Preaching podcast

Preaching Magazine's Michael Duduit interviewed me about my book, Helping Our Children Grow in Faith, and now the podcast has been posted. You can listen to it here.

Symposium thoughts

After three long days of Worship Symposium I'm back home and ready to dive into the new semester. But first things first – for the next month you can hear Debbie Chavez interview me on KMGI radio from Bellingham, Washington. If you go here and scroll down to January 23 you can hear me in segments 2-5.

That was Wednesday night, the night before Symposium, so it was great for me to be able to do that (it was actually still afternoon on the west coast) and then move on to thinking more about symposium. I presented my session twice to a nice sized group (about 150-170 total over the two days I think) and also go to play bass with the Alternative Worship group as they lead a group in worship on Friday evening. It was a good experience for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that my daughter Bethany and my good friend Ron were both leaders for this service and so I got to see a bit more of the behind the scenes stuff that went on. I also got to know Doug Gay, from Scotland, a bit and hung out with Luke Hyder from Milwaukee and local musician/friend Greg Scheer . We lead with three of Doug's songs written specifically for this occasion. It was cool.

The worship services were stellar, as usual, with the service lead by Calvin's LoFT team perhaps being my favorite. Trig Johnson preached and did a wonderful job and my daughter Meredith played viola along with the team (which she does often) but also got to accompany Michael Card. She got to know Card and Calvin Seerveld a bit by assisting them in their workshop on lament. It was really good.

I also got to hear Scott Hozee, Jane Vann, Dallas Willard and Richard Ostling (who was interviewed very nicely by my friend Nathan Bierma.) Where else can one have breakfast with Calvin Seerveld, lunch with hymn writers Rae Whitney and Ed Doemland, and share a walk with Lester Ruth? Or run into Jorge Lockward and Jimmie Abbington and have a brief chat on your way to get coffee.

They also handed out my new books (see them here and here) to the people who came. You can see the picture of the books all stacked up and ready to be handed out. One exciting moment came as Laura and I sat down to lunch with three delightful people who we had not met before. I looked over to see a woman sitting alone at a table reading my book. Pretty cool.

I'm already excited about next year.

Getting Ready for Worship Symposium 2008

This week is the 2008 Calvin Symposium on Worship. I've attended a number of these symposia, something like 10 of them, and I look forward to it every year. Some of the most well respected people in the field of worship leadership from a broad range of denominations and from around the world will be at Calvin College this weekend.

I'll be presenting twice about "Creating a Child Friendly Culture in your Church" and my daughter Bethany will also be presenting about emergent worship or something like that. It will be good to see her again - she's flying in from Georgia to speak. Laura and my daughter Meredith will also be there - Meredith will be playing in the worship band twice and helping Calvin Seerveld and Michael Card out by singing in their session. So it looks like my family will be well represented there as will two new books with my stuff in it: my new book, Helping Our Children Grow in Faith as well as Howard VanderWell's The Church of All Ages, in which I have a chapter on "Intergenerational Faith Development" and Laura and I have an additional chapter on "Intergenerational Connectors in Worship." Bethany has a short piece in it too!

Since Laura and I have attended so many of these we will see people we know and get a chance to visit with old friends. We're really looking forward to it. Then, almost immediately after that, the new semester starts! The night before symposium begins (Jan 23) I'll be interviewed on KGMI radio in Bellingham, Washington at 3:15 PST. Those of you in the pacific northwest (like Kent!) might want to listen in. it will be my first radio interview about my book but probably not the last, I'm already trying to find a date that works with a station in Philadelphia.

My book arrives!

My book arrived! You can get your own copy here.

More people saying nice things about my book

These are probably the final two endorsements for my book, Helping Our Children Grow in Faith. It has been wonderful to read what others who I respect as professionals in the field have written about it. The book goes to the printer soon and I'll probably have a copy in my hands some time in December.

“Though this book includes lots of specific ‘we could do that’ ideas, it is mainly a sweeping vision book. I’d buy it for a parent or committee member who is new to children’s ministry or for one who has ‘done it all’ and needs to remember what it’s all about.”

—Carolyn Brown, children's ministry consultant and author

“Robert Keeley masterfully describes some of the best current ideas for nurturing children’s spiritual development—intentional intergenerationality, the significance of story, the role of wonder—and illustrates them with colorful family stories and incisive vignettes from a variety of church settings. Along the way, Keeley integrates biblical insights as well as key principles from Piaget, Kohlberg, and Fowler in engaging, understandable language. The book closes with a delightful bonus---an appendix of picture books Keeley recommends for fostering spirituality in children.”

