Children’s Ministry and Culture

I’m writing a piece for Children’s Ministry Magazine and on how our teaching methods unintentionally promote wrong attitudes toward scripture. I’m wrestling with the issue of one-point learning. 

The benefits of one-point learning are undeniable. By teaching less, the child retains more. We focus the child’s attention on one ascpect of God’s character and one way that who God is should inspire life-change.

But what if all of those ”one-points” (A child can take in 1-3 one-points a week depending on church, multiply that by 40-52 weeks a year of attendance, x’s a whole childhood of Sunday School Attendance) contribute to an atomized view of Scripture. What if we’re repacking scripture as a morality-tale-of-the-week instead of presenting one long story of salvation that invites a child participation in it?

How can we make sure that these one-points add up to make a greater constellation (salvation history), instead promoting an atomized view of the Bible?

I’m not abandoning the one-point teaching technique. But something must be added.   

 Edit: After a few days of mulling and a few emails with Dr. Wright of Children Evangelism Fellowship, I was able to finally clarify my thought. The issue isn’t the use of “the point”, but when the point is crafted. The application should be one of the last stages of the hermeneutic process. When we start with the point (topical teaching, also not a bad thing) we need to be careful not to commandeer a passage for our own purposes. Thanks to Dr. Wright and Keith. 

Finished the book last night. Closed the book more convinced than ever that the reasons that our ministries are not connecting with Outsiders is that we use our evangelical subculture as the point of reference as we design our ministries instead of being cognizant of the needs and perceptions of those outside of the church.

The data in unChristian explored those 16-29, those new parents who a decade ago turned to the church for parenting support, but who now wonder if we would turn their children into intolerant fundies if given half-a-chance. I’m becoming increasing convinced that our habit of reducing Biblical narratives into instructive moral dramas is clouding the gospel– that Jesus died to infuse us with an abundant quality of life and to reconnect us in relationship with God (which, yes, includes the overcoming of sin and sin nature).

1) Our curriculum needs to emphasize how Jesus responded to people– all people, the moral outcasts and those on the societal fringes. One of the unspoken desires of parents is that our children would chose good, safe friends. We want our children to make good moral choices that honor God. However, we subtly or not so sublty do this be labeling those with whom we disagree. I recently saw an advertisement for a “Follywood” VBS that made judgments about Hollywood and the values coming out of the studios. Certainly, discernment is vital. However, there’s a danger of teaching our children to demonize those who have not yet connected to Jesus.

2) Our curriculum needs to emphasize servanthood. We need to teach our children to serve those who are likeable and those who are not.

3) We need to emphasize the doctrine that Jesus died to reverse alienation. We need to hold up Christian heroes like MLK Jr. who referred to the Old Testament prophets as he shared his dream.

4) We need to teach children to befriend those non-biblical family structures. Christian children should the ones protecting the child of the homosexual couple from bullying.

5) Jesus’ work on the Sermon on the Mount needs to be taught with the same emphasis as his work on Mount Calvary. We need to teach children that following Jesus begin with conversion but continues in a life of following Jesus.

Everyone should know one great youth worker. I happen to have an office next to one. Jason posted this video of Rick Warren on the Colbert Report. Give it a view before reading on:

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=148506&is_large=true

Colbert said that most people’s vision of God was that of Donkey Kong throwing barrels down on people trying to reach the next level.

Funny stuff. But if the book unChristian is to be believed, then he’s not quite right. Still funny but not right.

I just cracked unChristian last night. Written by Davide Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian explores the attitudes of “outsiders” between the ages of 16-29. Kinnaman might correct Colbert and say that it is the Church who plays the role of Donkey Kong and stand between the common person and God. Says Kinneman:

“When outsiders claim that we are unChristian, it is a reflection of this jumbled (and predominantly negative) set of perceptions. When they see Christians not acting like Jesus , they quickly conclude that the group deserves the unChristian label. Like a corrupted computer file or a bad photocopy, Christianity, they say, is not longer in pure form, and so they reject it.” (page 29)

The outsiders six basic criticisms of Christianity are that we are 1) hypocritical; 2) Too focused on getting converts; 3) Antihomosexual; 4) Sheltered; 5) Too political; and 6) Judgmental.

