‘It’s Life Jim, but not as we know it!!!!’

I am sure many of us have been struggling with the question, ‘When will this be over?’. There are obviously personal dimensions to this that affect us all – the loss of loved ones, the inability to hug others in their time of need, not being able to gather to share the joys and sadness of these times.

Of course for many the use of the internet has kept us from falling apart completely. Although even then the inequality for those who don’t or cant access online is a massive concern.

For those of us working in Christian work so many things have changed that it’s hard to know where to start thinking about the future. But recently I have been thinking about the question that is often expressed in this way

‘When can things go back to normal – to how it used to be?’

Although I understand this desire, I wonder if in fact we are missing a God given moment. Rather than when can we go back to normal, the question should be;

‘What opportunities do we have for the new things that God is calling us to in the future?’

In my area of work – children, young people and families – for too long we have talked up the work that has been done. Of course I want to encourage the many volunteers and paid staff who are fully committed to serving those children and young people. But I also want a dose of realism. In recent years church has been connecting with less and less of those under 18. (Without those committed people I am sure things would have been worse). So why on earth would we think of going back to how things were when it was clearly ineffective in building disciples who follow Jesus for a lifetime?

Instead there is an opportunity to go forward, learning from the past but choosing to not repeat its mistakes.

So what might that look like?

Here are some pointers for the way ahead.

• THE CONTEXT OF FAMILY: so much has been demanded of family in recent months; home schooling, occupying the same space day after day, juggling working from home and caring for children. But in all this there is an important lesson for us.

How do we take seriously the family context that the children and young people spend their time with? How is this reflected in the way that we work with them?

• RELATIONAL not ATTRACTIONAL: for almost a year now, church has largely been online. Many are bored with the diet of online and those that are not remain involved because of the relationships nurtured before and during the pandemic. We have all had to accept that church is the people not the building. How do we make sure that the focus on relationships remains rather than asking, ‘How can we get people to our building for church?’ Instead we can ask:

‘What does it mean for us to be the church in and for our community?’

• DISCIPLES not CONVERTS: although much of the language of children and youth work has changed in recent years to that of journey, much of practice has remained about counting heads! We have an opportunity to devise programmes that are about lifelong discipleship rather than one off decisions for Christ. But do we actually know how to do that or will this be a new skill to learn?

How do we need to change what we do so that we build lifelong disciples of Christ in our work with children & young people?

• COMMUNITY not INDIVIDUALISM: we live in a secular world that is premised on individualism and we have often made our presentation of the good news all about our individual response. The call of God is to become one of his people – a corporate calling not just an individual response.

How do we ensure that we are building communities of faith formation rather than just asking people to choose from a range of possibilities?

I will explore each of these separately in future posts. For now I want to start the ball rolling so its over to you for thoughts and comments. But please do that in a way that shows respect for those who hold different opinions to you.

I look forward to journeying together into the future knowing that we serve a God for whom none of this is a surprise!!