A House of Bricks

A good sermon often begins with a story, so I thought hey, maybe I'll try that! But the twist is that I'm telling you a story that you probably already know, so I invite you to help me out. Just to warn you, for simplicity's sake, I'm telling a fairly morbid version of the story. Are you ready?

One day, Mommy Pig decided that it was time for her three little pigs to go out into the world to build their homes and seek their fortunes. As they left, she said, "Just remember, whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. So, work hard and do a good job in all that you undertake."

Well, the first thing that each pig had to do was to build herself a house.

Little Pig Number One was really eager to play Guitar Hero on her new Playstation, so she hurriedly built her house out of (hold up bundle of straw and invite audience response) STRAW.

Little Pig Number Two really didn't want to miss the season finale of American Idol, so she almost as quickly built her house out of (hold up sticks and invite response) STICKS.

Little Pig Number Three recalled her mother's words of advice about the value of hard work. So, long after her sisters were engaging in their favorite leisure pursuits, Little Pig Number Three was finally finshing up her house of (hold up brick and invite response) BRICKS.

Well, the very next day, a Big Bad Wolf came along to Little Pig Number One's house and said (everyone): "LITTLE PIG, LITTLE PIG, LET ME COME IN!"

And the little pig answered (everyone): NOT BY THE HAIR OF MY CHINNY-CHIN-CHIN!

And what did the wolf say? (everyone): THEN I'LL HUFF AND I'LL PUFF AND I'LL BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!

So he HUFFED and he PUFFED and the house of straw came right down and the wolf ate up Little Pig Number One.

So here comes the wolf to Little Pig Number Two's house. And the wolf says:

"LITTLE PIG, LITTLE PIG, LET ME COME IN!"

And the little pig answered (everyone): NOT BY THE HAIR OF MY CHINNY-CHIN-CHIN!

And what did the wolf say? (everyone): THEN I'LL HUFF AND I'LL PUFF AND I'LL BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!

So he HUFFED and he PUFFED - and he HUFFED and he PUFFED....and he blew down the house of sticks and ate up Little Pig Number Two.

And finally the wolf comes to Little Pig Number Three's house. And he says , "LITTLE PIG, LITTLE PIG, LET ME COME IN!"

And the little pig answered (everyone): NOT BY THE HAIR OF MY CHINNY-CHIN-CHIN!

And what did the wolf say? (everyone): THEN I'LL HUFF AND I'LL PUFF AND I'LL BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!

So he HUFFS and he PUFFS ... and he HUFFS and he PUFFS ... and he can't budge that brick house. Clever wolf that he is, he decides to climb down the little pig's chimney. But he is outsmarted by our friend Little Pig Number Three, who has set a big pot of water to boil in the fireplace. So in this classic and dreadfully simplistic fairy tale ending, the evil wolf boils to his death and Good Little Pig Number Three lives happily every after. Ah, what a nice story.

And the message? Well, of course for me, the big takeaway here is "Listen to your mother!" But I'll let that one rest for now. The message that I want to explore today is this:

Hard work saves us. I've been thinking about what this message means for our religious education program, for our families, for our congregation, and for our faith.

On the program level, you should know that the Religious Education Committee and I are embarking on the hard work of piloting a different model of religious education here at First Unitarian. It's called the Workshop Rotation model. This approach is story-centered and, for illustration purposes only, I'll explain Workshop Rotation based on the story of The Three Little Pigs.

Let's assume that I have four classes, one for each grade from first to 4th grade. The kids in these classes will start out hearing the story of The Three Little Pigs every week for four weeks.

After listening to the story, each class will attend one of four story-based workshops which have been designed to appeal to a range of learning styles and to tap into various dimensions of the story.

For instance:

Imagine a science workshop, where kids would build structures from a variety of materials, and then test them to see how much force each withstands.

Picture a drama workshop, where kids could create a newscast about the story, featuring coverage of events, interviews with each of the characters, and social commentary.

In a games workshop, kids could play a game in which they can earn quick points and enjoy immediate gratification, but eventually discover that a more thoughtful, more painstaking strategy is rewarded.

And how about a social justice workshop? Members of our Honduras Task Force can enlighten our kids about homes in San Jose Marcos. What materials are homes made of there? If you saw a home built of straw or sticks, would you assume that its occupants were lazy? What perils do those villagers' homes need to withstand? What might the children in Honduras think about the story of the 3 Little Pigs?

Each of our four grade-based classes would spend one Sunday in each workshop, rotating through all four over the course of 4 weeks - hence the term "Workshop Rotation" model.

One of the most exciting things about this model is that it creates short-term opportunities for church members to get involved in our program in ways that capitalize on their own areas of interest and comfort. Workshop leaders prepare one lesson that gets used for four weeks.

Meanwhile, we still have plenty of room for adults who prefer to form sustained connections with a group of kids: these adults sign up to be "travelers." Travelers are assigned to a particular class of kids and rotate with that class to their workshop each week. Travelers have no planning responsibilities: their role is to build relationships and provide continuity.

Another beautiful thing about Workshop Rotation is that we can adapt classrooms to specific teaching modes in order to create distinctive, attractive, child-centered learning environments. Workshop Rotation churches often have designated rooms for a Drama Workshop, an Art Workshop, and so on.

