christian website teacher

As we continue our focus on school websites during Back to School Month, today I have the privilege of introducing you to Debbie Steves, who is the newest member of the OurChurch.Com team.  Debbie joined our team 3 week ago after teaching second grade and computer class for 6 years.  During her tenure as a teacher, Debbie designed and updated a website for her class.  I thought you might appreciate some insight from her first-hand web experience, so I interviewed her about that.

Debbie shared how she started the website, the response of the parents, as well as some of the obstacles that prevented more parents from using the website.  A paraphrase of that conversation follows:

Paul Steinbrueck (PS): Hi Debbie.  How are you doing today.

Debbie Steves (DS):  Good, thanks.

PS: Remind me again, how long did you teach?

DS: 6 years

PS: Was the website you created for the school or for just your class?

DS: For my second grade class.

PS: Were you asked to do it or did you do that on your own initiative?

DS: On my own.

PS: What motivated you to do it?

DS: I liked the whole idea of having parents be able to look up what their kids forgot.  Even though they had their planners to write in, students often didn’t write down homework assignments, and didn’t get the homework done.  With the website parents who weren’t sure if their kids had homework could check the website to see.

PS: How did you get started?

DS: I taught myself HTML coding.

PS: What was on the website initially?

DS: A weekly calendar saying what homework would be due.  There was also a link to comprehension questions the kids had every week.  And I think I might have had their spelling list as well.

PS: What was the initial response?  Did it catch on right away or did it take a while?

DS: The parents who used it really liked it.  Especially for projects, which were assigned a month in advanced and often got lost.  Putting it on the website really helped them.

I had about 20 kids in my class and some of them didn’t have internet, but I would say at first about 1/6  looked at it online.  The other thing is in second grade it’s not too hard to remember what the homework is, so parents only used it when they needed it.  I didn’t create an incentive to go there.

PS: Over time you obviously added to the site and developed it further.  What kinds of other things did you add to it?

A definition list, some sight word lists, so parents could practice with their child at home, history and science study guides.  Science was usually at the end of the day, and parents would often schedule doctor or dentist appointments at the end of the end of the day, so it was the most missed class…  We might spend a week on China and a child would be gone the day I handed out the study sheet, but then the parent could get that online so the child would be ready for the test.

I also put on the site a link to the phonics curriculum, which would help them decode the rules.  I also added a link to dictionary.com so they could look up words even if they didn’t have a dictionary at home.  I also put links to some good educational sites.

PS: Over time did the number of parents using the website increase?

DS: Yes, by a few parents each year.

I also put birthdays, orientation, pictures, and other events on the website.  And my wish list.  All teachers have a wish list at the school.  Parents would often ask me what I need, and I put that on the website so they could look it up.

PS: By your last year how many parents were using the site?

DS: About ¼ to ½ of them.  A lot of parents didn’t have Internet or were families where both parents worked and didn’t have a lot of time to go online.  The number of parents calling or emailing about homework assignments went way down and the number of students missing homework assignments.

I think another reason why a lot of parents might not have used it is because the site didn’t have its own domain name and the URL was really long.  Some parents said they lost the URL or couldn’t remember it.

PS: When you were doing this did the school itself or any other teachers have a website?

DS: The school did, but no other teachers.

PS: Was that because the other teachers didn’t see the value in it or because they didn’t think they could do it.

DS: Because they couldn’t do it.  They didn’t know HTML.

PS: Do you think other teachers would have created a web page for their class if they knew about an easy web builder like NE1?

DS: It would have helped.  Now teachers are supposed to send information to the school’s web administrator who would put that on the school site.

PS: Does that work well or are their delays and other issues because of that process?

DS: A lot of teachers don’t send info because they have a lot of other things to do.  The school gives teachers a huge list of things to do and it’s hard to get all of those things done not including proving information for the website.

PS: Sounds like the principle did not make having class updates to the website a high priority compared with other things they were expected to do.

Any other advice for teachers?

DS: When I first started out it was very time consuming.  But I liked the fact that I could personalize the pages and make it fun by putting apples or pumpkins all over the page.  I don’t like to not know what I’m doing up ahead, and this was a way for me to make sure the parents weren’t in the dark either.  There’s not always time to contact parents individually and the website was a way I could at least make sure parents had information about homework and other things we were doing…  It was fun for me because of the creativity I could put into it.  And after a while it was not time consuming at all.

Mariners Church of Irvine uses its canine ministry in social situations to break the ice and bring some people to God.

