Training notes - The Barnabas Scotland Tour April 2008


There are three sections to these notes

Storytelling

You can view the PowerPoint presentation to go with the workshop.

See the feature Children and Drama by Lucy Moore

Look at the following drama ideas:
Story Circles
Actions Off!
Psalms - sculpting the Shepherd Psalm
Feeding the five thousand - a dramatic activity
Bible characters - points of view - a dramatic activity
Improvised scenes – a dramatic activity
Choice circus – a dramatic activity
Hotseating – a dramatic activity
Freeze-frames – a dramatic activity

See our section on drama books for useful resources.

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Where are the children?

‘Let the children come to me! Don’t try to stop them. People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God.’ Mark 10:13-16

  • We need children to teach us just by being who they are
  • Children need to get close to Jesus
  • We express our love for Jesus through welcoming children

What do children need to come to faith?
Facts – the story
Picture book people – examples of people who live out the story
Belong – opportunities to become part of the story

Your church – What opportunities do you have?
1 Make a profile of your church’s outreach to children by listing all the places where you have contact with children, using the following four column headings:
Church group
church links
no connection
not happening

Add any other children’s activities that happen in your community: e.g.
Sunday Club
All-age services
Local school
Uniformed organisations
Toddler groups
Bell ringers / choir
Grandchildren / children of congregation
Baptism follow-up
Midweek club
Activity days
Holiday club
CYFA camps
Area / diocesan events

2 Look through the lists you have made:
How well are these groups doing? How could your church strengthen links or make initial contact with non-church children through these activities? Is there a gap for any particular age group? Why?

What resources do you have?
Children / adults / talents / building / materials / money

What are your aims in reaching children on the fringes?
Look through the following list of possible aims:

  • Which three of these would you choose as your aims?
  • Which would be your main aim?
  • Are there any of these aims that your church needs to discard deliberately?

To get more people to church on Sundays
To serve the local community by blessing children and parents with a variety of resources and events
For children to have fun
To teach children about God, Jesus and the Bible, giving children a vocabulary of faith, which can play a part in our dialogue with them as they grow up
To show the Church cares about children
To remind a generation of the concept of right and wrong
To call children to become disciples and follow Jesus wholeheartedly
To give children a chance to worship
To make the leaders feel needed
To provide a child-minding service for hard-working parents
To bring families to faith
To bring children to faith
To make our church look good
To let each child know that God loves them personally
To connect people on the edge of church with the congregation that meets on Sunday
To help children own the church building
To ‘plant acorns that will one day turn into oak trees’
Other:

How can we help our children evangelise their friends?
Pray with them about their friends
Take time to talk through issues their friends face
Offer hospitality
Offer events that bridge the gap between church and children – bbqs, trips out etc

Case Studies
Kidz Klubs
Holiday clubs
Midweek clubs
Activity days
School involvement – assemblies, RE lessons, invites to church, clubs, reading, road crossing patrol, lunchtime supervision, churchyard,
Toddler praise
Cells
Messy Church

Practical Considerations
Key Issues
Timing… team… theme …training
Key Needs
Publicity… policy …pounds …people …place …preparation …parents …prayer… partnership … protection
What next?
Follow up follow on
What matters?
love …learning names.. listening … lots to eat!

Discussion in groups
What can your church do?

  • What format best meets your aims? Think out of the box!
  • Which age group?
  • When? (midweek / weekend / school events / local events / holidays / festival tie-in…)
  • How long? (under 2 hours to comply with Children’s Act; up to 6 events per year)
  • Where? (church? School? Gym?)
  • Food!

Summary

  • How will you tell children the facts?
  • How will you show them picturebook people?
  • How will the children be made to feel that they belong?

How can people have faith in the Lord and ask him to save them if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear unless someone tells them? And how can anyone tell them without being sent from the Lord? Romans 10:14-15

The key reference book for this topic is: Where are the Children by Margaret Withers

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Valuing the Spirituality of Children

Spirituality: an innate sensitivity to things beyond and yet part of everyday life.

Spirituality in children is expressed not necessarily through the mystical and numinous but in their ordinary everyday living. For example in their:

A Openness

  • To the world around(awe and wonder at the most apparently trivial things)
  • To feelings (showing their own feelings and perceiving those of others)
  • To people (children are naturally trusting and prepared to show it)

B Immediacy

  • Living in the here and now (children are not preoccupied with tomorrow or yesterday or elsewhere)
  • Spontaneity (unpremeditated action and speech – children take the ordinary and make it extraordinary on the spur of the moment)
  • Simplicity (directness, accepting things at face value)

C Freedom of spirit

  • In creativity (play = re-creation echoing God)
  • In imagination (ability to move from here and now to another place)
  • In integration (integrity of inner and outer lives; there’s no divide between the sacred and the secular; there is a directness and honesty about children: wysiwyg)
  • In love (children have the ability to love unconditionally just as God does)


Valuing Children’s Spirituality

  • Filling bottles or fanning flames?
  • Relationships are paramount
  • ‘Healthy village’ of the church is important
  • We need to learn from Jesus’ attitude to children
  • We need to be in touch with the child in us
  • We need to see the world from the child’s perspective