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I recommend …
Postmodern Children’s Ministry
Ministry to Children in the 21st Century
Ivy Beckwith
Zondervan Press 2004
ISBN 978-0-310-25754-7
“The church’s ministry to children is broken. A cursory look doesn’t reveal its brokenness. From the outside children’s ministry looks healthier than ever. But it is broken. It’s broken when church leaders and senior pastors see children’s ministry primarily as a marketing tool. The church with the most outwardly attractive program wins the children and then the [parents. It’s broken when we teach children the Bible as if it were just another book of moral fables or stories of great heroes. Something’s broken when we exclude children from perhaps the most important of community activities: worship. It’s broken because we’ve become dependent of and 18th century schooling model, forgetting that much of a child’s spiritual formation is affective, active and intuitive. It’s broken when we depend on our programs and our curriculum to introduce our children to God – not our families and communities. It’s broken when we’ve come to believe that church has to be something other that church to be attractive to children. It’;s broken when we spend lots of money making our churches into play lands and entice children to God through food fights and baptisms in the back of fire trucks. And perhaps more importantly, it’s broken when the church tells parents that its programs can spiritually nurture their children better than they can. By doing this we’ve lied to parents and allowed them to abdicate their responsibility to spiritually form their children. A church program can’t spiritually form a child but a family living in an intergenerational community of faith can. Our care for children is broken and badly in need of repair. Let’s imagine together a new way, a new future.” Page 13 Ivy Beckwith
Available in our resource centre … call Sarah … 9482 5700 ext. 180
In fact, this is the only resource that comes with a free cup of coffee IF you read it and IF you call me and IF it’s appropriate/convenient to meet up to discuss the issues raised in this book, I’ll provide the coffee!