Headaches & the Spiritual Wellbeing of Our Children

Headaches are the worst. Headaches that don’t go away feel like death. Unending headaches in a foreign land make life difficult, very difficult. It began on a spring day during a Chinese listening class and followed as I raced home. Lights and noises ate me alive, disrupting life as I knew it—classes, sleep, and relaxation. My life in a foreign land already possessed unique challenges without any added stress. Yet these unending headaches sprang themselves upon my life without consent. Within a week, I went to a doctor. These headaches were debilitating. Doctors initially were uncertain what to make of the headaches. They ran tests and scans eventually determining the headaches were a form of cluster headaches. 

 When we’re sick, we make a visit to the doctor. We want the doctor to check our bodies for infections, diseases, and abnormalities that threaten our wellbeing. While visiting the doctor, she’ll often remind you to return for regular checkups. Why? Regular checkups help the doctor anticipate encroaching diseases. The doctor wants to know your health, and you want her to know it too, just as you expect your accountant to understand tax law or your lawyer to understand case law.

 As a pastor, the fundamental nature of my responsibility is to know your child and how best to minister to your child and family. While the nature of my responsibility is the spiritual wellbeing of a child, this responsibility extends into the life of the whole child and family. Spirituality invades the life of the whole person. Faith and spirituality cannot be healthily compartmentalized. Your child’s relationship with others affects his affections. Your child’s interests affect her affections. Your child’s successes and struggles affect his affections. Your child’s affinity for her education affects her affections. The more comprehensively we are in relationship with one another gives pastors an opportunity to minister to your family holistically. 

 Since I began serving God’s people as a kid pastor, I have observed a disconnect between parents and the church that I believe is obstructing the wellbeing of the whole child and family: a lack of communication about the individual child outside the church. What is happening in a child’s life is paramount for me, as a pastor, to best minister to your child and family.

 The question aggravating kid ministry leaders all over the United States is: how do kid ministry leaders connect and partners well with parents? Don’t believe me? Explore kid ministry social media groups and conferences! It’s all the rage, because very few have a solution that satisfies them. It seems like we have tried EVERYTHING: emails, text messages, websites, apps, take-home papers, mini-conferences with parents, and the alike. Some are a hit for a while; others are duds, but nothing seems to catch long-term. The disgruntled, burnt-out kid ministry leader will blame parents, but I think it’s bigger.

 The contest for our time and energy has always been at issue. Fourth century bishop and theologian John Chrysostom writes, “In our own day every man takes the greatest pains to train his boy in the arts and literature and speech. But to exercise this child's soul in virtue, to that no man any longer pays heed.”[1] Innate within us is a desire to see our children succeed. Yet success takes on many forms not always recognizable. Through my faith journey and international travels, I have come to see that our views of success are often culturally constructed and even more often taken for granted and unquestioned.

 This worries me. If our views of success are culturally constructed and are often taken unquestionably for granted, what else do we adapt without question? The answer is too much. Why would the Christian want to adapt without question cultural practices and norms? I am not sure that we intend this. Nevertheless, we have. It is inescapable to shed all cultural conditioning, nor should we necessarily shed all cultural conditioning but that which fits not within a kingdom ethic as manifested through Scripture.

 It seems to me the reason we would never question visiting a doctor for our medical needs or a lawyer for our legal needs is because we expect these professionals to perform services to meet our needs. We expect the same of pastors too; yet, my assertion is that the expectations we have for professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and the alike are different than those we have for pastors and the larger Christian community. This requires a conscious philosophical adjustment for both kid ministry leaders and parents to act on behalf of their children’s holistic wellbeing through holistic conversations about holistic wellbeing of the child and her family.

[1]St. John Chrysostom, Address on Vainglory and How to Bring Up Children.

Game Time Captains & Imago Dei

[This essay was initially written Fall of 2015 in Theology of Christian Leadership class at Criswell College under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Graham.]

“Why are they team captains,” a 5th grade boy shouted, as a four and a five year old boy were picked as team captains. He was dismayed by the choice. How the youngest and the incapable could be chosen as team captains was beyond him. Most remote from Noah’s mind was these youngsters' identity and who they are in relation to Christ.

