Over the last day or so in the UK
there has been concern expressed politically about how we educate children,
about their potential, and about what they should be entitled to receive as
they grow towards maturity. Strangely,
for the latter part of the week I had already decided to focus on children and
church as the theme for this week’s Praise and Prayer News.
I have various thoughts running
around my head, which I hope I will be able to express meaningfully within the
limits of this e-letter. But the bottom
line is that we seem to get it seriously wrong in so many of our churches.
We might pay lip service to the value
that God seems to place on children. We
might refer to the words
of Jesus, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who
will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” We
might tell with wonder of the little child prophet, Samuel, or of the
way that Timothy grew up knowing
the scriptures from childhood and, while still relatively young, became
a
Christian leader. One of our
favourite stories is certain to be David
and Goliath. Though we do not
know David’s exact age when he felled the giant, we tend to present him as no
older than a young teenager. Then there
was little Miriam and
her role in the life of her baby brother, Moses, and the little
servant girl who brought about the healing of Naaman. God clearly works in and through the lives of
children as well he does with adults.
But in the life of our churches, children
are usually marginalised, poorly taught, excluded from Christian service, and
frequently barely tolerated. One reason
for this is the discontinuity between the kingdom of God and our churches, which
we have institutionalised. Instead of modelling
our churches on the principles of the kingdom of God, we have modelled them to
reflect our preferences as to how we like to worship, who can minister, and the
style in which this is done. Adults today are still often doing what those
early disciples did to the children (see
Luke 18: 15-17) and denying them full access.
In a special service for welcoming a
new minister to a Methodist Circuit recently we were informed that he had
chosen the hymns except for the second hymn which his toddler daughter had
chosen. It turned out to be an action
song, “Sing a song, sing a joyful song”. When we got to the verse, “Clap your hands, clap your hands like this….”
Several in the congregation clapped to the rhythm. But when we got to the verse, “Jump up and down, up and down and around…”
there was only one adult who seemed to be prepared to make a fool of himself,
and sing this worship song to Jesus the way it was intended. The rest remained dignified! I wondered what the new minister’s family,
which clearly valued the place of their little girl, might have thought if the
whole congregation (or at least as many as possible) had jumped up and down, up
and down and around! What would it have
signalled? If we want to take children seriously, sometimes we need to be
prepared to have a bit of fun with
them, unapologetically.
In Rural Mission Solutions we try to
put high value on our ministry to and with children. My former colleague, Monica Cook, and I wrote
a paper entitled Releasing the Potential (availableon the website). I am delighted that our current Children
and Families Work Adviser has the same view. Our vision is to help churches
developed programmes for both adults and children, that help people come
to faith, grow in faith and go in faith. Part of doing this effectively will be having
some measures in place to test progress (but I’m not advocating church stats!). But unless children are able to articulate
their faith (in their own words and ways) how will we know if we have effectively
communicated the gospel to them. How can we determine whether they are growing
in discipleship if they are held back from opportunities to exercise the gifts
and ministries that God gives to them?
At the service at Fleckney Baptist
Church last Sunday I was specifically informed that one of the children would
bring the offertory prayer. He did so
brilliantly. In one of my churches I occasionally had the bread and wine served
by children to adults. In an Essex
church I attended once I found over 50 children running a prayer meeting before
Sunday School. In a Primary School in
Sussex, Christian children asked teaching staff if they could start a Christian
meeting during the lunch break. When
they were told that there would not be a teacher available they told the head
teacher that was OK as they were capable of running it themselves. And they did so!
So I appeal that we make more space
in our churches for children, and that we run well designed programmes that
have those three aims built in. Let’s
help children come to faith, to grow in faith and to go in faith. Let’s make church more like the kingdom of
God. But be warned: if we get it right, the adults might have
difficulty keeping up!
From the Diary
We give God thanks and praise for the
blessings on our ministry on Sunday and through the week. We also give God thanks for some progress
made at the recent Court hearing to resolve a difficult Trust management issue relating
to a Will. The trustees (of which I am
one) are seeking a more manageable situation that ensures a better and safer
future for a beneficiary. But it means change
– and that is resisted. Prayers for
grace and wisdom are appreciated.
This Sunday, 11th September I will be taking the morning
meeting for Newark Congregational Church.
On Tuesday 13th I have a school assembly to take and my
regular work in HMP Gartree.
On Thursday 15th I am taking part in a visit to a small
rural church in Northamptonshire which looks likely to close. We need to assess this situation carefully.
On SATURDAY 17th Katrina Thomas and I are holding a meeting
at Herstmonceux, East Sussex in the morning, in order to introduce Katrina to
friends and supporters in the area and to share the vision for her part in our
ministry. We have had a lot of apologies
sent so I am hoping that there will still be a reasonable attendance. We intend to follow up this event with some
gatherings for those responsible for children’s work in rural churches. This is part of re-launching this aspect of
ministry. This is a key activity for
your prayers please.
On Sunday 18th I will be speaking at St. Leonards Baptist
Church where I grew up, came to faith and was effectively sent out in
ministry. It will be great to spend time
there and I hope that I bless them.
Thank you for your prayers and gifts
for the work. Please do not leave the
issue I have raised about the place of children in your church (or their
absence) to others. We all need to
examine our attitudes and get a serious discussion going. Katrina and I will be happy to help you with
that if needed.
May the Lord abundantly bless you.
Barry
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