I feel like I’m opening a can of worms here. Some good discussion has taken place around my last post, but I feel the need to unpack this a little more.
I guess I want to talk more about our intentionality concerning theology. There’s no doubt, we’re teaching theology every week. It’s in our curriculum. However, how often are we just teaching it when it comes up as opposed to having a plan and purpose for teaching good theology.
This has been something I know a lot of Chidlren’s Pastors have discussed, especially if you’ve come from an education background. In school, 4th graders don’t move to the 5th grade until they’ve mastered a set of standards. It’s universal, so when a child moves from Texas to Utah, a 5th grader should know what a 5th grader should know. I know, there are inherent issues with standards, but generally it’s working.
Where is this kind of stuff in the church? We’re not a government funded or regulated entity (thank Jesus), but where is this happening even in our own local churches? What “standards” do you want every 5th grader to know/believe before moving on the Middle School? What “standards” do you want every 5 year old to know before they move into elementary? It will never be perfect, but where is the intentionality?
I’ll be really frank… and I’m pointing a finger to myself as well. Our teenagers are walking away from the faith at an alarming rate. Many of these are the same teenagers that grew up in our Children’s Ministries. Yes, I know there are so many elements that may lead to this such as family, community and influences, but how could laying a foundation of solid doctrine or theology help? Am I just grasping at straws? I just see that this is really important but rarely intentional in execution.
Thoughts?
I’m not convinced making sure that making sure children have a systematic knowledge of theology is the answer. Yes, it’s important, but I think having “standards” set on knowledge outcomes is a very artificial way of judging what a child should “know.” Our outcomes need to be spiritually/transformationally based. How should a child be living over what should a child know.
I know this doesn’t make it any easier to measure spiritual growth. I think if we focus on helping childre to see the entire Story and their place in it… a place where they are restored into being the images God created them to be and give them a real sense of what it means to love God and love others and help them see they are to be positive change-agents in the world, then we can set them up to incorporate the theological concepts they run into into their lives.
We try too hard to categorize and systematize spiritual growth. Yes, there needs to be some sort of plan and some structure but not as much as we think. As for teaching theology intentionally, I don’t think that needs to be structured either. We simply (ha!) need to be aware of teachable moments throughout our times with kids and families. We need to be able to teach “along the way.”
I’m just not a fan of trying to set up a curriculum to take care of this stuff. Find out what you want kids to know and insert that into the DNA of what you are already doing. Sorry, I’m not giving concrete examples, but what I do in Thunder Bay, Ontario will be completely different than what you need to do in Austin, TX.
Great thoughts and wrestling, though. I think more CPs need to wrestle through this and even challenge what is the “established” way to teach theology. It’s not so much about knowledge as it is life change. And I believe the best way to learn life changing principles is while doing life.
Henry Zonio’s last blog post..New Study About Spirituality vs. Religion and Children
I think that this might feed into the knowing the right answers and wear the mask and play the game of “church”.
However, theology is important and it must be in the heart of what you do whatever curriculum or lesson you teach it must be the center of it.
J.C.’s last blog post..Theology in Children’s Ministry
I’m seeing some room for balance here though. I believe that spiritual transformation walks hand in hand with knowledge. I’m going to try to not to offend anyone here.
I came out of a church background that was highly sensational and experiential. I remember one year in student ministry I got the “most transformed life” award (yeah, I know… sounds dumb). However, God was moving in my life in a powerful way. It seemed that for months on end, God’s Spirit would move and transformation would happen in the lives of many people. It was powerful and I’m a big fan of that. However, far too often… Spirit and experience trumped the Word. I’m not saying that they devalued the word of God, but in this crowd, many of these people had WHACKED OUT theology. Why, becasue there was more emphasis put on life-change and transformation than on digging into the word and letting that transform you. Okay, you’ve seen some of my baggage. 🙂
I don’t think this has anything to do with “measuring spiritual growth” or teaching kids the “right answers.” Far from it. I think it’s more establishing what doctrine do we want our kids to know and how do we make sure our kids are getting it this year. We just finished 252 virtue on Fairness. Wow, a great opportunity to teach about God’s “just” nature. It’s not fair that we entered a sinful world and that we’re born with a sin nature, but God provided grace. I see this as intentionally taking doctrine and placing it where it fits, being sure that it’s covered annually, quarterly or whatever frequency you see fit rather than just cover a certain doctrine when the curriculum suggests it.
