"Nature-Deficit Disorder"?

Thinking about God, man, and creation again.

I recently saw an ad for a book. LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: SAVING OUR CHILDREN FROM NATURE-DEFICIT DISORDER by Richard Louv. The title sounded odd to me - "Nature-Deficit Disorder"? But for those of you interested in children and creation or children outdoors the reviews are intriguing. Looks like an interesting and thought-provoking book. I haven't read the book but just the reviews are worth reading if you get the chance.

I have to really stretch my brain to speculate about generations of children with limited access to the outdoors and the natural world. It's bizarre to think of keeping children from opportunities to marvel at God's handiwork outdoors. Does it sound trite and insignificant? Inconsequential? We're not an agricultural society anymore, but we still depend on God's creation. We just forget because we're in a hurry and we can buy everything we need in a store. We take it for granted until disastor strikes.

Man breaking his connection with the outdoors - how would that affect a generation of children? How would that affect the church and the church reaching people? I suppose the sad thing is that it might have no effect at all on education or more specifically Christian Education. Maybe it would have no affect at all on the American church.

When we homeschooled we had a very cool book for pre-school through early elementary called OPEN THE DOOR, LET'S EXPLORE. Themed outdoor exploring with related indoor activities for winter, spring, summer, fall - city, country - lots of mini-field trips right outside your door!

It might be too late in the season for this, but take your kids outside and choose a bush that still looks dead at the end of winter. Or pick a bush when the buds are just beginning to show. Take a peek at it every week and you'll see the tiny buds grow into leaves and flowers.

Take your kids outside! Help them see and hear and smell and touch and taste. Use all your senses! Take your kids outside!

Revisiting worship and children in community

A few weeks ago Jaded CM posted some comments about a book he's reading. He finishes his post saying, ". . . the Sunday morning education of children (and adults for that matter) must be embraced and continued. But it cannot be embraced alone for its own sake or for the sake of teaching moral lessons. It needs to be embraced within the worshiping community who creates this community into a place of authentic spiritual development through deep messages found in Scripture." Then there are comments and Fresh Dirt asks, "How do we do that?"

I could write a very long comment on his blog but I think this is an important question. It brings us back to an unanswered question, "What is worship?"

It appears that the "church" as expressed by our current generation is striving to integrate all the different dimensions of being a faith community into something more "holistic" (for lack of a better word) than communities in the past. In some cases that looks more like separate ingredients mixed and baked into a cake - the separate ingredients lose their individual identities. In some cases it looks more like different colors and textures of thread woven together crossing each other over and under in different patterns to create a fine piece of cloth or tapestry.

First we ask, "What is worship?"

Then we ask, "What does a worshipping community look like?" Is it liturgical? Is it freedom in the Spirit? For me, worship is relational but, in the first commandments, it's also required . Jesus, of course, says it too but the "how" is not well-defined.

Do we need to put the stories of scripture in a larger context? For me, the context is, "What is God teaching us about Himself and how do we apply it?"

We could ask, "What is He telling us?"

We could also ask, "What is He showing us?"

"They're the same," you say.

Are they?

Then, there's religion and there's faith. They aren't neccessarily the same thing.

I was once part of a community whose identity was that of a worshipping community. It was a very non-traditional community. They had their own Sunday liturgy just more open-ended than pre-determined. It was also understood that as a regular member of the community, you would spend time alone with the Lord every day and worship Him - sing, read scripture, dance alone with the Lord. 10 minutes, more or less- at least 10 minutes.

I also know people in very traditional liturgical communities who have chosen a liturgical community because the liturgy enables them to worship God from their heart in a way that more contemporary worship didn't.

People in both communities share their worship life with their children through example, through their family involvement in communities that share their faith values, through education that takes place in their faith community.

They see the scriptures differently. One is more conservative. One is more liberal. Interesting- the liturgical church is more liberal.

But the questions remain: What is a worshipping community? How do we become a worshipping community? How do we teach and train our children in a way that allows them to take the scriptures into life and apply it?

Is our goal obedient children? Children who seek after God? Children who call on the name of the Lord? Children who embrace the spiritual disciplines of the church? Children who can recite the catechism and apply it to their lives? Children who believe God and put their faith in Him day after day after day for a lifetime?

If we're driven to succeed, what does "success" look like in Christian Education? When we meet God face to face, how will we know we've succeeded?

I think it's rare for people to take the time to ask the questions. It's rare to go back, re-define and agree on the language required to answer the questions.

more thought about communion

I was re-reading Brother Maynard's post about the Communion Table and the comments. I'm not qualified to get too involved in theological debates but here are more observations and questions:

We assume there weren't children at the Last Supper but I was wondering who was there when Jesus referred to Himself as the Bread (John 6) - the time He talked about eating His body, the time when so many disciples left. I was wondering whether there were children there. We know a boy once gave up his meal to share it and Jesus multiplied it. Was that the same crowd that followed Him to the place where they heard Him talk about being Bread?

And Jesus refers to the manna that God provided the Israelites in the desert. That manna was for entire families.

From John 6:48-54 (NIV) "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. . .Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Was that just for adults? I wonder...

WWTK

That's 10 chapters of Genesis. I don't want to bore you, but you get the idea.

An interesting journey - prayerfully reading and pondering the scriptures asking "Where were the children. . ."

Once they were children...

It would be easy to look at some of these chapters as Hebrew stories about the beginnings of creation, man, nations, etc, etc. But we don't look at them as just myth or just legend. They are God's stories.

I enjoy family geneologies so I don't mind the geneologies in scripture. All these people played important roles in God's story.

But I never thought of all these people as children. Of course they were children. Except Adam and Eve. We may grow up thinking our parents were never children but Cain and Abel's parents never were. Imagine that!

In Genesis 10 when you read, "the first people who lived by the sea" do you think about the first children by the sea? When you read about Nimrod, "a mighty hero on the earth ... a mighty hunter in the Lord's eyes," do you think, "once he was a little boy" ?

Imagine each of your great grandchildren becoming a whole tribe, a whole nation, each with their own distinct language, culture, customs, and history.

These people were once children. They had names like Cush, Canaan, Babylon, Ninevah, Magog, Egypt, Assyria, Raamah, Sodom, Gomorrah, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites. Where have I heard these names before? I don't think about Noah, God's friend, when I hear those names. I think about enemies. But each began as a member of Noah's family and whether we like them or not, each would plan an important role in God's story.

We can only be so literal with all of this, but it changes my perspective just a little to think that all these names in all these geneologies were once children. And they had parents.

There are ways we help determine the fate of our children and ways we don't.

God's patience with man through all these generations was truly amazing. Maybe the stories God tells us are about the moments when He intervenes.