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% [?]

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% [?]

A little while back I received an email from Chris Tomlinson asking me to be a part of a book blog tour for his new book, Crave. From his bio, Chris is a graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy and the UCLA Anderson School of Business. He is a businessman and writer who desires to see people realize the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus. It is this desire that motivated Christ to write Crave.

At the opening of the book, Chris talks about a picture of a boy devouring ice cream. It is all over his face and the front of his clothing. This picture happens to be taped to his television to remind him to desire God as much as this boy desires chocolate ice cream. After this beginning, Chris launches an honest account of his journey to surrender more and more of his life to God. He uses many personal stories and illustrations to depict each step of his journey. In so doing, Chris’ desire is for more people to journey along with him and come to desire God above all else.

As I read the book, I appreciated Chris’ honesty and openness at his journey. He doesn’t pretend to be a “spiritual giant.” In fact, some might read the book and find it uneventful. This book, though, is a great encouragement to those who, like Chris, might struggle with what it means to hear God regularly and step out in faith to obey him from moment to moment. If you get discouraged by much of the literature our there on Christian living because it seems unattainable or unrealistic, then you just might resonate with Chris and his journey in Crave.

You can check out more about Chris at http://www.cravesomethingmore.org.

Thanks to Harvest House Publishers, I have two copies of Crave to give away. Simply leave a comment to have a chance to win one of the copies. I will randomly choose a winner on Sunday, February 21.

NOTE: I was provided with two complementary copies of Crave by Harvest House Publishers for review and giveaway purposes. I have in no way been compensated to skew my review either favorably or unfavorably.

Popularity: 9% [?]

(photo originally uploaded to Flickr by Christine ™)

Those oranges in the picture above are standing and clapping… Get it? They’re giving a standing orange-vation… standing ovation… orange and ovation… OK, fine! I thought it was funny when I first thought of it.

I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to the contributors for the Think Orange project.

• Stacey Windover
• Amy Dolan
  
• Theresa Haskins
• Matt McKee
• Matt Guevara
  
• James Giroux
• Cash Hunter
• Kendra Golden
• April Smith
• John Mullis
• Diana Loach
• David Scott

Be sure to check out all of these brilliant and generous people. Without them, this project would not have happened!

Thank you also to all of you who contributed and tweeted and read. It definitely is humble privilege to know that you are reading this blog and using it to share ideas with each other.

If you did not have a chance to read any of the posts to this Think Orange blogging project, here are the links:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
  
• Conclusion
  

ALSO DON’T FORGET!!! You can win a FREE REGISTRATION to The Orange Conference for 2010 simply by participating in the discussions in the above posts. For each time you comment, your name will be entered into a random draw for a free registration. You have until 12:00 a.m. EST on Friday, February 12, 2010 to comment. I will announce the winner on Monday, February 15.

Popularity: 9% [?]

(photo originally uploaded to Flickr by stirwise)

Today we are concluding our group blogging project through Think Orange with some steps to Orange-ify. The contributor for this review is David Scott. According to David’s blog profile, he is a husband, father, computer-geek, and former pastor. His goal is to live simply, give generously and love personally. David is the author of The Gospel Playboy blog.

Steps to Orange-ify

When I looked over the “Steps” section at the back of “Think Orange”, I was a little taken aback. One page. One measly page of seven steps. Thinking back over our church’s experience implementing Orange philosophies over the past six years, I thought, “there’s room for a whole other book here”.

But as I let Carey Nieuwhof’s section rattle around in my head for a while, I realized there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for implementing Orange concepts. Every church is different just as every family is different. I can tell you what worked or didn’t work in my context, but you’ll have to look at your situation and plan accordingly.

Carey’s points are broad, but appropriately so:

