“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

It’s a classic question asked by the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, ancient Greek philosophers, authors, poets and artists of all stripes. In fact, every religion or philosophy must, at some point, wrestle with this question.

However, there’s another intriguing question that acts as a counterweight to this one.

“Why don’t bad things happen to bad people?”

Why do the wicked seem to prosper? Why don’t evil men and women get what they deserve? Why does injustice flourish in our world?

These are the questions that the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk is dealing with and which I explore in this latest sermon on Habakkuk 2:2-20.

Bouncing off Jared Dodson’s Christianity Today article, I dig into God’s response to Habakkuk’s second complaint (from 1:12-2:1), the five woes promised against Babylon, and why the proper response to God’s lingering but assured justice is to sing.

You can listen to or watch the full sermon in the links below.

Growing Young — Fuller Youth Institute’s book that profiled the characteristics of churches that had healthy youth and young adult membership — suggests that “warmth” is one of these six essential strategies. But what exactly is “warmth”? How do you know if you have it, and how do you cultivate it if you don’t?

This week on The Shock Absorber podcast, shares insights into the sociological theory of “Third Place Communities”, as he continues to walk and me through the themes emerging from his PhD research into the theology, strategy, practice and history of Soul Revival Church.

Third places are community spaces where you choose to congregate, purely for the social benefits found there (as distinct from ‘first places’, where you live, and ‘second places’, where you work or study). According to the work of sociologist Ray Oldenburg, third places are characterised as:

• Open and inviting

• Comfortable and informal

• Convenient

• Unpretentious

• Having a mixture of regulars and irregulars

• Conversation as the main activity

• Light-hearted and playful mood.

As I argue in my chapter of Australian Evangelical Perspectives on Youth Ministry, this thick definition of healthy community spaces fleshes out the characteristic of “warmth” that FYI identify as essential to flourishing youth and young adult ministry.

Stuart unpacks his discovery of this sociological strategy and his experimentation with it in the early days of the Soul Revival youth community. Along the way, we discuss the challenges of making churches third places, why members resist making church a place of community, and why lounges play such an iconic role in Soul Revival semiotics.

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

Title: The Story We Tell Our Children: Gospel Formation in a World of Counterfeit Imitation
Author: Matt Markins
Published: Awana

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me at no cost by the publisher. There was no requirement to review it or to endorse it; what follows is my honest assessment.

As I consider the future of children’s ministry and childhood faith formation, I keep returning to the idea of helping the next generation become confident Christians in a post-Christian world. Regular readers or listeners to The Shock Absorber podcast will know that I’m not an anxious culture warrior. I’m not persuaded by either the “take back Christendom” or “retreat from the world” postures. (Though performing in either of those positions would likely grow my audience ten-fold!) Instead, I think about how to foster a robust, albeit non-anxious faith, in young people.1

Therefore, I was delighted to read Matt Markins’ The Story We Tell Our Children: Gospel Formation in a World of Counterfeit Imitation. I always look forward to the research that Markins and the team at Awana provide on children’s ministry, and I have previously interviewed him about the prior publication, The Faith of Our Children.

The Story We Tell Our Children provides a clear diagnosis of the challenges facing Christian families and churches in an increasingly post-Christian age, and gives a largely persuasive and mostly non-anxious antidote to the counterfeit stories of the secular West (qualifiers that I will discuss below in more detail).

The Big Idea

The big idea of the book is the importance of storying our children and the role of narrative formation.

Here’s one key quote that summarises the heart of the book:

“Stories form children at a very young age.

Childhood stories form lifelong identity (i.e. shape lifelong worldview).

If childhood stories happen to be counterfeit stories, they can form a counterfeit identity by early adolescence.” (p.4)

Share

Key Arguments

This book is short, coming in at under 80 pages. So instead of going chapter by chapter, I’ll highlight the two key arguments that Markins makes along the way.

The False Narratives

Markins rightly notes the increasingly post-Christian culture in the West.

“Digital capitalism, hedonism, post-Christian thinking, the sexual revolution, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, the “scientific is the final authority” narrative — each of these movements is a powerful force at work. And these pervasive forces are telling today’s children a humanistic story using the distribution systems of the entertainment industry, social media, professional sports and academics. Kids in Christian homes, kids in non-Christian homes — to some degree, every child is swimming in the dominant, mainstream narratives, no matter how much we try to shelter and protect them.” (p.22)

While this may be startling news for some USA readers, for those of us in the non-American West, this is not a new story. Secularity has grown rapidly across Europe and the Anglosphere for decades. Data from the Australian census and NCLS survey show that Christianity is a minority religion (44%)2 and only 7-8% of the population attended church monthly3. Unless your family takes an extreme “retreat” posture, we “cannot completely protect our children from the drifting smoke of the secular, non-believing world” (p.44).

However, with the all-pervasiveness of the secular story comes the realisation that the story had failed to create a satisfying narrative to live into. There are very few brave or naïve enough to claim that young people in 2026 are flourishing. The failure of the counter-formation of the culture can be used to the wise parent and minister’s advantage.

“We need to clearly point out the cognitive dissonance of these counterfeit stories — the false gospels that capture the affections of this generation. We should age-appropriately allow children and young people to see the failures of secularism side by side with reality, which is the sufficiency and goodness of the Gospel.” (p.44)

The True Story

Unsurprisingly, it is the Gospel that Markins puts forward as the story we must enculturate our children into. However, it must be the full story, not the truncated version—you’re a sinner in need of a saviour—that populates many “gospel presentations”. This is true, but only two parts of a four-part story. As Markins writes:

“When we condense the Gospel down to only the fall (part 2 — you’re a sinner) and redemption (part 3 — only Jesus can save you), we cheapen the fullness of the Bible and God’s story to us. When we leave out the creation narrative (part 1), we omit the genesis of where a child’s true identity comes from—Christ! And when we leave out restoration (part 4), we undermine the message that God can restore, heal and transform a child who walks with Him and His disciples for a lifetime—and one day He will make all things new. How could we omit this amazing hope for the future?!” (p.67)

I appreciate Markins emphasis on the whole story of the Gospel. The Bible does not start at Genesis 3 and conclude with Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection. Beginning the story at “very good, God-image-bearing creation”, rather than “miserable sinners”, is no minor reframing. It does not undermine the depth of our sin (in fact, it highlights the height from which we have fallen), but it allows children to see that, despite sin, they are deeply loved members of God’s good creation, and there is much to notice and celebrate about who God has made (not just remade) them to be.

Nit-Picky

I mentioned above that the book is largely persuasive and mostly non-anxious. Let me offer one very minor and then one more meaningful critique.

