“Teach them to your children.” (Deuteronomy 6:7a Good News Translation)
Tuesday, two different people shared with me texts that reinforced our decision as a church to change the focus of the five to seven minute Teaching Emphasis portion of our morning worship. The focus of the Teaching Emphasis, originally as implemented 30 years ago, was to provide opportunities for Associate Ministers; present them with a platform in the order of service to expand their pulpit speaking time; releasing them from being spectators, sitting in their colored, cushioned chairs and giving them more ways to share their gifts besides standing to lead the Altar Prayer or give the Benediction. It was a minister developmental move initially. However, during the recent years, we have also used the Teaching Emphasis to develop the teaching skills of ministers, teachers, Deacons, Deaconesses, and even our youth. With the restrictions associated with the pandemic, forcing an abbreviated service and our leadership agreed that it was wise not to conduct Sunday school because of social distancing guideline. Therefore, the primary audience for the Teaching Emphasis became the children. We wanted to assure that toddlers to elementary age children, attending in person or virtually, got something out of “church” and that they would be trained up by the word of God at a level they can understand. We are operating under the mandate to teach our children, thus we adhere to the words above, “Don’t leave out the children.” Yes, parents need to teach their children, but the church needs to communicate the importance of attending church.
Let me get back to the texts. One of the texts I received was from a college faculty member who attends our church. The text had a young child doing a math problem. The teacher’s voice is heard, “How much money does Jayden have?” The young child is seen working through her textbook, and she is heard working out the problem. “He has $1 bill, a quarter, and two pennies.” She pauses before answering her teacher, but then she gives a reply that I’m sure made her teacher cry in laughter: “Jayden broke!” Her reply is followed by laughter as she amused herself. She learned the value of money somewhere and/or the perception of being broke. So children will learn outside of the classroom.
The other text deals directly with the idea of teaching the children outside the classroom too and it affirms our church’s decision to change the focus of our Teaching Emphasis. A grandmother who brings her two grandchildren with her to church every Sunday, one a young elementary student and the other not old enough for kindergarten yet contacts my wife who did the Teaching Emphasis last week, a lesson focusing on training up our children. Let me describe the lesson. Creatively, after questioning the children about their Bibles and after reading her one verse text, she uses a threefold object lesson. She first pulls out a wash cloth with a character on the top and talks about the habit of washing one’s face at night. Next, still interacting, calling each child by name, she pulls out a children’s toothbrush that is adorned with a recognizable, fictitious character. She emphasizes the habit of brushing their teeth at night before bed. Speaking clearly, leading up to the high point of her Teaching Emphasis, she pulls out an envelope. She instructs the children on what they will find inside; a card that says how wonderful they are and, here is the good part, a special insert that the children are told to give to their parents and ask them to read it to them every night before they going to bed. It is a prayer, not too long, but longer than the normal, “Now I lay me down to sleep.”
The grandmother commented, “I was wondering if my granddaughters got anything out of church, particularly in this new normal.” Then she goes on to respond, “Sunday I got my answer! When the girls’ mother came to pick them up, the pre-school age child says, ‘Mommy! I have something for you and you have to read it to me every night.’” I think we all got the answer and it comes in the form of an admonition:” Don’t leave out the children!” Be blessed!
“Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 NASB)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King