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Lion Hudson - Mark Griffiths

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242 pages

English

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When Robert Raikes started his first Sunday School in 1780, he saw his idea grow to reach 300,000 unchurched children within five years - this in a nation widely ignorant of Christian ideas and values. Mark Griffiths has used Raikes' pioneering work in examining child evangelism in the UK. Working from extensive local and national research (leading to a PhD), he considers how children 'tick', what basic theology is at work in Christian outreach, and what constitutes best practice in child evangelism. His text is studded with insights and observations, and brings together the author's passion for his subject with the rigour of careful research. This is an unparalleled resource, laying the foundations of future growth.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Christianity

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Publié par	Lion Hudson
Date de parution	12 septembre 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780857213686
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0750€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Copyright © 2009 by Mark Griffiths
This edition copyright © 2009 Lion Hudson
The right of Mark Griffiths to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Monarch Books an imprint of Lion Hudson plc Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England www.lionhudson.com/monarch
ISBN: 978-1-85424-929-6 e-ISBN: 978-0-85721-368-6
First edition 2009
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. All rights reserved.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: Lion Hudson
‘Hugely thought-provoking. I have known Mark for many years, and he never ceases to be an inspiration to me. The author proves once again to be not just a brilliant theorist but a real practitioner, speaking out of years of real-life experience.’
Revd David Ritchie (National Children’s Director, Elim Pentecostal Churches)
‘Rooted in hard facts and flowing with passion, these pages should be compulsory reading for everyone who takes the task of twenty-first-century outreach to children seriously.’
Matt Summerfield (Executive Director, Urban Saints)
‘Mark’s research has opened up new areas I had barely considered. This book touches the heart as well as the mind.’
Dr Howard Worsley (Diocesan Director of Education, Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham)
‘Provides a stream of practical suggestions for children’s workers and church leaders alike.’
Hayley Smith (Children’s Pastor, St Mark’s, Battersea Rise)
‘Inspiring and thought-provoking: I would highly recommend it to anyone who longs to see children brought into God’s kingdom.’
Edda Lindner (Director of Children’s Ministries, St James’ Church, Gerrards Cross)
‘Wow, what a piece of work!’
Tammy Tolman (Children’s Pastor, Sydney, Australia)
‘Mark reminds us of the rich godly heritage within the church when it comes to children’s ministry.’
Yvonne Morris (Diocese of Oxford Children’s Adviser)

Revd Dr Mark Griffiths is married to Rhian and they have three children, Nia, Owen and Elliot. He has developed outreach children’s clubs, children’s discipleship groups, after-school clubs, Sunday schools, holiday clubs, schools ministry and summer camps and passionately believes that successful children’s ministry is a major key to church growth. He is author of Fusion, Impact, and Detonate, and Don’t Tell Cute Stories – Change Lives . He is a Church of England minister.

IF YOU WANTED TO CHANGE TOMORROW, WHERE WOULD YOU BEGIN?

For my wife Rhian and for my children Nia, Owen and Elliot
A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
This book looks at child evangelism. Specifically, it considers the work of Robert Raikes and the formation of Sunday Schools in 1780, the development of those Sunday Schools through history, and the church-based projects that have been developed in the latter part of the twentieth century and early part of the twenty-first century.
It is a comparative study. It asks what comparisons can be made between the original Raikes model of child evangelism and the examples identified in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The word evangelism is deliberately used because these projects exist primarily to communicate a Christian message to children from homes where parents/guardians are not churchgoers.
It looks at issues of theology, sociology and practice. It uses historical research, primarily biographical and autobiographical. It involves survey, case study, interview, participant observation and ethnography. Some of the issues are complex, some of them are controversial, and, of course, not everyone will agree with my conclusion. That is not important; what is important is that others are stimulated to join the conversation about how the church better connects with the unchurched child.
It will stand up to academic scrutiny; 1 but I have set out to produce more than a scholarly work. I have endeavoured to uncover the tools and mechanisms that lay at the heart of the very first child evangelism movement and to re-present them for today. I have studied the books written on child evangelism and those books from associated disciplines, I have analyzed many child evangelism projects up and down the UK and across the world, and I have sat at the table with some of the best minds and deepest thinkers in this field; I have listened and learned and recorded. Nevertheless, I am not primarily a theorist. I started my first child evangelism project in 1990 in a small Welsh valley; the project soon grew to over 100 children. I later launched Frantic for the Christian Centre, Milton Keynes, a project that peaked in 1998 when over 750 children attended the Christmas special. I then went on to launch Dream Factory 2 for St Mary’s, Bletchley, a project that would teach me the benefit of focusing on a fixed geographical area, in this case the local parish. It was during this time, while firmly at the coalface, that I wrote Fusion , Impact and Detonate as curriculum materials to reach unchurched children and Don’t Tell Cute Stories – Change Lives to inspire a new generation of children’s workers. All these projects continue to run. And although I spend most of my time leading churches, speaking in theological colleges and training children’s workers, I suspect I have a few more child evangelism projects in me yet!
It is against this background that I dare to believe the insights of this book can be advanced as a model of child evangelism for the twenty-first century. It is written to inform and to educate, but primarily it is written to make us better equipped to communicate the compelling Jesus story to a new generation of boys and girls and to help them to respond appropriately to that story.

