". . . in a postmodern context we still think primarily about young adults and I wonder if we aren’t on the verge of missing the next generation." From Shannon's blog posting about "Girl Talk"
Actually, some of the girls who were sleeping over at Shannons loft, and staying up really late talking about girl things, were my daughters. They had a great time. They felt honored, grown up, listened to, and gained much from the experience.
Tim Bednar has an excellent comment (perhaps one of the best comments i have every received) in which he says re: emerging church . . . "It also has little or nothing written about how children and teens fit into the emergent church. Or how parents ought to disciple their kids."
Its true that this is still a big issue for us. Some of the early alt. worship churches (Late Late Service in Glasgow) also found it a difficult challenge.
We have tried to be an "apostolic family" and minister as a family. This is not something that Seminary trained us to do. DUH! We try to travel as a family for a few months of the year so that my wife and our kids can be a stronger part of what we do as a family. We used to travel full time when we had an RV in USA. But when we are at home, we do the best we can and we are still trying to find a way forward. Sometimes we tap into the youth groups of traditional churches and sometimes we do our own thing at home.
but having Shannon offer to do a girls night was fantastic.
Samuel was 7 years old when he helped design our multimedia rave labyrinth called "Ecclesia", which we did in Austin in 1999. Part of the event was the Peach Rave, based on James and the Giant Peach, and the idea of heaven being " a city that we long for, very far away". We asked him about what heaven would be like and he said we would be jumping up and down on mattresses and grabbing candy that was hanging down. So we brought in mattresses and hung up peach candies. We also used peach flavored fog in the fog machines and peach soda, and a peach hallway that you had to crawl through to enter - becoming like a child to enter the Kingdom of God. It was a cool event and it was great to see Samuel standing at the entrance - a 7 year old RaveMeister!
But on a more down to earth basis, our kids are very much involved in whatever we do (except when dad preaches in traditional settings) and sometimes they are at the forefront.