Counterfeit Capture

Markins open the book with a lengthy description and origin of the term “Stockholm Syndrome”. The point with regard to his argument is this:

“The stories children believe about themselves and the world around them can become so captivating that they can develop a deep affection for a counterfeit captor… these counterfeit stories can sometimes hold them hostage for a lifetime.” (p.5)

The analogy fits, and yet it unsettles me. Equating the narrative formation of the secular world as Stockholm Syndrome, not only raises the anxiety levels of the reader, but makes it difficult to imagine transformation into the likeness of Christ.

Research from Barna and Awana have consistently advocated for the importance of early worldview formation. However, the power of the Gospel is capable of transforming us, through the renewing of our minds, to “be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2). There is hope for the child, young person, or adult who has—until the moment of conversion—thoroughly been formed by the counterfeit story. While a powerful metaphor and a strong motivator for taking faith formation seriously, I would caution against language that implied that a child immersed in the post-Christian world is a “hostage for a lifetime.”

Holistic Gospel Formation

I heartily agree with the necessity of re-storying our children with the Gospel message.

“When we have clarity around the Gospel narrative, and also have consistent Scripture engagement, we are giving [children] the best opportunity to form lasting faith.” (p.54)

Amen and amen!

My one critical reflection on Markins argument is that this Gospel re-storying happens, almost exclusively, through cognitive and didactic means. Consider the following:

“The child who grasps the fullness of the Gospel narrative — creation, fall, redemption and restoration — has full Biblical context … this child views the Bible as a reality superstructure which all of the Bible stories and virtues can fasten to.” (p.54)

Note the necessary cognitive development and comprehension required to fulfil this task. I believe in teaching and use catechism, memory verses, and comprehension tasks regularly in my ministry. However, virtue, character and worldview formation does not occur only through cognitive means.

I would love to see Markins take his argument further and explore how elements such as imaginative play, craft and games, the practice of habits, religious socialisation and other holistic elements of a child’s experience of the world complement the cognitive aspect of narrative formation. Knowing the story is essential, but insufficient to fully “grasp the fullness of the Gospel narrative.”

Conclusion

A brief, but important book, The Story We Tell Our Children is a powerful argument for the narrative formation of our children according to the Gospel story. We cannot retreat from the post-Christian world, but we can intentionally engage in Christian counter-formation so that our children and young people have “the best opportunity to form lasting faith.”

Thanks for reading this instalment of Growing Disciples: Book by Book. If you have suggestions for future books worth reviewing, please leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

Why stick with ministry to children and teenagers? It’s messy, it’s slow, they can’t reciprocate the effort I’m putting in, and that glitter is never coming out of the church carpet.

“Our commitment comes from our theology. Not from our desire for community or our love of community. Because community is hard work.”

This is a central insight from in this week’s episode of The Shock Absorber podcast, and it explores an important tension for those of us in local church ministry. If you have experienced a healthy church community, you know how wonderful it feels to know and be known. It feels like home, a place where everyone knows your name. And yet community does not come easily. It is hard work to create the kind of community in which you can genuinely relax.

Being grounded in our theological commitment to children, youth, and the local church you are growing them into, helps with the momentum required to do the good works prepared in advance for us to do.

Kids and Youth Ministry is not easy work. But it is fruitful and fulfilling work, working in the strength that God supplies to know, love and obey King Jesus, and invite other young people into that adventure of faith as well.

Share

Friendship is an Ecclesial Category - The Shock Absorber

While struggles to calibrate his stargazing app, he’s having much more success in defining the themes of his PhD research into the history of Soul Revival and what led to the success of the Soulies youth community through the 1990s- 2000s.

This week we’re exploring the theme Ecclesiology of Intergenerational Friendship. Jesus calls his disciples friends in John 15:15, a concept that shaped the guiding ecclesial metaphor for the fledgling youth community that Stu was experimenting with.

If the young adults were friends with Jesus, and the teenagers either were already friends with Jesus or were being invited into that friendship by becoming Christians, why wouldn’t the young adults and teenagers be friends with each other? Why wouldn’t you extend that circle of friendship to older adults and to children as well?

At a time when teenagers were reaping the hurt of no-fault divorce and fractured home lives, friendship was the doorway into Christian belief and into the intergenerational community of God’s people in the local church.

Also in this episode:

• How the industrialisation of schooling led to the institutionalisation of homogeneous friendships

• Why churches don’t listen to anyone under 30, and how to resist that in your own ministry

• Why Joel is excited about the World Cup and whether Stu will celebrate the Cup “coming home” to England

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

Building Blocks of a Fruitful Kids Ministry - Cross Formed KidMin

What are the key building blocks of an effective Kids Ministry?

This was the question asked of Hunter Williams and I as we jumped in on a colab episode with Hannah Augustine from the Kidz Matter podcast.

Whether you are starting from scratch, or taking some balcony time to reassess how your established ministry is going, our conversation took us through the must haves and the must nots of leading children’s ministry.

This includes:

• The importance of clarity, community and curiosity

• How identity and values shape your ministry’s direction

• Creating a strategic roadmap for your ministry

• And, of course, the three spheres of a child’s faith formation in the church — Children’s Ministry, Family Ministry and Intergenerational Ministry

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

If you’ve got a question or topic about Children’s Ministry that you’d like us to cover on the Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts, send me a DM or leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

Relationships may be the front door of a shock absorber approach to ministry, but you need more than relational community to build an effective youth group.

In this week’s episode of The Shock Absorber podcast, takes and me through the second theme that has emerged from his PhD research into the story of Soul Revival: Christian identity formation through conversion and biblical discipleship.

A significant factor in many of the interviewees’ stories that Stu and I conducted for his research was the power of an authentic Christian witness by the leaders and other teenagers in the group. At the weekly Soul Revival youth groups, the Bible talk was an unapologetic part of the evening. Most importantly, there was no hard line demarcating the joy of the night’s frivolities from the sobriety of opening up God’s Word. Rather, sober joy reflected the entire night’s culture as well as the lives of the leaders and kids.

Likewise, Christian identity was fostered outside of the youth group. You were just as likely to find teenagers reading the Bible after a quick surf, or praying before heading into the movies, as you were to see these overt faith expressions within the walls of the church building. Being a “Sunday Christian” was something that was named and actively spoken against. Following Jesus was for every moment.

Listen in to hear about:

• the hip hop event the night before the Cronulla riots,

• people who experienced churches that minimised the Jesus bit because it was daggy,

• and why the teen girl interested in opera didn't get paid out in a community built around grunge.

Share

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

Enhanced Christianity - The Shock Absorber

What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas, right? Well… when it comes to the recent Enhanced Games, I certainly hope this is the case.

