I am a harsh critic of Sunday Schools or "Children's Church" as the terminology goes these days. It frustrates me. There are many elements including teaching, training of volunteers, the planned and unplanned curriculum and the investment in resources, which all frustrate me. However, I'm not going down that road today. Today I want to contemplate the warning bells which have been ringing in my mind recently. Those bells are bringing to surface my concern that in our Sunday schools or "Children's Church" today we are painting for our children a soft and fluffy Jesus. Even more concerning is the thought that we may be painting a soft and fluffy easy-reading bible which has become a book of helpful hints for Christian living. Do we white-wash our stories and leave them devoid of any unpleasant reality to make it more than digestible to our sensitive youngsters?
I grew up in the church with the stereotypical image of Jesus that plagues many non-christians today: He was a nice guy who loved everybody, did miracles and had great hair. While our children may be too young to understand the social, political and cultural implications of what Jesus did in great detail, neither must we lead them to underestimate just how radical his actions were.
I grew up in the church with the stereotypical image of Jesus that plagues many non-christians today: He was a nice guy who loved everybody, did miracles and had great hair. While our children may be too young to understand the social, political and cultural implications of what Jesus did in great detail, neither must we lead them to underestimate just how radical his actions were.
It was only in my teenage years that I began to understand how radical he was. In a video interview my friend described Jesus as radical, "someone who always makes us think outside the box and challenges us to do things differently". In all my years of Sunday school I never thought of Jesus like that - I thought he was just a really nice, gentle, loving guy who died a gruesome death to save us from our sin. (This is not a debate on how graphic our projection of that death should be as our children grow up - that again is a discussion for another time.) Never did I realise then that his ministry and the life he lived as told in the gospels was every bit as radical as the death he died. I thought that he caused a little upset here and there but everyone loved him. Again, I didn't realise that he caused huge political and social shifts where-ever he went and was extremely unpopular for breaking social taboos and defying the political pressures of the time. My concern is that we bring up our children in the church, whether consciously or not, to put Jesus in to a nice fluffy box, portraying him as the guy that everybody loved and that in turn may cause them a struggle to unpack such images later in life.
5 comments:
Reflection:
Adding to this, are we then painting for our children an easy-ride view of Christianity? Are we failing to inform them of the reality that comes with being a Christian? That reality being that we are called to be distinctive, having to break social, political and cultural barriers through our witness. Do we really prepare children for that from the outset? More to the point, should we?
Great post Amie.
Not so long ago I taught the P4s to 7s on the topic of "awesome God" and we had a little serieds on what that means; on the majesty and awe of God; on how not to treat him lightly or to disregard his precepts. I had to send a note home to parents though,with some information to expand the topic, as I didn't want the teaching to be misinterpreted by children who could have gone home and said "Lynn was telling us about how angry God gets!"
But the point remains, story selection in a lot of mainstream Sunday morning kids' material focuses on a handful of well known "cuddly" narratives.
Does this represent the whole reality of our awesome God and loving Father?
dude, nice post. I had an interesting one at camp last year, where one older camper (who'd been coming a while and was a regular church-goer) was asked how she saw God, she replied, perfectly seriously: "kinda like santa I guess.." which chilled me to my core. Perhaps its partially a case of encompassing the character of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit more fully, so there isn't this preconcieved "scary" and "cuddly" schizophrenia idea... less crap, more hats, as the not-so-famous phrase goes. much love x
Thanks for the comments guys. It is indeed a scary thought of how we portray God, Jesus, the Spirit and the bible to our kids. I often wonder if we underestimate their capabilities of understanding too. I think a large problem can arise when a church simply leaves the construction of the 'childrens church' to those involved and don't really discuss what we want to be teaching our kids. Another theme I've been thinking of recently is how we invest in our volunteers by enabling and equiping them with the right tools to do the right job. Are too many sunday school leaders having to 'get by' on simply following the material which, as Lynn suggests, usually comprise of the usual cuddly naratives?
Too many sunday school folks have to "get by" on what they know and irrelevant or difficult to use material. I quit sunday school 'caus I was a bit too "radical" apparently, and the material was patchy and fluffy. I didn't enjoy and couldn't teach the kids effectively. It's especially unimpressive for the 10-12 kids, who think they know everything and, well.. they've been bouncing on the same cushion for years.
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