Research, Science, and Children's ministry

I've been sitting on this one.

Scientists observe. I think of science as observing what God has created. Sometimes scientists affirm what we already know. They see the same things we see.

Sometimes they discover new things. They see things that we didn't know were there, maybe because they have tools (microscopes, telescopes, labs) that we don't have. Maybe only because we're not looking. Maybe we're distracted by things that are more important to us. Or maybe we're looking in the wrong places.

Sometimes the things scholars and scientists see aren't really new. They've been there all along. But no one thought they were important.

Sometimes scientists talk about things we think we know but we begin to develop language that enables us to share what we know in a way that benefits others.

I think research is probably most helpful when it helps us see that what we're doing (or not doing) would benefit children more if we turn this way or that way. Or maybe we should spend more time on this and a little less time on that. Or it appears that these things over here may be more important than we thought. Scientists will tell you that research can be manipulated but even so, someone invested a lot of time to make a point.

In our denomination Children's Ministry stands under the umbrella of Christian formation. That makes sense to me. I guess it surprised me that in the wider church, recognizing a child's inherent spirituality is such a hard thing. It surprised me that Christian social scientists had to prove that spirituality is a facet of childhood and it's important. It surprised me that many in Children's Ministry think about Children's Ministry without thinking about the spirit of a child, spiritual formation, how things affect children, how children interact differently with their world at different ages and that they respond differently than adults do. I don't know why it surprised me but it did. Maybe because I'm new at this.

Science and faith conflict because faith is evidence of what we can't see, observe and measure. Science focuses on what we can see. Science has a tendancy to answer and explain. Faith is content to be awestruck by the mysteries of God. Maybe spirituality falls in that between land or maybe it's really at the heart of life in such a way that neither science nor faith adequately explain.

I think we can take comfort from the fact that even if we turn to science for certain answers (observing what God has created), that all the things His hands have made will ultimately point us back to Him. Could God show us the same things if we faithfully searched the scriptures? I expect so.

If we need research to confirm our choices, at Artisan in particular, I think we're headed in the right direction.