--Holly Allen, Associate Professor of Christian Ministries and Director of Children and Family Ministries, John Brown University

Two more endorsements

In addition to the ones I posted earlier, this week I received two more endorsements for my forthcoming book, Helping Our Children Grow in Faith.

“Helping Our Children Grow in Faith offers a thoughtful, accessible, and practical introduction to the basic building blocks of effective ministries with children. Robert J. Keeley takes seriously children and their spiritual development, challenging congregations to move beyond simplistic approaches that don’t fully engage children. In the process, he invites leaders to transform congregations to become communities where children are included, loved, valued, and nurtured by a whole community of caring Christians.”

Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, Co-Director
Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence
Search Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Biblical,” “practical,” and “scholarly” are one way to describe Bob Keeley’s book. “Warm, “gentle,” and “encouraging” are another set of descriptors. Helping Our Children Grow in Faith weaves personal experience with scholarly research and biblical perspectives in offering pastors, parents, and church educators practical wisdom while gently challenging them to consider new ways to offer children a rich, vibrant faith. This would be an excellent study book for parents or a church’s Christian education committee.

George Brown, Jr.
G.W. and Eddie Haworth Professor of Christian Education & Associate Dean,
Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI

Endorsements for my forthcoming book

Here are what some folks have written about Helping Our Children Grow in Faith (which will be available in January from Baker Books):

"I loved this book! Robert Keeley points us in the right direction for building a ministry strategy with children. It is a delight to find someone with a clear vision of how the entire life of the church needs to be developed if we want our children to have a healthy, growing faith in Jesus Christ. This is a 'must read' for every children's pastor and lay leader who cares about the spiritual nurture of children."

Kevin E. Lawson,
Director of Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs in Educational Studies
Talbot School of Theology
Editor, Christian Education Journal.

“Robert Keeley provides local church leaders with an accessible resource to guide reflection on their ministry with children. Two very important themes weave through the book, the role of the biblical story and the role of the faith community in the "three dimensional" faith formation of children.; the forming of "a faith that affects their head, their heart, and their spirit." Dr. Keeley challenges readers to see Bible stories as more than "moral tales' and discusses how to allow children to discover in those stories who God is and the relationship they can have with our great and loving God. Drawing on his rich experience as a Children's Ministry Director, Dr. Keeley offers practical suggestions for welcoming children into the faith community as authentic participants. He envisions church as a "child friendly culture," an environment healthy for the spiritual growth of children. And he points the way to forming such a community.”

Dr. Catherine Stonehouse
Asbury Theological Seminary
Dean of the School of Practical Theology
Orlean Bullard Beeson Professor of Christian Discipleship
Author of Joining Children on their Spiritual Journey

“Christians love their children deeply and are concerned for their growth, especially their growth in faith. For that reason Robert Keeley gifts us with a delightful, helpful, and accessible book for parents and children's ministry leaders. "Helping Our Children Grow in Faith" is an excellent resource for shoring up children's growth in faith. It also is an entry point for exploring the burgeoning field of resources becoming available that address the faith and spiritual life of children.

Writing from a reformed tradition, he rightly posits the faith of a child as coming from God, and it is the Holy Spirit that begins that work. But the community of faith and the parents are to help build the child's faith. Here is where this book shines.

Structured around six key principles, this book is loaded with stories and examples of how to implement them. For example, because Keeley feels that a church that mentors children may have a greater impact than a church with dynamic programs, he describes how mentoring might take place. His chapter on story is insightful. He also has the courage to go against the popular trend of separating children from adults for worship. He says that children need both--a time to worship with adults and time for worship intended for their own age.”

Scottie May
Dept. of Christian Formation and Ministry
Wheaton College
Co-author of Children Matter: Celebrating their Place in the Church, Family and Community

"Helping our children grow in faith is an engaging look at the opportunities and challenges of nurturing children's faith. Prof. Keeley's clear explanation of faith nurture, and thoughtful examination of the role of parents and congregations in the process is a refreshing invitation for the church to re-prioritize its children's ministry."

Darwin Glassford
Assoc. Professor of Church Education
Director of M.A. Programs
Calvin Theological Seminary

"Keeley has done us all a great service and made very insightful material available. I've always wanted our children to grow in faith and I've worked hard at it. But now I understand better how it happens, what it takes, and how one stage is different from another. Growing their faith won't happen without growing a church in which they can grow. This book will take you inside the church by taking you inside the process of forming a child's faith!"

