Coffee drinking and child Safe.

The other day I received an email that asked,

Can you tell me what’s the correct procedure with regards to people going to a host family's home for youth coffee. Do they need a working with children’s check? Should they fill in the application to serve in children’s youth ministry...?

This is a great question and touches nerves on a number of issues.

• Should 'informal' activities such as coffee and outings be covered in child safe?
• Does child safe take all the fun and spontaneity out of church life?
• "We have never done this before, and nothing has happened, why should we now?"
• Will restrictive child safe practices encourage people to go behind the back of church leadership?
• Is child safe too restrictive?

In all this there are two overriding questions that need to be answered.

1. Is this a church organised event for which the congregation and Church leadership would expect the church to ensure child safety? To put it negatively, if something went wrong would the recrimination be, "We (the church) should have been more vigilant and careful?"

If so, the second question applies,

2. "Who is responsible for the care and protection of children in this situation?"
Whoever that is, they need to be child safe accredited.

The answers to these two questions form the heart of child safety in the church. Any event, outing, or ministry related to the church that involves children (anyone <18) needs to consider and clarify these two issues.

With regard to coffee drinking: if the answer to the first question is 'yes' then the next question needs to be answered regarding child safe qualifications. If the hosts are the responsible adults, then, in the view of child safe, they should be child safe accredited. If the responsibility lies with the youth leaders then they, but not necessarily the hosts, need to be compliant (in some ways you could look at this like going to a restaurant.)

The important thing is that the responsible adults are child safe and that we actively ensure the safety of children under our care in every program or activity under the supervision of our church.

Children's ministry questionnaire. Reviewing your Children's ministry.

For 9 years our church in Wantirna filled out a NCD (Natural Church Development) survey, compared results, reflected and then acted on what we found. Overall, I believe it was very helpful and that a good survey (which NCD is) can be a great tool if it is used well.

From that experience (and from creating and answering some unhelpful surveys!) I've compiled a questionnaire to evaluate children's ministry in the church.

It focuses on the seven areas of: leadership, spirituality, care and safety, organisation, worship, serving and outreach.

It's not as sophisticated as NCD but I believe that with follow up discussion and action it will help churches focus on areas to improve and advance the cause of children's ministry in the church and kingdom.

If you want to use it, please contact me to discuss how best to administrate it.

Oranges and Sunshine: Movie review

Recently I saw Oranges and Sunshine. It's is a compelling* movie that dramatically reinforces the importance of Child Safety, especially in the church.

If you haven't heard, it's the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovered the secretive, forced migration of around 130,000 children, some as young as four, from the United Kingdom to other commonwealth countries, mainly Australia, during the 50's - 70s. Often told that their parents were dead, many were sent to (religious) children's homes where some were subjected to appalling abuse. They were promised oranges and sunshine, they got hard labour and life in institutions. The film follows Margaret's herculean efforts to reunite thousands to their families and bring authorities to account for this extraordinary miscarriage of justice.

Mercifully, the film spares us images of childhood flashbacks or child abuse. Yet this is the power of the film as it focuses squarely on adults and the affect their childhood experiences had on them. We are reminded that children are trusting, dependent and vulnerable individuals who are deeply affected their whole life by the treatment they receive from adults.

To me, it made me more conscious of the responsibility I, and the church have to treat children well in keeping with the life and love of Jesus.
Ray
*just note, from time to time, there is some very colourful language and the mandatory (not explicit) bedroom scene.

Child Safe training in Victoria and NSW

Two Child Safe training events are planned for July to which all churches are welcome.

1. Victoria:

Team member training only.
Thursday July 7: 7:00 - 9.30pm.
Wantirna Christian Community Church.
15 Cavell St Scoresby

2. NSW.

Team member and Team Leader training.
Saturday 31 July 8:30am - 3:00pm
St Mary's CRCA.
74 Marsden Road, St Marys

Please contact Ray Rus for more details.

Gems Website launch

Gems has launched a new website. You can find it at www.gems.crca.org.au
Here's a reminder of what Gems is about.
G.E.M.S. is a Christian organisation, run by volunteers, with a programme that is created especially for girls from ages 9-15, with some groups also including a programme called Busy Bees for girls ages 6-8.
The name G.E.M.S. stands for Girls Everywhere Meeting the Saviour. This name represents both the mission and vision of G.E.M.S. Girls’ Clubs. The mission of G.E.M.S. is to help bring girls into a living, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. The vision of G.E.M.S. is to see girls actively and enthusiastically expressing love for God and others by equipping and encouraging them to live out their faith.
At G.E.M.S. the girls learn about God, complete badge work, create crafts, play games, sing songs, make new friends and go on camps and outings. If you would like to join a G.E.M.S. group contact us and we would be happy to answer your questions.

Help! We have a small Sunday School.

The other day I was talking to a Sunday School leader who shared the challenge of finding suitable material for a smaller group of kids. Many find themselves in this situation. Kid Connection is material specifically designed for smaller groups. It is available from the Resource Centre. Here are some of the features. (If you are using other material you could recommend please share what you have found.)

Kid Connection features a large group/small group format that is perfect for multi-age settings. Each session begins with worship time and a Bible story presentation for the whole group. Then kids gather in small groups (K-3 and 4-6) to connect with their leaders and dive deeper into the lesson.

What else is special about Kid Connection?

Connects church and home through a family magazine that kids love and parents can really use!

Connects kids to God with lessons that are thoroughly biblical and Reformed in their integration of head, heart, and hands.

Connects church to community through lessons that work in outreach ministries.

Connects with leaders through session plans that are fun to teach and easy to prepare.

Connects with kids through age-appropriate lessons that fit multiple intelligences.

Makes preparation a snap with the program CD.

Includes tips to involve pre-teens and a session plan for one-to-one mentoring.

Thematic four-lesson units benefit kids who can’t come every week, or leaders who want to team-teach.

And…it’s affordable!

Children in Worship.

When it comes to integrating children in worship, what is your approach? Read the following and see where you fit.

"Many congregations will claim to have a concern for the inclusion of children in worship. What this precisely means however, will vary greatly. For some congregations, this merely represent a wish for children to be bodily present in corporate worship, with no particular desire to modify practices of worship in any way to reflect the presence of children. Children are there to learn what it means to worship like adults, and to grow into "appropriate" forms of behaviour. We might call this a locative view of children in worship.

For other congregations, including children in worship means additions to the forms and environment of worship to make it more palatable to children. This is commonly done through the use of children's sermons, children's choirs, activity sheets and "busy bags" for children. However there is no essential change to the basic practices of worship. We might call this a supplemental view of children in worship.

There are far fewer congregations who have gone beyond this point to embrace children as equal participants in the whole of worship, experimenting with the entirety of worship and its settings to fully involve children as members of an intergenerational worshipping community. We might call this an integrative view of children in worship.

Beyond these congregations there is of course another grouping: those congregations which have effectively taken the view that corporate worship is not for children, excluding children from involvement through parallel programming. In these congregations, Sunday school takes place at the same time as worship, and there are frequent nurseries for caretaking of the youngest of children during worship services. Children may be present for sections of the service, but then are enjoined to depart so that the adults can get on with the "real" business of worship... the basic message given is that "real" worship is the province of adults." (By Greg Priebbenow, Toward an Integrative View of Children in Worship.)

Where are the children?
What approach does your church take? We too believe that children are integral as members of the church yet, what does this really mean for the practice of our Sunday services? What might an integrative approach look like? How would it be different to other approaches? Is it worth considering?