Lesson One Seek help!

Following on from last week - more from my thesis looking at what John Wesley can teach us about reaching children in the 21st century

In order to provide some insight  into how it is possible to learn from Wesley for ministry in the twenty-first century, I will focus on six of the lessons we can learn. In doing so I will develop them with those involved in children’s ministry, whether as a Children’s Ministry Leader, Children’s Ministry worker, local church Pastor or local church leader, in mind. These six have been selected as they have, I suggest, special significance for children’s ministry in the twenty-first century as it seeks to define its role within the wider mission of the church, being that of fulfilling the great commission. They are also of importance as the church seeks to determine the nature of the ministry God requires of it in respect of children today. Most importantly, I believe they are significant for the twenty-first century church to learn as it decides what its role is in the nurture of children’s faith.

With that said I must declare here that, with Wesley, I believe God requires that the church train children in holiness thereby fitting them to be in right relationship with God, both in this world and the next. Therefore, whilst it is impractical to consider these lessons in any great depth the detail provided here is, I believe, sufficient to enable the church, and in particular those called to be involved in children’s ministry, to consider and adapt them for their own situation. Having done so it is my hope that they will feel better equipped and empowered to fulfil the trust that God has placed in them to train children in holiness as Wesley defined it.

There is one final comment that I need to make before proceeding to outline these lessons. That is that I deliberately take a very emphatic approach in discussing them. I make no apology for that as I believe that if we are to follow in Wesley’s footsteps and train children in holiness as Wesley defined it (and I believe that we should) then it is imperative that we learn and apply these lessons. It is not a case that we “should” or “can” learn them, I believe we “must” learn them if God’s purposes for children are to be achieved in the twenty-first century.

Lesson One: Seek Help

The first lesson is one which happens not just at the beginning but throughout the whole process including review, or at least it should do. In Wesley’s case we know that he sought help, and was prepared to learn, from others. We know, for instance that he spoke with a number of sensible men as he considered the state of eighteenth century education. Wesley was also heavily influenced by educational thinkers of his time and those who had gone before including his mother, Comenius,  Locke, and Law for it was from these that he synthesised his ideas.

There was however one source of help which overrode all others. That source being God, who we saw, was pre-eminent in Wesley’s theology. It began, ended and was permeated throughout with the grace of God, emanating from the love of God. In response to that love Wesley required that all whom God calls, and entrusts with the responsibility to minister to children, must rely on God to be empowered for the task, must seek God’s help and guidance, and must remain accountable to God.

That call is as relevant in the twenty-first century as it was when Wesley made it over two hundred years ago. Likewise his example of seeking help, and learning from others is one that all involved in children’s ministry today would do well to follow.

Blessings

Pastor Pete

Children in the theology of John Wesley (Part 2)

Part 2 in my series from my thesis "as a little child: Children in the Theology of John Wesley. Today the rest of the Introduction to the chapter presenting lessons for the 21st century church.

There are also lessons of character. By this I mean that, throughout the development and implementation of his educational views, Wesley displayed qualities which included strength of character, perseverance, authenticity, initiative, a willingness to do what had to be done, loyalty to his ideals and in particular to his theology, and above all a total reliance on God. Each of these could be outlined in considerable detail as his character traits would serve as a model for how we should act in the twenty-first century. Wesley would possibly consider this appropriate, given his requirement that parents, preachers, and teachers model good Christian behaviour as an example for children to follow.

Furthermore he has much to teach us about working with God in the missio Dei in the world. In particular we can learn from his belief that “whenever the Holy Ghost teaches, there is no delay in learning.” This has, I believe, salutary lessons for how our theology impacts the development and nurture of children’s faith in the twenty-first century.

No doubt others will be able to identify additional lessons which emerge from this brief contemplation of firstly Wesley’s theology, secondly the place of children in that theology and finally how his educational endeavours were informed by his view of children in his theology. If that is the case then another of the aims of this thesis will have been achieved.

Each of these lessons can also be thought about from a number of perspectives. We could, for example, focus on the lessons as they are applicable to that part of the body of Christ which traces its ancestry, so to speak, to the ministry of John Wesley. At the other end of the continuum we could consider these lessons from the perspective of the individual. In between there are ministry, local church, national church, international church and other perspectives which could, and should, be focused on.

