Formação continuada de educadores cristãos : vivendo a fé cristã no culto infantil

Abstract

An analysis of the formation of Christian educators, acting as orientators of the Children's Worship Service with the children in the congregations of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil - IECLB. The first chapter approaches the concept of education and Christian education, and the cognitive, affective and atitudinal dimensions of the Christian faith, pointing to the task of Christian education to contribute in the process of human development in the experience of the faith, leading the people of faith (cognitive action), through confidence (affective action), by attitude (atitudinal action). The second chapter presents the specific contexts of Christian education for children, through history, from the Kinderpredigten at Martin Luther´s time, passing through the German Sonntagsschule, through the English and North American Sunday School, through the Kindergottesdienst that came to Brazil with the German Lutheran immigrants, at the beginning of century XIX, until the Children's Worship Service of the current days, with the intention of suppling growth in the faith, as response to the redeeming action of God in Baptism. This growth happens through the preaching of the gospel: announcement of the word and action of God for the person, through grace and mercy; through intimacy relations: spirituality cultivated and expressed in cultic form; and through the experience of the faith: in the personal and communitarian scope, testifying to the faith in concrete actions. It is a challenge today to fortify the Children's Worship Service for the rediscovery of its function and intention; for the qualification of those who works in it; for the deepening and contextualizing of the faith contents; for the appropriation of creative and emancipating methodologies; for the creation of alternative forms to reach the children who do not participate; for the wakening of the parents commitment; for the position of the church in reassuming its priorities. Also the participants of Christian education are identified in the IECLB: the children, described sociologically, culturally and psycopedagogically, through the centuries; the parents and godparents, who assume the commitment to educate the children in the Christian faith in the act of Baptism; e the ecclesiastical community, that commit itself to assist parents and godparents, helping the new generations, especially for the evangelical Lutheran education and teaching of the baptized, stimulating and promoting the participation of all in the communitarian life and action, and fulfilling with this commitment through the work of the people who orientate the Children's Worship Service. The last chapter appraises theologically and pedagogically the contining education in the faith, listing educational processes such as: focal groups, micro-teaching, group dynamics and group learning, workshops, discipleship, narrative recording of the life experiences; developing creative, constructive and critical actions and reactions, of empowerment, resilience, of transformation of reality, respecting the identities and promoting humanizing education. It also registers the educational programs that are part of the IECLB history, noting especialy the Permanent Catechumenate, the Shared Ministry and the Continuous Christian Education, which is being structured.