, , and I kick off our discussion this week wondering about doping and the pursuit of enhanced human performance. What counts as cheating? And what does enhancement—from performance drugs to transhumanism—say about our definition of greatness?

Share

From there, Stu kicks off a multi-week series on the themes of his PhD. He discusses the methodology around writing an “autoethnography” and how his curiosity around social movement theory and third-place sociology helped him to experiment with Soul Revival as a youth community in the early 90’s.

Six themes are emerging from his research on what was happening in Soul Revival and what led to its success.

• Counter-Cultural Relational Community

• Christian Identity Formation Through Conversion and Biblical Discipleship

• Ecclesiology of Friendship and Intergenerational Family

• Alternative Christian Shared Spaces That Embed Belonging

• Relational Evangelism Through Gospel Proclamation and Public Witness

• Adaptive Innovation, Institutional Tension and Church Renewal

We’ll be digging into these themes over the next few weeks. This episode, we discuss whether youth ministry works better as event or community, why relationships are the front door to the Shock Absorber approach to ministry, and why an “enhanced Christianity” may be cheating your faith formation.

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

Equipping Families for Summer Discipleship - Cross Formed Kidmin

While Sydneysiders pull out their beanies and puffer jackets, over in the US, Hunter Williams and Ryan Coatney are getting geared up for their summer break. With little concern for my chattering teeth and frostbitten fingers, this week we discuss how churches can equip families for the northern hemisphere’s long summer holidays.

There are two key principles to keep in mind.

1. God doesn’t go on holidays, and neither does our faith.
   A break from school and workday routines does not mean that our discipling relationship with King Jesus takes a back seat.
   
   AND
   

2. Don’t confuse discipleship with programming.
   Faithful children’s ministry does not require you to wear yourself out for the sake of your church programs and family resourcing.

We discuss some creative ways to incorporate ongoing faithful discipleship in our churches and homes, while families play with summer routines, travel and enjoying the seasonal rhythms of the year.

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

If you’ve got a question or topic about Children’s Ministry that you’d like us to cover on the Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts, send me a DM or leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

“What would you like to play with this morning?”

I find myself saying this regularly on Sunday mornings in my children’s ministry. In our children’s ministry program, after our Bible teaching, we have a time called “Kids Chill”. The object of this time is to ‘chill’ out with kids.

During Kids Chill, kids are the hosts, and the teenage and adult leaders are the guests. Children have the autonomy to choose what they would like to do in this otherwise unstructured playtime. The leader’s role is to sit, colour, run, bounce, fold, squish, decorate, deal in, or imagine with and alongside the youngest brothers and sisters in our congregation.

Kids Chill is an essential way our church expresses its commitment to intergenerational ministry in the life of our church.

Share

Intergenerational Ministry is founded on several principles, including equality, mutuality and reciprocity.^[1] An intergenerational church is one in which these principles are enacted by providing each generation opportunities to meaningfully contribute to the life of the church. As a children’s minister, I am constantly looking across all aspects of our church life together and asking the kinds of questions that will provide these kinds of opportunities to children.

• Where are children present or absent in our church community?

• Which spaces are children allowed or not allowed to be in?

• Which ministries are children permitted or not permitted to contribute to?

• Which calendar events are children invited to or excluded from?

• Where is the voice and opinion of children listened to or ignored?

This does not mean that it is appropriate to place a child in every situation, allow them into every space, permit them to contribute to every ministry, or invite them to every event. Young children are generally excluded from the kitchen where boiling water and sharp knives abound. Our preschoolers are not invited to mix the audio at the sound desk. And school-age children are not invited to the Thursday lunchtime craft group. There are several practical and developmental reasons why children may not have equality and mutuality in every area of the church.

Leadership vs. Contribution

Practical and developmental reasons notwithstanding, one of the arguments that I read frequently in the intergenerational and child spirituality literature is that children ought to be leaders. If we are to take the equality, mutuality and reciprocity of children seriously in the intergenerational church, then there ought not to be any spaces where the voice and opinion of children are ignored, and therefore, where they are not allowed to lead.

Joe Azzopardi, in his PhD research into intergenerational communities, found that there are five characteristics of a healthy intergenerational church: (i) positive interaction, (ii) connectedness, (iii) interdependence, (iv) accommodation, and (v) empowerment.

Under empowerment, Azzopardi writes:

“Intergenerational communities strive to empower members of every generation by granting them authority in ministry and ensuring they have a representative voice in leadership. This approach recognises that every generation is ordained as a minister of the gospel and deserves a place at the decision table.”^[2]

This approach to intergenerational leadership appears to have solid biblical backing. The New Testament emphasises the radical equality that comes to all who are in Christ. The New Testament church believed in the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6). No ethnicity, gender or social status impacts our co-adoption into Christ’s family (Galatians 3:26-28), and the same Spirit distributes gifts to every believer (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). While Paul and the other New Testament epistle authors did not appear to have generational distinctions in mind, it is not illegitimate to include children in our definition of “believer” and “Christ’s family” (whether through covenant or confession, depending on your church tradition).

Therefore, it would appear to follow that children—with every other generation—ought to be included in our church’s leadership. Citing the Fuller Youth Institute research on Growing Young, Azzopardi writes that “keychain leadership is about sharing power and enabling young people to step into leadership positions, fostering an environment where all generations are valued and can contribute meaningfully.”

However, a correction is warranted. Azzopardi here is representative of those who, I believe, conflate leadership with contribution and thereby devalue both.

The Value of Leadership

As we have seen, the New Testament epistles have a high view of the equality of identity and belonging for all those who are in Christ. “There is no distinction,” Paul writes, “between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22-24). This equality in the atonement is what leads to the equality in status as children, role as priests, and giftedness by the Spirit.

However, this does not translate to equality in leadership.

Paul, in Ephesians, highlights the givenness of specific leadership roles in the church:

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Ephesians 4:11-12)

A distinction is made here between these specific leadership roles and “his people”. Not everyone is included in these leadership roles, though all are included in “the body”. James warns that “not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1). Notice that James continues to uphold equality in the church (“my fellow believers”) while maintaining a distinction in the teaching role. Paul writes to both Timothy and Titus and sets a high bar for the roles of overseers, deacons, and elders (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9).

Every Christian, from infants to adolescents, middle-aged to elders, is saved by the same gospel, adopted into the same family, and gifted and equipped by the same Spirit. But not all are qualified and called into ministry leadership. Leadership is an essential and valuable role in the church, but it is restricted in its scope. “Authority in ministry” and “leadership positions” are not granted by virtue of being a Christian and, therefore, are appropriately limited in a way that will exclude not just most children but most adult members of the church family as well.