This information becomes a challenge for the childrens minister when he or she recalls that the bulk of those being studied are those twenty-somethings– parents who would otherwise be filling our children’s ministries. Past church growth surveys indicated that teens left the church when they graduate from high school but often come back when when they start having children. The data in unChristian would indicate that this is becoming less true (Why would a parent subject their children to a group of people defined by those six negative traits).

How do you react to this information? How can your ministry respond to this challenge?

Religious fundamentalism, of any stripe, has been met with resistance for years. But 9/11 changed everything. For many, the war on terror is seen as a War of Fundmentalisms. And the antipathy has been rising.

The recent spate of anti-God books and the translation of the Golden Compass to the big screen all point to the reality that for many religion is seen as the disease and not the cure.

Try this. View this recent video of Tom Cruise espousing his convictions about Scientology.

How did you feel watching this video?

This is exactly how the unchurched feel in the prescence of our “Jesus is the only way to the Father” theology. I’m not suggesting that we drop core doctrine in some misguided marketing attempt.

But do you now feel the emotion barrier between the unchurched and the church?

Here’s a guestion for you all. How do we as children’s ministers help unchurched parents work through this barrier in order connect to Christian community and ultimately to Jesus?

 worked out with a guy from church for the first time. It was interesting.

I have a back belt in taekwondo. Will is a former Marine DI and has training in a half-dozen disciplines.

What I learned is that each discipline has a philosophy or presuppositions behind it.

Will was throwing round house kicks low. A thigh level. A definite no-no in tkd. And he aimed to strike with his lower leg. When he asked why he said that that’s a strong bone and it’s like hitting someone with a club. The goal is to get your opponent to not want to think about a take down. (You’d have to lower your head and shoulders into your opponents kicks.)

In TKD, round house kicks are for the ribs. The goal is to make your opponent drop his hands so you can get a shot at the face/head.

In Will’s mixed-maritial arts/ulitimate fighting deal the goal in his words was to make the guy want to vomit, to quit fighting, to get him to submit. In Olympic style TKD, the goal is to score points.

Striking was different. In TKD, you reach and fully extend the arm or leg in a strike. Why? To keep out of striking distance yourself (Score points without being scored on.) For Will, an fully extended arm is a broken arm.

The experience made me think about ministry. It’s impossible to seperate ministry goals from the methods. Mission and Ethos are (or at least should be) inseperable.

I also became aware of how my habits, culture, habits, and traditions can limit me. I don’t throw proper hooks (a punch) because it’s not (prominently) in my fighting tradition. But it’s an effective strike. One that I need to master.  I need to continue to look at other ministries and borrow techinques that can make me more effective (without damaging my ministry’s core culture.)

I also realized how out of shape I am.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-01-09-unchurched-survey_N.htm

 USA TODAY offers an insightful look at how the unchurched view Christianity. Organized religion (going TO church) is increasingly being seen as the problem. Here’s a blurb from the article:

A new survey of U.S. adults who don’t go to church, even on holidays, finds 72% say “God, a higher or supreme being, actually exists.” But just as many (72%) also say the church is “full of hypocrites.”

Indeed, 44% agree with the statement “Christians get on my nerves.”

LifeWay Research, the research arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, based in Nashville, conducted the survey of 1,402 “unchurched” adults last spring and summer. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.   

The study suggests unless our outreach to children stops being campus-centered we will fail to connect increasing numbers of children to Jesus. Backyard Bible Clubs, book clubs, or just unprogrammed friendships (gasp) with unchurched friends are more important than ever.

….

The article made me think of author Jim Palmer (”Divine Nobodies” and “Wide Open Spaces”). He’s made the personal choice to do churching as a social network in Nashville, TN (as opposed to creating a non-profit 503… an institution.) The several of the parents in his social network pooled together to create a class that used a version of the Good Shepherd Curriculum.  I wonder if “co-ops” like this could increase to help the children of those who don’t value campus-based expressions of church.

It’s a balmy 45-degrees in Erie, PA in January which never happens. So I sat on my front steps and read the Jan 14, 2008 ESPN MAG from cover-to-cover.

Tom Farrey wrote a brilliant article entitled “Made In America” on Bill Belichick. I happen to have little-to-no respect for Belichick after Spy-Gate. My antipathy is probably because I’m an Eagles fan and I have to wonder if Philadelphia was robbed of a Superbowl because of his cheating. But I digress.

Farrey writes with a strong historical perspective on sports and associates Belichick’s philosophy of coaching with Social Darwinism. So for Belichick, winning is morality.

