Many mainline kids don't even hear sermons, since they leave for Sunday school after the opening portion of the worship service. And in many New England churches, religious education shuts down for the summer. Even a pretty regular attender in these churches is lucky to get 20 to 30 hours a year of religious exposure. Also, when children are in Sunday school, free-thinking teachers rarely ask them to memorize anything, lest they be accused of indoctrination. It seems likely that these children's reservoir of biblical memory will run dry before they ever have a chance to reach adulthood.How does your congregation do on teaching the Bible to kids? Are kids learning the sacred stories? Does your church do anything to feed kids and their inquisitive minds during the summer? (For that matter, do you offer any learning for adults in the summer?) There's much at stake, so this writer hopes Ammerman's points will be pondered in your hearts.
In some churches, this pattern is more a matter of neglect than intent, while in others it reflects a genuine ambivalence about teaching children the Bible. Is all that Bible reading and memorization a good thing? Have those biblical images embedded in our brains made us too accepting of patriarchy, too willing to trust authority, too willing to believe? Perhaps. But I am convinced that it need not be so, that when we commit something to memory, it sinks deep and often resurfaces in surprising ways to meet new situations. Biblical fragments ("knit together in my mother's womb," "her price is far above rubies," "plans for your welfare and not for harm") happily can grow with us, providing both a touchstone to the past and points of connection to new people and new meanings. We stuff our memories with so many things (lyrics to Sesame Street songs, Santa's reindeer), why worry about adding the names of the apostles and the words of Psalm 23 to the mix?
Those biblical words are, in fact, the common language we speak as Christians, part of the tool kit with which we build ourselves and our communities of faith. If nothing else, the Bible's existence means that we do not have to start from scratch in building a community of faith. And its infinitely multivocal and multiform self also means that there is plenty of material to work with as we and our communities change. Thinking again about how scripture works, I have become convinced that having a canon matters, not just because the words are uniquely inspired or holy or true, but because this is the core set of stories that we've all agreed to share and that have shaped us and our forebears in manifold ways. There are always other stories and always many interpretations, but those who have called themselves Christian for all these years have these characters and plots in common.
Spending time building up that core, then, is essential. It can later be deconstructed and reconstructed, added to or set aside, but if we don't start here, we may lose something very important.
Hat tip to T19.
Yes, my Church has Sunday School, but I feel it is important to take responsibility of of our Children's Bible Education. Sit down with them and read - have Family Worship.
ReplyDeleteI am in a Pre-school phase and I found a book recently called "This Bible Talks!" by Pamela Fischer. Narrated by Michael David McGuire. The kids love LOVE love this book. I grabbed the website to share so you can see it (it is where I ordered it): http://www.thisbibletalks.com
So my comment is...take responsibility! Thank you for the article!