I see you in the church pew amongst the sea of black, brown and beige bodies at the age of 6 or 7 dangling your feet to the sway of the music. I notice how your eyes linger on your blink as the singer holds a soaring note invoking the Spirit of God to come here now. How your head rolls to the right and your eyes slowly open, as if in a everlasting trance of a single moment, when the singer gasps for the breath to sing on. I see how you jump to your feet to clap a syncopated rhythm in response to the choir’s exuberant gospel refrain. And just last week I felt your heart yearn as your soul responded to the spiritual you are way too young to knowingly sing truthfully, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I Seen.” And yet the furrow of your brow told me that you will know of what you sing.
Posts under ‘Children and the Church’
Looking back on father’s day
Jesus said to him, “I am trusting you to grow and go”.
When there is no quilt
Derrick, I wish that every non-parent, seminarian and church leader were so thoughtful about how to address, understand and just plain deal with our church’s youth as you articulated. I am shocked and dismayed by how little time we take as church bodies to truly develop a theology around our children. Too often, Sunday morning [...]
