As a Pastor of Children and Family
Ministries I spend a lot of time thinking about these things: What are we supposed to prepare them for
during the elementary years? What is the
outcome supposed to be? How do we know
we’ve prepared them for those crazy teenage years? And, what did it mean to “train up a child”
when Jesus was a kid? What has changed,
and what stays the same? Here’s what I’ve been learning, and how its changing the way I see ministry!
Training up Young Jesus
During
the time of Christ the spiritual education of a child was of the utmost
importance. It was expected: that that they knew the Old
Testament intimately, that they took moral responsibility for their own
actions, and that they took leadership in worship services, served in charity
or community service projects, and maintained membership in their congregation. All of this was engrained in them before they
reached the teenage years. In the time
of Christ, what kids were taught “formed the prerequisite of practice [of their
faith]. [It] began in early [childhood],
and continued during the whole life (A History of the Jewish People in the Time
of Jesus Christ, p. 45).”
Training up Our Young Ones
We
expect these same things by Jr. High today.
When our children reach their teenage years they must be ready to face a
host of temptations. We expect that they
are ready to make upright moral decisions in the absence of their parents’
constant supervision. We hope, pray, and
expect that they will choose to become members of the church service, ready to
serve and learn with the adults, and have a heart for the poor and the lost.
Once
our children reach puberty (having graduated from Sunday School) we expect that
they have a solid understanding of the Old Testament and a basic understanding
of Christ and the church. Once they are
a part of the Sunday service the focus of teaching shifts almost exclusively to
the New Testament because the assumption is that everyone gets a solid
foundation in Old Testament during the Sunday School years.
A Shift in Focus
While
we expect the outcome of our teaching to be the same (children that are ready
to face the tumultuous teenage years and become members of the church) the approach to
educating our children in faith and spirituality has changed dramatically in
the last century (especially over the last fifty years). Today,
children’s education has moved focus.
Where in the time of Christ most education was spent training children
in the scriptures (in school and at home), now most of their time in school is
designed to give them a foundation in secular knowledge and skills. For many
families, Christian education has been left to the church. For children in Christian Schools they
receive this secular training with a Christian perspective worked in. For most of Christian history, however, it was
just the opposite. The main focus of
their education was spiritual, and their training in secular concepts like
work, and skills, was the supplement! A
first century parent and spiritual leader named Nehorai said:
I lay aside all the trade of the world, and teach my
son only the law, for its reward is enjoyed in this world, and the capital
remains for the world to come… reverence
for fathers and mothers, benevolence, peace-making among neighbors, and the study
of the law above them all. A [child] who
knows the law takes precedence of a high priest if he is ignorant.”[1]
Shurer
comments:
“Such an estimation of the law would necessarily impel
to the employment of every possible means for bestowing upon the whole people
the benefit of the most thorough knowledge and practice of the law… The care of its foundation rested with the
school and family, that of its farther carrying on with the synagogue.”[2]
Emerging Difficulties
Today,
our hope is often that if they enjoy Sunday School enough they will like church
and want to continue in the faith when they graduate from Sunday School to become
normal participants in the Sunday Service.
Old Testament training in Sunday School focuses on character formation
using key stories, but, as time has shown, there are some difficulties with
this approach. Many teenagers today (who
have come through Sunday School) have missed the majority of Old Testament
stories. Many don’t realize the stories
are linked in a grand metanarrative that continues into the New Testament. Many don’t understand the themes that are
progressively developed throughout the Bible, and so they don’t have the
necessary foundation to fully understand many New Testament concepts like: sacrifice, Savior, freedom, Passover, People
of God, Priesthood of All believers, and the list goes on. Because Old Testament education tends to end
with Sunday School, these things may never be learned.
For
some, the transition from the entertaining environment of Sunday School to the
more serious environment of the Sunday service has left many teenagers feeling
disconnected, devalued, and lost. They
struggle to identify with the values of Sunday morning. Also, we’re finding that the love of study which
comes from being challenged to learn the uncomfortable may not be established
by those critical teenage years. Many
don’t know how to study the Bible and learn new things themselves. This leaves them to adopt the beliefs of
others – a dangerous practice in the context of peer pressure and societies
moral values.
So, what do we do?
We
have one hour with the kids on Sunday mornings.
