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Overview
It’s not easy to respond to complex issues in a way that invites students to engage with the relevance and truth of Christianity.
This PD allows staff to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of leading classroom discussions around tricky topics. It helps teachers and chaplains to address sensitive issues in effective ways.
Be equipped to lead culturally engaging conversations around faith.
Content Covered
Christianity & Culture in the Classroom
- understanding today’s teens
- developing a positive posture towards cultural engagement
- considering what ‘success’ should look like in a school context
Cultivating Healthy Conversations
- a conversational framework for faith-based schools
- developing a hierarchy of responses
- setting the conversational tone
Exploring Practical Scenarios
- practical tips & tools for managing conversations
- developing a Conversational Risk Assessment
- reflecting on and responding to possible scenarios
Session Details
PRESENTER:
Nate Armsberry
IN-PERSON OPTIONS:
- Full-Day PD with 3 Sessions (5 hours)
- Half-Day PD with 2 Sessions (3 hours)
- Abridged PD (2 hour session)
ON-DEMAND: (coming soon)
- Content Clips
- Discussion Guide
- Related Scenarios & Activities
Overview
How do we help students engage seriously with Christianity when many no longer share its basic assumptions?
One of the biggest challenges facing Christian educators today is that students often inhabit a fundamentally different cultural world. As a result, even when our communication is clear, students may hear something quite different from what we intended.
Drawing on insights from cross-cultural anthropology, adolescent identity formation and cultural apologetics, this workshop explores the classroom as a cross-cultural environment. Participants will learn how to better understand the questions, values and stories shaping young people’s imaginations, and how to respond with wisdom, confidence and compassion.
With a particular focus on faith formation in Christian schools, attendees will leave with a practical conceptual framework and a range of communication tools for fostering meaningful faith conversations, addressing common barriers to belief, and helping students see the relevance of Jesus in today’s cultural landscape.
Content Covered
UNDERSTANDING TEEN CULTURE
- why today’s teenagers inhabit a fundamentally different cultural world
- exploring the cultural distance between teachers and students
- understanding how beliefs about identity, authority, morality and meaning shape the way students hear and interpret faith
THE CLASSROOM AS A CROSS-CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
- learning from the best of cross-cultural anthropology and missiology
- reframing classroom faith communication
- developing an incarnational posture towards faith formation
PRACTICAL TOOLS FOR THE CLASSROOM
- mapping the cultural distance between teacher and student
- contextualisation: connecting faith to the world students inhabit
- receptor-oriented communication: discovering what students are actually hearing
- dynamic equivalence: helping students understand what we really mean
Session Details
PRESENTER:
Nate Armsberry
IN-PERSON OPTIONS:
- Full-Day PD with 3 Sessions (5 hours)
- Half-Day PD with 2 Sessions (3 hours)
- Abridged PD (2 hour session)
ON-DEMAND: (coming soon)
- Content Clips
- Discussion Guide
- Related Scenarios & Activities
Upcoming Dates:
October 20, 2026
Central Coast – Wyong
This day is being run in partnership with CSA NSW.
October 27, 2026
Sydney – Macquarie Park
This day is being run in partnership with CSA NSW.
Feel free to get in touch if you’d like us to present this PD to your staff, or to run it near you – and keep an eye out for our upcoming dates as they’re added.
If you’re interested in booking some PD for your staff (or hosting other schools in your local area) you can submit a booking request on our speaker enquiry page.
If you have any other questions you can email our Youth & Schools Co-ordinator, Nate Armsberry.