Saturday, January 05, 2008
Small church resource
Someone was once looking for small church resources. Here's one Discovery Kids. I don't know anything about it.
Between Part II and III
Before I start Part III of Children Matter you should know I rarely pay attention to the systematic thinking expressed in a book's Table of Contents. I should. It would make me a better writer.
Here is the Table of Contents from Children Matter [sometimes rephrased]. Using the Table of Contents as a guide may help you better use this book, this resource, if you're using it to rethink what you're doing:
Introduction: The Story of a Book [I think they've accomplished their goal of creating a resource that can be used by generations of children's ministers not only for the wisdom and insight they share but because they help us find the questions we need to keep asking and keep answering. In only about 350 pages!]
Imagine asking these same questions in 2050 ad or 3000 ad ... scary...
Part I Foundations Matter
(What foundations? What are we building on?)
Part II Context and Content Matter
(What is context?)
Part III How We Do It Matters
How we do
How we do "all children matter" doesn't make sense right now but it will when I read it! It's probably the most important chapter!
I don't think I tagged the other CHMT posts "resources" but this book is a valuable resource. :-)
Here is the Table of Contents from Children Matter [sometimes rephrased]. Using the Table of Contents as a guide may help you better use this book, this resource, if you're using it to rethink what you're doing:
Introduction: The Story of a Book [I think they've accomplished their goal of creating a resource that can be used by generations of children's ministers not only for the wisdom and insight they share but because they help us find the questions we need to keep asking and keep answering. In only about 350 pages!]
Imagine asking these same questions in 2050 ad or 3000 ad ... scary...
Part I Foundations Matter
(What foundations? What are we building on?)
- The metaphors we use in ministry ie. "children are like..."
- Children in the Bible
- Our theology and children
- A child's development
- The historic roots of children's ministry
Part II Context and Content Matter
(What is context?)
- Children in context
- Children in the faith community
- Children in family
- Children and story (content matters)
- Children and Curriculum
Part III How We Do It Matters
How we do
- Worship
- Learning and Teaching
- Specialized Ministries
- All Children Matter
- Leadership [How we do it] Matters
How we do "all children matter" doesn't make sense right now but it will when I read it! It's probably the most important chapter!
I don't think I tagged the other CHMT posts "resources" but this book is a valuable resource. :-)
Thursday, January 03, 2008
CM: Curriculum
This is from Chapter 10 of Children Matter - a strong chapter about curriculum. They define curriculum as "the experiential big picture of what is involved in teaching and nurturing children," [CM p.192] "a course or journey to be traversed together..." (as a faith community) because "...every element in the life of a church educates in some way." [CM p. 191]
They talk about content, learner, environment, teacher/shepherd, aim and evaluation adding, "One major element of life-changing curriculum is missing from what we have discussed to this point. Only God can change lives, and our curriculum is ineffective unless God's Spirit is at work in and through us,our students, and all that we do...Jesus promised to send His Holy Spirit to be with us, so we do not work alone." [CM p. 198]
They include a valuable section comparing the strengths and weaknesses of prepared curriculum with curriculum designed within the local church. They also talk about combinations. They talk about "empowering teachers, shepherds, and leaders," "attention to the environment," accountability...
All in all they present a wonderful challenge to define and create ways to teach and nurture children that embody experiencing God's big picture. [ from CM p.192] They call us to create journeys that multi-generational faith communities can take together, working with leadership so that everyone is attentive to the elements in the life of the church that can teach us about God, how He loves us, how He interacts with us, how He interacts with others in this world no matter how old we are. [ from CM p. 191] Programs, activities, and worship can accomplish this through careful planning and design. Being attentive to what people of all ages are learning and how they're learning is challenging and important but it helps us plan and design. But I think it's more than that. It's not just what we teach but what people learn. I think the curriculum they're talking about is more than all of this: it's God teaching us - no matter how old we are.
