Cornerstone in January

I had an inservice today at Cornerstone in GR. The title was Spiritual Care in the Classroom. This is the first time that I have had a religion methods class. The presenter was Dr. Jim Lacy who has a DMin from someplace, but that doesn't matter. Jim was great. He embodies all the characteristics of a trainer/teacher that I love to see. He is informal, but not condescending, he is a clear, passionate speaker and he really gets the message across...meaning he motivates me.

Jim was good, but his message was right up my alley too. He supports relational teaching. In this case it is a relationship with the students and a relationship with God. It is one more time that makes me feel I nailed the leadership model in DTL. It keeps coming up over and over again when I read other's work on leadership and in this case in teaching. He coined a new word for me...truthing, which means speaking the truth in love. The takeaway was that God's Grace is available to enable us to administer care in the classroom.

Cornerstone hammers on building a spiritual relationship with students as well as using the Bible in teaching the material. I had that experience with the Portage cohort this summer and while it was my first try at it, I think it went ok. So I am tuned into the Cornerstone process...but it is unique.