One hour to build into them a love for and foundation in the scriptures
that can be built upon in the context of family and daily life… a foundation that they need in order to
understand the New Testament concepts that are so dear to our faith. The goal is depth and fullness, challenge and
hope! Before Jr. High a child needs a
foundation in Christian spiritual practices, bible content and history, basic
bible facts, morality and character, and much more! Whatever we choose to do as Parents, and
Family Ministries, lets work out our philosophy of ministry carefully, and
watch over the scope and sequence to be sure they’re getting the breadth and
depth they need in these things J
How Our Philosophy of Ministry and Approach
has Been Changing
With
these goals in mind, our Sunday School has been journeying through the
scriptures. We ended last year with the
story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his 11 brothers. We
continued the story with VBS – where we transformed the church into the Land of
Egypt. The kids were put into Israelite
Tribes, and lived in this foreign land with Joseph. We told the Egyptian people about the One
True God, and learned from Joseph as he shared his story with us from Prison…
and then from the Palace.
OUR APPROACH: Scope and Sequence
In
Sunday school this year we picked up the story with Joseph’s whole family
moving to Egypt during the famine. We
learnt how they ended up in Slavery – how it was foretold in the call of Abraham hundreds
of years before – and how Moses was saved as a child because God had a purpose
for him.
We
learned how Moses was a missionary to the Egyptian people, and we learned of God’s
heart to reveal himself to the Egyptians through 10 Plagues that would prove he
is the One True God. And as we prepare
for the Passover and the Exodus from Egypt, we will learn about sacrifice,
suffering, the beauty of God’s law, and the freedom he offers. We will connect the Passover with the life of
Christ – and with the last supper and sacrifice of Christ.
OUR APPROACH: Big Group Time
A
big focus has been building up the community (the body) through worshipping
together in various styles, by enjoying songs and activities for the sake of
others, and by having others share in the joy of what we love. We’ve been spending more time together as a
whole community of children (together with adults and grandparents), getting to
know each other’s names and personalities and interest and gifts. We’ve raised the expectations for
participation and for showing respect to elders and leaders – and the kids have
responded by rising to the challenge! We’ve
also been working to give older kids more responsibility through watching out
for and caring for the younger children, serving through songs and action leading,
participation in drama, leading prayer, and doing service projects.
We
have been challenging them – not just to take in what they are taught, but to
learn for themselves. We encourage them
to ask the questions they wonder about, and to learn how to seek out the
answers to those questions so they can continue to learn beyond what they are
told. And, we’ve been challenging them
to take the lesson and apply it to their lives by giving them a challenge each
week.
OUR APPROACH: Class Time
In
class time we’ve strived to model transparency.
We’ve enjoyed sharing stories of how God has shaped us – and we’ve
enjoyed hearing stories of these things from the kids, too. We’ve shared about times when our hearts were
hard, or when we knew something was going to turn out bad but chose to do it
anyway. We’ve been learning about
prayer, and how it’s not enough to believe in God – we must follow him! After all, Pharaoh believed in God, asked for
prayer, and even repented – yet he chose not to follow God and was not
saved. We’ve learnt how God was writing
a story on the lives of the Israelite people that they were to share with
others – and he’s also writing a story on our lives, our testimony, that he wants
US to share with others!
OUR APPROACH: Family Ministry
One
hour a week could never be enough to build our children up in the faith. Deuteronomy 6 reminds us of what we are to
teach them: Yahweh is the One True
God. His commands are to be on your
heart. Your children and grandchildren
must fear YAHWEH your God as long as you live.
What follows next describes the means for passing on this knowledge to
generations yet to come. Moses describes
the model for spiritual parenting: “You
must love YAHWEH your God with all your heart…
soul… strength. And you must commit
yourself wholeheartedly to these commands…
Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home
and when you are on the road (no matter where you are!), when you are going to
bed and when you are getting up (morning and night), tie them on your hands
(what you do), wear them on your forehead (in your mind) and write them on your
doorposts and gates (let everything you do and see remind you – and talk about
it!).[3]
For
these reasons we’ve been building on TRUTH@HOME. This is a weekly family resource that gives
parents the chance to deepen their understanding at the adult level with the
same story that all their children have been studying. It helps us find answers to the difficult
questions our kids come home with. And
this year it has been made easier to use, as the discussion questions are
divided up by grade-level.
OUR PRAYER FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
Our
prayer is that by the time our children reach the challenging teenage years
that they will love the word, seek the truth, live for Jesus, be transformed to
his image, and rely on the Spirit, as they disciple others and care for the
lost and the poor. Amen!
Pastor Erin
I
will sing of the Lord`s great love forever. With my mouth I will make
your faithfulness known through all generations. Psalm 89:1
Great Resources for Further Reading:
Randy Stinson and Timothy Paul
Jones, Trained in the Fear of God: Family Ministry in Theological, Historical,
and Practical Perspective (Kregel:
2011), p. 35-37.
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