The most annoying aspect about children's ministry in modern evangelicalism is not the children. It's not even their parents. While it is true that both can be at least mildly exasperating, I don't have as much trouble with people, per se, as I do with curriculum. I have become incredibly weary of Children's so-called-Bible curriculum that is nothing more than virtues covered in a Biblical cloak. Please don't misunderstand. It's okay to teach our children virtues. Be nice. Be kind. Share. Brush your teeth. Don't pick your nose (at least in public). Those are all good things. The predicament is they are also good things for Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus or Atheists or Zoroastrians. There is nothing distinctly Christian about teaching children virtues. We can call them "Christian" virtues or "Biblical" virtues and make ourselves feel better. However, I am concerned that our children grow up thinking that a Christian is merely someone who is virtuous. Gandhi was more virtuous than most. The Dali Lama is a very virtuous man. Neither of them are Christians. We must teach our children that Christians are more than virtuous.
The problem is that most children's curriculum is heavy on the virtuous and light on the Doctrine. Yes, I said Doctrine. Yes, I believe that we can (and must) teach our children Doctrine; and not by gully-washing the definition of the word by saying "Well, doctrine is merely teaching - so as long as we're teaching them something ..." Wrong. I mean Doctrine in the theological sense of the word. Yes, I said theological.
I confess to you that I am no expert in Children's ministry. However, I know that at our Church's VBS last week, we had a significant time of teaching children of various ages, socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicity theological doctrine in an understandable manner and God blessed and Christ revealed himself to some, and transformed some out of darkness and into light. This was encouraging.
Now the kids had fun (Lots of candy and games and yelling and laughing and screaming). It wasn't some kind of stodgy, boring, indigestible seminary lecture (although seminary lectures get the stereotypical brunt of this sometimes ... but that's another entry for another day). However, here's what they did learn:
1. The Principle of the Microwave: God is absolutely holy and sin can not dwell in His holy presence. We hid a piece of aluminum foil in a microwave, turned it on and watched the fireworks. The microwaves found the metal. The metal reacted. The lesson: God is Holy and sin can not be in the presence of God without a violent reaction.
2. The Popping of the Balloon: The Children were asked to think of what they would consider to be 'big sins' and 'little sins'. We wrote them down on a blown up balloon with black magic marker; each 'sin' being related to one of the ten commandments in some way, shape or form. When the balloon's surface was full, we determined what we thought would be the smallest of sins (little white lies, or hitting your sister). One law was broken and the entire balloon goes down. We then talked about our sinfulness in relation to Adam and Eve (one man's transgression made the many sinful).
3. The Toothpaste and the River: Simple object lessons. Squirt an entire tube of toothpaste onto a plate and ask the children who thinks they can get it all back into the tube. I offered $100 if someone could get it all back inside the tube. It didn't happen. It can't happen. Once sin has been let out, it can't be put back. We have a problem. We can't make up for it by being good, either. We can't make up for it by being better than some. We used a classic children's object lesson by having them try to jump over an impossibly wide river (made with tape marks on the floor). I jumped farther than any of them, and taunted them a little bit. The problem being that I didn't make it either. We concluded that in light of God and sin - we all have a problem.
4. The Caring Father and the Cross: No gimmicks tonight. We simply asked the question: Does God care? The answer being related in a story Jesus told about a Father who waited for his son to make up his mind that he would come home (the repentance of the Prodigal Son). We also know that God cares because of the fact that Jesus acted in our place on the Cross. We then simply illustrated faith by building a Lego chair (which I sat in and the children saw that it clearly fell apart). This chair was our trying to be good and comparing ourselves to others and trusting money or trusting in anything else besides the Cross of Christ - which was represented by a solid chair.
In the end we asked the children which chair they were sitting in. We had several who I am convinced experienced repentance and faith for the first time. I could look in the eyes of many children and see that they were hearing what Christianity is really about, for the first time. It's not about being virtuous. It's about trusting Christ as your treasure with all of your life, for all of your life. By God's grace the theology stuck. Some got it. Some were converted.
I am continuing to think and rethink children's ministry and youth ministry at FCC. We do not need more me-centered entertainment. We need more Christ-centered, God-glorifying, Biblical theology in an appropriate context. Our new Sunday School Curriculum from Children Desiring God will reflect this sort of teaching. I am thankful to God for this direction in our children's department. I pray for much more God-glorifying fruit.
Oh - and my apologies to any parents whose children came home from VBS doing strange experiments with microwave ovens and toothpaste. It's all in the name of theology, and I never used any live animals.