The Value of Contribution

Does this mean that I do not believe in the principles of equality, mutuality and reciprocity? Am I a phony proponent of intergenerational ministry? Before casting your vote, let me revisit a comment I made earlier, that conflating leadership with contribution devalues both.

We are obsessed with leadership in our culture. We conduct leadership training in schools, allowing every student to learn “leadership skills”. Leadership books abound, and employees are encouraged to seek out “leadership opportunities”. We place a high value on leaders, yet paradoxically encourage everyone towards leadership. However, if the school, organisation, or church is full of leaders, who exactly are they leading? As above, not everyone ought to be a leader, but logically speaking, not everyone can be one either.

The larger problem for our purposes is that in this emphasis on leadership, we have conflated leadership with value. Why do we push leadership opportunities? Because leaders have power. Leaders have a voice. Leaders can enact change. Leaders have value.

These things are all true. What is not true, especially in the “small working model of New Creation”^[3] that exists in your local church, is that only leaders have power, voice, the ability to enact change, and therefore, value.

Jesus rebukes his disciples on multiple occasions about their desire for power, influence and authority. In Mark 10, Jesus contrasts a worldly authority with the kind of authority that his disciples must embody:

“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

A chapter earlier, in a verse precious to all in children’s ministry, Jesus interrupts another argument about greatness and places a “little child” in their midst with the words, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me” (Mark 9:37).

Notice what is happening in these two passages. The nature of authority is being upended, from “lording over” to servanthood, and little children are being honoured and set up as the model of kingdom greatness. Notice what is not happening in these passages. The disciples’ ‘leadership’ is not being relativised. They are not stripped of their leadership authority but are having their concept of authority reshaped according to Kingdom ethics. Jesus, the Son of Man, does not relinquish his proper leadership and authority in the Kingdom. But he does use his authority to serve. His disciples are to do likewise.

Similarly, the little child is honoured. But they are not given leadership roles. They are not ordained as ministers of the gospel in any formal, ecclesiastical sense. They do, however, have a contributive purpose as a model of Kingdom discipleship. This contributive purpose is valuable; in fact, it is essential to understanding the upside-down ethic of the Kingdom. But contribution—however valuable—is not the same thing as leadership.

Leave a comment

Intergenerational Contribution

How do we live out this distinction between leadership and contribution in an intergenerational church? If not everyone is called to be a leader, how do we ensure that the equality, mutuality and reciprocity of all generations of disciples is honoured?

I think the answer is in the definition of leadership and authority that Jesus gave his disciples in Mark’s gospel. If church leaders are serving their members, then they will be proactive in consulting with them, listening to them, and equipping them for their own “works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” In a church striving towards intergenerationality, this will include the children in the congregation. Why children? Generally, because children, like every other generation, are loved by Jesus, bought by the blood of Jesus, and co-adopted into Jesus’ family. And specifically, because children are models of discipleship to the entire congregation.

Children’s purposeful contribution is essential to the intergenerational church. Their presence, their voice, their spiritual gifts, their meaningful participation. These are not the same as ‘leadership’. But that does not make them less valuable. A church whose leaders are slaves to all and honouring the ones that Christ honours will continue to look for ways to increase the contribution of children.

Azzopardi’s definition of the five successful characteristics of intergenerational churches is a valuable contribution to the field of intergenerational ministry. If I were to offer a gentle rephrasing of his description of empowerment, I might write this:

Intergenerational communities strive to empower members of every generation by granting them contributive purpose in ministry and ensuring they have a representative voice to leadership.

Such a description honours the distinction between leadership and contribution, while continuing to uphold the value of every generation meaningfully participating in the life of the local church.

^[1] Holly Allen & Chris Barnett (2018), ‘Introduction: Addressing the two intergenerational questions’ in Allen HC (ed), InterGenerate, ACUP.

^[2] Joe Azzopardi (2025) ‘An Intergenerational Index: The Five Characteristics of Intergenerationality’. Chapter 6 in Wilson McCoy (ed.) Imagining All Ages: A Renewed Vision for an Intergenerational Church. p.93

^[3] N.T. Wright (2025) The Vision of Ephesians.

What We’ve Lost - The Shock Absorber

This week, and I continue to wrestle through the intersection of technology and a theology of creation. Inspired by a resurgence in rally driving, Joel wonders what may be missed in an era of self-driving electric vehicles. Why does the promise of technological wonder and ease feel so empty and inhuman?

Bouncing off recent articles by Mike Dicker and Alan Noble, we discuss the tension inherent in technological advancement. Spotify makes music more accessible, but loses the tactile experience of unwrapping a CD and browsing through the liner notes. Microwaves make reheating meals quicker, thereby reducing the need for the family to be home at the same time to sit down together for a hot meal.

How do we navigate such changes? How do we judge the difference, if any, between referencing software that automatically creates your bibliography and generative AI that automatically creates your essay? How might a “shock absorber” approach to technological change help all generations thrive as human disciples of Jesus?

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

Incentives: Helpful or Harmful - Cross Formed Kidmin

I recently saw a memo from a local school requesting that visiting teachers and volunteers don’t give out any kind of rewards to students for behaviour. Apparently, the school shuns extrinsic motivation of any kind, instead, seeking to foster intrinsic motivation for both academic and behavioural achievement.

Over in the Children’s Ministry world, the conversation has an extra layer of concern. Should we be offering incentives for spiritual achievement? Prizes for reciting memory verses, star charts for bringing your Bible, V.I.P. seating for those who bring a friend. Should we be offering extrinsic rewards for the types of spiritual habits that we long to form in our children?

The majority consensus in our Reformed, Evangelical circles seems to be a firm, NO. There are countless articles explaining why spiritual disciplines are explicitly internal and must only be fostered through intrinsic motivation. Anything less is selling short the transformation of little ones through the Gospel; by Christ alone, grace alone, and faith alone. Incentives = Heresy

With so much at stake, I was nervous about offering a cautious critique of this majority view. I shouldn’t have been. Both Hunter and Ryan are more enthusiastically for incentives than I was! Why? Well… that would be cheating. You’re reward for listening to this episode is a nuanced approach that affirms the place of incentives when done well.

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

If you’ve got a question or topic about Children’s Ministry that you’d like us to cover on the Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts, send me a DM or leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

The main insight from the developmental psychologist, Urie Bronfenbrenner, was his proposal of the ecological systems approach to child development. Each child is nested within a series of concentric relational structures, each supporting and challenging the child in unique but interdependent ways.

I have yet to do a deep dive into Bronfenbrenner’s theory and its application to a child’s faith formation. But from the little I know, it makes intuitive sense that a child would be shaped, and shape, their surrounding relational environment.

