Postmodern Children's Ministry

Children’s ministry has changed a lot over the years. It is finally getting the recognition that it often lacked throughout church history. However, has it gone too far? Have we lost focused on what children’s ministry should do and how to do it? Well, Ivy Beckwith discusses this in her book Postmodern Children’s Ministry. She begins her book by talking about how the children’s ministry has gotten more important in our churches. She also has heard how postmodernism is the enemy of the church, but she does not think this is the case. She believes that this is an opportunity to change children’s ministry. In her book, she argues that children’s ministry is broken and needs to be changed. It should be changed in order to better help meet the needs …show more content…
In this book, Jensen’s point is to address the “neglect of childhood and to suggest that a renewed theological attention to the children in our midst hearkens the ground of Christian hope who comes a child (xii).” He offers a theology of childhood to show the ethic of care for all children. He will look at things that impact children’s lives everyday like: war, poverty, child labor, and sex trade. When looking at how these impact children, through theology one gets a different perspective that is missed if view through another like psychology, philosophy, etc. Jensen starts by looking at the neglect children have received in various theological traditions. He looks at Jesus birth and what that means for children today. He looks at the love God has creation and how that relates to childhood. He argues we need to change the way we look at kids because they are made in the image of God. This will play a big role in the foundation of his argument. They are chosen by God and have important roles to play out. Then he looks children and their relationship to God. Jensen then argues to reconstruct the doctrine of sin in ways that changes our understanding of children as agents and victims of violence. He will look here at the negative things I mentioned before like war, poverty, etc. Then he offers some hope for children through baptism, peacemaking, sanctuary and prayer. Finally, he …show more content…
This is something that effects so many kids and many are scared and it will cause cycles to continue. He calls us to look at this change our view of children and our view of sin. We need to start changing things in our world because children aboard their surroundings and may repeat the same thing. I think that many Christians forget about this because it is not something that affects them daily. People also do not talk about problems at church because they are supposed to be well put together people. When we start to make these little changes, we can make bigger