Thursday, February 22, 2007

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children

My presentation on ‘Connecting the Faith with Children’ at the ministers’ conference seemed to go well. There was some creative feedback, and some encouraging comments from individuals afterwards.

However, I had used the issue of children and communion to illustrate a wider principle. That is, we must fully involve our children in the worship experience/event, rather than remove (reject?) them from it in order to teach them about it so that when they are deemed old enough to access it they will understand what is going on. But the group got so bogged down in the specific issue (children and communion) that we forgot about the underlying principle and automatically reverted to the separatist default position I was attempting to demolish.

How do other churches / denominations handle the children and communion question? Does it work in an all age context? Or do we reserve the sacrament for adult worship? I’d be interested to hear from others. Thanks.

My own position is that the higher your understanding of the eucharist the less exclusive you can be. If all we are doing when we share bread and wine is ‘remembering’ what Jesus did, then we can make our club as exclusive as we want. But if, at the table of the Lord, we meet with the risen Christ (the real presence) then we surely cannot turn anyone away?
The other stumbling block with this group of Baptist ministers (I suspect) will be an unwillingness to move away from expository preaching. In other words, we need a Sunday School because otherwise the children will be bored. Your comments on that would also be warmly received. Thanks again.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children

I'm making a presentation to the Yorkshire Baptist Ministers next week on where I've got to with the 'Connecting the Christian Faith with Children' project. I thought I'd share some of those thoughts on my blog, and would welcome comments, questions, suggestions, etc.

I am only working three days a month on this Commissioned Ministry, and I’m only part way into my second month. So it’s difficult to give you anything very concrete at this point. Certainly I have no answers or strategies for us (yet). I’m not sure we’ll ever get to that point, actually.

But what I do have is a list of questions, and a set of challenges to the way we connect our faith with the children in our churches.

The Challenge from the Bible

In October 2005, at a ministers conference at Moortown Baptist Church we were presented with this set of Bible passages and asked to imagine, if this was all the Bible we had ever read, what would be our theology of the place of children in our churches: Dt 6.1-9; Ps 78.1-8; Ps 131; Jer 1.4-8; Matt 18.1-6; Mark 5.22-24, 39-43; Mark 9.33-37; Mark 10.13-16; John 6.1-13.

My notes from that day remind me that we were challenged by these thoughts:
- religion in the Bible is family oriented;
- the children were not separated from the adults in biblical worship; they were totally integrated in the ritual life of God’s people;
- therefore the children must be totally a part of the everyday life of the church;
- they ought to be involved not just in learning but also in teaching the rest of us;
- we adults can learn from the behaviours and the attitudes of children;
- in fact, Jesus made the child a model – an example – to those who would follow Him;
- neither age nor youth is a barrier to serving God;
- and we have a duty to value, and encourage, and guide our children;
- Jesus included children at the same level as His disciples
- children should be allowed to serve adults; and adults can be blessed through the childrens’ gifts;
- children need to be listened to / allowed to serve / valued / and made a part of the action
- we adults need to have a childlike attitude;
- children are important for who they are now, not for what they will become
- as Jesus was focussed on the needs of the children he met, so must we;
- the Kingdom of God is not about status or position;
- rather, our church structures must reflect the importance Jesus placed on the least;
- as Jesus put a child ‘in the midst’, He made children central to the Christian faith and thus challenges our whole approach to them

There is another challenge from the Bible, too. And it relates to the way we use the Bible with our children. We have all heard – maybe we have been guilty of telling – versions of the story of Noah and the Ark that focus almost exclusively on the fluffy animals and miss the point of why that story is in our Bibles in the first place!

I met with Nick Harding last month, and he talked to me about the need for us to use the biblical narratives “in all their gory” (especially when we’re talking to boys!). But so often we use sanitised children’s Bibles, or carefully selected and dumbed down version of the stories.

The Challenge from Child Theology

Child Theology has been described as “ a global process working to inform, engage with, and challenge the full range of Christian theology, inspired by Jesus when He placed a little child in the midst.”

Jesus deliberately placed a little child at the centre of a theological discussion about the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven, and then He taught several vital truths while the child was standing there. Children are central to the biblical vision of the Kingdom of God. They are agents of and partners in God’s mission, not simply recipients of the Good News!

There has been an adult bias in every aspect of Christian thinking for the last 2000 years, and our churches are all built around the needs and desires of adults. We have seen children as objects to be educated or protected (adults-in-waiting, human-becomings) rather than as agents and signs of God’s kingdom with unique contributions and insights.

Jesus challenges us adults to become like little children. And yet so much of what we do with children in church is designed to turn them into what we think are mature Christian adults.

I am meeting with Keith White, in a couple of weeks. Keith has written a lot of this material himself. And he finishes one paper with a plea that little children must no longer be “relegated to the stable, but at the very heart of everything that goes on in the inn.”

