What's the place for character development in children's ministry?

The article "Johnny be Good" in the March/April, 2008 issue of Children's Ministry magazine asks an important question:

What's the goal of your children's ministry? Is it for Johnny to be "good"? Or is it for Johnny to know God?

To help answer this question, the article interviews several kids who are participants in a children's ministry, asking them what it takes to get to heaven. Among their replies:

To be good.
To be nice.
To study hard.
To accept Jesus as my Savior.

What would kids in your ministry answer? If their answer focused on their behavior, would that reflect an overemphasis in your ministry on "character education" as opposed to "knowing God"?

Of course, character education and knowing God are not mutually exclusive. But as the article notes, character development can overshadow (and maybe even drown out) the Gospel of grace.

Various children's ministry experts quoted in the article make the case that focusing on character development in a children's ministry runs several risks:

• Failure. Mere human effort toward moral "perfection" ultimately fails - kids will eventually stray from a set of external rules.
• Wrong emphasis. It places the emphasis on ourselves, rather than on God.
  
• Out of step with the Spirit. It interrupts the natural development of Christlike character.
  

So what's the answer? Do we ignore character development in our ministry to children? No, but we approach it not as an end in itself but as the outcome of knowing God.

In that regard, the article quotes Phil Vischer (Veggie Tales founder):

All commendable human attributes are a reflection of God and can most readily be achieved not when our focus is on the attribute, but on the source of the attribute.

Jennifer Hooks, author of the article and employee of Group Publishing, continues...

For years, Group Publishing's curriculum writers stressed life application in every lesson. Recent changes, though...have placed the emphasis back on the importance of a relationship with and reliance on Jesus, as in "Jesus gives us power to..." And that's an important improvement.

Group Publishing and others are changing, or at least refining, their approach to children's ministry. According to Hooks:

Knowing God and growing in character as a natural outflow of that relationship seems to be the best- and most biblical - approach.

Envisioning Youth Ministry

I had the pleasure last weekend to visit Good News Fellowship, the WCG congregation in Nashville, TN. Pastor Jonathan Stepp (pictured here with his wife Beth) hosted me for the GenMin Connection seminar attended by area congregations. I noticed on the wall of their fellowship hall the following excellent youth ministry vision statement. I commend it to you.

We live to share the good news of Jesus. Therefore as Christian adults we are committed to following the lead of the Holy Spirit as He dispels the darkness in the minds of children and brings them into the light of their true identity as adopted children of the Father. All youth ministry activities are directed to the purpose of helping young people renew their minds in the truth of who they are in Christ; they are included in the life of the Triune God through the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus. Our youth ministry will share the love of Jesus and help our youth develop a personal relationship with Him. Our church culture will be a place where children will learn how the love of Jesus in them is translated into loving actions toward others.

If you would like to host a Connection seminar in your area, drop me an email at Ted.Johnston@wcg.org.

The marriage relationship as icon of God's love

When we see humankind in the light of Jesus Christ (who in his own person is the union of God and humankind), our view of all things human (and indeed of all the cosmos) changes.

And that includes our view of marriage.

According to Edith Humphrey, writing in Ecstasy and Intimacy, we should view marriage as having in Christ "sacramental or iconic significance." Humprey unpacks this idea:

The relationship between believing husband and wife tangibly indicates the life of Christ with his beloved Church; indeed, each marriage relationship that is in Christ itself partakes of this divine mystery. In blessing a marriage, the Church gives thanks to God for the couple, and declares that together they are a picture or icon of God's love - that they display in a certain mode the salvation story, that in their marriage they are glorified or taken up into God's own actions and being. It celebrates their signficant and fruitul part in creation, seeing the liveliness of marraige as a symbol of the in-breaking and coming rule of God, and the sanctity of the bond as particpating in the holiness of Christ....

Marriage [is] a special state that is conducive to repentance, healing, growth , and glorification for the couple involved. Precisely here...one can see a refracted picture of the wholeness; the holiness, the love of God in human form, and the glory of humanity. Here is a sacramental mode of living, an occasion where the holy God meets us (p. 182-183).

Human communion: living icon of theTrinity

I’m reading a wonderful book on Christ-centered theology titled, “Ecstasy and Intimacy” by Edith M. Humphrey. One section is titled, “Icons of Love - Communion in Friendship, Family, Marriage and Church.”

Humprey (p. 157) makes what I think is an essential point: in human fellowship (within marriage, family and friendship), we experience...

...echoes of God’s own communion... Our human relationships are important in themselves, but remain holy and beautiful exactly in the proportion that they truly mirror the life of the Trinity, and indeed, point us to the One from whom all communion springs.

This idea of human relationships being a participation in God’s own relational being is what she means in referring to human communion as a “living icon of the Trinity.”

I think this important insight has great significance for our teaching in the church as it pertains to human relationships. For that reason, I highly recommend her book. It unpacks the history and contemporary application of a well-stated Christ-centered (or Trinitarian) theology.

It is understanding of human relations as participation in God's “triune dance” that gives rise to what we refer to in GenMin as "grace-based parenting" and "grace-based marriage."

We had the great privilege of presenting seminars by these names at the recent WCG regional conference in Southern California. Jeb Egbert led a discussion concerning parenting and Jim Kissee led one concerning marriage. It was wonderful to experience the convergence of trinitarian theology and family ministry - this convergence is found in the reality of Jesus' incarnation - God with us and for us in every aspect of life - both now and for eternity.