New Guide for Sunday School

Hi Everyone. My name is Laura Keeley and I am the new guide for the Sunday School network. This is a great opportunity to work with you and to learn from you about Sunday School and other things related to working with children, teens and adults.

I want to thank Jolanda Howe for the great work she has done setting up the network. I’ve gotten to know Jolanda well over the last few years and she’s wonderful resource for ideas about educational ministry. She will continue to participate as a guest blogger. At one conference we attended together in Chicago, I was asked if she was my daughter. She is not but that tells you how well we get along and as well as how young she looks (or how old I must look – let’s just say Jolanda looks very young).

My husband Bob is a professor in the Education Department at Calvin College. We share an interest in children and faith and enjoy speaking or writing on these topics together. We have four children who are now mostly out of the house. Bethany lives in Athens, GA and is a graduate student at the University of Georgia in Communication. Meredith is a Children’s Ministry Director at Second Reformed Church in Zeeland, MI. Bryan works as a Youth Pastor at Third CRC in Kalamazoo, MI. Lynnae is a sophomore at Calvin College studying Studio Art. Bethany and Meredith both got married in the spring of 2011. It has been great to see them grow and choose careers. My husband and my kids are all very musical and they lead worship together at church or in chapels at Calvin. I like music too but don’t like performing as much so most of the time I let them do that and I lend support in other ways.

I’ve been in church staff ministry for 20 years now – long enough to know that it is not done in isolation. Our work is greatly enhanced when we use the resources around us – good curriculum, great teaching ideas, up-to-date thinking about faith formation and, of course, wonderful, committed volunteers. I am very excited to share my experiences and to learn from yours. Would you let me know what types of resources you would like to see on this network? Let's work together to make it the best it can be!