Today I point you to the weekly bulletin at my home church in Arkansas. Staff members there take turns writing a devotional-type thought for the front page of the bulletin each week. My mom (she's their children's director) wrote this past week's which was about helping children (helping all of us really) develop a love for God's Great Story, and for the Storyteller himself. I liked the way she put it.
Click Here to read it for yourself.
5/30/12
5/3/12
snippets from a book: nurturing through intergenerational experiences
This is the third and final installment of "Snippets from a Book" :)
Here's the backstory:
Back in 2009, right after graduating, I presented a paper with my professor and two classmates at the Children's Spirituality Conference: Christian Perspectives.They turned some of those presentations, including ours, into chapters for this book.
The book is called Understanding Children's Spirituality: Theology, Research, and Practice. If you are interested in all of that, read the book. Otherwise, let me just share with you a few things from our chapter. Today I'll tell you about how parents can understand the importance of INTERGENERATIONAL experiences in nurturing their child's faith.
The point my group was most passionate about was providing kids with intergenerational experiences in their church setting.
This is the part that reassures parents: you are not alone. Your family's role in your child's spiritual development is incredibly important, but the church is your family too. We found that as we read through children's interviews our professor has previously conducted, when asked: "Who do you know who knows God?" eight of the forty children mentioned a friend's dad.
We wrote: "Often it is difficult for children to know anything about the spiritual aspects of their friends' fathers. So how would these children have known? All eight of the children who mentioned this were children who met in a small intergenerational group on a regular basis."
These groups discussed matters of faith together, telling Bible stories, praying together, and sharing life experiences. Adults learned from children's questions and their answers; children learned to pray for others including adults. You know the benefits of diverse groups. Sometimes you may relate more to an experience shared by someone outside of your family. Sometimes someone outside your family will broaden your perspective. Sometimes you learn that we're all more alike than we think.
Of course, some families who are close and are open about their faith will get to know about the faith of each others parents and siblings and children outside of church. This is important. Don't neglect talking about faith with your friends and family - all ages!
But if we want kids to grow up always belonging to a church community, it is important for them to relate to and learn from others outside their family and outside their age group. Our kids have friends' parents as their Sunday School teachers... so that's a good start-- someone to pray for you and to learn from and talk to. And serving others and worshipping God alongside other generations count too!
Now let's think of more ways we can learn from each other and act like a family, the body of Christ.
Here's the backstory:
Back in 2009, right after graduating, I presented a paper with my professor and two classmates at the Children's Spirituality Conference: Christian Perspectives.They turned some of those presentations, including ours, into chapters for this book.
The book is called Understanding Children's Spirituality: Theology, Research, and Practice. If you are interested in all of that, read the book. Otherwise, let me just share with you a few things from our chapter. Today I'll tell you about how parents can understand the importance of INTERGENERATIONAL experiences in nurturing their child's faith.
This is the part that reassures parents: you are not alone. Your family's role in your child's spiritual development is incredibly important, but the church is your family too. We found that as we read through children's interviews our professor has previously conducted, when asked: "Who do you know who knows God?" eight of the forty children mentioned a friend's dad.
We wrote: "Often it is difficult for children to know anything about the spiritual aspects of their friends' fathers. So how would these children have known? All eight of the children who mentioned this were children who met in a small intergenerational group on a regular basis."
These groups discussed matters of faith together, telling Bible stories, praying together, and sharing life experiences. Adults learned from children's questions and their answers; children learned to pray for others including adults. You know the benefits of diverse groups. Sometimes you may relate more to an experience shared by someone outside of your family. Sometimes someone outside your family will broaden your perspective. Sometimes you learn that we're all more alike than we think.
Of course, some families who are close and are open about their faith will get to know about the faith of each others parents and siblings and children outside of church. This is important. Don't neglect talking about faith with your friends and family - all ages!
But if we want kids to grow up always belonging to a church community, it is important for them to relate to and learn from others outside their family and outside their age group. Our kids have friends' parents as their Sunday School teachers... so that's a good start-- someone to pray for you and to learn from and talk to. And serving others and worshipping God alongside other generations count too!
Now let's think of more ways we can learn from each other and act like a family, the body of Christ.
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