ERIC Says

When I was a child, every other child who was in my Sunday school class or involved in different aspects of the children’s ministry, came from a family who were members of our congregation. That was 35 years ago, in a typical suburban Presbyterian congregation. Now, in 2019, the majority of children connected to the children’s ministries within our PCI congregations come from unchurched backgrounds, families who are not connected to our congregations. This may be in Sunday school and children’s church on a Sunday morning, a kids’ club during the week, one of the uniformed organisations, a Christian Endeavour group (CE), or some other discipleship-based children’s organisation.

The ways we operate our children’s ministry in 2019 and the assumptions that we make about the children who are there need to be very different to when I was a child. Let’s think for a minute about a few assumptions that we may make about the children who come to our children’s ministry from non-Christian backgrounds. (These ideas are adapted from a resource by Christianity Today International.)

Don’t assume the children’s parents care for them

When we are trying to explain abstract principles about God and how we can help to understand him, we often use phrases like: “Just like our parents love us so much, God our Father also loves us”. The sad truth is that this is not always true. Some parents do not show love to their children and are nowhere near being a good example. Now, do not hear me wrong, we all fall very far short of being a good example of God’s love, but parents who love their children and care for them are a better example than parents who resent and abuse their children. Better to encourage the children to think of someone who they know loves them a lot and then use that person as an example of how God loves, as imperfect as it still is.

Don’t assume children’s parents do not care for them

The other thing that we must not do is assume that children who come from a non-Christian home are not loved and cared for as much as any child who comes from a church home. Some non- Christian parents treat their children better than some Christian parents! The bottom line is simply to remember that every family is unique and that we need to be sensitive to each different situation.

Don’t assume that the children’s parents will support what they learn in church

Children from non-Christian homes will come to children’s ministries for a variety of reasons. It may be that parents went to Sunday school and they want their children to learn good morals – they see the church as a place where the children will learn good living. It may be that they want some free childcare each week. It may be that the children’s friends go to the organisation and the parents do not see any harm in their children going if they are having fun. It may also be that every girl or boy in the village or area goes to the Boys’ Brigade (BB) or Girls’ Brigade (GB) as a tradition. Or there may be other reasons.

We believe that parents are the primary spiritual educators of their children, but when the children come home from church organisations to a non-Christian home, the parents may have no interest in following up or supporting what the children have been doing, or they may not understand anything about the Bible themselves. We need to remember that, as their leaders, we might be the only adults in their lives that ever speak to them positively about God.

If you have been involved in children’s ministry for any length of time, you probably agree to some extent with the above three assumptions and know that they are issues that we need to be aware of in all that we do. The next one though, is a much newer phenomenon, but something that we definitely need to keep at the forefront of our minds when thinking about our children’s ministry.

Don’t assume that children know anything about God and the Bible

Those of us who grew up in church and in Christian homes find it hard to imagine not knowing who Moses or Jonah are, or for that matter, who Jesus is. We learnt the stories in Sunday school and church, at home and in school. Many children today do not have the knowledge of these stories that we may traditionally expect.

Religious Education is still part of primary school education in both the North and South of Ireland. In the South there is no national curriculum and so the subject has been left up to patron bodies, 96% of which are religious denominations. In the North, it is part of the curriculum, but it is not inspected by the Education Authority and so is entirely left to the discretion of the teachers in the classes. If there are Christian teachers within the school, children may know the stories, but if there are no Christian teachers, they may simply learn good moral lessons. Or the case may be somewhere in between. When new children come to your children’s ministry, take some time to sensitively discern the level of knowledge that the children have and better to assume lack of knowledge than leaving children feeling inadequate or never completely understanding a story.

What sort of things can we do to help children from non- Christian homes hear the lifechanging and transformational good news of the gospel?

Consider the knowledge and experience children bring to the activities that you do. Start in the world of the child and use that starting point to help them understand something about who Jesus is. Get to know the children well and build relationships with them so that they can see what an adult follower of Jesus looks like every day. Ensure that they know they can ask you questions any time to help them understand something of the faith that they can have in God and what it means to be a Christian. Think about the words that you use as you teach in your children’s ministry. Consider what Christian jargon and phrases we use without really thinking about it that a child with no knowledge of God would not understand.

PCI wants to do everything we can to equip congregations and children’s ministry leaders to negotiate and adapt to how to teach the gospel in this changing culture. We have partnered with the Good Book Company to create a resource which will hopefully help congregations with the world that we live in. The aim of the resource is to teach children something about God and to help them encounter him, possibly for the first time. Each session – of which there are three – is connected to a book about a boy called Eric, written by Dai Hankey. They start in the world of the child, in this case through an everyday commonplace situation that Eric finds himself in, and then slowly moves the child towards God, helping them to consider how he can impact the situation.

The resource will be available for download at Easter and could be used over three sessions of a children’s club or holiday Bible club setting. The sessions are around the themes of saying ‘thanks’, ‘sorry’ and ‘please’. In saying ‘thanks’, Eric begins to have an increased awareness of who God is and a little of what he does. In saying ‘sorry’, Eric begins to understand how he is being given what he does not deserve, exploring something of the meaning of grace. In saying ‘please’, Eric learns that he can communicate with God through prayer, not simply in formal settings but as a natural rhythm of our day.

Ruth Bromley is PCI’s Children’s Development Officer.