lent day 45

 Last night  a dozen of us from church piled on a bus with 55 primary aged kids and took them to a praise night being hosted by a church in Belfast.  There were 250 kids there in total and food was provided. You probably cant start to imagine the noise and the nonsense.  I was put in charge of the 5 yr olds from our church.  It was like trying to herd cats. 😀  I will need to lie down for a week to recover.

Not that the kids were naughty or unduly badly behaved.  But the event was trying to cater for kids aged between 5 and 11 and was definitely pitched more towards to upper end of that age group.  So whilst the little ones enjoyed the food and joined in with some of the songs and actions, by the time it came to a talk and some games and having to listen and sit still they were tired and a bit bored and had switched off somewhat.  Once they switched off they decided they needed the toilet, wanted a drink, wanted to sit in a different seat, were being annoyed by the person next to them or needed to tell me about their wobbly teeth.😁  In the end we took the decision to get our kids back on the bus and head home a bit before the even had actually finished. It was the only way to avoid tears and tantrums.  

On reflecting about the evening (and the previous 2 days running our own Easter Holiday Club) I am pondering things being 'age appropriate' on a wider and more spiritual level.

When things are too complicated for us or not accessible in a way we can understand we tend to wander and get distracted. This is a problem in church because we want to be friendly, welcoming and understandable to non christians,  teaching basics to new and young believers but feeding the established sheep on good solid meat.  How to do that well so that everyone is gaining and nobody is getting bored/overwhelmed/overlooked?   I think part of the answer to these issues is church teaching everyone from the 5 yr olds to the 105 yr olds that we can and should be feeding ourselves, not just relying on Sundays and Wednesday nights to get spiritual food and fellowship. We have always been able to read our Bibles and read other spiritual books to help us navigate the Christian life.  But with the internet and livestreaming and youtube and all the rest we can now tap into teaching from all over  the place, and sit in on worship events and kids talks and conferences as much as we like.  We can share with each other messages and songs which have really blessed us. Those of a similar spiritual age but in different physical locations can talk and pray via social media if they cant actually meet in person.  In many ways we are at the beginnings of something new right now. And on the whole I think its a good and exciting thing.

Since moving to Northern Ireland I have long considered my 'church' to be much more than the congregation with which I get together on a Sunday morning.  All of you reading this are my church. Many of you I rarely see in person. But we share either a common history, or a similar outlook or something has caused us to cross paths and we have connected.  You are the people who pray for me when I ask you to. You gave financially to a cause I was inspired by.  You contribute to the discussions these blogs inspire and challenge/contribute/explain in the same way you would if we were all in a housegroup together.   Its not the same as being together in a physical congregation - which is of paramount importance - but it does help us find ' spiritually age appropriate' input when we need it.

Watching my 5 yr olds last night reminded me that we need to know how people work if we want them to understand the gospel.  Using language they understand, illustrations that are relevant, translations of the Bible that dont alienate and giving clear and direct information and instruction.  As 'adults' we need lots of patience and kindness.  We need the grace to answer annoying or seemingly bizarre questions and have lots of debates and discussions about matters which have been clear to us for decades.  Without being arrogant 'experts'. 

Because occasionally we can learn things from 5 yr olds. 😁