Children and the evangelism debate

Howard Worsley helpfully outlined these two differing approaches in issue 14 of Premier Childrenswork through the analogies of a knot and a seed; one seeks to undo the effect of original sin, with a sense of urgency, while the other seeks to nurture an intrinsic spirituality over time. We asked two leading thinkers from opposite ends of the spectrum – Nate Morgan-Locke and Ronni Lamont – to present their views on children and evangelism.

Nate Morgan-Locke:

‘I regularly try to make children into Christians’

I have a confession to make. I regularly try to make children into Christians. I’ve run Sunday school classes, holiday clubs, camps, after-school clubs, Christian sports courses and events to evangelise them. My desire (and that of the teams around me) has been to persuade children to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus.

I remember thinking about this while I was walking back into the church office after a lunchtime drama club at the local primary school. An eight year-old girl from a non-Christian home had just professed faith in front of her friends. ‘I didn’t used to believe in God,’ she said, ‘but now I do, and you should all come to the drama club so you can believe in God too.’ She wasn’t just converted, I thought, she’s evangelising! Then another girl stood up, one who’d only been to the club a couple of times. ‘And I didn’t used to believe in God either, but now I do too.’ ‘And me’ said another. ‘Me too’ said a fourth. It was like something out of Spartacus. Each child stood up and professed faith in God. Even some of the Muslim girls stood up to say that they believed in Allah, which wasn’t the same, but nevertheless they were going to come to drama club as well.

The following lunchtime the same group of girls no longer seemed quite so interested. Instead, they were obsessing about owning ponies. None of them actually owned ponies (this was an inner-city primary school with a low socio-economic demographic), it’s just that one girl said her uncle owned a farm in Poland and that she rode horses every summer and, well, you know how it goes.

Encouraging children to profess Christian faith with their lips isn’t hard. Bringing them to a place where they freely profess with their lives is a different matter.

I know the very idea of evangelising children is controversial. But I suspect this is largely because of our assumption that telling children about Jesus must necessarily be manipulative. But it mustn’t and needn’t be. There are at least three reasons why.

Firstly, it’s impossible for manipulation to produce the results that evangelism aims at.

The goal of evangelism is not professions of faith but faith. And you can’t actually force someone to trust something. You can only provide reasons why you think they should. ‘Okay children, let’s put our hands up if we’d like to become Christians this morning! And if you do I’ll give you a chocolate bar!’. No. Genuine faith is never produced in this way. The only way we can even attempt to produce faith is by showing the trustworthiness of the object of faith. Faith comes by hearing. So we talk to children about Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus himself rules out manipulation.

The shrill voices condemning manipulation of the young and vulnerable by God-botherers have a very definite picture of God in their minds. The God they picture is a tyrant, and a bully. If that is the God you worship then of course you’ll bully people into professing faith. But what do we see when we look at Jesus? We see the all-powerful become vulnerable, the king become the servant, the Living God come to die for sinners. So we talk to children about Jesus.

Thirdly, if we’re telling people about Jesus, there’s no deception.

One of the dangers of some models of children’s work is that they think children will only be attracted by something that is not Jesus. The problem comes, of course, when the time comes to tell them the gospel. It’s bait and switch. Solution: we talk to children about Jesus.

This is why, for the past year, I’ve been working with a team of people to write and develop a Holiday Bible Club course called Epic Explorers. It tells children about Jesus. It tells them who he is: the Son of God. It tells them why he came to earth: to save sinners. It tells them what it means to follow Jesus: to take up our cross. It uses a hundred different ways to do this: talks, games, crafts, snacks, puzzles, dramas, songs, memory verses, challenges, quizzes, and more. It’s all based on Mark, the shortest and zippiest of the four Gospels. It’s simply a tool that helps you talk to children about Jesus.

It’s vital that parents feel able to entrust us with their children, and this is where a course like Epic Explorers can be so helpful. Because it’s based on the already popular Christianity Explored course, parents can know in advance exactly what their children will be taught. There’s no bait and switch, and no manipulation.

For many parents, a children’s Bible club is one of the cheapest forms of child care. For two hours after-school or two hours each morning of half term, or even a whole week in the summer holidays, a child will be occupied, entertained and given the occasional chocolate digestive. The price of the club is almost always negotiable, and it’s often so low anyway you could hardly complain. The biggest sacrifice a parent has to make in sending their child to a Christian group, club or event is having to sit through some kind of performance or family service at the end.

