WAY2GO MAGAZINE

ISSUE 73

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DEFINING SPIRITUALITY

Have you ever caught yourself using a word in conversation and wondered what it really means? We rely on jargon and acronyms, without really thinking about them. For me one of these words is ‘spirituality’. We struggle with defining spirituality, so we find it hard to understand what it means for our children and young people. We have not understood the spirituality of children and young people as we probably should have. Traditionally, the younger people are the less spiritual we expect them to be. That’s a shame because children and young people have the capacity to be deeply spiritual. One of my favourite definitions when thinking about children and spirituality is a slightly adapted version of one from UK psychologist Rebecca Nye: spirituality is God’s way of being with us, and our way of being with God. It’s a helpful definition, nice and simple, but actually very profound. Children and young people’s spirituality is a natural capacity to be aware of God in the middle of their life experiences. It’s holistic. It involves their feelings and thoughts and also their actions. The challenge for us is how to create space for our children to be with God, and He with them. In this edition of the WAY2GO magazine we look at understanding different spiritual styles as a tool for helping children engage with God in ways that are meaningful to them.

___ Liz Eichler

Children and Families Consultant, SUNZ

BY LIZ EICHLER

StylesSPITIRUAL While interviewing children about their spiritual lives, David Csinos1 discovered four distinct yet overlapping ways they connect with God. He called these four ways of knowing God, spiritual styles. These styles offer glimpses into the ways in which our children make meaning and encounter the living God. A child may have one dominant style or they might be a mixture of several. Understanding these spiritual styles will help us in our planning. They help us see beyond the ways we connect with God and to an understanding of how others connect. They allow us to be more holistic in our planning.

The four spiritual styles are:

1 David Czinos, Children’s Ministry that Fits, Wipf & Stock, 2011 Word — These children express their spirituality best in words. It’s about connecting with God through the words we write, the words we read, the words we think and the words we say. Emotion — These children connect with God through their feelings. It’s about connecting with God through the way we express our feelings: singing, music, drama and art. Symbol – These children love the mystery involved with worship. It’s about connecting with God through the world around us; i.e. nature, art, candles, and spending time in silence or alone in prayer. Action – These children want to do something for and with God. It’s about connecting with God through our actions; doing things that show compassion or standing up for what is right.

A balanced programme will have something of each of these in it. The next page will give you some practical ideas to help you build these ideas into your weekly programme.

Using Spiritual Styles to help engage with the Bible

WORD

The path of the intellect

EMOTION

The way of the emotions

SYMBOL

The journey of mystery

þ Use Scrabble pieces to make key words from the story. þ If you were to make a crossword out of those words, what clues would you give? þ Word search. þ Journaling – as if you had been there.

þ Emoticons – place an emoticon at each place in the story where an emotion is shown. þ Use colours to show the feelings of each character in the story. þ Discuss times when the children have felt the same way. þ Act out a scene that conveys a certain emotion.

þ Use objects to represent parts of the story. þ Use beautiful imagery and photography. þ Candles. þ Quiet spaces for prayer and silence.

ACTION

The road to justice

þ Identify what acts of service þ Give space for the children the church is involved, how to take action on issues that the children are involved or interest them. could be in the future. þ Consider recycling and þ Plan realistic ways of composting issues at church. fundraising for a cause they’re passionate about.

We suggest starting with one for each style, use them for a couple of weeks, tweak as needed, and then try a new activity for each style. Once the children are used to a few activities for each style, you can rotate new and old, just keep freshening things up. This is a great tool which may take some effort to establish but will be worth it.

If you want to know more about implementing these styles into your children’s ministry, our Children and Families Team are available to support you! Contact us at way2go@sunz.org.nz for more information.

More Resources

New year, new slate, but don’t know where to start?

This resource from our friends at Strandz, the Anglican Children and Family Ministry, might be a good place to help you start. Downloadable and free, go to strandz.org.nz for a copy.

Looking for Lent and Easter ideas?

Check out our website and blog! www.sunzbreakthrough.org.nz childrenandfamiliesnz.blogspot.com

www.sunzbreakthrough.org.nz

Story time inspiration

‘A really incredible feast’ and other amazing Jesus stories, by Johanna Baldwin. Six stories of Jesus all written in rhyme, with fabulous pictures for a great reading time. Calming a storm, feeding thousands for tea, making sick people well and blind people see. $19.99

Scripture Union wants to work with your church to create opportunities for children and young people to discover and follow Jesus, grow as leaders, and influence the world. Contact us and let us know how we can help you.

SCRIPTURE UNION IN NEW ZEALAND PO Box 760, Wellington 6140 way2go@sunz.org.nz 0508 423 836 sunz.org.nz