Howard Vanderwell
Resource Development Specialist
Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Co-author of Designing Worship Together

"Bob Keeley combines biblical grounding, educational research, and much experience to create this down-to-earth guide. Readers will find here not only practical advice but also a wise proposal about changing our congregational cultures in ways that benefit young and old. Above all, readers will be inspired by the deep love and respect for children shining through this book."

Debra Rienstra
Associate Professor of English
Calvin College
Author of So Much More: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality

Two conferences in three weeks

It's been a little while since I've written anything about my actual life here so I thought I'd reflect for a minute about the two conferences that I attended and spoke for over the last three weeks. In late July I attended the Christian Schools International annual leadership conference. I did a day-long pre-convention workshop about helping children grow in faith. There were a couple of cool things about this convention. First of all Laura got to come along to Boyne Highlands, a beautiful spot near the northern tip of lower Michigan. While we were there we went a little further north the Big Mac Bridge. Here I am in this picture recreating the cover for my less-than-incredibly-successful Math Textbook, Precalculus: A Study of Functions and their Applications. The actual book cover doesn't have me on it but except for that it's the same. See?

The conference itself was fun too. I got to spend a day with some school administrators and church workers and talk with them about some of the new ideas that I've been working on this summer as a follow up to my forthcoming book about nurturing faith.

Then this weekend Laura and I both spoke at the conference put on by Faith Alive Resources, who publishes our Christmas plays, curricula and other things for churches. We always enjoy hanging out with the staff and editors and we had fun meeting the people who came to the conference. It was held in Grand Rapids and, while it wasn't a particularly exotic locale, at least not for those who work there, we stayed in a nice hotel with a waterslide, which was too much fun.

We spoke three times at the conference. I did the overview of the six principles which I discuss in Helping our Children Grow in Faith and Laura and I two sessions together: one on summer programs and another on using drama. For the drama session we brought five kids from our church with us to demonstrate three short dramas that we had written. They did a great job and we had fun but now we're pretty tired. It's time for a few days of kicking back and then time to gear up for a new semester!.

My book is on Amazon!

My forthcoming book, Helping our Children Grow in Faith, is now available for pre-order on Amazon - check it out!

Galleys

Yesterday a brightly dressed man got off a DHL Express truck and delivered a package to my house that contained the galleys for my new book, Helping Our Children Grow in Faith. Galleys are the edited copy of the book for me to look at and decide if I agree with what my editor did to the manuscript. It also gives me a chance to fix mistakes and to make any changes I'd like to make. In some ways this is pretty easy – it's mostly reading and making red marks on the page when I'd like to change something. It's a lot like grading papers except I don't have to decide how good or how bad it is – I just have to decide if I like it. I also only have to read one of these instead of sixty, like I did at the end of the semester. Not only that but I like the writing in this case. Editing the galleys usually involves writing "yes" next to the place where Kristen (the editor) wrote "Is that sentence OK?" This indicates a spot where she edited and thinks she may have changed what I meant to say. So far (one chapter in) she's been right on target. There are also lots of places where she made minor changes that she didn't bother to ask about because that's what editors do.

I also get to find all the citations that I made that were incomplete – like places where I say "in this book, Berryman says…" and Kristen says "what page?" So I have to go find the page in the book with that particular line in it! Google Books is like the best thing EVER. It's a lot easier to type the quote into the "search in this book" place once you've found the book there than it is to re-read the whole book. After an hour with Google I only had two books that I had to actually page through to find the page I referred to. One of these books I had at home and found already.

So I'm taking a short break from working on my next book (which I'm just starting) to fix Helping Our Children Grow in Faith and get it back to the publisher so that they can go on to the next stage – page proofs. I've been warned that making changes at that time is expensive which I think is not-subtle code for "don't do it, buddy!" It's always exciting to get to the next stage in the publishing process. I was also told that I can expect to see artwork for the cover some time soon. Woo-hoo!

Book title finalized

The book that I've worked on for the past few years now has a title and is scheduled to be released in December 2007 or January 2008. The title (slightly different from what I thought it was going to be) is Helping our Children Grow in Faith: Nurturing the Spiritual Development of Kids and it will be published by Baker Books. I understand that I'm going to be seeing cover art soon!