From the relational ecosystems of church youth ministries to partnering with parents in the celebration of milestones, Bronfenbrenner sits only slightly off-stage in this week's podcasts, as I consider how children’s and youth ministries engage in holistic formation. I pray that these conversations are a blessing to you in your ministry to young people.

REMINDER: I have recently turned off the paywall to all archived articles on this substack. Please read, enjoy, and share with others. And if you can support my writing through a paid subscription, I would be grateful for the encouragement and vote of confidence that this gives to the research and writing on children’s ministry.

Thick Relationships, Thin Screens - The Shock Absorber

“If we remove phones without rebuilding the social architecture that once gave childhood meaning, agency, and joy, we risk leaving kids with less stimulation but not more formation.”

This quote from on a recent After Babel article is what kickstarts the conversation between and me on this week’s episode of The Shock Absorber podcast.

As always, I am fascinated by the intersection of sociological study and Christian theology. What intrigued me about Kaplan’s piece was that it provides a grounded, secular argument for church-based Kids and Youth Ministry. Kaplan argues for the social, emotional, and psychological benefits of incarnate, local communities and the formative nature of different ages coming together with some adult oversight, but enough freedom for children and adolescents to be generative.

We trace a potted history of suburbia, the impact of several cultural changes on young people, and why Christian youth communities can provide the very stability that Kaplan argues young people need, with one important difference: Jesus.

As well as providing psycho-social benefits, Christian youth ministries that take both Jesus and community seriously can have spiritual and eternal benefits for those who hear the Gospel and respond to the invitation to repentance and life with Christ.

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

Share

Rethinking Milestones - Cross Formed Kidmin

I’ve written previously about milestones in family ministry and the way that I have attempted to integrate meaningful moments in my own kids lives.

In this episode, Hunter Williams and I give milestones the Cross Formed Kidmin treatment and dig deeper into the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ while also being cautious about the way that a milestone approach to a church’s Family Ministry can devolve into “checkbox discipleship”.

We discuss that milestones look like at each of our churches, and the way in which our theological convictions, as well as our denominational commitments, shape the way that Kids Pastors can partner with parents on helping children become and grow as disciples of Jesus.

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

If you’ve got a question or topic about Children’s Ministry that you’d like us to cover on the Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts, send me a DM or leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

Last week on the podcasts, we discussed different ways to think about the structures that we encounter in ministry, either in whole church practice (Shock Absorber) or specifically children’s ministry (Cross Formed Kidmin). In both conversations, I railed against efficiency as a Christian virtue, arguing that a passion for efficiency says more about our post-industrial world and corporate managerial priorities than the ethics of Jesus’ upside-down Kingdom.

This week is part 2 of both discussions.

As we dig into the weeds of church systems, it is essential to keep our foundation strong. Relationships are the foundation of church life. If we lose this, then we will drift back towards industrial and corporate metaphors. Ministry becomes the assembly line of faith formation, and brothers and sisters in Christ become our products: Disciples™.

How do we effectively lead our church while avoiding these pitfalls? Great question!

I pray that these conversations will help you as you consider these topics in your own ministry context.

Relational and Responsive - The Shock Absorber

Kicking off with a cultural artefact, engages and me in a discussion on the recent Met Gala and the brouhaha surrounding Sarah Paulson’s costumed protest against the financial elites. Can a multi-millionaire actress genuinely protest against the super-rich billionaires? Or does the whole thing fail the pub test, when so many are struggling with the difficult economic moment that we are in?

We then continue our conversation about church management, landing the discussion with a few real-world examples, including,

• Church management systems

• Generational differences in communication preferences

• Applying the Shock Absorber principle to new ideas

• And the wisdom of testing new ideas by building bridges to new realities (and not burning the bridge behind you).

Grounding all of this is the theological conviction that friendship is an ecclesial category and that being friends with each other, because of Jesus, is more important than getting things done.

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.

Systems Matter - Cross Formed Kidmin

Having discussed ministry structures in our last episode, this week Hunter Williams, Ryan Coatney and I move on to the connected topic of ministry systems.

What’s the difference?

Whereas structures define the roles and responsibilities within your ministry (who does what), systems are the repeatable processes that allow you to achieve a specific outcome (how you do it).

Hunter takes us through his four buckets of children’s ministry—children, volunteers, parents, and curriculum—with each of us able to share sustainable systems from within our own ministry practice.

Along the way, we discuss,

• Check in systems

• Volunteer recruitment

• Equipping teams

• Curriculum management, and

• Parent engagement.

Ryan closes up with these words of wisdom,

If you find yourself in any manner or in any area of your ministry chasing your tail or constantly repeating the same mistakes or not being able to get out from underneath the load… it’s almost always because you don’t have a system in place…

A system is going to get you unlost and unburied so that you can do the ministry God’s called you to do.

Catch the full conversation in the link below or on your favourite podcast app.

If you’ve got a question or topic about Children’s Ministry that you’d like us to cover on the Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts, send me a DM or leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

Hey friends,

When I first launched The Child In God’s Church Substack, I chose to turn on the setting that puts older posts behind a paywall. The logic, at the time, seemed reasonable enough: if people want access to the back catalogue, a paid subscription is the way to get it.

However, I’ve changed my mind on that.

The full archive of everything I’ve written is now free to read and share.

The reason for the rethink is that this previous decision wasn’t serving anyone well. The writing exists to help people think more carefully about children, theology, formation, and the church. Keeping older posts locked wasn’t helping people find the articles I believe are beneficial to your ministry and the children you lead.

If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, there may be pieces in the archive you haven’t read yet. Well, now you can.

If you want to dig in, here are three of the most-read articles from the archives.

• On Rosters and Missing Church: How many weeks a year can I ask a church member to miss church to serve in the children’s ministry?

• Cultivating an Intergenerational Heart: Might the presence of children and babies be an advantage to the gathering, rather than a deficit?

• Lessons From Lego Masters: Building a Children’s Ministry Teaching Time with technical ability, storytelling and aesthetics.

For those of you who have been paying subscribers — thank you. Your support has made a real difference, and I hope you feel good about what it’s enabled.

If you’re a free subscriber and you find the writing worthwhile, I’d love for you to consider upgrading. Paid subscriptions are a vote of confidence in this project. Children’s ministry research and writing is a pretty niche space, and every paid subscriber makes it more sustainable.

In the end, my biggest hope is that these articles genuinely serve your ministry.

If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions for future topics, please leave a comment through the link below.

In Christ,

Tim

Leave a comment

You would think that with my German heritage, I would be more enthusiastic about efficient systems.