The Challenge from studies of Children’s Spirituality

A lot of research, in recent years, has looked at the spirituality of children. I wonder how well our Sunday Schools (or whatever we call them) really nurture children’s spirituality? Actually, I wonder how well our churches nurture the spirituality of adults?

Various studies talk about the child’s need for security (safety, protection, covering, the experience of ‘being held’) if they are to be able to experience love, whether giving it or receiving it. Is that not what Christ achieved for us by His death?

Children have a need for significance (the affirmation that they are special). And at the heart of the Gospel is the amazing truth that you and I matter infinitely to God. That’s why He sent His only Son.

Children, of course, need boundaries (rules, discipline, values, norms). Freedom, as you know, is not the absence of boundaries but rather what emerges when there are appropriate boundaries such as those provided for us by God.

Children need community, relationships with others. And one of the great themes of the Bible is the intention of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (the primal, divine community) to create a community of faith.

And creativity is what children are made for (play, fun, humour, learning, and so much more.

I wonder what we would find if we were to analyse what we do with children in our churches according to those categories?

Other studies refer to contexts, conditions, strategies, processes and consequences. Or a child’s stages of consciousness (child-God, child-people, child-world, child-self). Or even just the need for children to use their imaginations, experience wonder, exercise their bodies.

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves what do our children really need from church / Sunday School / Worship? Have we even bothered to ask them?

Many churches have discovered The Essence Course as a fantastic introduction to Christian spirituality for adults. And there is now a children’s version, Kids @ Essence, which is doing the same sort of thing for children’s groups. It might be a very useful resource.

The Challenge from Educational Theory

Educational theorists know that everyone has a preferred learning style. And there are a variety of different learning styles. And it is an acknowledged truth that we all learn more by doing something that just by hearing about it.

Children don’t learn well from 20-30 minutes ‘instruction’. Sit down, sit still, and listen to what I want to tell you. (Neither do adults, actually, although many in our congregations and most of our preachers wouldn’t want to admit it!)

So why is that sort of ‘instruction’ at the heart of all we do as a church? Could it be replaced with something else? If so, we wouldn’t need to ask the children to leave us to do something else during the ‘boring’ bit!

Or, if we think that some sort of differentiated (age-specific?) instruction is important for our children, should we also be giving some attention to the different levels and abilities and learning styles of an adult congregation?

‘Godly Play’, by Jerome Berryman (and others) is one resource that utilises some rather different learning styles than the didactic. And there are others out there, too.

The Challenge from Other Forms of Church

There is a whole set of challenges from some of the new forms of church:

- Messy Church is a multi-sensory, practical and interactive expression of church for all ages, which ends with a shared meal.

- The All Age Church movement, goes far beyond simply the advocation of All Age Worship, with a call for churches to become All Age communities:
“being church together, regardless of age, should be a norm, not an anomaly. In order to nurture people and raise up new leaders we need strong relationships that transcend age divisions”; “we need to start asking ‘what can we not do together?’ rather than allowing the church to operate with a separatist default position”; “the church of all ages is the clearest way to embody kingdom values of welcome and reconciliation in order that the whole world might be saved.”

- Many of the smaller, emerging church groups are also highly inclusive of their children. Admittedly, that may be because so many of them are so small that they cannot afford the resources for a separate children’s work. But we can, and must, learn from them.

But one of the biggest challenges I have discovered in my reading comes from the Eastern Orthodox Church:

“Their approach to children is fundamentally different from other denominations. Children are baptised into the church, receive the sacrament, and become active participants in the Church.”

I don’t think it’s too far from the mark to suggest that what many of our churches do is remove children from the main worship experience (some would say we actively ‘reject’ them from the main worship experience) in order to teach them about it.

Take the Lord Supper as an example. I would be willing to bet that most of the children in most of our Baptist churches have never even witnessed a communion service, let alone been allowed to participate.

But in the Orthodox Church, “the purpose of education … is not to inform children about what will eventually be theirs, but to interpret and deepen understanding of what is already theirs, that is, what children are already experiencing through being the church.” It is this “early exposure to the worship and activity of the church [that] prepares the child for personal and corporate lifelong membership.”

I know that, for these churches, it is Infant Baptism that is the starting point. And we Baptists wouldn’t want to go along with that. But it seems to me that there are things in their approach that we could easily adopt and/or adapt with regard to our own children.

So. A series of challenges to the way we can, and should, connect the Christian faith with our children. A set of challenges that are not just about doing Sunday School better, but more about re-imagining what church could be for our children, perhaps even getting back to what and who the church is really for.

Let me know what YOU think?!?

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Last Dawkins Comment (for now)

I have just finished The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. And, I have to say, I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a good read, very well-written, and extremely stimulating. Many of Dawkins' criticisms of religion I agree with whole-heartedly.