N OTES
1. It was initially written for the Doctor of Philosophy degree with Nottingham University.
2. Probably still my favourite name for a Children’s Outreach Project.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Praise
Dedication
A Word From The Author
Acknowledgments
Issues of Ethics
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: The History And Practice of Children’s Outreach
1 Robert Raikes and the Sunday School Movement
2 Child Evangelism at the End of the Twentieth Century
3 Child Evangelism in the Twenty-first Century
4 Four Key Projects
5 The Slough and Windsor Project
Part 2: Connecting With The Unchurched Child
6 Theology
7 Sociology
8 Practice
9 Conclusions and Recommendations
Appendices
1 Methodology and Literature Review
2 The Self-completion Questionnaire
3 Survey and Quantitative Research (Phase 2): New Zealand and Australia
Bibliography
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks:
To all those who completed the initial survey, but particular thanks to the following project leaders and workers who allowed me the time to observe their various projects in action: Chris Beveridge, Paul and Julie Bristow, Natalie Campbell, Gavin and Louise Chittick, Bernie Fell, Sarah Turner, Laura France-Hodgkinson, Jon McCowen, Ceri Neil, Miriam Patterson, Luke Plumley, Wes Richards, David and Elizabeth Ritchie, David Sharples, Dominic and Sarah Smith, Frankie Theobald.
Also to my Southern Hemisphere friends who distributed the questionnaires there: Rob Bradbury, David Goodwin, Peter Lusk and Andrew Shepherd.
To Claire Johnson, Rick Otto, Ruth Radley and Helen Shannon for pilot-testing the original questionnaires. Also to Jonathan Brook, Simon Neill and Peter Wyatt who debated the issues of children’s spirituality with me so that I could earth my thoughts and write the theology chapter. (And thank you to the Nottingham establishments that hosted us, sometimes until very late into the night!)
To the Birmingham University Special Collections, the British Library, Gloucester Library Archives, Manchester University Archives, Nottingham University Library and St John’s College Library, Nottingham, for the use of their facilities and research materials.
To the Bayne Benefaction, Culham Institute and Ministry Division of the Church of England for their financial support.
To Ruth Oxley who proofread the final draft.
A special thank you to Revd Dr Howard Worsley who gave many hours of input over five years. His input shaped me so that I could shape this research.
But, of course, my greatest thank you goes to my wife Rhian without whom this research could never have happened. And to my children Nia, Owen and Elliot who have sacrificed time with Dad as I typed, visited and read – they are significant children who will lead this rising generation.
And to Starbucks where I spent many hours reading and typing and, of course, drinking lots of coffee!
ISSUES OF ETHICS
Issues of selection and ethics were considered and the Revised Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research 1 were consulted. This was particularly important with regard to children’s paintings, drawings and writings used in Chapter 6. Attention has also been given to Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, so that each child has been allowed to give permission or withhold permission for their picture/words to be included in the research. However, this has been handled directly by the schools that agreed to be involved. Pictures/words have been included only where appropriate permission has been given. The child’s name is not displayed, although the age of the child is shown as this was deemed necessary. The identity of children was also protected when receiving feedback fr