On any given Wednesday or Sunday, churchmen choose the best and most athletic children during game time as team captain and compliment children on their dress with no recognition of the child’s character or who the child is and is becoming in Christ. Against the concept of the image of God (imago dei) in man, normative social practices can be examined for the edification of the church and its witness in the world. This examination is exceptionally important within children’s ministry. During this period, a child’s identity is forming and shaping who he will become.

The concept of the image of God in man is derived from Genesis’ creation account, when God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gn. 1:26a). While there has been some debate throughout Christian history concerning the mode by which God’s image is in man, Stanley Grenz argues that “at the heart of the divine image…is a reference to our human destiny as designed by God.” How then does mankind created in the image of God affect the way we engage our children in the church?

1. We evaluate our social practices and values. Evaluating our social practices allows us the opportunity to recognize where we are placing value. Do we really value the dress of a little boy or girl on Sunday over their relationship in Christ? Of course we don’t. Whenever we find ourselves putting emphasis and value on these things to the neglect of the child’s character and person, we reinforce social practices that do not strengthen the child’s identity in Christ or as created in God’s image. It is important for us to consider something as simple as the manner we handle a child learning memory verses. A child should not be considered as more valued because he can’t learn or retain verses as other children. While none of us would consciously agree that a child who learns more verses is valued more than a child who does not, often times this is unconsciously worked out through unevaluated practices that we have unthoughtfully picked up. What we reinforce in a child’s life will play a role in the formation of their identity.

2. We conform our social practices and values to reflect the image of Christ. For the apostle Paul writes, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). As we assess our social practices and values under the matrix of imago dei, we begin to conform these practices in support of a child’s image as being made in the image of God and as being conformed to the image of his Son.

3. Conforming our social practices and values to reinforce a child’s understanding of their identity as being made in the image of God and being conformed to the image of the Son brings glory to God. God is glorified by us conforming our social practices toward supporting a child’s understanding that she is created in the image of God and being conformed to the image of his Son, because it honors and brings into existence what He values. In other words, God’s kingdom is demonstrated when children experience and exercise imago dei.

Yet how is this conformity specifically worked out in the context of children’s ministry? Two considerations come to mind. First, those responsible for children are to consider how they relate to children. “Why do I” questions, “How do I” questions, and “What do I” questions may help us start this process. For example, “How do I compliment a child?” or “What do I compliment about a child?” Once the question is answered, explore the answers’ relation to God’s image in man. Does this answer support the child’s person as being created in God’s image and being conformed to his Son? If not, ask yourself, “How can I compliment a child in a manner that reinforces his/her image as made in the image of God?” The second consideration to take into account is the child’s perception of himself/herself (as well as others) as made in God’s image. Ideally speaking, a change of practice for us who are responsible for children will help a child’s understanding of her self as made in God’s image. Another way to support a child’s understanding is to teach them and keep on his mind that he is created in God’s image and is being conformed to the image of Jesus.

Imago dei is an important concept which affects the social practices and values of the church, and is particularly instrumental in helping children understand who they as their identity is forming and being shaped in a broken and chaotic world.

Justification & the Shape of Children's Ministry

[This essay was initially written Fall of 2015 in Theology of Christian Leadership class at Criswell College under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Graham.]

What happens when a child who receives Jesus fails to ever understand the implications of his new standing before God? This is an unfortunate reality in the life of many churches and children’s ministries. There are children in the church who never (or late in life) come to a lived-reality that their lives are reoriented toward God’s kingdom because of their new standing before God. While they have access to God, they neither understand his power nor the worldview of his kingdom. They continue to be enslaved to the social practices and norms of their culture, rather than living under the reign of Christ. While it may be granted that responsibility lies on the individual, particularly once these children reach adulthood; yet responsibility also lies with the church and in particular within the children’s ministry.

To what end do we enact the structures, practices, and activities in children’s ministry which embodies the reality of our new standing before God? Children’s ministries have enacted structures, practices, and activities for numerous reasons. Some of these reasons have been based on pragmatic and/or theological grounds. This essay explores the relationship between the doctrine of justification and children’s ministry.

Justification is a forensic term denoting a change in our legal standing before God. Stan Grenz writes that justification “is God’s ultimate answer to the condemnation that stands over us because of sin…As a result we can enjoy new standing before God.” Thus, how can a children’s ministry structure its practices and activities to operate with this reality in mind?