Who will take the time? What congregations will step out of their comfort zone, out of the old ways, out of the old wine skins to explore the possibilities of becoming new wine in new wine skins for generations of God's children? Designing the curriculum that the authors are talking about requires a unique relationship between church leadership and those who are given to ministering to children. It means we need to learn to hear each other, set goals together, work together, design together, create together, pray and listen together. It means learning to see ways that God is already working in the lives of an entire congregation - all ages - both as individual groups and as we interact with one another. It includes what individuals in a faith community are learning, how we're learning, and more important how it affects our day to day life and living. It's not didactic, it's organic. It has everything to do with what it means to embrace Jesus' words: "learning to obey all that I commanded you..." representing Christ in every area of our lives. We're not an institution. We're not country clubs. We're the living Body of the Living God - the wisdom of God to the world. I think that's the curriculum they're talking about. That's the curriculum we're after. What does it look like? When it's all said and done, it should probably look like Jesus.
They talk about content, learner, environment, teacher/shepherd, aim and evaluation adding, "One major element of life-changing curriculum is missing from what we have discussed to this point. Only God can change lives, and our curriculum is ineffective unless God's Spirit is at work in and through us,our students, and all that we do...Jesus promised to send His Holy Spirit to be with us, so we do not work alone." [CM p. 198]
They include a valuable section comparing the strengths and weaknesses of prepared curriculum with curriculum designed within the local church. They also talk about combinations. They talk about "empowering teachers, shepherds, and leaders," "attention to the environment," accountability...
All in all they present a wonderful challenge to define and create ways to teach and nurture children that embody experiencing God's big picture. [ from CM p.192] They call us to create journeys that multi-generational faith communities can take together, working with leadership so that everyone is attentive to the elements in the life of the church that can teach us about God, how He loves us, how He interacts with us, how He interacts with others in this world no matter how old we are. [ from CM p. 191] Programs, activities, and worship can accomplish this through careful planning and design. Being attentive to what people of all ages are learning and how they're learning is challenging and important but it helps us plan and design. But I think it's more than that. It's not just what we teach but what people learn. I think the curriculum they're talking about is more than all of this: it's God teaching us - no matter how old we are.
Who will take the time? What congregations will step out of their comfort zone, out of the old ways, out of the old wine skins to explore the possibilities of becoming new wine in new wine skins for generations of God's children? Designing the curriculum that the authors are talking about requires a unique relationship between church leadership and those who are given to ministering to children. It means we need to learn to hear each other, set goals together, work together, design together, create together, pray and listen together. It means learning to see ways that God is already working in the lives of an entire congregation - all ages - both as individual groups and as we interact with one another. It includes what individuals in a faith community are learning, how we're learning, and more important how it affects our day to day life and living. It's not didactic, it's organic. It has everything to do with what it means to embrace Jesus' words: "learning to obey all that I commanded you..." representing Christ in every area of our lives. We're not an institution. We're not country clubs. We're the living Body of the Living God - the wisdom of God to the world. I think that's the curriculum they're talking about. That's the curriculum we're after. What does it look like? When it's all said and done, it should probably look like Jesus.
CM: Children and Story
Chapter 9 in Children Matter - a short but rich chapter.
Apparently the oldest written description of storytelling (Egypt 2000-1300 B.C.E.) involved the sons of a great pyramid builder. Whether these were grown sons or children I don't know. The Psalms (and our lives) are full of older generations telling stories to younger generations but it's interesting that this example isn't the older telling stories to the younger. It's the other way around.
Most of the focus on story-telling in Christian Education is adult to child. And the authors make some wonderful comments about the multi-generational appeal of great stories, the craftsmanship of story-telling, point of view, audience, holding to the detail of scripture, not watering God's stories down, recognizing that there are more stories in scripture than we tell but many are better delivered to teens and adults. Good stories allow us to participate in the story capturing our imagination. We're not merely spectators. Good stories teach without explanation or interpretation. They can even say different things to different people, different things to different ages, different things to people going through crisis.
Here's where my brain went. How often do we give children opportunity to tell stories? If we're in the middle of a lesson and we ask if there are any questions and we get children telling their long stories we tend to cut children off. But what if we find a time and place to let them tell their stories? It can be in a big group. It can be smaller groups. It can be personal stories, family stories. What if we let them retell their favorite Bible stories? Listen to children retell stories and you find out what jumped out at them. You can also catch misunderstandings. Maybe we're going for accuracy and "truth" but maybe we need to listen to find out what they heard or what the story is reaching for in the child - what the story uncovered."I don't remember that part in the Bible story. What made you think of that?"