And who knows? That could be the beginning of something wonderful for them too.

Nate Morgan Locke is the youth evangelist at Christianity Explored and also works at St Barts church, Bath. He has just written a new evangelistic resource for children, called Epic Explorers

Ronni’s response:

David Csinos speaks of four distinctive ways of approaching faith that he observed in the children who were in the focus groups that he used for his research. One of these was ‘Word’- the easiest to understand, as Word people respond to the scriptures in the way that is seen above - speaking of Jesus and the power of the cross, placing all of our emphasis on the power of the word to ‘evangelise’. So I’d like to reply with an awareness of the other three spiritual styles in mind, especially as I’m not a Word style person myself.

Firstly, I have a huge respect for Godly Play, which opens the scriptures in a way that people of all ages, and any Spiritual Style, can respond to. Or we can explore the Bible through drama, through dance, through imaginative listening - it doesn’t have to be through the spoken word, and in fact, brace yourself, but people of my spiritual style find listening to sermons or talks possibly the least helpful way to engage with learning!

I have great respect for what children think about the scriptures, or life in general. Here’s an example. Last weekend my husband I went on a pilgrimage to the BFI to see the newly restored 2001; a space odyssey. Behind me were a couple of quite young children, who asked a lot of questions as we watched this somewhat open-ended film. I actually wanted the father not to tell them what (he thought) it meant, but at the end of the film to ask the children what they thought it was all about…I’m sure they would have been more perceptive and creative than most adults in their interpretation of the film’s many meanings.

I am very dubious about converting children. So many seem to lose their faith as they grow older, or when the youth or children’s worker moves on, which begs the question: what have they been converted to? And what have they been converted from?

There is more to being a Christian than the power of the cross, although I don’t underestimate that power. But Jesus walked among people, showing them how to live, rarely telling them. So I am more concerned to show them Christ through my actions, through my words, and through my life. As St Francis said (or something like): ‘Convert the world, use words when you have to.’

I think here we have two very different approaches to ministry, one about ‘conversion’, the other about transformation. One is immediate, the other is a lifelong process. One is about a single event, the other eternal. One places the emphasis on sin, the other on a growing recognition of a need for a life of repentance (being changed). One is very much about ‘Me and God’, the other is ‘Us and God’.

Either could be right, either could be wrong. I guess the truth is somewhere in between… But what a fascinating debate to be having as fellow followers of the way of Christ.

A few years ago, a priest on study leave researched the reasons why a few churches in Canterbury Diocese were growing as rapidly as they were. He visited the churches, took surveys, had focus groups and then took his data away to analyse. His report was very easy to comprehend; the churches that grew truly welcomed people in: not just with coffee (good coffee) after the service, but by asking the new folks round for coffee in their homes. They made real friendships, with people who were often very like them. So they stayed, felt at home, and continue to stay, as part of thriving churches. The churches operate well as Missional communities - they know about Evangelism, and do it well. The strategy outlined above has been referred to as the ‘Three Bs’:- Belonging, Believing, Behaving’.

It seems to me that this is just as relevant for children or young people as it is for adults.

Howard Worsley, in his excellent article about Conversion (Premier Childrenswork Vol 1 issue 14), outlined the problem that conversion experiences in children can cause later on in life, and I heartily endorse his comments. If we want children to be Christian, and live a life in relationship with God, that ‘r’ word is the key. How can children move on in their spiritual journey without companions along the way, to share their lives and mentor them, as the children mentor the adults? I find the concept of being a Christian without colleagues or fellow travellers along the way impossible to imagine. It’s all about relationships for me.

John Westerhoff spoke recently at the ‘Household of Faith’ conference of his reflections on how faith grows over life. He spoke passionately of the need for fellow travellers, of our participation in the life of faith together and of real listening; to God and to each other. He also encouraged us to take lifelong discipleship seriouslybeginning at our Baptism, and continuing through shared fellowship and learning together, listening to the Bible together and being before God together.

He didn’t speak of high energy input, of providing ‘fun’ events for children to attend; instead he echoed the Godly Play practise of noticing the environment (especially for children’s groups.) He spoke of modelling good behaviour between all the members of a worshipping community, and how children need to have several trusted adults to accompany them. He spoke of taking children’s spirituality seriously, and enabling it to grow, and seeing children become the person whom God made them to be.

