Overview
description
Transcript of Overview
OVERVIEW
Session 3 & 4 - Theologyo Discussion on original sin o The nature of conversiono Faith development
Session 5 - Sociologyo Raikes’ Englando State of the church ... Now and Theno Status of the child ... Now and Theno Prevailing cultures ... Now and Then
Session 6, 7 & 8 - Practiceo Analysis of the four projectso Ethnography of one of the projectso Details of communication section
Session 2 – Survey Returnso Survey returns analysis (charts and graphs)
Session 1 – History & Modern Practiceo From Exodus to the 21st Century
Conclusion of Philip Cliff’s PhD
Sunday School teachers cannot do
for parents what they must do
themselves. The classroom is no
substitute for the family.
(1986, p.322)
(bah’-ith) בית
משפחה
(mish-paw-khaw’)
?
??
?
TIME OF HUGE CHANGE…
בית(BAH’-ITH)
משפחה(MISH-PAW-KHAW’)
CHILDEVANGELISM
MET
HODO
LOGY Robert Raikes and
the Sunday School Movement
Robert Raikes’s
Letterto
Richard Townley
1783
1.On a scale of 1 to 10 rate your church’s involvement in the following areas:
Bah’ith – immediate family Mish-paw-khaw’ – wider community Child Evangelism – reaching the unchurched
2. When you look out of your window (physically or with eyes of faith) what do you see?
* STOP * THINK * REFLECT * STOP * THINK * REFLECT *
* STOP * THINK * REFLECT * STOP * THINK * REFLECT *
WHAT DID RAIKES CREATE?
What is also clear is Raikes did not set out to use this methodology of evangelism in his Sunday Schools. This is something Raikes stumbled into experientially, not through design.
Raikes was about more than
teaching people to read, his
philanthropic endeavours were
fuelled by a belief that, “Vice is
preventable.”
“He eventually concluded, vice is
preventable, begin with the child.”
Harris (1885, p.52)
“No one was exempt from catechism.”
(Harris, 1890, p.40)
Q. Did the world make itself? A. No, if that clock had a maker, much more the whole world had a maker.
Q. Why must you believe in God? A. Because if we do not believe in him, I should deny and forget my Maker, and
be without God in the world, like those who spend their money in the public houses while their wives and children are without bread;
Q. How do you prove there is a God? A. 1st by common sense; 2nd by our conscience; 3rd by tradition; 4th by the
Sabbath; 5th by the Scriptures.
Q. How do you prove the truth of the gospel or that Jesus Christ was the son of God?
A. By the miracles that he wrought and the prophecies that were fulfilled.
Q. Have you any additional proof of the truth of Christianity?A. It was spread and established in the earth by a few poor men, in opposition
to the prejudices and passions of mankind. The first preachers of Christianity therefore must have been assisted by the power of God.
And why are we Interested?
Currie, G
ilbert and Horsle
y (1977, p.25)
record that in
1800 there were 1,230,000
adults in ch
urch, by 1830 th
ere
were 1,958,000
In his letter to Mrs Harris of 1787 Raikes comments that the Sunday Schools had expanded so quickly that attendance now numbered 250,000.
By 1788, the Sunday School Society quoted 300,000 attendance in their annual report.
INTO THE 20TH CENTURY
Figures from Currie, Gilbert and Horsley (1977)
PROFESSIONAL TEACHERSBooth (1980, p.80) refers to the recruitment of Mrs Critchley who had been, “prevailed upon by Raikes to open a Sunday School.” Because, “Mrs Critchley, [was] previously a regular school mistress and known for her ability to cope with rough boys.”
Orchard (2007, p.11) comments, “By 1796 the Methodists were still paying teachers on the grounds that a purely voluntary system was not
reliable.”