The dogs were decked out in sweaters and birthday hats. They had cold snouts, soft coats and the dispositions of Job. For more than an hour on a recent Saturday, they sat beneficently as dozens of children petted them.

They are members of the canine ministry at Irvine’s Mariners Church, which organizers say may be one of a kind.

Its mission: to put people at ease and begin a process that could lead them to God.

“They are able to break down walls that we often can’t,” said Sheree King, a Mariners outreach director.

“The dogs facilitate relationships. They start a conversation” ultimately enabling church members to make their pitch.

The program began eight years ago when Paul Bogenrief, now 60, visited the church Sunday school with Sadie III, his golden retriever. Some of the small children found the dog’s presence comforting, so he started taking her there every week.

The dog ministry expanded to other places. Today, program coordinator Janene Bankson says, it consists of eight dogs, most owned by church members.

Much of the dogs’ work involves going to monthly birthday parties for poor residents at the Costa Mesa Motor Inn.

They also help with foster kids, preside over learning programs in which children are more comfortable reading to the dogs than to adults and act as canine comfort counselors at church mountain camps.

“They show unconditional love and don’t expect anything back,” said Bankson, whose 2-year-old black Labrador retriever Reyna is a ministry dog. “They are always happy and don’t see any difference between us. They bring people in.”

That certainly seemed to be happening at the motel party where, despite multicolored balloons, face-painting, cupcakes and pizza, the dogs were the centers of attention.

Attended largely by the poor families comprising the bulk of the inn’s clientele, the parties mark the birthdays of residents who can’t celebrate on their own.

But they have another purpose as well, King said; they pave the way for a walk toward the Lord. “We try to meet the families where they are,” she said.

For Jessica Eden, a 16-year-old who has lived at the motel for two years, that meant recalling a time when she had pets of her own.

“I love them,” she said of the Mariner dogs. “The little kids need to show affection, they need to pet these dogs.”

Amanda Santiago, whose 8-year-old daughter, Michelle, couldn’t leave the dogs alone, said she too appreciated the distraction.

“A lot of us are here because of hardship and can’t afford to do lots of things.”

The visit of the dog ministers, she said, “is a good thing for the kids. It gives them a bit of normalcy that we can’t provide.”

Program organizers say it’s all a soft sell.

Though they don’t discuss Jesus unless they are asked, church members know that the dogs often make people more comfortable.

“The kids will cuddle them when they’re nervous,” King said, “and when they’re scared or sad, the dogs comfort them. Residents ask us what we’re doing, and sometimes they tell their stories.”

In the ensuing talks, she said, members of the nondenominational Christian church share their faith.

Before participating in the ministry, according to Bankson, the animals are tested for temperament, obedience and health. They also are trained to stay calm.

But are the dogs Christian?

“I don’t know,” Bankson said, “but they sure show an awful lot of love. They have some of the Christian characteristics I’d like to have.”

Bogenrief agrees. “They don’t drink, smoke, dance or dress inappropriately,” he pointed out.

“The only thing they do, if given the chance, is have sex out of wedlock.” Roy Gerber, 42, says he relishes the outings with Ziba, his 4-year-old female retriever.

“Serving with my dog is awesome,” he said.

“I love serving and I love being with my dog; this way I can enjoy the two.”

He has no doubts regarding Ziba’s religion.

“If you spell dog backward,” he said, “you get God.”

REV Peter Macdonald, the minister of St George’s West Church, has only once
used his power of veto. He didn’t turn down Julian Clary, whose show Natural
Born Mincer was staged in his church. He didn’t even quail at Hank Wangfold’s
adults-only cabaret show 100% Sex Therapy, though he did draw the line, not
unreasonably, at a show purported to combine burlesque with masked Mexican wrestling.
“I was told that there would be no full-frontal nudity or midget throwing,”
he says. “That was by way of reassurance!”

This year, he faced a different kind of dilemma. Bigger Than Jesus, a questioning,
satirical look at the Son of God by Rick Miller, the man who brought us MacHomer,
was the first show proposed for St George’s West which dealt directly with Christianity.
It describes Jesus as “son of Joseph, lover of Mary Magdalene”, compared
the four Gospel writers to the Beatles, and features a last supper with Homer
Simpson, the Tin Man and Darth Vader.

Macdonald, however, watched the show on DVD and loved it. “Rather than
a problem, I really wanted it to be here. It’s a really good show, and there
is a reverence in it for ritual and the language of the liturgy. I think Christians
in the audience will respond positively to that. It’s also very funny.”

