Back when I worked at The Wesley Foundation we would have lunch topics, and Thursdays would be labeled "Theological Thursdays" and we would sit around and talk about something deep and theological. So, today, I thought I would kind of bring it up...in a blog form...and to talk about theology and kids ministry...how do you DO it???
I have about 20 kids who come on Wednesday nights for our Children's Program, which is really awesome and lots of fun. But they are 20 very inquisitive, very smart children, which is not a bad thing...they just ask a lot of questions. But they are good questions, like
"Who created God?"
"What is the Trinity?"
"Where does God get His power?"
"Where does God live?"
"What about dinosaurs, why aren't they in the Bible?"
"Why isn't Zeus in the Bible?"
So, really, I know they are thinking about things, and we are studying Creation right now, so they are sort of on topic questions. BUT, I only have an hour with them, and I have a lot to cover in that hour. How do I let them know they are important questions, but try to stay on topic, too? How do I answer their questions?
I think some of it will come from partnering with parents...and giving them resources to talk about some of this at home...because 2 hours a week is all I get with these kids...they get the rest of the time when they're not in school.
What should I do? I need some help...some advice...some guidance. And I want the kids to know that they are important!!
This is what the ladies from The View had to say about it recently...not that I agree, at all...but this is what kids are faced with in the world and at school...praying for kids today, as they face things now that we did not face, even 10-15 years ago.
2 comments:
Wow, those ARE great questions! I would like to know the answers to some of those questions myself. I have more time with the kids I care for, but I too experience hard to answer questions. While I feel, spiritually, that I have an AWESOME relationship with God, there are questions I cannot answer. There are stories in the bible I do not know and verses I have never heard. So for me, answering these questions is uncomfortable to begin with. In the past, I have made a point to answer children with my best possible answer or tell them I don’t know, but would like to find out. Later, we rethink the question with a parent. But like I said, I have WAY more than two hours a week.
Do you know the answers to these questions? Have you formulated quick and simple answers that you would be able to share with the group? If one child asks, I’m sure the rest of them are curious or would like to know also. I would try interjecting these questions and answers during closing time. I would also recommend that you ask the children to share the question with their parents. And, YES, some of us parents would love resources so that we can help answer these questions too!
We ran into this when we were leading Children's Church at our previous church...1 hour with a lesson already slotted and we get the question of "How can you hear God if you can't see Him?" and such... One of the things that we considered doing was setting aside one day a month to have a Q&A time...we'd write down the kids questions as they asked them and then spend one session answering those questions, and any others than came up... but like I said, that was our consideration we never got it rolling before the format was changed... we did have to do some quick thinking sometimes and just give a brief answer, but our kids were ages 3-6 so that usually worked fairly well.
And I have no idea if that is at all helpful! : )
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