Children in the Midst

Kids gathered on the floor to listen to Bishop Michel.

…Jesus called to himself a child - the essence of one who is powerless, dependent, needy, little, and poor. He placed the child ‘in the midst of them,’ as a concrete, visible sacrament of how the Kingdom looks. Jesus’ act with the child is interesting. In many of our modern, sophisticated congregations, children are often viewed as distractions. We tolerate children only to the extent they promise to become “adults” like us. Adult members sometimes complain they cannot pay attention to the sermon, they cannot listen to the beautiful music, when fidgety children are beside them in the pews. “Send them away,” many adults say. Create “Children’s Church” so these distracting children can be removed in order that we adults can pay attention.

Interestingly, Jesus put a child in the centre of his disciples, “in the midst of them,” in order to help them pay attention. The child, in Jesus’ mind, was not an annoying distraction. The child was a last-ditch effort by God to help the disciples pay attention to the odd nature of God’s kingdom. Few acts of Jesus are more radical, countercultural, than his blessing of children.

—Stanley Hauerwas, in his book Resident Aliens

In the archives are:
Making Room for Children in Church gives some practical guidance on how to make the worship experience more welcoming for children.

Teaching children the language of faith. A newspaper column on how and why we need to convey our faith to our children.

Recapturing child-like faith. A newspaper column on how children are not the future of the church, but an important part of the church now.

The Next Generation

Christianity, like all faiths, exists one generation away from extinction. We pass our faith on to the next generation or the next generation will not know about Jesus Christ. A recent survey by the Barna Group of households identifying themselves as Christians who have young children in the home found,

When asked to identify their biggest personal challenges related to faith or spirituality, the most common response related to raising moral children or youngsters with a strong faith. In total, one out of every seven parents (14%) who identified themselves as Christian listed this as their spiritual challenge. Only one other response - the need to personally invest more time in religious activities, such as reading the Bible or praying - was mentioned by at least one out of every ten parents (10%).

More than one hundred different responses were provided by survey respondents, reflecting the breadth of spiritual issues that Americans struggle with. Other categories of concerns mentioned included the desire to more consistently exhibit faith-driven behavior (8%); the need to be more involved in a church (7%); effectively dealing with the declining moral values and inappropriate media content in our society (6%); handling various lifestyle challenges that weaken their faith (5%); confidently coping with health matters (4%); and having a deeper or more substantive faith (4%).

When asked to rate eight specific challenges, the survey found:

One out of every three parents (34%) said having enough time to devote to their faith was a major challenge. Almost as many (30%) said helping their children to become more spiritual was a major challenge.

About two out of every ten parents listed each of the other six possibilities as major challenges. Those included enabling their spouse to be more spiritual (23%); growing spiritually, personally (21%); understanding what’s in the Bible (20%); finding a church or faith community that’s right for them (19%); getting a sense of direction from God (18%); and practicing the faith principles they had learned (18%).

If you wonder whether the report is accurate, it should be noted that a higher concern for the spirituality of children was noted in the southern region.

In his conclusion to the report summary, George Barna wrote,

Our studies show that the faith principles and practices that a child absorbs by age thirteen boldly shapes their spirituality for the duration of their life. Parents have a greater impact on that process than anyone else.

The full text is online here: Americans are not concerned about their spiritual nature.

In the archives you will find information on Making room for children in church and religion columns Teach your children well and Recapture child-like faith.