In conversation with Macdonald and Miller it becomes clear that this remarkable
acceptance of a show which questions Christian orthodoxy is part of a much bigger
debate. We are used to seeing Christians as an outraged minority seeking to
censor that which disagrees with them - the outcry against Jerry Springer: The
Opera is just one example. But where it is possible for the arts and theology
to engage, the results can be very fruitful.

Though Miller says that he “does not believe in a literal God or a literal
Son of God”, he is a long way away from God-denying atheists such as Richard
Dawkins. Bigger Than Jesus is a project close to his heart, and is as serious
as it is satirical. Raised a strict Catholic, he was playing the Son of God
in Jesus Christ Superstar when he became fascinated by the impact Jesus has
had down the ages, and shocked by what was being perpetrated in his name in
the modern world.

“Jesus is so present in everyone’s life. Whether you like it or not, you
have to have some reaction to the fact there are crosses around people’s necks,
and that the President of the United States has said candidly that he has a
special link to Jesus. All these things make you think that you cannot deny
the place of Christianity in the world, and you might as well explore it in
a serious way to try to come to terms with it.”

Audiences, it seems, agree. The show has attracted widespread popular and critical
acclaim in Canada and the United States, and is attracting good audiences in
Edinburgh. Whereas two decades ago, shows about religion on the Fringe were
considered barely relevant, world events have changed all that.

“We have the continuing troubles in the Middle-East, the Palestine-Israel
issue, Iraq, al-Qaeda,” says Macdonald. “Religion isn’t the cause
of those things, but it’s part of that complex web of issues, and people are
aware that you can’t understand these situations if you don’t understand the
religious dimension. There are generations now which have almost completely
lost touch with institutional or formal religion, and they’re being confronted
again by the whole faith issue. In [David Greig's play] Damascus at the Traverse,
this Scotsman finds himself in Damascus, where he’s asked what faith he is:
‘Are you Christian, Muslim or Buddhist?’ That’s what a lot of people are finding:
others are able to articulate and show how important their faith is to them
and they are left wondering what their beliefs actually are.”

Bigger Than Jesus is the product of a lengthy research and study by Miller
and his Jewish director and co-writer Daniel Brooks. Although you may not realise
it, by the time you reach the final segment of the play in which Miller plays
Jesus himself, you will have heard summarised a variety of theological and philosophical
positions, from Nietzsche to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

His Jesus is a very human figure, entertaining, conversational and rather bemused
by the movement spawned in his name which has, in fact, become bigger than he
is. In his last words of advice he exhorts mankind to “love one another”
and “always lift with your legs”.

Macdonald says that many Christians will not have trouble with the fact that
Miller does not make any claim for Jesus’ divine parentage. “I think some
Christians do understand the ‘Son of God’ as an almost biological thing. Clearly
it’s not that, it’s about metaphor, it’s a way of describing a relationship
that Jesus had with the divine. But if you were to say to me: ‘Is Jesus the
Christ?’, then ‘yes’.”

“I don’t think anyone in our congregation, or any of the mainstream churches,
would have much difficulty with the portrayal you make,” he tells Miller.
“One of the things I found interesting is that because your portrayal is
really powerful, at the end you feel that Jesus is bigger than all of that stuff,
the misunderstandings, the misconceptions, the deceit that has been done in
his name. That somehow the man and his story rises above that.”

The surprise of the show is not the sharpness of its satire, but its uncanny
reverence. Loosely structured along the lines of a Catholic mass, it offers
something of a spiritual experience as well as a cerebral one. It asks more
questions than it answers, but implies that the questions themselves have some
spiritual value.

Miller jokes that he has become “the Mel Gibson of the religious Left”.
“In the same way as his movie was being promoted on church websites, this
show is embraced by a group from various Christian denominations who don’t necessarily
have anything to rally around.

“I would actually argue that there more of those than the loud voiced
fundamentalists. The religious Right, because they have answers, are very united
and they’re very adept at communicating, using technology, making their voice
heard. The religious Left can’t unite around questions. But there are many people
who are desiring of a spirituality and a connection.”

Peter Macdonald was struck by the way in which the play uses elements of story,
ritual and language to communicate the spiritual. “I think one of the reasons
why progressive Christians have responded to Bigger Than Jesus is because more
and more people can’t accept literalist understandings. They would see themselves
- as the show says - within the church of the rational mind. They don’t want
to leave their intellect in the vestibule, they want to worship as a whole person.”

He says this cuts right to the heart of why he decided to open the doors of
his church to the Fringe. Rather than retreating into a Christian ghetto, making
occasional forays out in search of converts, he wanted to engage with the contemporary
world through the arts.