However, the last bit I wanted to comment on was what Dawkins has to say about death. "Polls suggest that approximately 95% of the population of the United States believe they will survive their own death." But "how many people who claim such a belief really, in their heart of hearts, hold it?" (p.356)

Dawkins has questions to ask about the way religious people talk when in the presence of the dying, and he asks why th most vocal opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide comes from religious people. "Wouldn't you expect that religious people would be the least likely to cling unbecomingly to earthly life?" (p.356)

And why is it that those people who seem most afraid of death are the religious ones? "It doesn't ... speak strongly of religion's power to comfort the dying." (p.358)

Food for thought for those of us in pastoral ministry!?

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children - Survey (Section 8)

WHAT DO THE CHILDREN THINK?

please ask the children (or a representative cross-section of them) who attend your children’s / all age activities these two questions. It would be helpful if you would not prompt them in any way, and write down their responses ’verbatim’:

1. What do you need from church / all age worship?

2. What would make church / all age worship better for you?

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children - Survey (Section 7)

WHAT TRAINING / DEVELOPMENT NEEDS DO YOU HAVE?

1. Please comment on any training of development needs you feel your church may have in the area of connecting the faith with children.

2. Do you have any other comments on this form or this process that you have not already been able to make?

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children - Survey (Section 6)

WHAT SUPPORT DO YOU GET?

1. What proportion of the church budget is allocated to:
a - children’s work?
b - All Age work?

2. How affirmed / valued do your children’s workers feel by the rest of the church?

3. Are the children’s workers regularly (perhaps annually) ‘commissioned’ for their work?

4. Are the children’s workers (and the children) regularly prayed for in services?

5. How is the minister involved in planning the children’s work?

6. How often does the minister attend any of the children’s groups?

7. How often does the minister teach in any of the children’s groups?

8. Do your children’s workers feel they need more support and affirmation? How could this happen?

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children - Survey (Section 5)

WHAT HELPS YOU TO DO THIS AND KEEPS YOU GOING?

1. Does your children’s work follow a curriculum or use graded work?

2. What resources or printed materials do you use?

3. Please comment on how you rate these resources / materials in terms of:
a - Effectiveness?
b - Ease of use and preparation?
c - Other comments on the materials / resources you use?

4. What motivates your children’s workers to work with the children?

5. How do you ensure that the children’s workers receive some spiritual input themselves?

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children - Survey (section 4)

WHO DO YOU REACH?

1. Who are the children / families who attend your children’s work? (Please give approximate numbers.)
a - Children of church members / attenders?
b - Children from the local community?
c - Others (please state)?

2. How would you gauge the effectiveness or ‘success’ of these activities? What difference do they make?

3. What criteria have you used to make your judgement?

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children - Survey (Section 3)

WHO DOES THE WORK?

1. How many children’s workers do you have?
2. How many are volunteers?
3. How many are paid workers?
4. How many male and how many female workers do you have?
5. Do you have enough children’s workers?
6. How easy do you find it to recruit new children’s workers (and why do you think that is)?
7. What training have your children’s workers had?

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children - Survey (Section 2)

1. Do you have a specific mission statement / purpose statement for your children’s work? If so, what is it?

2. Is there a separate section in your Church Mission Statement or Aims and Objectives that relates to your work with children? If so, what is it?

3. Is the purpose of your activit(ies) made specific anywhere else?

4. Do all the children’s workers (and the rest of the church) understand and agree with the
purpose? Or is it just ‘understood’ or ‘assumed’?

5. What is the purpose of your children’s / all age work?

a. Teach children the Bible

b. Develop their faith

c. Instruct them in the faith and traditions of the church

d. Help them to see their daily lives in the light of the Gospel

e. Incorporate them into the worship life of the church

f. Arm them against the dangers of secular culture

g. Nurture their sense of spirituality

h. Other purpose (please state)

Connecting the Christian Faith with Children - Survey (Section One)

After three days of this 'Commissioned Ministry' I have come up with a draft survey which will 'officially' go to a number of Baptist Churches here in Yorkshire.

However, it would be fascinating to get some feedback from others on the questions I want to ask, so I'll blog the surveya section at a time. I look forward to your responses (thanks) ...

1. How do children fit into the life of your church? How integrated are they?

2. Do the adults in the congregation know what happens in your children’s groups and activities?

3. How are they informed?

4. Is there a link between the service or sermon theme and the children’s activities?

5. Do you have a children’s address before the youngsters leave for their activities?

6. What are your church’s arrangements for children when there is a communion service?

7. What children’s work / activities do you offer in your church? Please give details.
a. Sunday School or Junior Church?
b. Mothers and Toddlers Groups?
c. Midweek Clubs?
d. Other (please state)

8. For each activity mentioned above, what proportion of time is spent on:
a. Worship?
b. Instruction?
c. Prayer?
d. Craft Activities?
e. Play?
f. Other (please state)?

9. Do you have All Age Services?
a. How often?
b. At what times?
c. Who attends these services?
d. Who plans and leads these services?
e. What resources / materials are used?
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