On the other hand, Farrey associates Belichick’s counterpart, Coach Dungy with “Muscular Christianity.” Which in Farrey’s mind is a reaction to feminized Christianity (John Eldridge of the Wild At Heart fame makes the same arguments). If Belichick is a product of Darwin, then Farrey sees Dungy the child of Teddy Roosevelt, a “muscular Christian” who was influential in the creation of the YMCA which promoted sport as a way to develop strong Christian character.

Farrey has a book coming out in May of 2008 which is worth watching if your children’s ministry has a sports outreach entitled, Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children (ESPN Books). I suspect that Farrey will be tracing these two streams of sports philosophy and how they influence children’s sports programs in America.

If you are a subscriber of Children’s Ministry Magazine check out Keith’s article on using sports for outreach in the archives.

Eric, from Mosiac, just shot me two articles for Children’s Ministry and Culture. I’ll post one this week and one next. Eric’s article “Iraq War Improvement” captures a theme that I’ve been struggling to articulate with discussion on how to respond to Pullman’s work. Keith and my goal hasn’t been to defend His Dark Materials, but to recommend conversational/relational approach to engaging our culture. Eric prescribes a strategy of daring to venture out of our camp and getting to know the people we claim to be the business of reaching…

Iraq War Improvements (A Lesson for the Church)

No matter what side of the political spectrum and no matter what one’s opinion of the war in Iraq may be, Americans across the board agree that our troops deserve our support in the midst of such a challenging task.After so many depressing reports from Iraq over the last few years about the violence our troops face along with the news we seemed to constantly hear about insurgent fighters, suicide bombers, and sectarian fighting, it seemed like we were stuck in a never-ending civil war. It has been quite encouraging to hear of the recent downturn in the violence. News reports seem to indicate a remarkable turning point towards real progress.

US reports ‘phenomenal’ drop in Iraq violence

Baghdad’s Weary Start to Exhale as Security Improves

Commander: Citizens, extra troops help ‘crush’ al Qaeda in IraqReturnees Find a Capital Transformed.

What was the breakthrough? Many feel it has been the troop surge.  Others suggest it has been the result of locals expelling al Qaeda from their areas.  

The answer behind the progress is actually quite surprising.Former Lt. Pete Hegseth (Exec. Director of Vets for Freedom) was asked for his opinion on FoxNews on Nov. 12th.  He responded with the following: “Everybody I am talking to and experience tells me it is the new counter-insurgency strategy…. We’ve taken troops out of the big bases and pushed them into the population. They are creating the relationships and they’re gathering the intelligence necessary to find these weapons and insurgents and create the space for Iraqis to stand up….”Military intelligence has been augmented and improved with relational intelligence.  So much more needs to be done and there is still quite a bit of instability, but how encouraging to know progress is being made through developing relationships.   

What a great lesson for the Church! How much more effective in serving the world and helping make the world a better place if those who follow Jesus left the “bases” and moved into relationships! 

At best, believers try to invite others to join them for an event or a program at the church building.  Christians using this approach seem to be communicating that relationships are acceptable on their own turf. 

(more…)

I saw the Golden Compass Movie on Sunday with my children’s church leader, Bill Mason. My impressions of the movie was that it was average at best. The lackluster reciepts this weekend reflect this. Contrary to movie reviewer Jeffrey Overstreet (whom I respect deeply), I thought that much of the anti-religious themes had been successfully scrubbed away.

Yes, the terms like “heretic” and “Magestarium” were used. Yes, they have theological meaning. However, the Golden Compass book made references to the Vacitan, directly referenced Genesis 3 in a negative light, and attempted to debunk the doctrine of original sin. None of those references made the movie. A child would need to have an unusually detailed knowledge of Catholic theology to pick up on Pullman’s antagonism toward religion. 

I will say that I have no idea how New Line Cinema will be able to edit out the anti-religious plot twists that await in the next two books. I do believe that New Line Cinema’s bottom line is making money and not making truth claims. I suspect that the necessary edits have already been worked out for the next two film installments. A movie studio is not driven by ideologues, but by capitalists.

I say it again, I’m not defending these books. The books don’t require a rocket scientist to decode their meaning. Neitchze, anyone?

My beef is that the church’s reponse validates Pullman’s critique that the church supresses critical thought.  Here’s a story for you. A parent told me that his daughter’s Christian school teacher told the children that the movie was bad, so bad that if you watched it that you would be bad also.

