Inviting Kids into the Process: What is God Like?
As we have rethought children’s ministry together, we’ve had the unique privilege of walking it out from the beginning. As with many churches, coming out of Covid has provided a difficult and, yet, incredible reset. While it was possible to maintain some semblance of “normal” with online church, it wasn’t really possible for anything happening with children. School, church, clubs, etc. tried and found it impossible to truly do what they needed to in an online format. So children’s ministry as it had existed hasn’t existed for a while. Now that we are back in person, we have an opportunity to basically restart a ministry, build it from the ground up with everything on the table to be reimagined and rebuilt.
It was so tempting to think about activities, content, structure, etc. We had to sit for a bit with the question, where do we begin? We highly recommend sitting with this question a bit yourself as you begin (or rebegin). Resist the temptation to rush ahead. There is much to gain from simply sitting with the question. After sitting with that question, we decided to start the same way Heather starts in her classroom every year - the environment. Often people think of the environment as being about rules, classroom management and colorful pictures on the walls, which is a piece of it, but if that’s all there is, you won’t get very far. School classroom environments set the stage for the year ahead and the same is true in church classrooms. The environment is the way the space (physical, mental and emotional) feels for all who are there. It is complex and includes spoken or written things like rules, materials available, and arrangement of the room as well as the unspoken elements such as the power dynamic, openness to questions and values of those setting up the space.
We had to think about what kind of environment we wanted. As we reflected on our mission to help all kids find their place in God’s story, we felt that an environment where kids saw us all as co-learners together and each of them as having something to contribute was key. We also wanted them to know that it is a safe space for them to be themselves, ask questions, share their thoughts and disagree with others, including the adults. Then there were the obvious elements of it being fun, engaging and helping them learn:)
From there, the plan flowed pretty quickly. Picture books are a great way to spark conversation with children and this situation was no different. What is God Like? By Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner was the obvious choice. It asks lots of questions, stretches the imagination around who God is and what God does and invites us all into a holistic way of thinking about God. The book ends with “But whenever you aren’t sure what God is like, think about what makes you feel safe, what makes you feel brave and what makes you feel loved. That’s what God is like.” What better words to focus on in creating a welcoming, co-learning kids ministry environment- safe, brave and loving.
We had our own ideas of how to create this environment but the key was inviting the children into the process so we set out with the plan to read the book each week for three weeks and then focus our short time together on each of the three adjectives- safe, brave and loving. The results were beautiful! Reading and sitting with such an incredible book opened up so many conversations. Then we asked the kids to share what makes them feel safe? Brave? Loved? And invited them to share how we could make our time together in church feel that way. Their ideas were much the same as ours had been but the power was in seeing them start to own this space and time. Initially they weren’t sure what to say and seemed almost hesitant. We had to remember they had never been asked these questions before. Kids aren’t used to grown-ups seeking their opinion. But, with some questions (What makes you feel safe? How could we make kid's church feel safe for you? For your friends? For new people we don’t know? How can we help you and others experience that God is safe?) we were able to get their ideas flowing and then follow through with implementing those.
While we had a unique opportunity, a sort of reset, this can be done at any point in a ministry. Heather starts the school year this way in her classroom, but oftentimes there is a point in the year where a reset is necessary for a variety of reasons. So she gets a picture book, goes in with lots of questions and sits down the kids and invites them into the process of creating or recreating the environment they want to learn in. The same can be done in a kid’s ministry. Invite the kids into the process and listen to their ideas of how to create an environment that they want to learn and worship in, watch God work and speak through them and then partner with them to create that space!