In order to do so, that is consider all the possible lessons which Wesley can teach us from all perspectives, would however require a volume of work which is not feasible within the parameters of this thesis. As such they must wait for another time.

More food for thought ??

Blessings

Pastor Pete

Children in the Theology of John Wesley

As many of you following this blog know I have recently completed my MTh. My thesis focused on John Wesley and children. I will publish that in full shortly but to give you a taste of what is to come I will drip feed much of my last chapter out here over the next few weeks. This chapter is titled Concluding Reflections and Potential Applications and presents 6 of the many lessons I believe we can learn from Wesley which may be useful for those called to children’s ministry in the twenty-first century.


Today - the introduction - Lessons for the Twenty-first Century (part 1)
The second major aim of this thesis was to identify lessons from Wesley which may be useful for those called to children’s ministry in the twenty-first century. It is to this which we now turn. As we do so we recognise that his recognition that God works with children as children and not as “little adults” provides the basis for the most important of the many lessons this practical theologian teaches us. We will discuss that lesson later but for now note that with Wesley as a “theological mentor” we have the advantage of being able to learn from both his theology and his practical implementation of that theology.

For instance and perhaps not unsurprisingly given my project management background, I see that Wesley provides us with a planning and implementation framework which, at least in most respects, could serve as a model for planning and implementing any facet of children’s ministry. Indeed it is a model which would be useful in many situations because Wesley, probably without knowing it, followed a reasonably standard project methodology covering planning, implementation and review.

However, not only can we learn from the process he employed, we can also learn from the actions that he took particularly in implementing his educational views. We could for instance discuss his lack of understanding of the value of play in childhood. There is also value in considering his willingness to wait for the right people rather than rushing to appoint someone for the sake of getting things happening. Lastly, his willingness to tie his expectations as regards education into the wider requirements he placed on members of the Methodist movement, and in particular those he placed on his preachers, provides further valuable lessons for us.

Food for thought I hope

Blessings
Pastor Pete

A rare opportunity - Input into Course content

If in two field ed courses you could introduce 12 topics (six per course) for children and family‘s pastors, what would those topics be?  Or at least what would you think absolutely must be included in those topics?

Imagine being asked this - how would you feel? I can tell you I was and am very excited. It's an amazing opportunity to possibly influence the development of a training opportunity for Children & Family Pastors / Leaders / Workers. As you can imagine I took hold of this chance with both hands. And here's what I've just sent in response with special thanks to Rosalea Cameron, Kathy Eddie, Amanda Mitchell, Viona Schulz and Kathryn Smith for their input and thoughts. The fantastic thing about all this input was how similar all our lists were.

But please don't ask me where this course is being developed because I'm not allowed to tell you yet. I will tell you as soon as I can

Blessings

Pastor Pete

Topic	Covering ...
Leadership / Mentoring others / partnership / team building	What does it mean to be a leader? Leadership styles and which are most effective in  different contexts. Team building - stages of team building, how to  deal with the stages, e.g. conflict. How to recruit, develop and work with a team of  volunteers.
Administration	Legal issues of child protection, disclosure etc., OSH; Writing & review of safety policies etc. Keeping rolls, recording leaders and children  details etc
Reflective Practice	Using professional frameworks that give insight  to the reciprocal nature of our interactions.
Strategic Planning	Developing and implementing vision
Pedagogy	Basic pedagogy Working with children, Teaching (preaching) techniques, Working with special needs, disabilities,  mental illness etc
Theological basis for ministry to children and the family.	Including a focus on the need for  transformational learning
Prayer and worship	Introducing children to prayer and teaching  children to pray Prayer during home visitation Personal prayer life as an essential  element of pastoral care The importance of praying for the children  and your team Teaching children to worship
Child Development	Developmental stages Child psychology Spiritual development of children What a child can comprehend at each  stage and the implications when planning  activities, programmes, teaching biblical  principles and spiritual truths.
Learning styles of children	Practical opportunities to design specific  lessons using each of the different learning  styles; Practical opportunity to evaluate learning  based upon the range of learning styles
Evangelism	How to evangelise children Nurturing the faith of children Discipleship
Ministry development including curriculum, resources	Mapping ministry rather than planning  programs (How to really consider and reflect  on how best to meet ministry goals and  how that might affect the volunteers required  to run it, including whether people in the  church's demographic can realistically be  asked to give that much (do we destroy  families to create "church"?) Developing the skills to evaluate/adapt/design  curriculum, resources etc designed specifically  for the unique needs of a local setting Practical experience through attachment to a  CEC Chaplain  or as part of a Bible In Schools  type programme
The family context	What to do in visitation etc Ministry to children in the context of the family. How to support families as they disciple their  children.

