Doing different
Seven months ago, life looked very different.
In the first weeks of this year, I was involved in the Sunday morning children’s ministry in my own congregation. I was also travelling around and helping congregations across PCI to think about how to disciple children.
And then everything changed. Church stopped. Children’s ministry stopped. Life stopped in many ways.
Seven months have now passed. Let’s state the obvious. Things are different. We cannot meet in children’s ministry the way we used to. From passing around Bibles to handing out snacks to playing games and gathering into small groups, things are different. It all looks different.
But different does not mean doom and gloom.
Different means that we have an amazing opportunity to look at what we do and think about how we can disciple children in new and creative ways. Different means that we have a new opportunity to assess what we do and think about what is good and what might need to change. Different allows God to hone what we have, knock off a few rough edges and give us the imagination and insight to see what is really important about what we do as we disciple children.
What has not changed?
There are several things that have not, and will not, change.
Firstly, God has not changed. He is still faithful. He still loves his church. He still wants to draw people - and that includes our children - to him.
Secondly, families are still vitally important in discipling their children. The Bible encourages parents to share their faith with their children in the everyday of life.
Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says,
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Thirdly, congregations still need to partner with and support parents as they do this. Maybe we need to think more about how we can support parents than ever just now. What can we provide to help dads and mums to have the confidence to share their faith? How can we be praying for them? What resources do we have to help children feel part of the wider family of the church and learn from others about faith?
A rare moment of opportunity?
Over the years I have often asked congregations what they would do in children’s ministry if they had a blank sheet of paper. If all the activities and organisations for children in church stopped, what would a congregation actually plan and use to disciple children and support parents? The answers are always interesting, but then someone usually says, “of course we cannot do that because we do have organisations in place and we can’t stop or easily reshape them.”
The last few months have been challenging in all sorts of ways but they have also given us an amazing opportunity to get out that blank sheet of paper and think how to do things differently because everything has actually stopped.
Families
Families have experienced a mixed bag over the last 6 or 7 months. Home schooling, working from home, furlough, lockdown, all of these things have presented new challenges for many. In the normal busyness of life and particularly with all the upheaval of the last few months, home discipleship may have been one of the things that has suffered.
Reading the Bible and praying with our children is really important as we share faith together at bedtime, mealtimes and as we do church together either online or in person. However, the part of discipleship that may be even more significant is the everyday conversations as we are walking together, dealing with an anxiety or just in answering the many questions about life that children have.
These moments are when parents get to share faith in the everyday and we want to encourage parents to take those opportunities in conversation with their children. It may at times feel clunky but the more we practice, the easier and more natural it becomes. It is in these exchanges in the ordinary that faith is shown to be and everyday part of life and that God can work so significantly to ground it in the lives of our children.
Children’s ministry
Children’s ministry in church over the next months will look different. We can use Zoom to disciple our children and have conversations with them about faith. Parents can follow these up with their children to increase the impact.
We can do what we have to so as to put in place measures to allow us to meet face to face with children. So much of our ministry is about relationship and it is hard to continue to build that without seeing each other. Guidelines are available here to help you think about how to do that safely.
However, let’s not think that online ministry has no impact. In one congregation, several children came to faith in the first weeks of lockdown when the children’s ministry was beamed into homes through a YouTube video each week. God uses what we are willing to offer him to impact the lives of his children.
Leadership that leans in
This season of changed ministry also allows our ministry teams to connect with and pray for our children in a different and more intentional way. Our children, families and wider community have dealt with a lot over the last months. As leaders, not only can we plan a new way of doing children’s ministry and refine - and maybe also redefine - what we do, but we can lean in to speak into the lives of children and their families differently and intentionally as we navigate the next months. Maybe that requires developing a more pastoral, rather than programme driven, approach. Maybe it’s about taking time to sit down and listen, rather than rushing to set up a microphone to speak. Maybe it’s about less time preparing and more time caring.
Sharing the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord
So let us grasp together the opportunity that we have been presented with and refine the ministry that we are involved in. Why? So that even through this season of disruption, we might continue ‘to tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done’ (Psalm 78:4).
Ruth Bromley is the Presbyterian Church in Ireland's Children's Development Officer.
This blog is part of the digital programme series, Refined, to help move our denominational conversation on from what was needed to initially respond to the Coronavirus pandemic, to seeking God’s leading and guiding for this next season of church life together.
Visit the Refined hub here.