Children The Church of Tomorrow?
As a church we are lucky enough to find ourselves in the position where we are starting a new youth group on March 5th. However this does raise the questions about how we involve young people in the life of our church. Does the old Victorian maxim still apply ‘children should be seen but not heard’ or should they be as valued as any member of our church.
I spent some time as the district youth secretary for Cheshire and used to become cross when people told me how children and young people were important for after all they were the church of tomorrow. I would politely correct them and tell them they were wrong. Children and young people are in fact the church of today and the leaders of tomorrow.
How do we ensure they are represented in all aspects of our church life? Should for instance we be canvassing their opinion as to whether or not the worship meets their needs. Should we be offering an alternative youth service, perhaps this could be an ecumenical venture. How are children and young people catered for in the social life of the church?
Perhaps the more contentious question is how are young people catered for in the power making bodies of our church? How would the church feel about a young person being represented on the elders giving their views about how the church should move forward?
These are just ideas to be floated, discussed and added to, feel free to agree or disagree, modify or dismiss and I look forward to your comments.
Message From Not the Manse
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the great news that there has been an addition to our family. Once again the patter of tiny feet can be heard around the Radcliffe household, no don’t worry we have not been concealing a baby we are now the proud owners of a German Shepherd dog. It is crossed with another breed (something stupid we think), 1 year old and came from the dogs home.
As you can imagine taking on a dog has brought new responsibility for us all. Learning to care for a family member who is dependant upon you be that a dog or another human being is not something to be taken lightly. This new burden of care started me thinking about how we take care of one another within the church and the wider community in which God calls us to live and serve.
Being church is not about us looking within our own walls, nor is being a Christian about worrying over our own welfare at the expense of others. No, God calls us to love and care for those around us.
The U.R.C’s ‘Catch the Vision’ project is about the church rethinking how we should be church. So how are we church? Do we exist as an exclusive member’s club concerned primarily with our own membership rights or does God call us to more? When Jesus was asked:
‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’
He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it:
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
We have a responsibility to care for one another, not to be looking within the entire time but to share what we have with others. It doesn’t need to be through large actions or grand gestures. We need not undertake programs of large scale evangelistic mission, we do however, need to make sure our churches are welcoming, caring and looking for and finding ways to reach out to those in need.
Pastoral care of one another is often the small things we do, the favour for our neighbour, checking on a friend, being available to listen, offering a hand. God is to be found in these gestures, in the small things, the intimate things of life, in the day to day business of being human. Here in the midst of our humanity God is found.
Being Church in today’s society means being prepared to take God out into the world, no longer being content for the world to come to us (perhaps this was always so). May God bless us as we struggle and learn together how to be the church that God calls us to be.
Stuart.
