Preparing for spiritually significant moments
There are special moments in kids' lives that we are sometimes involved in preparing them for. How can we do that well, while honouring their parents' role and equipping the congregation to play their part?
Whether it’s first communion, believer’s baptism, confirmation or the funeral of a family member … we often get involved in preparing children and teens for spiritually significant moments. So how can we do it in a way that holds the kids well spiritually, equips their whole family and engages the whole church?
It’s easy to start with what we want to teach the kids. But what if we take a step back. What do we really want to achieve – everyone involved?
You can listen to Rachel’s thoughts below and we’ve some examples of what she did underneath.
Work out the heart of what you want to achieve
We often get into the how tos super quick – the curriculum we’ll use, how we’ll teach, the team we’ll need – but what is the heart of what we want to achieve? Once we’ve worked that out, we can sort out the hows.
Rachel suggests using a chart like this to help you answer those questions:
And this is an example of the chart she completed for communion preparation:
Then work out how you will provide that
Provide an IKEA approach (for more about this see this post) so your kids, parents and the congregation have different routes to get to the heart of what you want for them.
Identify different routes in – you don’t have to use them all, but you can pick the ones that fit best for your people: Rachel gives some suggestions for what that might look like.
For more on springboard resources, you can watch a Facebook live Rachel did on them here.
Questions Rachel answered:
I am sensing within our families that there is a great deal of emotional and spiritual fragility as a result of the pandemic. There seems to be a need for family pastoral care – have you any suggestions of how we could support families in this? (This is the session Rachel refers to).
Looking at baptisms in upcoming months … how do we help everyone connect relationally when social distancing is still in force?
You might also be interested in:
- Preparing your child for baptism, confirmation or a different public faith commitment
- Involving parents in key spiritual moments