Do you use real life photos from the lands the stories come from to introduce a story? A picture of the Nile and the long grasses to go with the story of Moses? A picture of the desert? A cup of sand? Do you turn the thermostat up high? Before you tell a story, imagine yourself in this place instead of where you live. What would be the same? What would be different?
Very young children can use a printed picture to tell a story. They can play the story with felt or 3 dimensional story figures. They can use puppets and a puppet theater. (Children have such wonderful imaginations they can probably tell a good story with fabric and sticks.) Older children can draw pictures and tell the story that goes with their picture. Pre-teens and teens can write stories from the point of view of a different character ( or an observer, an animal, a tree, a rock) in a Bible story. Older children who don't like to read or write can still tell their story or create props to tell their story. They can act their story out. Older students can recreate stories with skits and puppet shows. Different classes can perform their stories for each other or for parents and friends. You can keep story telling very simple or make it a big production.
If you have five different student versions of the Christmas story, ask them what was the same in all of the stories? Tell the story going around the circle and let each child add a part to the story.
How often do we leave time to ponder and respond to a story? [CM p. 188-189] The design of Young Children in Worship gives us some handles on this but in most classes we're more prone to rush on to the questions and discussion or the related activity. Sometimes kids are ready to move on. Sometimes, they need a few moments to ponder or to reorient themselves to the present.
The authors quote Edith Schaeffer, "A sermon is always improved with a story, but a story is never improved with a sermon." [CM p. 189] We're teachers! We're adults! We always have to comment. A child might not get it! But we can learn a lot from the things that children "get" if we take time to ask and listen without judging. Chances are, it isn't what we expect but that's ok. It gives us opportunity to learn something new or to adjust misunderstandings.
In one class I taught with preschoolers we hung the posters or the projects after each lesson - something to remind us of the story. We hung the images like a time line and each week we went back to the pictures from the weeks before to see what we remembered. Who was the story about? What happened in the story? What was the memory verse? Did anything happen at home or at school that reminded you of a Bible story? What happened? What did you do? This is more didactic than most of what's here but it's a good way to review and remember stories.
They quote Shaw [CM p. 177] saying, "What is learned in story is not so much information or knowledge in the usual sense but is far closer to wisdom, understanding, or lived truth..."
Wisdom is often the missing objective in our teaching and learning but one of the most important. It's neat to think of the simple act of storytelling as one of the most effective tools to teach wisdom - one of the hardest things to teach and measure - the one thing we'll spend our whole life learning.
Apparently the oldest written description of storytelling (Egypt 2000-1300 B.C.E.) involved the sons of a great pyramid builder. Whether these were grown sons or children I don't know. The Psalms (and our lives) are full of older generations telling stories to younger generations but it's interesting that this example isn't the older telling stories to the younger. It's the other way around.
Most of the focus on story-telling in Christian Education is adult to child. And the authors make some wonderful comments about the multi-generational appeal of great stories, the craftsmanship of story-telling, point of view, audience, holding to the detail of scripture, not watering God's stories down, recognizing that there are more stories in scripture than we tell but many are better delivered to teens and adults. Good stories allow us to participate in the story capturing our imagination. We're not merely spectators. Good stories teach without explanation or interpretation. They can even say different things to different people, different things to different ages, different things to people going through crisis.
Here's where my brain went. How often do we give children opportunity to tell stories? If we're in the middle of a lesson and we ask if there are any questions and we get children telling their long stories we tend to cut children off. But what if we find a time and place to let them tell their stories? It can be in a big group. It can be smaller groups. It can be personal stories, family stories. What if we let them retell their favorite Bible stories? Listen to children retell stories and you find out what jumped out at them. You can also catch misunderstandings. Maybe we're going for accuracy and "truth" but maybe we need to listen to find out what they heard or what the story is reaching for in the child - what the story uncovered."I don't remember that part in the Bible story. What made you think of that?"
Do you use real life photos from the lands the stories come from to introduce a story? A picture of the Nile and the long grasses to go with the story of Moses? A picture of the desert? A cup of sand? Do you turn the thermostat up high? Before you tell a story, imagine yourself in this place instead of where you live. What would be the same? What would be different?
