Does Your Children's Ministry Enhance or Detract From Your Values?
... and institutional vs. organic church structures. This week on the podcasts.
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.
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 Joel McMaster and Stuart Crawshaw 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.