Elemental Children's Ministry

If you are a part of a church, you need to get this book! Collaborate is a unique collection of 35 leaders sharing their wisdom on how churches can more effectively work with parents to pass on faith to children and students.

I’ve been privileged to be able to work with the Minister’s Labelto get the word out about the book. I even got to write one of the reviews for the book’s page on Amazon! Here’s what I wrote:

From the wisdom of Michael Chanley and the Group of 34, you will read from a variety of different vantage points ranging from the gamut of practical programming to connect parents and church to principles surrounding an ethos of parental engagement and empowerment to insights on what it takes to be a leader who can help family and church come together for the sake of passing on lasting life transforming faith to children. This book truly is a collaboration. Each chapter is unique because each author is unique. As with any type of collaboration, you will find yourself agreeing and resonating with some of the authors and scratching your head when reading others. I think that is the beauty of this book. There is no one right way to approach family ministry. We are all located in different cultures and different contexts. Collaborate has tried to gather voices from some of those places and put them into one package. Whether you think you’ve figure out how to best reach families or you are new to the journey of what it means to truly engage the entire family, you need this book. It needs to be on the shelf of every person who works with children of all ages and their families in church!

Stop what you are doing right now, and pre-order Collaborate for everyone in leadership at your church! Seriously! Go do it now!

Popularity: 8% [?]

(photo originally uploaded to Flickr by sean drellinger)

As I mentioned in my previous post, my senior pastor sent me a couple of articles that sparked the series on Passing on Faith. The first article is from The National Post, written by Brendan T.N. Caldwell who is a CEO of an investment management company.

Click here to read the article.

I thought the parallel of passing on a financial inheritance with the passing on of faith to be a really good picture. Caldwell talks about going from “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” In other words, the first generation works hard to earn financial stability, the second generation enjoys and lives off of that, and the inheritance is gone by the third generation who needs to roll up their sleeves and start over.

“When it comes to faith, our nation is somewhere between the second and third generation. We still enjoy the benefits of a society whose ethics are rooted in faith, but we have forgotten how we got here and we may soon need to rebuild again.”

I think the above quote hits the nail on the head. Now, we can look at that assessment and become discouraged by it, or we can look at that and head into the challenge of “starting over.” While this may not be what we want to do, it is what is put before us.

“In a society that has largely forgotten God, how do parents pass along a spiritual inheritance to their children?”

I think Caldwell states something that is key to answering the question he poses. He reminds parents that our children first and foremost belong to God. He wants to be their father as well as ours, and it is our job as parents to introduce our children to him. We do that by sharing our God stories with them. We need to connect our children with community beyond us who hold the same beliefs and values we do. We also need to stay faithful ourselves be an example of a follower of Christ that our children see from day-to-day.

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I am so excited for this movie! If you haven’t read the books, you are missing out on a pretty accurate portrait of the mind of your “normal” junior high boy. Check out the books! And check out the movie trailer below:

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A few years ago, I was at a national gathering of children’s ministry leaders within the denomination I was serving at the time. While I was perusing the resources table I ran across this book called Postmodern Children’s Ministry. The term “postmodern” was just starting to gain momentum in church-world, and I was very interested to see what the author had to say. I read the back of the book and was hooked! I devoured the book and found resonance in what the author said about the state of children’s ministry and some of the things that needed to be changed. Children’s ministry was stuck in an attractional-based and informational model of teaching. Upon finishing the book, I was determined to meet Ivy Beckwith and pick her brain. Five years later, I still haven’t had the privilege of meeting Beckwith, but I do get to pick over her brain by way of her new book Formational Children’s Ministry!

Beckwith asks this key question at the beginning of the book:

“So what must it take to capture our children’s imaginations, and then souls, through the hope and magnificent love of God’s kingdom?”

Lest we fall back to our current paradigm of passing on Biblical information and values in hopes that life transformation follows the absorption of knowledge, Beckwith offers an answer that outlines what she tackles in the ensuing chapters.

“It takes people–moms, dads, Sunday school teachers, pastors, children’s directors, and youth ministers who themselves have had their imaginations captured by the kingdom of God. It takes being intentional with story, ritual, and relationships at home, in the faith community, and in worship with children. And it takes understanding the power of these elements to inspire and form children in to adults who not only desire to live in the way of Jesus but who daily make choices to live that way.”

Beckwith begins with the importance of story in spiritual formation. I agree with her that, too many times, we tend to dismiss the Bible as story because we mistakenly assume that the word story implies something is not true, namely the Bible. By distilling the Bible down to a bunch of historical facts, propositional truths and moral platitudes, we strip it of it’s ability to speak on it’s own to children. We also make it harder for children and families to find themselves in the story of the Bible. In addition to viewing the Bible as story, Beckwith also points out that spiritual formation occurs as we are able to articulate our own faith stories (personal and corporate). As we find words and images to talk about our daily walk with God, those stories make our faith more personal and real. The key with story as a mode of spiritual formation is that we need to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through the story itself; we shouldn’t be too quick to interpret or moralize the stories in the Bible.

