“The Encounter curriculum invites students to find
themselves in the story of scripture and follow Jesus,” said Elaine Moyer,
senior director at Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) and co-chair of the Encounter Steering Committee. “It’s
about ongoing ways of encountering God in Scripture through an alternative
approach to Christian education that is uniquely Anabaptist. “
Encounter seeks to
emphasize holistic faith formation and create opportunities for students to
encounter God, each other and creation. Using
a narrative, Biblical approach, Encounter
highlights stories of God at work through people and emphasizes how the
biblical story often comes through those at the margins of society. The
curriculum encourages students to respond with wonder and questions in the
early years, experiential learning in the middle years, and a study of world
religion and its role in society during the high school years.
It also includes Circle of Grace, a Christian curriculum for
teaching students appropriate physical, emotional, spiritual and sexual
boundaries.
“I am excited to see a curriculum that helps educators
journey with children into the Bible and the work of Jesus, placing teachers as
guides in the faith formation process,” said Lindsay Carson, principal and
teacher at Lancaster Mennonite School. “As teachers, this curriculum helps us
to value students as fellow children of God who encounter the Spirit in
meaningful ways.”
A faculty of fifteen writers from across MSC schools created
the curriculum that they describe as “rooted in the Anabaptist/Christian stream
of theology while also being warmly ecumenical.” A Steering Committee guided
the process, co-chaired by Moyer and J. Richard Thomas. The curriculum was
piloted and revised during the 2016-2017 school year.
“The curriculum is built around best practices in pedagogy
with students owning their learning, wondering about God’s love and
strategizing how to apply that to their lives as we live in community with
others,” said Sharon Fransen, assistant superintendent at Dock Mennonite
Academy.
“Students have the chance to share their own stories with
each other and learn to see God at work in their own lives,” said Todd Bowman, middle
school Bible teacher at Lancaster Mennonite School. “Mapping out the
denominational family tree, for instance, evokes a wonderful and surprising
amount of curiosity and joy in students as they share about their own church
experiences and learn about others.”
Encounter is also
a great resource for churches, says Moyer. Lessons throughout the curriculum include
a reminder for teachers that Encounter
“is a living curriculum where the goal isn’t that our students memorize a
story, but that they see God’s purpose and respond to it.”
An Encounter
sampler that includes one lesson from each grade is
available on the MEA website. The curriculum can
be purchased in full or by individual grades through Amazon.