The Formation of a People: Christian Eduction and the African American Church

New from pastor and professor Carmichael Crutchfield, steeped in current scholarship and lifetime of experience in the African American church, this contribution to the study of Christian education expands our understanding of education to encompass the larger life and ministry of the church, from practices of testimony, worship, and preaching to more traditional classroom contexts of Sunday church school and midweek Bible study. Dr. Crutchfield further develops the concept of Christian education in light of spiritual formation, wherein our pedagogies are oriented toward forming the Christian disciple in the likeness and character of Jesus Christ. The book provides constructive definitions of Christian education and faith formation, as well as clarity about formation processes across all ages and seasons of life. The author gives particular attention to such formation as it occurs in the historic and contemporary African American church context, where those who do ministries of Christian education, faith formation, and discipleship often have a wide range of training and experience
from no formal theological education at all to specialized seminary degrees.