EMPATHY, INCLUSION, AND WONDER

We hone in on three values throughout our church, including our Sunday School classes: cultivating empathy, inclusion, and wonder. We focus teachers, curriculum, lessons, and classroom experiences to encourage children to develop these three central values of our approach to faith.

EMPATHY: Tuning in to Others with a Sympathetic Heart

Something strange is happening in our culture—there’s more talk than ever about empathy, but people are showing it less, according to landmark research at the University of Michigan Institute of Social Research. (Theories abound about contributing factors to this decline in empathy—more screen time and less face-to-face interactions.) Empathy is a key to quality social interactions and is a central concern of the Jesus path (applying the Golden Rule of Jesus—do unto others as you would have them do unto you—requires empathy skills.) So in Sunday School we pay special attention to encouraging empathy and teaching empathy skills—like considering the perspectives and feelings of others, using our imagination to place ourselves in the position of another person. Pausing to ask, how would this person in this situation (in real life or in a story) likely feel? Have you ever felt like that?

INCLUSION: Making Space for Others

Our church began as a response to the plight of LGBTQ people subjected to exclusion, shaming, and stigmatization in the evangelical church context. Our LGBTQ members have felt this acutely, but many of our straight members have experienced loss of connection, relationships, or social criticism for standing with their LGBTQ loved ones. So inclusion is not an abstract concern or catch-phrase for us. This experience has become a tutorial in the need to practice inclusion in many different kinds of diversity—for example, race gender, ethnicity, differing abilities, and neurodiversity. We look for ways to help all of our students in Sunday School, make space for people who routinely experience othering in the form of discrimination, prejudice, and scrutiny. We may not be fully “woke,” but we are waking up and are eager to work for a more just world.

WONDER: Fostering a Sense of Curiosity, Delight, and Gratitude

We see wonder as the heart of spirituality—a sense of awe at the gifts of life all around us. We promote the practice of curiosity, delight, and gratitude— which, in turn nurture our capacity for wonder. We frequently take time to express gratitude for big and small things as a spiritual practice.We  encourage the natural curiosity of children. A common question asked in response to a story from Scripture is, “I wonder how [a particular character] felt when this happened?” We honor curiosity rather than fishing for “the right answers” and, more often than not, are delighted by the insights that arise with this approach.