seven Deadly Sins of PowerPoint.” He says these are mistakes that will “most assuredly kill your presentation faster than anything.” Here is an adaptation of Steve’s list (used by permission):

Deadly sin # 1 - Too little contrast - the result of using text and backgrounds of similar colors. Make sure there is enough contrast between them so text can be easily read. Note: color contrasts that look good on your monitor may not look as good projected on a screen. Try out your presentations with a projector to see how they look.

Deadly sin # 2 - Too many colors - for text and objects can result in a rainbow effect. Two text colors per slide are usually enough to look good and be readable. Three different text colors are enough for an entire presentation.

Deadly sin # 3 - Too much text - makes a slide look cluttered and hard to read. Use the five and 10 rule. Limit each slide to about five lines of text that can be read in about 10 seconds. Six lines are OK, seven if you have to ... but when you get beyond that you have too much text.

Deadly sin # 4 - Text that is too small - makes people have to strain to read it. This will distract them and cause them to miss hearing the point. Another good reason to test your slides projected on a large screen. If in doubt, make text larger.

Deadly sin # 5 - Too many bullets - makes a presentation predictable and boring. Bullets are great if used sparingly and wisely. Try using "unbullets" like pictures or placing text inside various shaped objects like ovals, rectangles or circles.

Deadly sin # 6 - Too many transition effects - can disorient the viewer. PowerPoint 2000 gives you 60 or 70 effects, but they shouldn't all be used in one presentation! Use a maximum of two to three different effects throughout your whole presentation.

Deadly sin # 7 - Using boring slides - can put the audience to sleep. Effective use of colors and graphic objects can add appeal to presentations and make people want to watch them.

Williams says, “By eliminating the seven deadly sins from your presentations, you will encourage your audience to focus on your message and learn more, and they won't think you started using PowerPoint yesterday."

Here at CMI, we appreciate so much the work that Pat Johann puts into our PowerPoint visuals for TCE and other training programs. She is frequently updating our visuals to make them as effective as possible.

We recommend that you implement these suggestions to update your own PowerPoint visuals or in creating your own presentations. Let’s strive for excellence, not only in our teaching, but also in our visuals!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Your CMI team is back in action. Did you miss us? We are looking forward to another year of serving you and our students here in Warrenton.

Can you believe it is 2008? A new year stretching ahead is exciting. It’s like a book full of blank pages just waiting to be filled in. Writer Edith Lovejoy Pierce said, “We will open the book: Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”

So, what will you write in your book this year? As Christians we don’t put much importance on making resolutions. But we all have hopes and dreams—prayer goals—for the days ahead. Our books will fill with our experiences, our successes and failures and the lessons we learn. Each of us will look back on our book at the end of the year and see how God directed our days and ordered our steps.

Our prayer for you in this New Year is that you will experience God’s tangible presence, sense His unmistakable direction, rejoice in His unfailing love and grow in His amazing grace.

What are your prayer goals for the year ahead? Click the comment link below this post and share with us what you want to see God do in your life and/or ministry in 2008.