1. Recognize that our new standing before God enables our worldview to be reoriented by the power of the Spirit. This includes both a (re)structuring of children’s ministry and the (re)orientation of the child’s life to this end. I fear that some Christians fail to recognize that our new standing before God has brought forth particular new realities associated with God’s redemptive activity in Jesus and by the Spirit. When we fail to recognize these realities, we fail to shape our life—ecclesial and individual—from the reality that we now are in fellowship with the Triune God and living under his reign. This failure effects not merely ourselves but those to whom we minister the gospel of Christ. Our new standing before God enables us by the Spirit to be reoriented to the practices of God’s kingdom.

2. Evaluate our practices in light of our new standing before God. Coming out of and living in a world predisposed to sin and rebellion against God makes it necessary for us to evaluate the social practices and structures in which we participate. Evaluating our practices in light of our new standing before God helps us understand and participate in God’s present reign. So how do we evaluate our practices in light of our new standing before God? It may be helpful to begin with questions, such as: How does this practice support, demonstrate, and/or embody the reality that we (Jesus followers) have a new standing before God? How does this practice support, teach, and/or help a child understand her new standing before God?

 3. Perform the realities that our new standing before God has given us. Because of our new standing before God, we live as justified ones. We are no longer alienated from God, but have put on the righteousness of Christ Jesus. This reality enables us by the Spirit of God to be in fellowship with the Triune God and live under his reign. For all Christians, this new standing before God transfers us into his kingdom. No longer are we to represent the way of sin, rebellion, and death, but we are to represent God’s way—a way of peace, reconciliation, and freedom. We are not merely made right before God in order to go our own way, but to come into fellowship with him in his kingdom. 

Central to structuring the practices and activities of children’s ministry under the reign of Christ is the fundamental reality that we who follow Jesus have a new standing before God. This is a fundamental aspect of our worldview, both for those leading children and children themselves, and must be embodied—ecclesiastically and individually. Children’s ministries cannot leave children grasping for their identity in the world and before God, but must lay the child’s foundation as one who lives in new standing with God (and all that it implies) through its structures, practices, and activities. May a child not fail to grasp the lived-reality that she has new standing before God, because we choose a model of children’s ministry that does not negotiate this theological reality.

There Is No Junior Trinity After All

[This essay was initially written Fall of 2015 in Theology of Christian Leadership class at Criswell College under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Graham.]

With the coming of age and progeny of the Baby Boomers came the professionalization of children’s ministry. No longer would children’s ministry be bound to merely Sunday school or mid-week programs. An organizational overhaul occurred in the 1970’s and 1980’s with the hiring of children pastors/directors. For some, children’s ministry, in particular children's church, has become functionally “the church” for children to the exclusion of any integration into the broader church. 

Stan Grenz argues that “[t]he Father, Son, and Spirit are the social Trinity,” which entails that “community is not merely an aspect of human life, for it lies within the divine essence” (Grenz, Theology for the Community of God, 76). How might the social character of the Trinity inform the organizational leadership of children ministry?

The concept of perichoresis, a term that helps us understand the social Trinity, may provide a framework by which children ministry is to relate to the church.[1] Perichoresisis “the teaching that the life of each of the persons [of the Godhead] flows through each of the others, so each sustains each of the others and each has direct access to the consciousness of the others” (Erickson, Christian Theology, 366). The 4th century theologian Basil of Caesarea describes the idea of perichoresis, “For all things that are the Father’s are beheld in the Son, and all things that are the Son’s are the Father’s; because the whole Son is in the Father and has all the Father in himself.” How can the concept of perichoresis inform the organizational leadership of children’s ministry? Two thoughts come to mind: (1) While children’s ministry is distinct from other ministries in the church, so should other ministries flow through children’s ministry and vice versa;[2] and (2) the church must integrate children’s ministry within the whole life and worship of the church.

1. While children’s ministry is distinct from other ministries within the life of the church, the ministries of the church flow through children’s ministry and vice versa. Children’s ministry should not be a ministry within the church that stands separate and unrelated to other ministries within the church. Children’s ministry ought to participate with other distinct ministries within the church. The outflow of children’s ministry into other ministries can express itself as children learning from and ministering to those involved in other ministries. The structuring of a church's ministries can give rise to the complaint that some of the senior adults do not know our younger families well and vice versa. A potential solution here introduces our children to our senior adults, having our children pray for and interact with our senior adults during an event or Sunday school. Although these ministries have distinct functions, they flow through each other and sustain each other.