Another aspect of spiritual formation that Beckwith points out is ritual. She states:

“Ritual shapes and transforms human personality and identifies individuals with the group involved in the ritual. Ritual binds people to communities through the group experience and binds people to the values of that community… And when that action is done with others who are doing the same thing, the action finds meaning that can lead to transformation.”

Beckwith makes the case that rituals are a way of physically grounding our faith as well as drawing a family and faith community closer together. Rituals connect our faith to the concrete by connecting abstract belief to physical actions. Children and families experience transformation as these rituals create space for them to connect with God apart from the busyness of life around them.

Lastly, Beckwith emphasizes the importance of relationships in spiritual formation. She begins with the need to help families carve out time to be together. This isn’t an easy thing since culture puts pressure on parents to involve their children in multiple activities in order to be “good parents.” Beckwith also reinforces her conviction that intergenerational relationships need to be fostered, and part of that is making room for children to be involved in corporate worship with the larger church community. In no way does Beckwith pretend that involving all the generations in coroporate worship is easy or even a hard and fast rule for successful spiritual formation. What Beckwith does emphasize, though, is that for spiritual formation to take place, both adults and children need to learn from each other what it means to worship together as a faith community. The final component in relationships as part of spiritual formation that Beckwith higlights is peer-to-peer realtionships. It is important for children to form relationships with other children who share their faith in order to be encouraged and grow together.

If you haven’t already guessed by now, I highly recommend this book to anyone who plays a part in the spiritual formation of children whether directly or indirectly. Ivy Beckwith sets forth an ethos that challenges how children’s ministry is done in most of North American churches. Formational Children’s Ministry is a call to reform how we view the passing on of faith to children.

The temptation with a book like this is to either jump in with both feet and begin changing things left and right or to dismiss the book as impractical and pipe dreams. I’d like to offer a third approach. Allow the philosophy of what it means to approach children’s ministry from a formational mindset begin to change how you look at what you already do. What changes can you make to take a step or two in the direction of making formation a priority over the scope and sequence of disseminating Biblical knowledge? What are you already doing to make space for the Holy Spirit to do what only he can do–life transformation–in the lives of children and families? Just like any kind of reformation, this kind of paradigm shift from information to formation is going to take time. I look forward to seeing the ripples this book will make in the world of children’s ministry.

NOTE: This book was provided to me by the generosity of Baker Books for the express purpose of being a part of the book blog tour for Formational Children’s Ministry. This, in no way, has biased my review either positively or negatively.

Popularity: 10% [?]

(picture originally uploaded to Flickr by Kenny Møller)

A while back, I hear Erwin McManus talk about a time he was speaking at a leadership conference. The speaker before him mentioned that a good leadership strategy was to be one step behind early adopters. The speaker compared it to discovering edible mushrooms. The mushroom tester dies when eating a poisonous mushroom, while the person who comes behind learns from the mushroom tester’s mistakes and improves on them. McManus tells the story that he walked on stage following that speaker and stated he wanted to be the mushroom tester because that’s where the edge of innovation and creativity is. I agree!

A month or so ago I posted this about being “innovative” in children’s ministry. That post was followed by a series on being dynamic, which started with this post. Recently, I ran across this article from the Harvard Business Review (one of the people I follow on Twitter mentioned it… unfortunately, I don’t remember who). It states that many times innovation can be killed by asking too many questions, especially questions precipitated by the phrase, “What about…”

The premise is that most of the time if we want to be innovative, we simply have to jump in and experiment and change as we go. We can get so caught up in analyzing possible scenarios that we never do anything. We don’t want something to fail, but we fail to do anything.

What’s keeping you from taking that next step in ministry to children? What questions do you need to simply put to rest and leap? Yes, there is something to be said about being strategic, but you never find out if something works unless you try it. What are you waiting for? Someone else to do it? Go ahead… eat the mushroom. What’s the worst that can happen? Death? Is that so bad? :)

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I ran across the following video on Internet Monk. It’s Os Guinness talking about the culture war in the US has contributed to the creation of new athiests. So sorry if you were expecting the other Guinness ;)

So, what are your thoughts?

We look at the stats of people dropping out of church as they graduate high school and are quick to point to all the externals: postmodern pluralism and relativism, lack of teaching a “Biblical worldview,” over secularization of media and society, etc. What if the problem is inside? What if the problem isn’t what we aren’t teaching? What if the problem is what WE ARE teaching?