Mr Nisbet, one of the founder
members of the Sunday School
Union would rise at 4am to study
the necessary chapters which had
been appointed as the lessons for
the next Sunday, aiding his study
with reference to Matthew Henry’s
commentary. Watson (1833, p.76)
The changes of the last thirty years or so have affected our school buildings considerably, and they have affected the scholars very largely; but I have grave doubts whether they have affected our teachers to the same extent.West London Auxiliary Annual Report (1896, p.68)
By the year 2000, Brierley (2000, p.109) noted six key issues regarding Sunday Schools:
1. Fewer people willing to teach on a regular basis
2. Adults attending less frequently and when they do they prefer to be part of the adult congregation.
3. Sunday School teachers are unsure how to communicate to today’s children.
4. Many adults do not know their Christian faith well, but still teach children. 10
5. Those who do teach give up after short periods.
6. The volunteers teaching on a rota system and seeing the children infrequently are common.
Young People as LeadersOn my first visit to the Slough & Windsor Project I noted:
Paul is not here today, but the morning will follow the same routine. Luke, the co-leader of the Slough and Windsor Project, calls the team together. He explains the theme of the day. Today they will be teaching the children that they should not follow others in doing wrong and if they stand for what is right, God will bless the them.
Luke has been working for this project since he was a teenager. He is now in his early 20s.
When I talked to Miriam, one of the leaders at the Fraserburgh Project , who came through the junior leader programme, she commented: I’ve been here since it started. I was 11 when it started [1996]. I was one of the children. When I went to academy [secondary school] I became a junior leader. And you are a junior leader until you are 16. A junior leaders responsibility is to sit besides the kids, they are training for becoming a leader, they are showing their potential. I got to do the actions at the front, I got to help with the games, I got to do some teaching and I came early and set up and got to stay at the end.
Recruit to a VisionThe Liverpool Project website stated, “This is all about sharing Jesus with some of the neediest and most vulnerable children in our city.”
The Leeds Project website stated, “Our vision is to reach children aged 4 to 11 with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Bernie the leader of the Leeds
Project stated:
“When I look for children’s
workers, I look for people who
have a heart for the lost, a
heart for the broken people and
people who love God and that’s
all I need!”
Training
The largest Children’s Outreach Projects
place a high emphasis on training, 92% of
the projects reaching more than 100
children had been to at least one training
event in the last twelve months.
“These little ragamuffins have taken it into their heads to frequent the early morning prayers which are held at the Cathedral at seven o’ clock. I believe there were nearly fifty there this morning. They assemble at the house of one of their mistresses and walk before her to church, two and two…the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge sometimes make me a present of a parcel of Bibles which I distribute as rewards for the deserving.” Raikes’ letter to Townley (1783) Although the Bishop of Rochester was clearly not an
advocate of this particular practice and commented in the Gentleman’s magazine (1800, 1076-8): “The poor are even bribed by pecuniary gifts to send their children to these schools”
I encourage them [she said] by little bribes of a penny a Section to get by heart certain fundamental parts of Scripture. Those who attend four Sundays without intermission receive a penny. Once in every six to eight weeks I give a little gingerbread. Once a year I distribute little books according to merit. Those who deserve most get a Bible. Second-rate merit gets a prayer book—the rest, cheap repository tracts(Young and Ashton, 1956, p.240).
REWARDS, PRIZES, INCENTIVES
Christianity at its best has always been suspicious of a purely
spiritual view of the Church which seeks to keep it clinically
antiseptic and uninvolved with the institutional forms and
packaging of the age and environment in which it seeks to
witness and minister. Marshall (1984, p.165)
THE SOCIAL DIMENSION?
It is possible to institute social reform without a religious element, but it is impossible to provide any form of religious education devoid of a social element.
They are not surrounded by inspiration everyday, so what motivates a kid to work if they see no jobs at the end of it. We teach them life skills, we teach them that they have choices.
Leeds Project
Conference we need to stop looking at our inner cities as if they are a problem, we need to start looking at the potential in our inner cities. The kids that I know and the families that I know who have been broken by crime, who have been broken by drugs are just waiting for an opportunity, for someone to say, come on let me give you a hand up. To say, yes you can go to university, yes you can make something of your life, we need to believe in the kids of our inner cities.
(Dave Sharples, Liverpool Kidz Klub, Conservative Party Conference in 2007)
The potential of reaching the child, who is secure in who they are in God, and have their own faith, and teaching them how to live, and how to die, and how to relate and how to act, how to react, how to cope with life’s storms. If we can put that into children, then we have done the job well.