1. Discover: This is a time of dreaming, exploring what connecting parents and the church might look like in your context. It’s a time to ask questions and pray. For us, this started with a group of parents who stumbled on Barna’s “Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions”. It absolutely changed our paradigm. A group of 10 or so parents and staff members met weekly to flesh out what it would mean for our church to change from “children’s ministry” to partnering with parents. It was a challenging process, but it was one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of.
2. Define an action plan: Now that you’ve dreamed of what you want, how do you get there? What’s your strategy? What has to change in order for you to achieve “victory”, the achievement of your vision? Our group went on a fact finding mission, looking at how other churches were implementing family ministry. We sent a team to Northpoint’s “Grow Up” conference to explore their strategy. We looked at the things that were non-negotiable about our overall church and discipleship vision. Fortunately for us, a small church, defining change was relatively easy. Our entire staff was on board, willing to do whatever needed to be done. The big question was, Will everyone else be willing? We did our best to hammer out the details before presenting our plan.
3. Which brings us to Communicate. Your core team has come together to dream and plan, you’ve hammered out a strategy, but now it’s time to cast the vision for your church and families. You listen, you adjust, and then you communicate some more. This communication and feedback is ongoing. You have to recast that vision so that you don’t lose momentum. We did this by sending a team to each of our small groups to personally cast the vision in a setting that allowed for close feedback. We had some great questions, some of which we hadn’t thought of or explored.
4. Reorganize: Budgets, staff, competing programs, and even locations and times may need to be changed in order to accommodate your action plan. A great point Carey makes here is “Don’t just think addition, think subtraction.” That’s huge. Often attempts at family ministry become an add-on program to an already busy church. When that happens, volunteers, budgets, and staff are stretched, and competition for resources sets in. Simplify. It’s OK to kill a few programs.
5. Develop: Time to train your staff and volunteers, not just new skill sets, but also passion. You have to show your people how they fit into the big picture. It may not seem like a big job to be a part of the “sign-in” crew for the family production, but you can develop the vision in your volunteers to help them see what a critical role they play in making children and families feel welcome in what should be one of the best experiences of the week. Make sure you plan your training strategy so that when your people begin taking their place in the vision they feel confident in what they’re doing, so that they can “win”.
6. Promote: For some churches, “Orange” may be scary. It may be a huge change in philosophy. We abandoned Sunday school for our kids and most of our adults for our new Orange platform. (Man, some people take that personally!) So you have to help the wider audience, both your church members and the general community, understand what you’re doing and why. Be creative. Dream. Find ways to communicate your passion for what is about to happen, being sure to include your audience in how they fit into the picture.
7. Finally, Launch. How do you know when it’s the right time to launch? I’m not sure you can ever know. It may be too early or too late. There’s a magical balance between being under prepared and overly prepared. It’s your job as a leader to make the call. It will be scary, but through prayer, preparation and wisdom, lead your team. “Think Orange” makes a great point about listening and watching. Especially at the beginning, you’ll see lots of opportunities for change: things you didn’t think about, things you thought would work but didn’t. You’ll hear of strategies that worked better than you could have imagined that you can use elsewhere. Watch, listen, and change.

The time between our first committee meeting and the time of our launch was a whirlwind. In retrospect, we probably launched too soon. We had a three months to implement steps 2-7. That includes creating and communicating a strategy, building out environments, recruiting and training volunteers, re-staffing, etc. It was insane. What I can say is that the passion generated by our small group of parents during the “Discover” phase was so intense that it made the implementation and launch manageable. We were a part of something huge that God was doing for kids, for families, for our church, and for our community. Six years later we continue to grow and change our ministry, but the growth and change in our kids has been incredible.

What phase of implementation are you in? If you’ve already launched, what are some of the experiences you had in implementation? Where did you fail? What worked for you? Share your experience with us.

You can check out the other posts in this project:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10

Popularity: 24% [?]

(photo originally uploaded to Flickr by charsplat)

Today we are taking a look at chapter ten of Think Orange entitled “Essential #5 Leverage Influence.” The contributor for this review is Diana Loach. Diana is the Director of Children’s Ministries at St. Giles Kingsway Presbyterian Church in Etobicoke, Ontario and has recently joined the team of Resource Consultants with David. C. Cook. You can connect with Diana on Twitter by clicking here.

One of the things that the church has very carefully done in past generations is to create learning environments. We have structured classrooms, and chosen curriculum resources that have our students work through their notes. Chapter 10 has the reader take a look at how we can “Leverage Influence” – a thought-provoking challenge to “create consistent opportunities for students to experience personal ministry”.

Reggie begins the chapter by having us ponder the mountain climbing teaching method that never has the student climb the mountain – just read about the fundamentals, hear from people who have been to the mountain top, and look at pictures from climbing expeditions. Why would one expect the book taught climber to be able to venture up the face of the mountain successfully. It just seems ridiculous, doesn’t it.

Yet, that’s just what we have done with our students experience of God. The truest way to learn where we fit in God’s Story is to actually find our place in it. I have long been a supporter of having teens work with the younger students in children’s ministry. It truly benefits everyone – the younger kids strive to “keep up” with the teens, and the teens develop leadership skills and get to see their faith grow through action. By engaging our teens in active ministry opportunity we ensure for them:

• a dynamic faith in God (that’s wonder).
• a personal identity in Christ (that’s discovery).
• a responsive heart toward others (that’s passion).

It is through these foundations that parents and leaders will “…see the Greatest Commandment show up in their kids lives, and by when that happens, the family wins, and the church has done it’s job.”

We are doing a great disservice to our youth if we never let them develop into the lamp stands that God has called them to be…if we teach them to recite the Great Commission, but never give the hands on skills to live that directive. It’s a little like climbing a mountain after only reading the handbook – we have to learn from someone who’s been there.

You can check out the other posts in this project:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Conclusion

Popularity: 12% [?]

(photo originally uploaded to Flickr by Thomas Hawk)

Today we are taking a look at chapter nine of Think Orange entitled “Essential #4 Elevate Community.” The contributor for this review is John Mullis. John is the children’s ministry director at Arvada Covenant Church in Arvada, CO. John has been in education for 18 years, 10 of which are as a children’s ministry pastor. You can catch John on Twitter by clicking here.

Elevate Community has the dream that is fresh air and a breath of life to parents who are struggling to raise their kids. They say with intensity, “I want this for my son.” These are the thoughts that inspire leaders who have shepherding gifts. This is the material that helps me sound like a visionary genius when I talk to shepherd leaders about the impact they can have on the life of a child.