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Back in December I was asked by Children’s Ministry Magazine to write an article about what apologetics might look like for kids today. This was a topic I was excited to tackle. For a while, I’ve been bothered by premise behind traditional apologetics that takes the standpoint that our faith needs some sort of defense so we guard ourselves and our children by arming them with “the truth.” We adopt a view that if we simply have enough information and can convince people that our information is truer than any other information out there then they will see the errors of their ways and enter into relationship with God. We live in a era where that no longer happens. In fact, the opposite is more true. People want a relationship first. They want to belong. Then if that relationship seems real and consistent and beneficial, they are open to belief. We handicap our children when we simply try to arm them with knowledge.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

When we unintentionally give children the message that their faith in God needs to be defended, we imply a faith that’s wimpy at best and devoid of truth or power at worst. Yes, we’re called to equip and empower children to stand firm in their faith, but the strength and confidence they need comes from a source more powerful than information and knowledge. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere–in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

You can check out the full article here.

If you don’t already do so, be sure to check out Children’s Ministry Magazine. It’s an amazing resource for those in ministry to children! And I’m not saying that because I have an article in there. It wouldn’t hurt, though, to buy multiple copies of the March/April issue and distribute it freely to friends, neighbors, and strangers you pass on the street :)

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(picture originally uploaded to Flickr by me’nthedogs)

For those of you who might not know, the title of this post is also the title of a very funny Monty Python movie… that is if you “get” Monty Python humor. I was going to post the trailer for the movie off of YouTube, but ruled against it :)

A little while back, I was headed to the district office for the Central District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada (wow, that’s a mouthful!). I had my handy GPS because I have a reputation for taking the scenic route. So, if you ever travel with me then you better have an adventurous spirit and be willing to leave early to get anywhere. Anyway, I had put in the address of the district office. When I got to the road I was supposed to turn on, there was MAJOR construction. I tried following the signs for the detour but ended up in the middle of what seemed like a secret base or something… maybe the Canadian version of Area 51… Needless to say, I got out of there quickly, called the district office and found my way to the office for my meeting.

Life seems to do that to me a lot… OK, GOD seems to do that to me a lot. I am happily going down my path, a path that I know God has me on, and all of a sudden there is a HUGE detour sign. The only thing is that the detour does not lead back to the path I was on… I end up someplace completely different! And that’s what has happened in the lives of the Zonios recently.

Let me go back a year… (cue the flashback sequence music) I was in southern California having attended the Idea Camp. I was on my way to the Pasadena gathering of Mosaic when all of a sudden I had the thought, “I could live in California again.” Immediately, my sub conscience retorted, “Uh, NO I CAN’T!” You see, I grew up in northern CA. When I got married and moved away, both my wife and I said that we really never wanted to live in CA again. That’s just how we felt. Well, ten years later and now I had this random thought that came out of nowhere… OK, maybe it wasn’t nowhere, but I wasn’t all too happy about having the thought.

When I got back to my hotel, I called Erin and told here about the thought. She said something like this, “Um, yeah…” Now, when your wife starts a sentence like that when you’ve told her about a crazy idea you’ve had, then you should immediately stop the conversation and return to your happy life! Well, that’s not what I did… I listened. “Um, yeah… I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. I’ve been having the same thoughts.” GREAT!

Well, it’s been a year of praying, listening, seeking out wisdom and looking for what God might be up to. This past Sunday, we announced to the congregation that we will be finishing up our time at Redwood and moving to Northern California as the end of June. (Don’t worry, I told my senior pastor two weeks previous.)

The obvious question, at least if it was me hearing this news, is, “So, what will you be doing?” In short, we’re still figuring that out. And the answer to your next question: “Yes, we are crazy.”

OK, there IS more to it than that. As we’ve been seeking out God in all of this, one of the things that has come up is my desire to go back to school. The plan is to pursue a Ph.D. in sociology with an emphasis on children, families and religion. With my growing passion in looking at the mutual interaction between culture and children’s ministry, I’ve found that I really need to dive head first into it. Ultimately, it’s my desire to teach at the university level, do research concerning children and families as related to the religious landscape here in North America as well as in other areas of the world. I would also like to enter more into the different conversations happening about what a missional or third way of doing church and christianity looks like.

Now, this move is more than just about me. God has speaking to my wife and children as well about what this move means for them and the story he is writing for our entire family.

In the meantime, we have MANY unknowns. We are definitely taking huge step of faith in doing this. We have to find a place to live (we’re sensing a call to live in the San Francisco East Bay Area), jobs (for both Erin and I not on a pastoral staff), acceptance into school… and that’s just the beginning! We are sad to leave here, excited about what God has for us, and scared out of our minds about the details. It’s an interesting mix of emotions. Please pray for us in the next few months as now we can begin working through the logistics of moving back into the US from Canada and to an area where we have to start from scratch.

I look forward to seeing what God is going to do. I know that it’s going to be a challenging path, but it’s definitely going to be an adventure!

As for this blog, this move really doesn’t change anything. I’ll still be connected into the CM world just from a different vantage point. And I think CM needs people seeing things from as many vantage points as possible.

Here’s to “chasing The Goose!” (You’ll have to read Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase.)

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