You’re not going to be hugely surprised to hear that it didn’t work, and that none of the schools were able to lift themselves to greater achievement simply through a rebrand. Lots of the schools did improve a lot while I was around but they did it through more sensible means like retaining good staff and employing excellent head teachers.
It seems to me there are bits of church life that have undergone a similar process of being renamed without seeing much actual change. I cannot tell you how many differently-named ‘house groups’ I have been to, despite them all being basically the same thing. This phenomenon seems to be observable in the service we generally do once a month where the kids stay in, and a whole series of compromises are made that leave nobody massively satisfied. You might call it ‘family’, ‘all-age’, ‘multi-generation’, ‘everyone together’ or a whole load of other options, but often they amount to the same thing: a service in which nobody is completely happy, including the children.
It’s an odd situation. The arguments for the inclusion of children in worship have been won both in terms of their faith development and theologically, but we are left with an end product that nobody likes very much. Clearly this needs to change!
As you will be aware, we are trying to imagine together what the future of children’s ministry might look like, in our New Paradigm series. This month, Beth Barnett explores what the future of all-age worship might be. It’s an important article; we really need to come to a place where these services, with the whole church community coming to worship as one body, are the monthly highlight and not a time to sneak a week off and play tennis.
Another staple of children’s ministry is work with under-5s, perhaps through toddler or midweek groups, or on a Sunday morning. The question here is: do these groups really fulfil their potential or are there opportunities to improve and develop? To go alongside our article on all-age worship, Ellie Wilson explores the various options for keeping under-5s in the service, and how to engage them – not simply occupy them – in the worship.
So please, read the articles, and give yourself some time to think deeply and discuss them as a team. And whatever you decide to call it – give all-age worship a go!
Fun Christmas Fact
Sam featured in the Brightside Infant School Nativity play, taking on the key role of the ‘Chinese Singing Wind’ in partnership with a girl called Michelle. Although not all Bible narratives include this role, it was pretty crucial on the day.