Instead, I have a complicated relationship with the notion of “efficiency” as a value, especially in the church. I can certainly see the benefits. No one wants to be purposely obtuse and block efforts at effective ministry. But there’s always the nagging thought that our passion for efficiency says more about our post-industrial world and corporate managerial priorities than the ethics of Jesus’ upside-down Kingdom.

Leaving ninety-nine sheep to go and search for the lost one seems ludicrously inefficient. Who wouldn’t be happy with a 99% success rate?! What a waste of ministry time, energy and resources. Unless, of course, that one sheep matters to the Good Shepherd.

On the other hand, perhaps being efficient with our processes helps us to be slower and more intentional with people.1

I encourage you to let this tension play out in your mind as you listen along to this week’s podcasts, which are all about how we manage our systems and structures in church life and in Children’s Ministry specifically.

Share

Organised Messiness - Shock Absorber Podcast

, and I begin with a discussion about King Charles’s recent visit to the USA and how effectively he was able to wield soft power in front of Congress and in his toast to Donald Trump.

From there, we move on to the topic of church management and how to go about making changes in a complex and inherently relational system. That sends my brain bouncing off onto the topic of efficiency and corporate language, drawing on Andy Crouch’s concepts of relating to culture and McLuhan’s warning that the medium-is-the-message, or in this case, how the metaphor-is-the-message.

This is just the first part of the conversation. Stay tuned and subscribe for a future episode where we get more into the weeds of how Soul Revival Church goes about our own church management.

Listen to the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcasting app.

Fixing Your Ministry Structures

Over in the Children’s Ministry world, Ryan, Hunter and I also begin a two part episode. This week we’re tackling ministry structures like org-charts, role descriptions and how to recruit others into your Kids Ministry in order to make efficient (there’s that word again!) use of your ministry time.

Along the way, we discuss the theological principles behind multiplying your leadership team. It’s not really (or at least, not only) about delegating your ministry tasks. Rather, following the Apostle Paul’s directive in Ephesians 4, bringing others into your ministry team is allowing them to participate in the work of ministry that they have been called to do.

Check out the full conversation below or on your favourite podcasting app.

If you’ve got a question or topic about Children’s Ministry that you’d like us to cover on the Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts, send me a DM or leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

Last week was the launch day for a new book from Youthworks Media, Parenting in God’s Family, Volume 2. 🎉 📚 🎉

I had the opportunity to contribute a chapter to the project on (no surprises here!) ‘Intergenerational Discipleship’.

Most chapters in the book cover really important topics on key themes and concerns for Christian parents. Chapters like:

• ‘Reflections on motherhood and work’ by Harriet Connor

• ‘Neurodivergent families can’t do it all’ by Kate Morris

• ‘Grace-filled conversations about faith and culture’ by Jenn Phillips

• ‘Simple habits for mental health’ by Alexis Hudson

However, what I was asked to contribute was a chapter on why your family is not enough for your child. No matter how amazing and how Christian you are as a parent, you are not enough for your child. And this is exactly how God designed your family to be. God designed your parenting to need the intergenerational community that is the church.

Here’s a short excerpt from my chapter.

I fear that too many of our churches are, in fact, not families but rather pseudo-communities. Church is another event that we and our children attend, rather than a family to which we belong. We expect that church will provide some spiritual nourishment and pleasant chit-chat with nice-enough people. We appreciate that our children like the kids’ program most of the time and seem to get on well enough with their peers and leaders.

What we don’t expect is to be so deeply embedded in the lives of the others at our church that this congregation of brothers and sisters in Christ holds a significant claim on our time, care, attention and affection in a way that relativises the relationships that we have with members of our own household. However, by God’s good design, this is exactly what we and our children need from the church, and what the church needs from every member of our household.

You can celebrate with us by ordering your copy now from Youthworks Media.

Order your copy from Youthworks Media.

Should we celebrate Australian history, or mourn it?

Give three cheers, or don a black armband?

This is one of the questions that and I wrestle with on this week’s episode of the Shock Absorber, sparked by my recent reading of Tony Abbott’s new book, Australia - A History: How An Ancient Land Became a Great Democracy.

While I’m less interested in taking sides, I am curious about how either a celebratory or a critical retelling of history shapes our sense of identity and value formation, and why it is difficult to acknowledge the contributions of both sides of the argument.

Along the way, we discuss Christian Smith’s account of ‘critical realist personalism’ and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s ‘antilibrary’ as ways to foster curiosity and intentionally complexify issues. Perhaps a pathway through the history wars is the Christian celebration of Easter—holding both the grief of Good Friday and the joy of Resurrection Sunday together in a way that refuses to minimise either.

Later in the episode, we discuss the worst and best practices of welcoming newcomers to church, sparked by two articles by .

Check out the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcasting app.

Theology + Strategy + Practice - Cross Formed Kidmin

Back in the Kidmin world, Ryan Coatney and I tackle an idea that is close to my heart: thinking theologically, strategically and practically about Children’s Ministry.

Most of us desire to have a Children’s Ministry that is theologically sound and Bible-based, and we would want good practice to flow from our theological foundations. However, what is less frequently acknowledged and discussed is the power of strategy.

Sharing from our own church traditions, Ryan and I show how making key decisions at each of these three steps can help or hinder the Children’s Ministry outcomes that you are working towards in your local church.

Check out the full conversation or your podcast app of choice.

If you’ve got a question or topic about Children’s Ministry that you’d like us to cover on the Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts, send me a DM or leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

I have written about the partnered responsibility between children’s ministry, the household, and the intergenerational church. However, one sphere of discipleship that I have not written about—but am personally indebted to—is the role of faith formation in a Christian school environment.

Enter David Stonestreet, principal of Shire Christian School in the southern suburbs of Sydney.

I did my entire K-12 schooling at SCS (SSCS at the time, for “Sutherland Shire Christian School”), David Mr Stonestreet was my high school music teacher, my kids are enrolled at the school, and I am currently a member of the board (so technically 1/8th of David’s boss).

But just in case you thought the conflict of interest wasn’t high enough, David was also an almost-founding member of Soul Revival Youth Community at Gymea Anglican Church in the early 1990’s. He even brought his member card #009 to prove it.

This week on The Shock Absorber podcast, David joins me, and on the couch to talk about

• the role of Christian Schooling in modern Australia,

• why so many non-Christian and unchurched families are choosing Christian education for their kids,

• the Dutch Reformed heritage of Shire Christian School,

• the particular theology and strategy behind SCS as a “covenant Christian school”,

• transcendence vs. immanence in Christian expression, and

• to reminisce about those early days of Soul Revival.

Christian schooling is not essential to raise disciples of Jesus. In fact, as I explain in the episode, Christian schools fail to be a long-term solution for faith formation in young people; they need the local church. But it is one possible sphere of discipleship that some parents may partner with. And on this topic, David is a good guide.