“Many people would understand a lot of the Christian faith as being around
metaphor, and theatre and the arts can open that up for people. People are falling
back on the story, because it’s not really about answers, it’s about people
trying to live the story, and that’s the journey that the liturgy takes you
on. Sometimes religious belief seems to deny life, it seems to restrict and
control, but there is a side which wants to celebrate life, to encourage people
to embrace fullness of life. For me that’s what that the Christian faith is
about.”

While many churches open their buildings for Fringe performance, Macdonald’s
robust attitude is a beacon to others. Responding the decision to stage Julian
Clary, he quipped: “Other churches might not want gay bishops. We are happy
to welcome camp comedians.” And when 100% Sex Therapy was announced he
got in every newspaper by saying: “It was my hope that hosting [the show]
would provide an opportunity to show that not all Christians are narrow-minded,
puritanical and judgmental. Some of us can get our knickers off, rather than
in a twist.”

But he does admit that 100% Sex Therapy “did fill the mail bag”.
How does he deal with that? “Well, most people who write letters about
films or plays are people who haven’t seen the show, so I would suggest that
they do that, then we would have the kind of discussion that Rick and I have
just had.

“One of the things that has been fundamental in our involvement in the
Fringe is that no-one has the right not to be offended. I don’t think anyone
in the arts should begin with the premise that they must not offend anybody.
Sometimes our values, our attitudes, our beliefs need to be challenged. We need
to be offended.”

He admits that he enjoyed Bigger Than Jesus so much that one or two lines might
find their way into his sermons. “If ever I need to deliver a lecture or
teaching of any kind on the Synoptic Gospels, I’ll be borrowing some of your
ideas,” he tells Miller.

“Well,” Miller smiles, “I’ll give you a script.”

Escape is the only alternative to the threats made by Islamic militias against those who refuse to convert, pay “taxes” or give a daughter in matrimony to a Muslim, this according to ‘Portes ouvertes’, an NGO dedicated to persecuted Churches. Baghdad (AsiaNews) – More than a thousand Christian families in Baghdad have had to flee home leaving behind all their property as a result of threats from Islamic extremists, reports Portes ouvertes, an international Christian organisation dedicated to helping persecuted Churches. Its information confirms what Christian Churches have been saying all along, that Iraqi Christians are under attack.

In a press release, the NGO notes that threats by Islamic militias are made whenever Christians refuse to convert to Islam, pay the Jizya (a tax the Qur’an demands from non-Muslims to be exempt from duties required of Muslims), or give a daughter in marriage to a Muslim, and thus give her up for conversion.

The extremists’ action constitutes “a virtual campaign that seeks to empty Dora [a traditionally Christian area] and its adjacent neighbourhoods of its Christian population.”

Anyone who refuses has no choice but “to flee leaving all their property behind” and seek refuge abroad (Jordan and Syria top the list) or in the relatively calmer Kurdistan.

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — One of the toughest battles going on during the Legislature’s final meeting day was between the Christian Coalition and the Alabama Education Association over some churches not paying sales taxes. The battle was won by the Christian Coalition in the closing minutes of the session.

“Being a neophyte there, I think we did pretty good,” new state Chairman Randy Brinson said.

Brinson, a Montgomery physician, took over the state Christian Coalition after its previous leaders split from the national Christian Coalition and started a new group. This was his first legislative session as the leader.

AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert said the battle over church taxes is not likely to be repeated in future legislative sessions, even though it means the loss of an undetermined amount of state sales taxes that pay for public schools and colleges.

“With all the furor being raised, nobody wants to vote against churches, so I suspect we’ll drop it,” Hubbert said in an interview.

The legislative battle stems from tax attorneys getting churches to set up “united appeal” organizations that don’t have to pay sales taxes under the state tax code. Then that tax break is used by the churches to avoid paying sales taxes when they have big building projects where the sales taxes on building materials could total six figures.

It’s an issue that concerns state Revenue Commissioner Tom Surtees, even though an administrative law judge for his department has upheld the practice.

Surtees said all churches were paying sales taxes until tax lawyers developed “a new spin” on the united appeal exemption. He said some mega-churches have started paying lawyers thousands of dollars to set up the united appeal organizations and avoid paying sales taxes. But smaller churches can’t afford high-priced lawyers and are still paying taxes.

Surtees said it creates an unfair tax situation that can either be fixed by exempting all churches from sales taxes or exempting none. “This administration leans toward exempting all of them,” Surtees said.