I had an interesting conversation with Wanda Parker this week. Wanda leads a ministry called KidTrek (http://www.kidtrek.org/). Wanda has led church-based children's ministries and after-school programs for many years in a variety of contexts. She is an amazing leader who zeroes in on results. She would urge church leaders to consider what we want children to be like when they are 40 years old and then to work from there—
what will it take now for us to disciple our kids so that they will be what we want them to be when they are 40?
One key takeaway from my conversation with Wanda about discipling kids is that it takes many connections with adults in a church for the child to really feel connected to the church and to grow a strong faith. Building healthy adult-child relationships with your average churched child is very challenging, but I think that there are a couple of cases that are particularly challenging:
- Pastor's kids. Having grown up as a pastor's kid and also having been a pastor and
parent, I think it can be especially difficult for the other adults in
the church to feel that they can speak into the lives of the pastor's
kids. This is sad because it can lead the pastor's own children to feel
like outsiders in their home church.
- Neighborhood kids. When a leader from your church's school-based ministry brings a child into your church—a child who is attending without his or her parents—it can be very difficult to connect that child in meaningful ways with other adults in the church. With your "average" kid, the parents have friends in the church, and the child naturally gets to know the peers of their parents (at least at some level). But how do we connect with the child with no parents at the church?
What does your church do to connect the adults with the children in meaningful and healthy relationships?
This is a great question Matt! Connecting those kids with adults really takes some time, effort and thought. I remember last Easter bringing 2 little girls from my school to our church. They had never been in a church before. Fortunately, I was not teaching Sunday school that morning and so I was able to stay with them and introduce them to lots of other kids and adults. They were met with lots and lots of love and attention by those adults, but mainly because I was with them and very intentional about it. I think that we have to designate someone to take that role & be very intentional and purposeful about connecting them with others. Those 2 little girls moved out of the neighborhood but I hope that as they grow,their over-riding impression of 'church' will be that it is somewhere where they can find love. By the way, I KNEW Wanda Parker would be a great contact for you!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Glenys! And thanks for connecting me with Wanda. I had forgotten that it was your suggestion that we connect. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience combined with a great heart. She is a good person to know. Thanks again!
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