Things that hinder holistic children's ministry

Doing children’s ministry in a holistic way is very important to me.  The Bible says that we are to love God with our heart, soul and mind.  But many times in children’s ministry we can fall into the trap of only focusing on one area and neglecting the others. I certainly have not “arrived” in the area of helping children to know God holistically, but I am committed to continue learning. 

Sometimes it is easier to start defining a thing by defining first what it is not.  I recently ran across this excellent article from Child Faith  called “Ten Rats in the Church”.  By “rats” the author means things that gnaw away at and get in the way of true spiritual development.  I would encourage you to read the entire article, but I am going to repost the points here:

1.  “Following the rules” is more important than love and relationships.

2. Teaching people they are spiritually incompetent and that only the “professionals” have something to give. (Having children pray for me for example have been some of my most powerful spiritual experiences.)

3. Teaching or modelling that doing good things, and avoiding or hiding the bad, will make us more acceptable to God.

4. Laughing or grinning at expressions of spiritual experience by young children.

5. Trying to be like a really good school.

6. Insisting there must be a major crisis salvation event.

7. Maintaining a child-unfriendly environment. (Expecting kids to be little adults or using furniture that is too big.)

8. Assuming kids are incomplete Christians. (Children are spiritual beings from birth on, even though their developmental level expresses it differently at each stage.)

9. Religious activities such as excessive memorization that have little or nothing to do with spirituality or faith.

10. Aquiescing to the culture rather than critically thinking through what should be accepted, adapted or rejected. (I would add to that the opposite:  rejecting the culture outright without considering its positive God-inspired aspects.)

In my own life, "following the rules" rather than focusing on love and grace had a negative impact on me, our family and ministry.  Reading Timothy Keller's "The Prodigal God" among other things helped me start on a new path. 

Have you found any of these things to 
have been hindrances in your spiritual development?  
What other hindrances might there be?

Thoughts from a Friend

Anyone who knows me well knows that nothing gets me more excited than creativity and good ideas.  A couple of days ago, I received a letter from my friend, Asmic, who lives in Moscow.  She is implementing some innovative ideas in her children’s spiritual formation.  I’m printing an excerpt from her letter, because it inspired me and I hope it will you as well:

“I have so many projects on my mind! One of my ideas is to teach the Bible right from the beginning along with the other ‘sciences’. Like, when we read about the creation of the universe, I showed pictures of galaxies, named the planets of our solar system (and Pasha learned them), etc. When we got to Adam and Eve, I read him Psalm 139 and showed pictures about how our bodies are made.  . .  . Or Joseph and then the Israelites in the Egyptian period can be told on the background of Egyptian culture, art and architecture (in our art history books they always start with cavemen's art and follow by Egypt).

With Alyosha, who is 6, the creative phase follows immediately and inevitably. He starts drawing what he has just learned as if he cannot contain it or needs to process. Now that Kolya (he will be 3 in Jan.) has joined us in most of activities, I need some other ways to teach the Bible. Godly Play seems to be just what I need!

They love to worship! I play my guitar and they choose out of their musical instruments (mostly various percussion instruments) and join me with singing, playing and some crazy dancing. After few songs Alyosha begins to build huge crosses with his building blocks, and Kolya follows his example.”

Asmic is providing her boys with sensorimotor experiences that they need in order to explore and make sense of the abstract concept of an invisible, but personal God.  Because Asmic is incorporating science and history into her children’s religious education, their faith is being mentored in a holistic way rather than religion being something completely unrelated to other spheres of life and learning. 

Way to invest in your children, Asmic! And thanks for letting me share your thoughts!