Both Westerhoff and James Fowler recognise that there is usually a period, often overlapping with adolescence or leaving home when many young people go through a period of doubting their faith. This is to be expected, and is normal; we know that the brain undergoes radical change during this time, hence the moods and general ‘Kevin’ behaviour that we experience from young people. Many young people lose their faith at this time and many never come back to faith. But both Westerhoff and Fowler state that if young people are supported by others during this period, allowed to articulate their questions and genuinely supported (not, dare I say it, prayed for because they are perceived to be backsliding) then they are far more likely to come to a genuine adult faith of their own, that can hold the grey areas as well as the black and white in tension, and work with it creatively.

If you cast your mind back to the top of the page, and that research, the other good news is that the churches where ministry to children and families was growing all hosted a Messy Church, or similar event. An event where families of all descriptions are welcome; they come together, talk about faith together, explore faith through all their senses, eat and celebrate together. And while I know some people question what happens after Messy Church, it is a wonderful example of churches responding to families coming, wanting to find a faith, a belief that works for them, and a community that welcomes them.

Intergenerational worship and events (like Messy Church) look like the way forward for all sorts of sociological and theological reasons. Various organisations are working hard on how to do that together, well, and hopefully proactively encourage church communities to move forward in this way of being Church, together, children, young people and adults.

So is this article about Faith development or about Evangelism? The question for me is: what’s the difference? Real evangelism isn’t looking for instant results, no matter how much we want them; it’s about walking with people, young, old, or somewhere in between, for a while, accompanying them as the Spirit works in their lives, and ours. It’s about giving everyone a Holy Space, not some hall with damp walls and notices forbidding people to do all sorts of things. It’s about enabling them to be still, to be creative, to listen for God in their lives, and to share where God has been without fear of being laughed at or thought to be ‘cute’. It’s allowing them to recognise the Holy Spirit working within them, drawing them towards the light of God. It’s about giving people permission to be the people God made them to be, without fear or anxiety of whether that person will be loved and welcomed.

Ronni Lamont became fascinated by children’s spirituality as a response to what she observed in her own children’s faith journey. She is an Anglican priest, author and trainer. She edits assemblies.org.uk

Nate’s response:

I completely agree that intergenerational expressions of Church and worship are the ideal context for evangelising children (and everybody else for that matter!), but I’m more concerned about the content. What actually is it that these people of different ages and stages are considering? Large parts of the Church seem focused on investigating new educational methodologies and exploring ancient spiritual practices and yet assume we’re all clear on the message. But it’s the message of the gospel (and specifically the message of the cross) that each generation is called to protect.

I find Paul’s tender words to Timothy particularly helpful on this. He fondly recalls Timothy’s ‘sincere faith, which first lived in [his] grandmother Lois and in [his] mother Eunice.’ That’s one intergenerational context! But what about the content? Paul goes on, ‘continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you have learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.’ Wonderfully, the object of faith is Jesus and our infants can find him in the God-breathed scriptures.

I also agree that pilgrimage is a great method and metaphor for engaging others - how else could we have developed that great Christian phrase ‘getting alongside’?! I’ve found it incredibly helpful in my ministry, marriage and parenting. It’s great to literally walk with children, whether through city streets or along country paths. But we must remember that pilgrimage is not an exclusively Christian method. Jesus warns of blind guides who lead others and who cause others to stumble. So, how can we see clearly? Our eyes need to be opened by God. Paul tells the Corinthians that the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers but that light shines when we speak of Christ.

Whenever our conversation is about methods rather than message, technique rather than truths, context rather than content, we’re on tricky ground. Whether our events are high-octane-fun-factories or quiet-reflective-retreats, it’s easy to get distracted from the message we have to proclaim. And it’s a great message! At the All Souls Clubhouse in London we used to think of our facilities and activities as animals which could either be tamed for purpose or rise up as wild beasts to devour the ministry! This is a danger whichever end of the energy spectrum we incline towards. There can be just as little witness to Christ in an hour of silence or an hour of Dangerzone (an amazing variation on Dodgeball which I haven’t the time to tell you about!) The important thing is to keep speaking of Christ.

I must admit that I find listening to new ideas and considering new approaches endlessly fascinating (I’ve probably wasted days of my life watching TEDtalks!), but if we follow developmental theories obsessively we can easily end up with a Christ-less Christianity. We can speak a thousand words and none of them Jesus.