IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD

IN YOUR neighbourhood YOUR [aka, Remember your DNA]

LIZ EICHLER | SUNZ Children & Families Team Leader

Igrew up watching Sesame Street. I learnt to count with The Count, had life lessons with Big Bird, and forever wondered what kind of creature Mr Snuffleupagus was. I can even still sing some of the songs: Sunny Days, Rubber Duckie and One of These Things (is not like the other). I remember, particularly, the words from the song The people in your neighbourhood.

‘Who are the people in your neighbourhood...

The people that you meet each day...’ It went on to list a number of different professions, and the refrain we all joined in on was:

‘Well, they’re the people that you meet When you’re walking down the street They’re the people that you meet each day’ While I didn’t grow up on an American innercity street, the song did cause me to think of those around me and, even more so now as an adult, the people I engage with in my everyday life. I often get asked where in Wellington I would recommend someone new to live. Cost, of course, is always a huge factor but there are so many other things to think about when looking for somewhere to live – location, bus routes, playgrounds… Some of the same could be said for when you’re looking for a church community to join. Maybe not playgrounds (but hey, why not!). What is it about our churches that attract the different people we choose to gather with every Sunday morning (Covid allowing) and journey with as a faith community?

The Children and Families Team here at Scripture Union NZ have been reading together Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger1. One of the things that I’ve thought about while reading this book is that every church has its own DNA that has come about from its past and its actions, and this results in people with similar DNA being attracted to that church and to each other. Hold that in one hand while you think about this: while acknowledging the DNA of our churches, we also need to think about their context. Consider this quote from Children Matter2:

1 Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains - Christian

Leadership in Uncharted Territory, IVP, 2015 2 Scottie May, Beth Posterski, Catherine Stonehouse, and

Linda Cannell, Children Matter - Celebrating Their Place in the Church, Family and Community, p115, Eerdmans, 2005.

‘Every church has its story. A story happens at a particular time and place with a distinct cast of characters. Just as each person is unique, each church and community is distinct.’ DNA and context, it’s who we are, and who we’re not, and figuring that out is key if we want to minister appropriately to the children and families in our own church. The early church looked very Jewish and changed as Christianity spread and encountered different cultures. The church grew through the work of the Holy Spirit, which took into consideration the needs of the community (neighbourhood) they found themselves in. The church in New Zealand doesn’t need to look like the church of another country. We need to be ourselves, we have different building blocks, different gifts, a different culture, and a different history that has shaped us.

"DNA AND CONTEXT, IT’S WHO WE ARE, AND WHO WE’RE NOT, AND FIGURING THAT OUT IS KEY IF WE WANT TO MINISTER APPROPRIATELY TO THE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN OUR OWN CHURCH.

So, while it is easy and often useful to source curriculum from overseas and via the web, we need to filter it through our own particular lens, for our own particular church DNA and context. There are increasingly good New Zealand content to tap into, take The Chronicles of Paki3 for example, or our own Breakthrough website4 .

Let’s take three churches:

1A small suburban church with a core of faithful couples, a few children and some teenagers. It sits in an affluent suburb, with a high level of education amongst the adults, most of whom work full-time. Most live within the suburb and the children are at the same schools.

An inner-city church with a history of serving those on the margins of society.

A commuter church, there is little sense of community during the week, and many of the young people have other commitments that compete with church-related activities.

2

3 The Chronicles of Paki, Big Book Publishing. Five series are available from www.sunz.org.nz/shop 4 www.sunzbreakthrough.org.nz

3

A vibrant church in a seaside town with mostly retirees attending. Those who are able, are highly reliable volunteers.

There is one family that comes sometimes and a few grandchildren when visiting their grandparents. Very different. Of course, they have much in common, not least of all their desire to serve God and make Jesus known in their communities. But how they go about this is, and should be, quite different. There is always the temptation to copy what we see working well in another church. Then we wonder why it didn’t quite go the same for us. Or we feel disheartened when we hear of all the amazing things another church is doing. We must always ask ourselves, why would we do it and would it work in our context? Always remember your DNA and the context in which you sit, because they’ve been there from the very beginning. Hold on to this verse whenever you’re feeling discouraged. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but they all come from the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve the same Lord, and we can each do different things. Yet the same God works in all of us and helps us in everything we do. The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7