I've just spent the afternoon with 25 very noisy children. They are full of energy, full of fun, but sometimes they go just a bit too far, as children are wont to do. It was a Rock Solid afternoon. We played football; we tried to play Chinese whispers; we got them to draw a self-portrait; we are teaching them about prayer. The focus of the afternoon was a DVD story about David and how he was chosen to be king, that God looked at his heart rather than the outside. (You can read the story for yourself in 1 Samuel 16; it is a fascinating story!) We talked about being special in God's eyes and that it is important to be the right kind of people on the inside.
Some of these children come to our Church on a Sunday as well. Some go to other Churches in the city. Some don't go to any Church at all. Very few people have started coming to our Church as a result of Rock Solid. So what are we achieving?
At the very least, we are giving these children a positive memory of Church. That might seem to be a very low aim, but in today's Scotland, that in itself is important. So many people have a very low opinion of the Church, a poor view, that to give a new generation of Scots a positive memory of Church is a good thing.
We are also introducing the children to people of faith. We have told them stories of Jesus in the past and this term it is the story of David and his faith that they are hearing. For some of them, this is the only place where that will happen. They also rub up against people of faith when they meet us; something of who and what we are will inevitably rub off on them, though how that works is impossible to analyse.
Rock Solid is exciting for all kinds of reasons. It is good fun (most of the time) to have these energetic, enthusiastic children around. God is at work in the lives of these children in ways that we cannot yet see and can only begin to imagine. It is a new kind of Church for children, allowing them to discover for themselves something of God in a different kind of setting.
Here's the crunch though and this is the huge challenge for us, of which Rock Solid is but one example. Are we people whose values are centred on Church and its success or are we people who see kingdom values? As Church people, we will measure success by the number of people who come to our church as a result of our activities; as kingdom people, we will rejoice that God is at work and His grace is touching people's lives.
Howard Snyder is an American theologian working in Canada; he wrote this in 1983: "Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above concerns of justice, mercy and truth. Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the Church change the world."
Are you a church person or a kingdom person? I want to be a kingdom person and am getting there, but it is very hard to shake off the church person in me! And I wish I had the energy of the children...!