Wes Richards
Empowerment
Hannah and Martha More (1789) attempted to make school sessions entertaining and varied… Programmes had to be planned and suited to the level of the students; there needed to be variety; and classes had to be as entertaining as possible (she advised using singing when energy and attention was waning).Young and Ashton (1956, p.239)
HYMN SINGING AND PRAYER
Now I lay me down
to sleep, I pray thee,
Lord, my soul to keep;
If I should die before I
wake, I pray thee, Lord,
my soul to take.
by the middle of the 19th century the basic form of the Sunday School lesson was fairly regimented and would include hymn singing, prayer, a short biblical message, reading, writing and learning of the catechism.
Cliff (1986, p.96)
Fight the good fight with all thy
might, Christ is thy strength
and Christ thy right; lay hold on
life, and it shall be thy joy and
crown eternally.
I’m gonna jump up and down,
gonna spin right around, gonna
praise your Name forever,
gonna shout out loud,
gonna deafen the crowd gonna
send my praise to heaven
I’ll follow Jesus ‘til the day I drop.
I can do all things through, Christ
who strengthens me When you’ve
got such a lot,
When you’ve got not a lot. What?
Be happy!
Praise to the Lord, the
almighty, the king of
creation…..
He made dogs that point, Pigs
that oink, he made dolphin
smiles, crocodiles, He made a
zillion things, flies and wings.
He even gave us tongues so
good for licking. And it’s lovely
jubbly, all of God’s creation.
Lovely jubbly, all of God’s
creation, what a wonderful
God we have.
Codrington’s (2000) research
concluded that younger children
viewed worship services primarily
in terms of the physical experience,
what they did , she highlights how
limited the Children’s Club was in
this regard, and how helpful the
sacramental practices of lighting
candles, using clay to represent an
emotion or experience and the use
of paint or crayons for expression.
The children revealed that they would like to be more involved in the service and not
just sing. Codrington’s(2000)
1.What constitutes social currency where you
live? What is it that would empower the
children you work with?
* STOP * THINK * REFLECT * STOP * THINK * REFLECT *
* STOP * THINK * REFLECT * STOP * THINK * REFLECT *
TAKE A BREAK FOR 15 MINUTES!!
TEAS AND COFFEE ARE NOW AVAILABLE
BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE
TRAINING EVENTINFORMATION
AVAILABLE
THE COMMUNITY LINK Raikes (Letter to Townley 1783) writes:
I went around to remonstrate with them on the melancholy consequences that must ensue from so fatal a neglect of their children’s morals. They alleged their poverty rendered them incapable of cleaning and clothing their children fit to appear either at school or at church. But this objection was obviated by a remark that if they were clad in garb fit to appear in the streets I should not think it improper for a school calculated to admit the poorest and most neglected. All that I required were clean faces, clean hands, and hair combed. In other respects they were to come as their circumstances would admit.
Bill Wilson (2000, p.30) writes:
These personal visits place people in someone else’s world, and provide a person-to-person relationship. Personal visits prevent alienation, prepare young personalities for spiritual challenge, and promote productivity.
THE CHURCH LINK
“Upon the Sunday afternoon, the mistress
takes the scholars to church, a place into
which neither they nor their ancestors had
ever entered.” Raikes’ letter to Townley (1783)
DifferentEcclesiologies
Growing churches do have an effective children’s ministry…because they deliberately see the children’s ministry which they exercise as being very much part of the mainstream activity of the church. This integration mechanism of the children’s ministry with the totality of the church activity is as important as the quality of the actual ministry itself if growth is to take place. (Peter Brierley, 2005)
THE POWER OF THE DESIGN
Church Community
Sunday School
COMMUNICATING A CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
Numbers Attending Church
Brierley, 2000, p.100 2006, p.121
It is not about forcing children into adult modes of learning or into modes that demand cognitive processes beyond their abilities, instead the task is to translate the truths of Christian faith into terms that can be both understood and experienced by boys and girls . (Richards, 1993, p.123)
“It is vital to understand their language, beliefs and ideology in order to penetrate the different world in which children live.”
The Lausanne statement on Child Evangelism (1980)
Conclusions
a) Professional Teachers
b) Hymn Singing and Prayer
c) Rewards, Prizes and Incentives
d) Connection with Community
e) Meeting a Social Need (empowering)
f) Connection with (and part of) Church
g) Communicating a Christian Message
1. The Leader
2. Geography – Fixed Boundary
3. Sustainability – Long Term
4. Local Church – Integrated
5. The Ingredients