Missional children’s ministries move beyond a Christian Education model of simply getting the right information into the minds of families and children. They help families and children identify with the Story of the Bible and find their place in that Story. This goes beyond a mere adherence to a moral or religious code. It requires encouragement of families and children to submit to the Holy Spirit in all aspects of their lives and follow the Greatest Commandments to love God and love others (Mark 12:30-31) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). Families and children go from being spectators and imitators of God’s Story to being active and willing participants in the Story itself.
There are four keywords to describe the process of helping families and children become a part of God’s Story: discover, experience, live, and bring.
Each of these keywords is descriptive of progressive phases families and children go through in being transformed by the Holy Spirit and finding their place in the Story. While missional children’s ministries approach these phases in a progressive manner, it does not mean that these phases cannot be encountered independently of any other phase or in a different “progression.” Also, in referring to these phases as a progression missional children’s ministries do not think there is an end to transformation; these phases recur continually throughout the lives of families and children as they submit to the Holy Spirit.
What are your thoughts? Do you see a need to distinguish from an informational paradigm to a tranformational one? How do you see children and families becoming part of God’s ongoing Story?