Very young children can use a printed picture to tell a story. They can play the story with felt or 3 dimensional story figures. They can use puppets and a puppet theater. (Children have such wonderful imaginations they can probably tell a good story with fabric and sticks.) Older children can draw pictures and tell the story that goes with their picture. Pre-teens and teens can write stories from the point of view of a different character ( or an observer, an animal, a tree, a rock) in a Bible story. Older children who don't like to read or write can still tell their story or create props to tell their story. They can act their story out. Older students can recreate stories with skits and puppet shows. Different classes can perform their stories for each other or for parents and friends. You can keep story telling very simple or make it a big production.
If you have five different student versions of the Christmas story, ask them what was the same in all of the stories? Tell the story going around the circle and let each child add a part to the story.
How often do we leave time to ponder and respond to a story? [CM p. 188-189] The design of Young Children in Worship gives us some handles on this but in most classes we're more prone to rush on to the questions and discussion or the related activity. Sometimes kids are ready to move on. Sometimes, they need a few moments to ponder or to reorient themselves to the present.
The authors quote Edith Schaeffer, "A sermon is always improved with a story, but a story is never improved with a sermon." [CM p. 189] We're teachers! We're adults! We always have to comment. A child might not get it! But we can learn a lot from the things that children "get" if we take time to ask and listen without judging. Chances are, it isn't what we expect but that's ok. It gives us opportunity to learn something new or to adjust misunderstandings.
In one class I taught with preschoolers we hung the posters or the projects after each lesson - something to remind us of the story. We hung the images like a time line and each week we went back to the pictures from the weeks before to see what we remembered. Who was the story about? What happened in the story? What was the memory verse? Did anything happen at home or at school that reminded you of a Bible story? What happened? What did you do? This is more didactic than most of what's here but it's a good way to review and remember stories.
They quote Shaw [CM p. 177] saying, "What is learned in story is not so much information or knowledge in the usual sense but is far closer to wisdom, understanding, or lived truth..."
Wisdom is often the missing objective in our teaching and learning but one of the most important. It's neat to think of the simple act of storytelling as one of the most effective tools to teach wisdom - one of the hardest things to teach and measure - the one thing we'll spend our whole life learning.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
CM: Children in the Family
Chapter 8: Lots of great insight, ideas and examples for families and for churches equipping and supporting families. Here are a couple of quotes that stood out for me:
-"Children are troubled by double standards and lose respect for parents who continue to demand of them what they are unwilling to do themselves. But if we listen to our children and take a look at ourselves through their eyes, they can help us grow and build greater consistency into our life. In some cases we need to conform to standards we set for our children, but in other situations we will realize that our demands on the children are unreasonable and we need to relax them." [CM p. 160]
Both as parents and teachers children (because they're always watching) hold us responsible for our choices, attitudes, and behaviors. It takes wisdom to know when we, ourselves, need to live up to the standards we set for kids and when we need to relax them for everyone. Sometimes we marvel at the ways they model us. Sometimes, we're appalled. We ask, "Why? What are we doing? What have I done to make them think _____[acting badly] is ok?"
Every grown up has to ask, "Is it more important that I hold myself and my children to standards even if those standards are always just out of reach or is it more important to hold standards that we can actually achieve adding more as we succeed?" Am I willing to relax my unreasonable expectations even when I seem to fall short in the face of a faith community that seems to have it all together?
You are who you are, not your neighbor yet God requires each of us to keep His word no matter who we are. There are social expectations in any group yet we're a group of individuals. We aren't all the same. Wisdom helps us sort through all the voices, demands, and expectations. It helps us focus and prioritize and set reasonable personal and family goals. Sometimes we need help to accomplish our goals. Sometimes we need someone to say, "Relax!" Ultimately it's what God thinks that matters. But how do we know? Did you ever hear one person say to another, "You may be frustrated about [this] but you really know how to [love your kids]. They seem to always know you love them."
Start with success and add challenges as appropriate. It takes some humility but it can be fun trying to master challenging tasks together. "Nobody wants to take out the garbage but it has to get done. Let's do it together. You get the little bags from the little cans. I'll get the big bags." You can also each pick something different that's hard for you, set goals and try to reach them side by side. Find ways to reward or celebrate your successes and your child's successes. Praise a child when you notice them doing something good, especially if it's unplanned.
-Here's another, " . . . for some family has become an idol, valued above everyone and everything else . . . Families need to worship and learn regularly with others to know that they belong to a large family of people who love and serve God." [CM p. 169] I think building trust, being willing to learn from and receive from others, being willing to give to others (not just stuff but who they are as a family and as individuals) helps families focus outside of themselves.