Yeah, I’m very opposed to categorizing someone or determining their spirituality based upon their knowledge. Yuck… that’s going backwards.
My Youth minister and I had this conversation and said how great it would be to come up with a plan to show parents what core beliefs they would learn if they stayed in the ministry from birth to 18. I think we can come up with a plan of basic beliefs we want them to have as they move through the ministry.
Wayne, it’s be neat if you shared those with the CM community…
Kenny, I have comments for your last post but I haven’t been abel to formulate them or get them typed out…but my YP and I are in the beginning stages of establishing a “scope and sequence” type of thing for our ministries.
However, Henry is right, it’s not about what they know at age X, but who they are…and of course, that’s going to change based on their relationship with God so it’s a battle do define mile markers.
We struggled with this about two years ago. Quite frankly, we’re still struggling with it, but at least we’re moving in a direction now. What we decided is, yes, we want our children to have foundational knowledge and we’re going to be very very systemic in how that is done and what is taught. Once a child hits junior high, we want to transition to practical application and serving.
What we’re still chewing on is how do we fit the unchurched teen in a system like this.
I’m just happy that there are a group of people actually thinking about this stuff now rather than just assuming it’s going to happen. That, in and of itself, is a huge leap forward.
John’s last blog post..Relationships are worth it
Good thoughts everyone.
Jesse, you’re absolutely right. Defining mile markers is almost impossible to do as people are entering into the mix at all times coming from all different backgrounds.
However, it may be that a student and children’s ministry team decides that there are 10 major theological issues they want to teach every year, so they work these 10 into their curriculum/experiences every year, each taught in age appropriate ways.
Boom, that’s intentional theology. It’s not “knowledge based” or experience based… it’s just strategically teaching important things on a regular basis in a relevant way. So many different ways to do this.. and many of us are… just not intentionally.
I work for a Christian publisher. (I’m not pushing products.) We have struggled with this also. We developed a document that outlines biblical concepts and truths building from babies through preteens. That document helps guide all of our curriculum development and is a benchmark for what is included in each age group’s resources.
As a teacher in my church, I also use that document as I teach kindergartners each week.
We know that every kindergartner or fourth grader or 3-year-old will know all of those truths by the time they “graduate” to the next age group. But, since the concepts build on each other, children can continue to grow in what they have learned in the previous years.
The ultimate goal is leading children to Christ and helping them know how to live out God’s Word; but this document helps guide the learning process in a more intentional way.
Correction:
We know that every kindergartner or fourth grader or 3-year-old will NOT know all of those truths….
(Sorry about that)
Great conversation! This has all been in my head lately. I recently read the book Raising a Modern Day Joseph and Larry Fowler made a point that has really stuck with me and impacted my thinking of late. In discussing helping children develop Godly wisdom he says, “It is possible for a person to have knowledge without wisdom, but it’s pretty hard to have wisdom without knowledge. Following the same logic, it’s also possible for a person to have great biblical knowledge but not godly wisdom, yet it’s highly unlikely anyone would have godly wisdom without knowledge of biblical truth.”
That statement has caused me to look again at what we are teaching and making sure that we are not focusing so much on life application that we are missing the important foundations on which wisdom for the present and the future are built.
Very good point!
Hey guys….I love Wayne’s thoughts on a comprehensive plan. Here is a great resource out there that already has this in place – birth through 18…it’s a video that explains how these three curriculum products feed from one age-group into the next as part of a strategy to instill specific truths about God at each age-level and build on that in the next age-level. Check out http://www.MyFirstLook.org or http://www.252Basics.org and click on the “Curriculum Strategy” button next to the video box. Enjoy!