How to attract children to your Children's Ministry

Just got this and just have to share it - it's such a great idea. It's from Mary Kate Warner's Sunday
School Teaching Tips newsletter.

Sunday School Newsletter

Do you have a Sunday School Newsletter at your church? 

It just might be an idea that will help boost your Sunday School numbers:

Once a month, send your students home with a short newsletter explaining the upcoming events in Sunday school and the focus of the lessons.  By informing parents of activities and goals, they will be more
likely to believe in the power of Sunday school and commit to taking their child each week. 

This also helps you connect with parents and show that you are interested and involved in their children's lives.  With a connection comes trust, the best mechanism for increasing attendance.

More from her here
http://www.teachsundayschool.com/lessonplans-ar.html

Pastor Pete

The power of a caring parent

Have you ever been corrected by a 5 year old when you've been telling them a story from the Bible? I'm sure I'm not alone in having had this happen to me - and if you haven't it's bound to happen sometime if you stick with Children's Ministry!

A couple of weeks ago I was telling the kids at our 9:45 Live Kids service the story of Joseph. I was all prepared - I had the story written out so I could bring out the main points and the theme I was working on. All prepared to be able to take them through the story in a few minutes so they wouldn't get distracted (they are all pretty young and easily distracted).

Well  no sooner had I started when one 5 year old girl started telling us the story - in more detail than I had planned. And not only did she know the story she knew a lot of the nuances that older people often don't see. We heard all about Joseph's dreams, his trouble with his brothers, the trip to Egypt, Potiphar's wife (Ok she couldn't say Potiphar but we knew who she was talking about), Joseph in prison, his dreams and so on. She only stopped when she got to the point where Mum hadn't taught her yet! And that bit about being corrected - I got confused and she told me what I got wrong.

It soon came out that Mum had been taking her little girl through the story reading straight from the Bible. That's right Mum hadn't used a child's version of the story, or a story book - she had read straight from the Bible. Her little girl heard and understood and was able to tell others.

The power of scripture to reach into every heart and mind no matter how young - Fantastic!

Have you any similar stories that can inspire us - we'd love to hear them

Pastor Pete

Some good resources

Ok - I freely admit that this week has got away from me so I'm going to cheat with tonight's post. Well maybe not cheat but certainly take the easy way out.

A few weeks ago I subscribed to a "site" by Mary Kate Warner which offered tips and resources for Children's Ministry. Some great ideas have been coming through - even if they come through a bit too often sometimes! Here's one I got recently

"Here's an idea from my lesson plans that might come in handy...

When you are teaching the story of Moses leaving from Egypt, take your group on a "trip" as you tell the story.
  
Before the start of class, label the seven areas the Israelites traveled to.

Bring the students on a journey from Egypt to Israel!

The start is Egypt,
Ramese
Succoth
Etham
the desert road
the Red Sea
Home!

When the weather permits, I make some locations outside of the church so we can get some fresh air.

We then finish up with the Hieroglyphics art project which the kids LOVE.  (This craft activity is fully explained in the lesson plans, along with printable hieroglyphic "'codes" for your class to use)."



OK so she does want to sell her Sunday School plans but then so do most people / churches / organisations but if you want to get some great tips take up the offer to get a sample plan here http://www.teachsundayschool.com/sampleforyou.html


Then you too can get the tips she sends out - They come free - there's no direct pressure to buy her products and they've certainly given me some ideas.

Until next week - be encouraged that the work you do with children will pay enormous dividends both now and in the future


Pastor Pete