Freedom Schools: Freedom Schools: An Essential Theological Task

In my reading related to child advocacy over the last decade, I have found many quotes I love. My favorite quote is: “I’m not a mother, but I have children.” This quote is from Mercy Oduyoye, a Ghanaian Methodist woman, acknowledged most often as the “mother of African women’s theologies.” When I first read these words in Marcia Bunge’s book, The Child in Christian Thought, they resonated with me. The quote expressed my own philosophy and theology about caring for children, and it echoes phrases I have often expressed.

After seminary, I took a ministry position at Reveille UMC Church in Richmond, Virginia as the minister of age-level ministries and mission. That meant I was responsible for children and youth ministries. On trips, like retreats and mission trips, I would often be in public places with a lot of children or youth surrounding me. On many occasions, someone would look at the children closest to me and say, “Are those your children?” And I remember that the first time I was asked that, I did not hesitate. I looked around and said, with a gesture, “They are all my children.” And I meant that!

At that time and still today, I take seriously the vows I make at the baptism of a child. In the UM baptismal liturgy, the congregation is asked:

“Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include these persons (this child or these children) now before you in your care?

As the congregation responds:

“With God’s help we will proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ. We will surround these persons (children) with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their service to others. We will pray for them, that they may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life” (From The United Methodist Hymnal).

By Dr. Virginia A. Lee Associate Professor of Christian Education and Director of Deacon Studies

I have a responsibility for them; they are children of the community.

As many of my students know and get tired of hearing me say, our children are not the church of tomorrow; they are the church of today! While adults certainly have things to teach and share with children, children also have gifts and graces to share with the church. But it is not just the children in my church or my denomination or other denominations for whom I am responsible, it is all children. All children are children of God, created in the image of God, and therefore, are my responsibility. ALL children are our children!

In my first teaching position in theological education, I often used information from a research project conducted by Search Institute on “Effective Christian Education.” While acknowledging that it was hard to quantify faith, they measured mature faith along vertical and horizontal axes. The vertical axis related to actions that reflected “love of God,” and the horizontal axis related to actions that reflected “love of neighbor.” Mature faith was faith that reflected both love of God and love of neighbor. (This scriptural reference is from Matthew 12:30-31.) This research resonated with me because I had come to recognize in my graduate work and in my ministry as an educator in a congregation that my theology of Christian education was providing opportunities for persons to love God and love neighbor, actions that are foundational for United Methodist theology.

If you review baptismal vows and ordination vows, you will see that they also reflect an orientation to loving God and loving neighbor. As a deacon, one of my roles is to help persons live out their baptismal vows to love God and love neighbor. All persons are called to ministry by virtue of their baptismal vows, not just clergy. For the last seven years, one of the ways that I live out my “love of God and neighbor” is through my work with the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and with the Garrett-Evanston CDF Freedom Schools® Program.

One of my favorite books is Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, written by Tracy Kidder. In this book, Kidder shares a Haitian proverb that Farmer often quoted, “God gives…but does not share.” Farmer explains that the proverb means that God has abundantly provided all that we need, but the distribution of these abundant material and human resources is a human responsibility.

As Shannon Daley-Harris wrote in her chapter of Let Your Light Shine: Mobilizing for Justice with Children and Youth:

"…put simply, we have a profound human and moral crisis that demands the resources, engagement, and commitment of people of faith in every faith tradition. Transforming our nation’s priorities and launching a movement to ensure that we leave no child behind requires theologically grounded and practically equipped religious leaders and members to mobilize the vast resources, infrastructure, and moral

authority of the religious community."

One of the ways that we can “love our neighbors” is to share our resources in ways that create a community where the well-being of all children is prioritized, and all children thrive. One of the ways that GarrettEvangelical has chosen to “love God and love our neighbors” is through the Garrett-Evanston CDF Freedom Schools® Program.

The Garrett-Evanston CDF Freedom Schools® Program is a six-week summer literacy program where scholars (children) learn to fall in love with reading through culturally relevant books and curriculum. Their teachers, called servant leader interns (SLI), are college or graduate students between the ages of 18 and 30. The program provides leadership development skills for them and the opportunity to learn about the community from some of the experts on the topic – the scholars.

As executive directors of the Garrett-Evanston CDF Freedom Schools® Program, Dr. Reginald Blount and I learned about the community of Evanston and met with numerous community leaders. We learned that the Fifth Ward was an underserved area of the city, and we learned that the local school system, District 65, was dealing with a significant achievement gap. We also learned that there were assets available and partners in the community who wanted to collaborate. The name of our program highlights the partnership between the city of Evanston, numerous faith communities, municipal leaders, and GarrettEvangelical.

During the first year of the program, we had the great pleasure of seeing children thrive in the program. Children who entered the doors believing that they could not read or learn, quickly learned that was not true. They learned critical thinking skills and how they could effect change. They learned that they had agency and could make a difference in themselves, their families, their schools, their neighborhoods, and the world. They learned to fall in love with reading, and the majority of the children maintained or increased their reading skills during the summer.

If you want to learn more about Children’s Defense Fund and the Garrett-Evanston CDF Freedom Schools® program, I have several suggestions:

• Read the rest of the related articles in this edition of Aware.

• Read the book Blount and I edited, Let Your Light Shine: Educating for Justice with Children and Youth, which gives more information about CDF, the Proctor Institute, and the Garrett-Evanston CDF Freedom Schools® Program.

• Contact me at Garrett-Evangelical. I love to talk about CDF Freedom Schools.®

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