Recently, in about 12 days, 61 out of 100 Emerging Kids readers came from Kidology looking for " worship and children ". Spiritual stomachs rumbling? Or looking for how-tos and activities?
I don't know what they left with. I don't know if they found what they're looking for. I don't know if they see or understand something they didn't see before. I don't know if they found a way to get where they wanted to go or if they're better able to draw their kids into worshp.
I'm guessing that when we look for something related to children and worship we're looking for something akin to what the children did during the Palm Sunday story - everyone's crying "Hosanna!". Jesus was pleased but the scriptures don't really tell us how they got there or do they? Something to ponder.
We have stories of children loving God. Is that worship? Wasn't Naaman's servant girl loving God when she sent Naaman to the prophet? What about Moses and the guard? But we wouldn't want anyone to follow Moses' example in that story. What about Joseph in Pharoah's court? What about David? Daniel? What about the boy who shared his lunch? Were they loving the Lord their God with all their heart and mind and soul and strength? Is that worship? Where did they learn to do that? Were they part of worshipping communities?
Maybe they didn't learn it. Maybe it just happened. Were they special? Singled out? Specially called by God? Gifted? Or were they just one of many everyday people going about their day-to- day life and it was just the natural thing, the right thing, to do? We don't know. We just know they did what they did and the scriptures tell us what happened next.
Does worship need to be the same for every child of God or can it be different for different people? What does God accept or not accept? Is that what worship is all about? Worshipping God the way He wants to be worshipped? How do we know if He's happy?
But, hey! We're not an ancient superstitious people trying to please our gods anymore. We're educated, sophistocated, civilized. We just need things that work, fun things that people can relate to, things that will draw people in and keep people here and help our churches grow . . .
to the glory of God...of course...
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Margie,
ReplyDeleteI know that I continue to read your blog to learn about what you are doing to develop the spiritual lives of the kids of your worshiping community. Whether the readers of kidology come to learn that or not is not important. You are doing great things that need to get out.
Keep blogging about what you are doing and keep asking the questions that need to be asked.
thanks for keeping good challending discussion alive... we are often too quick to settle for what "works" instead of what matters. glad we could help send some traffic your way, it shows that people are thinking about how to creative genuine worship and not just ministry "success" - and God is pleased!
ReplyDeleteI'm not actively involved in Children's Ministry any more. I thought I posted that but maybe it wasn't clear. Check out the Artisan website to see what's going on. I know they'd be happy to talk about what they're doing. I hear they have some nice worship workbooks.
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