Take a minute to look up at all of these beautiful shining stars above our heads! Some of you took on a spiritual assignment here in worship or at home earlier this month: on one of these stars, you wrote down a gift, or maybe two or three gifts, that you share with the world. Maybe your star illuminates a talent in which you shine, or radiates with a skill that you've honed in your line of work Maybe your star dazzles us with something that you have a passion for, or glows with one of your personality traits. Whether or not you took on this assignment - whether or not one of these stars is "your" star, spend a moment now considering a gift that you share - or can share - with others.....

And now I invite you - I challenge you - to think about how you might be able to contribute that gift to the children of First Unitarian in the context of Workshop Rotation. If you need a little help, think about our story this morning and the kinds of workshops that might be developed around it. If The Three Little Pigs isn't working for you, what about a Creation story, or the story of John Murray, founder of Universalism in America?

Can you envision yourself as a workshop leader? If you play an instrument or dance or cook, if you are a house painter or a lawyer, if you speak a language other than English, if you collect rocks, or you love math, test your imagination...what might your workshop look like?

If you see your primary gifts as relational - if you enjoy really getting to know kids, if you are a helper-type, consider being a traveler.

If you are full of creative ideas, you might be perfect for our Concept Development Team, which will consider stories and come up with workshop themes. If you love to design and build, help us transform our classrooms into dynamic workshop spaces.

I want to get many congregants in on the act in many ways. When you give of yourself for the benefit of our children's faith development, your personal strengths and talents become truly spiritual gifts. As this morning's passage from First Corinthians tells us, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." Each of us has been blessed with something special to offer.

We started with the message that hard work saves us. What is it saving us from?

Bill Doherty is a leading family therapist and active Unitarian Universalist in the Twin Cities area. Doherty names three interrelated cultural forces that jeopardize our endeavors in the realm of child and family faith development.

The first force is our culture of consumerism - more is better, and what's in it for me.

The second force is our culture of time famine, the busy-ness that Judith Frediani spoke about in our second reading. To her list of busy-ness causers, I would add job-hunting, second and third jobs, and sandwich generation responsibilities for parents - advanced placement courses and part-time jobs for youth. And, by the way, don't get me started about mandatory sports practices and games on Sunday mornings - that's for another sermon!

The third force is our culture of disengagement, rather than citizenship. I view this third theme as an outgrowth of the first two. Citizenship has to do with the responsibilities that come with being a member of a community. Because of the pervasive consumerist mentality, people naturally tend to focus more on what they get out of their institutional connections than what they put into them. And because of the busy-ness factor, people's time and energy are at a premium. That means whatever happens here at church on Sunday mornings better be darn worth your while!

Now at this point you must be wondering how the Workshop Rotation model can save our families from damaging societal influences. It isn't so much the model itself, but where this format allows us to go....

You see, we plan to link our religious education stories to our adult worship themes. This is something that parents have asked for: kids' content that meshes with worship topics. Scott, Kaaren, and Jen are excited about seeing the monthly worship themes, which are already infused into small group assignments and discussions, extended into the religious education arena. Not only will this give us a cross-generational approach to spiritual development, but it will enable parents to have conversations with their kids about topics that they are all exploring. We'll create regular family spiritual assignments that correspond to our small group work. We can launch Parent Soul Matters groups, where parents can reflect on these family assignments together.

The family is the child's primary spiritual center. Family life includes time for ritual and reflection - or not. Families share a sense of religious identity - or not. Families, explicitly and implicitly, teach values and priorities. How can we possibly expect an isolated, one-hour-a-week children's program to strengthen families' commitment to Unitarian Universalism and to their spiritual health? Of course our religious education program must target parents along with the children, and it must be integrated into family life.

Parents need to covenant with us. Enrolling your children in our program shouldn't just mean that they learn something while you attend worship. It should mean that you are committing your family to a journey of religious formation, to growing together in your faith, to learning together about our rich religious heritage, to making meaning together through shared experience and reflection, to cultivating your own and your children's spiritual lives.

I've been on staff here for nearly eight years. During most of that time, I've been of the mind that I need to make life easy on parents. And I know that for many of our parents, the concept of a family covenant or spiritual assignment will feel rather onerous.

But I've become convinced that we need to set the bar high - for our program, and for our families. It goes back once again to our story this morning. My goal is to help every First Unitarian family build for themselves a house of bricks, a faith-filled house that provides strength and protection from the relentless huffing and puffing of an all-too-toxic culture.

Yup, this is going to take some hard work. Hard work on the part of your church staff and key volunteers who re-envision and revitalize our children's program. Hard work on the part of our families, who will be asked to enter into a family faith formation covenant with us. Hard work on the part of this entire church community, as the success of this shift in format and philosophy hinges on broad congregational awareness, support, and participation.

Hard work saves us. Hard work on our religious education program can save our families by offering them refuge from life's perils and challenges, and by providing tools that help them transform their lives and the world around us.

Hard work on behalf of our kids saves our religion itself. In this world of intense competition for their time and attention, we need our kids to really "get" Unitarian Universalism! When they treasure its rich heritage, when their religion isn't just something they show up for on Sunday mornings, but rather is an essential part of their identities, they become powerful ambassadors for our faith and all that it stands for, promising the unique and enduring presence of Unitarian Universalism to a world that so needs it.

As we turn the page and start the next chapter of the religious education ministry at First Unitarian, let's heed the advice of Mommy Pig: work hard and do a good job. May the gifts with which you have been empowered find new expression for the benefit of our kids. May this house of concrete inspire and make possible for each First Unitarian family a house of bricks.

Jan Gartner, Director of Religious Education
December 28, 2008