To hear more of David’s personal story and journey of faith, check out this episode of The Chip Lunch podcast.

Check out the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcasting app.

A.I. in Christian Ministry - Cross Formed Kidmin Podcast

I chucked a sickie a few weeks back, but Hunter and Ryan had a brilliant conversation with Brandon Maddick (co-founder, with Ryan of Dominion.Chat) about the benefits and cautions around using A.I. tools in our Christian ministry practice.

What tasks might be appropriate to offload to A.I.?

What are the implicit biases that we ought to be aware of in the big tech models?

What does it mean to have an explicitly Christian A.I. model like Dominion.Chat?

Check out these topics and more on this week’s episode of the Cross Formed Kidmin podcast.

If you’ve got a question or topic about Children’s Ministry that you’d like us to cover on the Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts, send me a DM or leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

My friend Aurelia recently returned from six months living and studying in the UK. As she shared in an episode of The Chip Lunch (Soul Revival Church’s testimony podcast), there was both an intense feeling of loneliness in being so far from home, as well as a confidence and comfort that came from knowing that God was with her, and so she was never really alone.

There was no better application to my latest sermon in our series on John’s Gospel than that.

In John 16:16, Jesus gives his disciples a riddle: ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.’

He then goes on to (obtusely) explain what is about to come—his arrest, death and resurrection—and assures his friends that despite this, they are never truly alone. Because of the victory over death and sin that Jesus the Son is about to win for them on the cross, the Holy Spirit will unite them in love to God the Father.

Friends of Jesus share in the trinitarian life of the Godhead. And therefore, citing New Testament theologian N.T. Wright, “this passage is all about the fact that Jesus’ people have instant, immediate, direct and valued access into the very presence of the living God.”

You can watch or listen to the full sermon in the links below.

This week on The Shock Absorber, found an Andrew Huberman clip that defines healthy male friendships as those that can laugh at each other’s faces, but have each other's backs. and I respond with more caution, noting the way that humour can mask unhealthy traits and even forms of aggression and abuse.

Sharing vulnerably from his own experiences, Stu then expands into a larger conversation about humour as a hegemonic tool, and we end the episode wondering about the link between humour, jokes, and the spiritual fruit of joy, and what a joyful expression of friendship may look like in New Creation.

Check out the full conversation in the link below or on your favourite podcasting app.

Children’s Ministry Formats, Part 2 - Cross Formed Kidmin

Last episode, Ryan and I discussed the strengths and weaknesses of three possible Children’s Ministry models: large group/small groups, Sunday School, and children’s church/worship.

This week, Ryan and I continue our chat and look at church integrated (“family”) worship, station and rotations, and my ministry at Soul Revival Church.

In the moment, I couldn’t think about what to actually call the Soul Revival model, but upon reflection, the best name for it is Shock Absorber Children’s Ministry. “Shock Absorber” is not only the name of the above podcast, but the model of ministry that Soul Revival Church is seeking to put into practice throughout our whole life together. It is a model shaped by intergenerationality and third place community, two topics that form the strategic foundation of our church.

Listen to the full episode in the link below or on your favourite podcasting app.

If you have a question or topic you would like Ryan, Hunter and I to discuss on Cross Formed Kidmin then leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

Cross Formed KidMin

This week, Ryan and I have the first of a two-part chat about possible children’s ministry formats. The question we really wanted to get to was, what possible values of children’s ministry are implicit in the different models of a Sunday children’s ministry?

There is no “right” answer. There are always competing priorities. We will have to make some trade-offs somewhere. Not to mention the fact that the New Testament writers utterly failed to give the 21st-century suburban church a directive on whether to have large group/small groups, Sunday School, or Kids Church.

However, each model does have strengths and weaknesses that are worth taking seriously as you assess and plan your own ministry.

Take a listen to the full episode in the link below or on your favourite podcasting app.

Have a question or topic you’d like us to discuss on the podcast?
Leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

The Shock Absorber

For the better part of the last sixty years, churches have tried to make Christianity more accessible by lowering the cultural barriers. Cleaner car parks. Better music. More polished, “seeker-sensitive” services. At one level, it made sense. But has it actually worked? And even if it did for a time, is it still the right strategy?

I wasn’t able to make the recording of this week’s Shock Absorber, but and carried on without me tracing the rise of an attractional model of church—from Donald McGavran through to Willow Creek Community Church—and explore the tension between institutional and more organic expressions of church life.

Stu explains why at Soul Revival we’ve intentionally pushed in a different direction: not trying to sit on top of the culture, but building something a bit more like a “Yellow Submarine”—a community that goes beneath the surface of everyday life, slower, deeper, and a little more countercultural.

Check out the full conversation in the links below or your favourite podcasting app.

Refer a friend

Title: How To Teach Kids Theology: Deep Truths For Growing Faith
Author: Sam Luce & Hunter Williams
Published: New Growth Press, 2025

Disclaimer: Both Sam and Hunter are friends in ministry, and you will recognise Hunter as one of my co-hosts on the Cross Formed KidMin Podcast. Regardless, I’ve done my best to offer an honest and useful review for children’s ministry leaders.

Last instalment, I reviewed Sustainable Children’s Ministry and the “simple machines” that can make the role of the Children’s Minister more effective and … well, the hint’s in the title … sustainable.

Today, I’m swinging from practical systems across to the importance of theological knowledge in the children that we lead. However, let’s not be fooled into assuming a false dichotomy between theology and practice. One of the greatest aspects of Luce and Williams’ How To Teach Kids Theology is the movement in each chapter from rich theological description through to embedded practice in the children’s ministry space.

The authors bookend the text with a concern for the lack of theological depth they discern in many children’s ministry contexts and a call for taking both kids’ spiritual development and theological engagement seriously. “The need for depth and richness of theological truths in our children’s ministries and churches has never been more necessary” (p.173).

Both Luce and Williams have worked extensively in local evangelical churches’ children’s ministry as well as parachurch organisations such as Awana. Their theological context is therefore conservative, Protestant, and evangelical. However, there is a generosity, particularly in the chapter on ‘Orthodoxy and Theological Charity’, when outlining “disputable matters” such as the mode of baptism or Calvinism vs. Arminianism. Even those from other theological traditions outside evangelicalism, who may weigh some matters differently, or nuance language to fit their context, will find that How To Teach Kids Theology encourages and equips them for the important task of … well, again, the hints in the title … teaching kids theology.

The Big Idea

Here’s one key quote that summarises the heart of the book:

“Our desire is that this book becomes a tool that instructs you and empowers you to take God’s Word seriously. Your kids will never see the beauty of Christ or the loveliness of Christian doctrine if you don’t find Christ and his teachings beautiful” (p.173).