My kids are 17, 16, 15 and 13. I have 4 teenagers. (cue music. dramatic pause)

The last few years of life have forced me to struggle to grow up. I feel more like an adult than I ever have. I’ve also felt more inadequate and realized my need for help more than I have before. As the father of these fantastic, hormone guided not quite adult teens, I am thankful, grateful and blessed that they have people in their lives that are saying the same things I’m saying. I depend on it. When one of my teens pushes me away, holds me at an arm’s length or doesn’t want to hear what I have to say, I lean on the community my kids have with other adults who will say the same things in their lives that I’m trying to say as a parent. At Thanksgiving, my 15 year old son, Max, expressed his thankfulness for a group of friends in his youth group that help him and care for him. This is an essential truth of elevating community in ministry.

Before you gather with your small group leaders to cast vision and motivate them, prepare for that meeting by reading chapter 9. Take notes. Think about it. Soak it in and let the thoughts become yours. Or, at least take the book with you and read some of these main points:

When you elevate community as a part of your ministry strategy –

• You recognize the need for multiple voices – this happens when kids care about what another adult or their peer says more than what their parents say.
• You cooperate with how God grows people spiritually – God uses significant relationships to prompt or encourage us.
• You help children and students navigate through critical life situations – caring adults will help kids interpret life situations correctly.
• You recruit and nurture a different breed of spiritual leaders – the commitment level of volunteer leaders increases because their service is more meaningful.
• You do something that nothing in culture can match – culture can outdo the production of the church but it can’t outdo the relationships of the church.
• You provide reinforcement to the parent – a place where kids can show up and be safe and have meaningful dialogue with a trusted adult.

Elevating community takes time and serious effort from ministry leaders like us. It takes determination. As leaders we have to fight the tide of “easy.” There is no “easy” button. We have to battle people saying, “Can’t you just ask parents to serve once a month? You’ll get a lot more people that way.” Have you ever heard that? But people will respond when we lay out the preferred future for our children and how we connect them with caring leaders. We pray for this a lot. I’ve seen the quality of the leader and the quality of the ministry rise over time as our team cranks up the heat on the passion of a person that has the gift of shepherding . I also believe high powered people will be attracted to your teams. People that want to make a serious impact in the life of a child or student for eternity are interested in a big vision. The big effort has big rewards in the life of children, students and leaders.

“Children and students need the skills to navigate through difficult obstacles and the right voices to give wise direction. Everyone needs to be believed in by someone, and everyone need to belong somewhere. True community provides both.”

Elevate Community

You can check out the other posts in the seires:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 10
• Conclusion

Popularity: 15% [?]

(picture originally uploaded to Flickr by RottyM)

Today we are looking at chapter eight of Think Orange entitled “Essential #3: Reactivate the Family.” The contributor for this review is April Smith. April is the preschool minister at Church of the Way in Lawrenceville, GA.

When You Combine 2 Influences You Build An Everyday Faith

I love Halloween! It’s probably my favorite holiday. I love the laughter! The candy! The costumes! The excitement and imagination in the air! All the orange! The way kids and parents hang out together. In chapter 8 Reggie proposes what if church were more like Halloween? Holidays are built around the idea of family. What if churches were? What if everything we did focused on equipping parents to be the spiritual leaders in their homes? What if we really believed in them? What if we partnered with them?

Chapter 8 discusses how every parent we meet should be seen as a partner with our ministry, but they may be partnering at different levels. There are four levels that help us know where parents are, so we can help them move to the goal of being the spiritual leaders in their homes. We as leaders have the responsibility to equip parents to be the spiritual leaders in their homes. “Will we measure the parents we meet by our ideal standard of what a family should be, or will we see them as a part of God’s story of redemption and restoration?”

Aware – Parents are concerned about a particular situation or development. They are outside the church but open to it. They might reconsider church if they thought it was relevant to the moral or spiritual development of their children. They want to become better parents. Unfortunately most churches are more concerned about focusing inward to the needs of parents who are already in the church.

Involved – Parents have a basic relationship with the church. They may be just bringing their kids to church but they are taking steps to influence their kids spiritually. They feel better about their parenting because they are involved in activities with their kids. Sadly, research shows that about 80% of these churchgoing parents say the church has done little or nothing to help them be better parents. Most leaders assume because these parents are attending church that they are better parents. Most church strategies include adult programming for adults and kids’ programming. Partnering with families does not mean only involving parents and kids in separate programs.

Engaged – Parents are committed to partnering with the church. They are growing and assume some responsibility for spiritual leadership in the home. They attend family experiences together at church. They participate in leading children in activities sent home to encourage what they’re learning at church.

Invested – Parents devote time and energy to partner with the church. They understand the strategy of your ministry and participate with Christian parent groups. These parents have bought in to the philosophy of being the spiritual leader and being a partner with the church.

“Every parent needs you as a partner. Start acting like it.”

You can check out the other posts in this project:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Conclusion

Popularity: 20% [?]