-Here's another, "When parents are unable to give children what they need, young ones can still find comfort and nurture in God's presence . . . don't assume that God is not there. Look for evidence of God's presence in the child's life, and find ways for the family of God to surround the child with love and support." [CM p. 159]
We can help children learn to see God working in their lives. We can help family members see God working in their lives and in the lives of others. Sometimes people need that kind of encouragement. It may be as simple as asking the question, "What do you see God doing?" or sharing ways that you see God present with them. It may be as simple as having someone to praise them for the things they do right. Encouragement goes a long way - in the family of God, in any family.
"I noticed that you shared your cookies with your little sister. That was a special thing to do." Next time you hand the older child a cookie, "If you give your sister a chocolate cookie we have to be ready to wipe the chocolate off her hands and face before she touches something. Here's one without chocolate. See if she'll take this one, instead."
Does God only focus on the things we do wrong? Does He encourage us? How does God encourage you? How does God encourage your children?
-"Children are troubled by double standards and lose respect for parents who continue to demand of them what they are unwilling to do themselves. But if we listen to our children and take a look at ourselves through their eyes, they can help us grow and build greater consistency into our life. In some cases we need to conform to standards we set for our children, but in other situations we will realize that our demands on the children are unreasonable and we need to relax them." [CM p. 160]
Both as parents and teachers children (because they're always watching) hold us responsible for our choices, attitudes, and behaviors. It takes wisdom to know when we, ourselves, need to live up to the standards we set for kids and when we need to relax them for everyone. Sometimes we marvel at the ways they model us. Sometimes, we're appalled. We ask, "Why? What are we doing? What have I done to make them think _____[acting badly] is ok?"
Every grown up has to ask, "Is it more important that I hold myself and my children to standards even if those standards are always just out of reach or is it more important to hold standards that we can actually achieve adding more as we succeed?" Am I willing to relax my unreasonable expectations even when I seem to fall short in the face of a faith community that seems to have it all together?
You are who you are, not your neighbor yet God requires each of us to keep His word no matter who we are. There are social expectations in any group yet we're a group of individuals. We aren't all the same. Wisdom helps us sort through all the voices, demands, and expectations. It helps us focus and prioritize and set reasonable personal and family goals. Sometimes we need help to accomplish our goals. Sometimes we need someone to say, "Relax!" Ultimately it's what God thinks that matters. But how do we know? Did you ever hear one person say to another, "You may be frustrated about [this] but you really know how to [love your kids]. They seem to always know you love them."
Start with success and add challenges as appropriate. It takes some humility but it can be fun trying to master challenging tasks together. "Nobody wants to take out the garbage but it has to get done. Let's do it together. You get the little bags from the little cans. I'll get the big bags." You can also each pick something different that's hard for you, set goals and try to reach them side by side. Find ways to reward or celebrate your successes and your child's successes. Praise a child when you notice them doing something good, especially if it's unplanned.
-Here's another, " . . . for some family has become an idol, valued above everyone and everything else . . . Families need to worship and learn regularly with others to know that they belong to a large family of people who love and serve God." [CM p. 169] I think building trust, being willing to learn from and receive from others, being willing to give to others (not just stuff but who they are as a family and as individuals) helps families focus outside of themselves.
-Here's another, "When parents are unable to give children what they need, young ones can still find comfort and nurture in God's presence . . . don't assume that God is not there. Look for evidence of God's presence in the child's life, and find ways for the family of God to surround the child with love and support." [CM p. 159]
We can help children learn to see God working in their lives. We can help family members see God working in their lives and in the lives of others. Sometimes people need that kind of encouragement. It may be as simple as asking the question, "What do you see God doing?" or sharing ways that you see God present with them. It may be as simple as having someone to praise them for the things they do right. Encouragement goes a long way - in the family of God, in any family.
"I noticed that you shared your cookies with your little sister. That was a special thing to do." Next time you hand the older child a cookie, "If you give your sister a chocolate cookie we have to be ready to wipe the chocolate off her hands and face before she touches something. Here's one without chocolate. See if she'll take this one, instead."
Does God only focus on the things we do wrong? Does He encourage us? How does God encourage you? How does God encourage your children?
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