Jesus taught adults and played with children.
Why do so many of today’s churches insist
on doing the opposite?
To be sure, I have had my share of playing with the children. Before camping became more of a business (with paid staffers), I did my share of service as counselor, director, and camp preacher. In various VBSes across the years, I’ve been a pioneer, a caped crusader, an astronaut, an adventurer on safari and… Among my last roles was playing an emperor who set our youth director/slave [Jon Matthews] free.
Yes, it’s been fun. And there has been some real value for the children and youth—enjoying lessons and stories and crafts and activities in community.
But, lacking in and through all the years has been any real sense of engaging the adults—during these special weeks or beyond. Yes, there were adult Sunday School classes and small group studies and offerings otherwise. But, attendance was, generally speaking, about 15-20% of worship attendance.
It’s not just a matter of the quantity of adults participating in adult Bible studies. There’s also a concern about the quality of adult understandings and offerings. (cf., my previous post, entitled “SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES… WITHOUT WORSHIPPING THE BIBLE”—with its focus on “Biblical illiteracy” among American adults [including professed Christians])
It points to the value and timeliness of our most recent issue of our seasonal periodical, Ruminations—focused on “Searching the Scriptures.” Not only does it give survey to informational approaches to the Scriptures (giving orientation to the general “metanarrative” to which the Scriptures point) but it also provides handles for a more formational approach to engaging and experience the Scriptures.
To be sure, it’s a big issue. Will definitely take more than one sitting for individuals and small groups to process. Maybe you can think of it as a resource for a couple of days or weeks or months–an adult VBS or camp of sorts.
Click here to engage and download Issue #18 of Ruminations, “Searching the Scriptures.”