2. The church must integrate children’s ministry within the whole life and worship of the church. This is worked out importantly through participation in the sacraments. One Sunday morning, I walked into the nursery after church. As I walked in to the nursery, a little 4 year old girl ran up to me and asked, “Did y’all eat with God today?” referring to the Lord’s Supper. While I have made efforts to integrate our children into the life and worship of the church through participation in the ordinance of the church, full integration has yet to occur. When serving at Hickory Tree Baptist, children left children’s church to participate in the Lord’s Supper and baptism, while our infants and preschoolers remain in the nursery. As inadequate as my  solution was, I made efforts to integrate our infants and preschoolers by taking the elements of the Lord’s Supper to the nursery to explain the elements, to read Scripture, and to take communion with the nursery ministry leaders. 

 The social life of the Trinity can inform the outworking of organizational leadership within the church and distinctly in children’s ministry. Through the use of the concept perichoresis, the life of children’s ministry is grounded in theology, particularly a Trinitarian theology. It is unnecessary for us to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We maintained a children’s ministry which is integrated into the life and worship of the church and yet is functionally[3] distinct. The life of each of ministry flows through each of the others, so each sustains each of the others and each has direct access to the others. There is no junior Trinity after all.

[1]The way in which kid ministry relates to the church has become a perplexing and complicated question. Churches structure and run their kid ministry in various ways. While some children’s ministries are more static than others, but children’s ministry as a whole is in a state of becoming. Kid ministry, like some other specialty ministries, isolate themselves to the point of being “the church”. The challenge for the church to express the concept of perichoresis reminds the church despite its structural model that the church is unified in the midst of its diversity. It is most important to identify the unity of Christian worship in categories that are experienced by the local church unity-in-person: (1) declaration of the kingship of Jesus by his bride as given by the Father, (2) observance of the ordinances/sacraments in recognition of the bride's solidarity with the sufferings of Christ, (3) the Spirit's empowered unity of a diverse people, and (4) etc.

[2]Kid ministry is not the center or central ministry of the church. However, it is a ministry of the church and as much it flows through the life of the church as do other ministries of the church into the life of the church.

[3]It is not ontological distinct. Kid ministry is only distinct in regard to function, that is its ministry to children. It is ontologically unified to the makeup of the church.

Inescapably An Eschatological Leader

[This essay was initially written Fall of 2015 in Theology of Christian Leadership class at Criswell College under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Graham.]

“Leadership is the act or task of making an intentional contribution toward the direction and motivation of a group in the framing and pursuit of a common purpose,” David Starling writes. Leadership according to Starlings’ definition has purpose and direction. When we consider these two characteristics of leadership within Christian leadership and theology in particular, we will soon discover that Christian leadership is eschatological. Stan Grenz observes that in the study of eschatology “we speak about God’s goal or purpose for his activity in the lives of individuals, in human history, and in creation.” As a Christian leader representing the purposes of God, we lead people toward his telos and in expectation of the consummation of his new creation. This transforms the way we approach Christian leadership within the church and within children’s ministry. It requires Christian leaders (and the church) to model God’s new humanity in so far as possible, and affects our disposition in the present dying and decaying world.

God’s eschatological plans provide us with confidence as a participant in his divine program in the present evil age. Jesus encourages his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion to take heart because he has overcome the world (John 16:31). Though opposition opposes, we are able to have confidence in God’s eschatological plan, because Jesus has first overcome the world.

God’s eschatological plans motivates us toward an urgency for gospel proclamation. God’s imminent plan to finalize his rule and reign, thereby destroying his enemies urges me to call men, women, and children under his reign. 

God’s eschatological plans provokes us to have a present joy, knowing the telos of God’s divine program. While Jesus conveys to his disciples that they will have much sorrow, he affirms they will have much joy when they see him again (John 16:22). The apostle Paul describes it “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).

God’s eschatological plans encourages us toward steadfastness in holy living. Paul in Romans 13:11-14 calls us to holy living because “the night is far gone; the day [of salvation] is at hand.” By the power of God’s Spirit, I am able to presently participate in the holy life which will be consummated in God’s new creation.

The disposition of the Christian leader is inescapably affected in the present by God’s eschatology plans for his new creation. God’s eschatological plans form the backbone of Christian leadership, and the Christian leader depends upon God’s consummative action in the future for his/her mission and direction today.