Thompson Award for Excellence in Christian Education

PRESBYTERIANS ~ SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Presbytery Churches Receive Thompson Award

On June 1, 1999, District V of Kentucky's Transylvania Presbytery received the following notice from Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education:

Transylvania Presbytery Churches (red).
The District V counties (green) are:
Breathitt, Leslie, Perry, Letcher

"A cluster of 14 small churches in the eastern Kentucky coal fields has been selected to receive a national award for excellence in Christian Education.

"The churches are organized as District V of the Transylvania Presbytery, part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The District will receive the W.T. "Tolly" Thompson Award for Excellence in Christian Education from Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education (Union-PSCE). The $1,000 award will be presented on June 23 at a luncheon during the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) meeting in Fort Worth, TX. One other church, University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, NC, received the same honor this year.

"The award to District V recognizes the effectiveness of a church cluster that shares training and program development. The cluster of 14 small churches demonstrates an innovative effort to share limited resources for the enhancement of their ministries."

Kathryn Barden of Hazard is director of the District V Educational Ministry.

Some of the programs of the Ministry are: monthly leadership training seminars, quarterly gatherings to coordinate educational programming, a curriculum for youth based on a popular Contemporary Christian Music recording, use of a travelling laptop computer and Christian CD-ROM resources in Sunday School classes, and a musical production of C.S. Lewis's Narnia.

The Tolly Thompson Award is a memorial to the life and work of W. Taliaferro Thompson, the first professor of Christian education at any PCUS seminary. The criteria for the award are:

extent to which the program meets a vital Christian education need in the church or community;
participation of members of the the church in the program;
personal growth of teachers, leaders, and participants;
effective outreach of the program beyond the membership;
relationship of the church to the PC(USA) Christian education program;
participation of teachers and leaders in training and leadership events provided locally, regionally, and nationally;
spirit of sharing and creativity manifested in the program;
overall effectiveness of the program.