A child asked the teacher why this was. The teacher’s response was that the movie was simply too bad to talk about.

Which is exactly one of the points that Pullman is making: Christians are afraid of critical thought.

I blogged on the Willowcreek Conspiracy Conference blog to talk about why we need to care about taking the time to understand our culture.

Here’s a Golden Compass FAQ that I wrote for my own congregation. The content is below. Feel free to download and distribute the pdf though.

Here’s an FAQ that I wrote for families in my congregation. I prefer Keith’s suggestion of a dicussion board. Unfortunately our family message board isn’t scheduled to go online for a few months.

Is the Golden Compass Movie anti-God?

Not anymore. Philip Pullman’s Trilogy, His Dark Materials, takes a decidedly negative tone toward organized religion. However, New Line Cinema, became aware of the books’ plotline and demanded a re-write. The studio invested $180 Million into making The Golden Compass and couldn’t risk a boycott. The antagonist in the movie is not longer “the Church” or a senile God, but a totalitarian government.

 So the author of the books, Phillip Pullman, is anti-God?

That’s not a fair statement. If you kick around his website, Pullman seems to place value in religious experience. I can’t tell from his writing if he believes that there is a supernatural power on the other side of our religious experiences or not. What is obvious is that Pullman believes that there is a great limit to what we can know about God. So it is fairer to categorize Pullman as an agnostic– an agnostic who has a strong dislike for the Christian faith.

A quick read through Pullman’s website reveals his strong disdain for how religions, such as Christianity, are configured. His convictions about how little we can know about God cause him to view Christian theology and moral judgments as arbitrary and man-made. He views the clergy as agents of control and opponents of human freedom. He seems to rail against Christianity the most, but probably because it’s the dominant religion in Western Cultures.

 Do the books have demonic themes? Didn’t he write these books as a response to the The Chronicles of Narnia?  

No. There are fictional creatures in the books called daemons. The “daemon” is a character out of Greek mythology and shouldn’t be confused with the demons of the Bible. In Greek mythology a daemon can be good or bad. In Pullman’s world, a daemon is a creature that bonds with a human and serves as their assistant or guide.

Pullman is open about his dislike for the Narnia books. He’s repeatedly called them “poison.” He claims the books are misogynistic. I suspect his biggest objection is that C.S. Lewis communicated the Christian story so well in these books. Regardless, is not a sin to dislike C.S. Lewis.

Milton’s Paradise Lost is actually the work that inspired His Dark Materials (“His dark materials” is a phrase from Milton’s poem). In Paradise Lost sin enters the world when Adam and Eve give into temptation and bite the apple. Pullman turns the story on its head and casts the eating of forbidden fruit as a good thing—the key to gaining more wisdom.

The Christian reader will turn his or her mind to Genesis 3 and see that Pullman is echoing same logic offered by the serpent.   

Shouldn’t our church organize itself to boycott the movie?

I’m sure you’ve noticed that Grace hasn’t boycotted anything. That’s because boycotts tend to shutdown meaningful conversations between parties. Grace’s bias is toward starting conversations with unchurched people. (Not to shill my books, but I do have a chapter on this topic in my latest book Divine Intention: How God’s Work in the Early Church Empowers Us Today.)

Boycotting the “Golden Compass” would be particularly confusing to bystanders since all the anti-religion themes have been purged the movie.

 Should I let my child see the movie or read the books?

Grace doesn’t intend to make that decision for you. My hunch is that reworked movie will be harmless fun. As a dad, I wouldn’t let my elementary aged son read the book. I personally wonder if elementary school aged children are able to tell the difference between an attack on God and a critique of organized religion.

Now I might actually recommend that a parent read the books with his or her middle- or high-school aged children. This could be a positive and fun way for a teenager to explore beliefs that run counter to Christianity. As a parent, you’d have a new opportunity to answer your child’s questions about faith.

 Have you read the books, Larry?

I’m nearly finished with “The Golden Compass.” I’ve already shared my concerns about the books. Here’s what I appreciate. Lyra, the protagonist, is a strong female character. There aren’t enough of these in children’s literature, I think. And even though I believe Pullman goes too far in his opposition to organized religion, I like his hostility toward religion as a form of control. Some of the Old Testament Prophets, such as Samuel and Malachi, made similar attacks when the clergy used their power to exploit people.