Rethinking My Philosophy of Children's Ministry

A few years ago I went to a Children's Ministry conference presented by a curriculum company called ReThink. This group of committed ministers had begun to "rethink" the way Christian education and spiritual formation is pursued within our churches. They had some really good stuff. It fit with what I knew. For me, I probably hadn't been in ministry long enough to "rethink" my philosophy of ministry, I was still thinking quite hard on the one that I thought was the best.

Now, a few years later, I can say that I have and will continue to go through the process of "rethinking" what ministry looks like to children. There are several running themes that drive my questions:
1) Why do 8 out of 10 kids drop out of church, most walking away from God altogether, by the time they are 18 years old?
2) Why do I have youth minister and adult minister friends who constantly say they are concerned about the Biblical illiteracy they find in our classooms?
3) And, the follow up to that question, are they trying to say children's ministry isn't doing the job right, either?
4) What should kids know about the Bible, about faith, about God's work in the world, about rightful living, and absolute truth?
5) If spiritual formation occurs when we "practice being a Christian over and over again" as a book I'm reading by Ivy Beckwith suggests, what does that look like in the home, in Bible class, in worship, and in extracurricular activities that we have designed to bring children closer to Christ?

I'm going to keep thinking about these questions. But, I think I'm coming to a few conclusions based on one assumption, each activity that attempts to teach our children to be fully devoted Christians, must have a role in the life of the child.

I recently wrote a response to a couple of chapters in a Beckwith's book, Formational Children's Ministry, for a book club I'm part of in which I was trying to describe the result of this inward struggle.

"As church leaders have worked so hard to make the Bible relevant and to engage and support parents , I think we have blurred the lines of responsibility in the process of spiritual formation, creating a system that produces moral and maybe even spiritual children, but many times, Biblically illiterate children. And, in some cases, I think we are, perhaps unintentionally, still communicating to parents, "we don't trust you to do this yourself".

So, I'm rethinking. I'm rethinking the role of the educational classes at our church and what responsibilities do I as the minister leading their class have to our children. I'm rethinking what I expect our parents to do in their homes, perhaps holding them to even a higher standard, knowing that a majority of the example of Christian living for the child comes from the parents, as well as instruction, accountability and teaching spiritual disciplines. I'm rethinking the role of extra-curricular events in light of the idea that Beckwith presents in her book that spiritual formation occurs when we "practice being Christian over and over again". Perhaps, activities of service and fellowship are a great environment for this "practice" to occur.

More to come ...