Share

Key Chapters

As I mentioned above, this book is not a work of theoretical theology divorced from the messy work of ministry with children. Each chapter outlines the problem, the principle and the practice of teaching theology to kids.

Here are a couple of chapters and key quotes that I’ve found most helpful in my ministry:

Chapter 1 - Seeing The Great Lion

With the first of several references to Narnia, this chapter sets the scene by critiquing children’s ministry experiences that give a simple caricature of God, rather than seeking to expand the horizons of kids’ imagination of how great and awesome God is.

“If we want our kids to stand firm in a culture that suppresses the truth of Christianity, we need to give them a grand view of God that overwhelms their hearts and fills them with wonder. Our children’s resolve is only as strong as the God they believe in, and if the God they believe in is presented to them as nothing more than a small deity, their loyalty will follow suit.” (p.10)

Notice a theme that carries throughout the book: a child’s conceptual theology is necessarily and immediately relevant to their ongoing love for and obedience to God. More concisely, orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy.

Chapter 5 - Simplifying vs. Distilling Theology

We want to teach children the truth in ways appropriate to their age and developmental stage. Luce and Williams’ distinction between simplifying and distilling theology is one of the most helpful and lasting principles in the book. To simplify is to “remove as much complexity as possible to get down to the fewest possible parts or requirements.” To distil, on the other hand, is to “keep the essentials and remove the unnecessary things.” This may sound like a distinction without a difference. However, when it comes to teaching theology to children, it is profound.

With reference to simplifying faith, the authors write,

“We try to make it so accessible and safe that we inadvertently inoculate our kids from faith. They get just enough of God that when life hurts, our kids apply what they learned about God [but]… the simple faith they grew up in isn’t powerful enough for the deep sorrows and dark nights. They tried faith, and it didn’t work.” (p.87)

However,

“Distillation is so powerful because you are not giving your kids a faith that they will grow out of … you are giving your kids a faith to grow into. When you distill truth, you refuse to compromise the truth… When you distil truth, you create categories in the mind of your kids that they need when they get older.” (p.88)

Distilling, rather than simplifying, takes much more work, but it is worth the effort. For more on this topic, see my article below on why analogies of the trinity fail.

Chapter 6 - Orthodoxy and Theological Clarity

To our shame, evangelicals are not known in this cultural moment as being marked by charity. So it is refreshing to see Luce and Williams bring both theological clarity and theological charity together in this chapter. Christians are to be known by their love for one another (Jn. 13:35), and once again, the book helps the reader move from concept to children’s ministry practice.

“If external, historical, and biblical truth is our standard, if charity is our mode, and if love is our goal, we will be able to teach our kids not only what is true but also how to live that truth in a life marked by love for God—love which is seen by others in our love for people.” (p.115)

Nit-Picky

No book is perfect. Here are a few pernickety comments to keep in mind.

Definition of Theology

The authors borrow John Frame’s definition of theology as “the application of God’s revelation to all of life” (p.18). This is vastly different to a dictionary definition like Merriam-Webster’s “the study of religious faith, practice, and experience, especially: the study of God and of God’s relation to the world”.

What I’ve since discovered is that it has become a right of passage for systematic theologians to come up with their own bespoke definition of ‘theology’ that suits the particular spin that they want to give to their academic task. While I don’t have a problem with Frame’s definition per se (and have generally quite appreciated Frame’s theological perspective on a number of topics), it does frustrate me that there is not generally agreed upon term within the literature.

The danger of nuancing your own definition of ‘theology’ is that you can pack an awful lot of presumptions into your definition. Writing from within a Reformed perspective, it makes sense that Frame highlights “God’s revelation”. However, he prioritises “application”, as opposed to “study of” or “knowledge of”.

Like Luce and Williams, I appreciate both the democratisation, and practical nature, of this approach. It “doesn’t give the impression that a person has to be an expert or elite Christian to be a theologian” (p.18). However, I’m still left feeling like Frame has somehow cheated by included the application of Christian doctrine as a necessary part of his definition of that doctrine. If ‘theology’ is “the application of God’s revelation”, then what do we call the understanding of that revelation, or in fact, the revelation itself?

Conclusion

Pedantic comments aside, I highly recommend How To Teach Kids Theology to children’s ministers, ministry leaders and college students alike. It provides a clear outline of theological concerns and grounds them in the practice of our weekly ministry to children and families.

Thanks for reading this instalment of Growing Disciples: Book by Book. If you have suggestions for future books worth reviewing, please leave a comment below.

Leave a comment

What is interesting is how the fear of boring kids and teenagers sometimes produced a fun but frivolous presentation of faith; one that was paper-thin and not robust enough to stand once the rain comes down, streams rise, and winds beat against the house.

This week, the topic of forming a robust faith in young people comes up in both The Shock Absorber and Cross Formed Kidmin podcasts. Here’s a brief summary…

The Shock Absorber

This week, , , and I discuss the way language shapes intergenerational engagement.

We kick off with an insight from the book, How to Teach Kids Theology by Sam Luce and Hunter Williams (full review coming soon). Luce and Williams make the distinction between simplification and distillation. As they describe it, simplification removes complexity, but sometimes at the expense of truth. Distillation, on the other hand, keeps the essentials, removes the unnecessary, and produces a more concentrated version of the truth. When it comes to teaching kids theology, distillation gives children a faith they can grow into rather than a faith to grow out of.

Using this as a launchpad, we discuss Jim Rayburn’s catch phrase that it is a sin to bore kids with the gospel, as well as Lee Strobel’s adolescent drift into atheism due to the lack of apologetic answers he received to his questions around faith.

The common thread? Simple answers (or non-answers) to complex questions. To grow our intergenerational, ‘shock absorbing’ relationships, leaders and parents need to know how to communicate with young people in a way that honours their curiosity and responds with both cognitive and relational answers to their questions.

My takeaway: distil, don’t simplify. Listen well to young people. Give them the honour of being image bearers of God. And in the church, the honour of being actual or potential sisters and brothers in Christ.

Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcasting app.

Cross Formed Kidmin

From communicating faith to young people to helping them share faith with each other. This week on CFK, Hunter Williams and I discuss one of my training seminars on ‘Teaching Kids to Know and Share Their Faith’.

Building out of my definition of faith as ‘knowing, loving and obeying King Jesus’, we then discuss the relevance of age and stage development and how children can share their faith in thoughts, affections, words and deeds.

Catch the full conversation in the link below or on your favourite podcasting app.

Have you got a topic of question about Children’s Ministry you would like us to discuss. Let us know in a comment below.

Leave a comment