Dear Parents & Ministry Partners,
I’ve been hearing amazing reviews about Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture. Thanks to the amazon fairies it came to my door in two days of ordering and hence the title for today’s newsletter is inspired by his introduction.
In his introduction, Watkin’s shares about how he used to write grant proposals and discusses the reason for why so many of them were unsuccessful. I’ve written one once and I can attest to how hard it is, especially when you have failed to get a grant. Watkin’s says the writing of unsuccessful grant proposals led him to the question, “So what?” He says, “Funding bodies want to know what difference the new knowledge makes, what it changes, what consequences it has for how we live our lives and engage with each other and the world.” He goes on to share how this applies to Christianity as well:
As I have discovered, it is also a very useful question to ask of the doctrines of Christian faith, and one that, perhaps we don’t pursue quite as often or with quite the rigor we might. Let us take one example. We are taught what the final judgment is. We may well be taught how to explain it to others with some rather quaint analogies and illustrations, and perhaps we are taught how to defend and justify it. But we are less frequently—at least in my experience—taught what difference it makes to politics, to the sciences, to the arts, or to the possibility of knowledge about anything at all. We are taught the “what?” and the “why?” but not so much the “so what?”
I often wonder what our children and youth see when they come to church on Sundays. They are greeted by our welcoming table. Our oldest children attend worship and are led in worship by a presider: first the call to worship, praise, prayer, offering, and then they are dismissed to their Bible Studies where they are presented with a passage. I imagine many of them ask, “so what?” to each of these different parts of our Sunday. And the haunting question that remains, we’ve taught them the “what” and the “why” during their younger elementary years, but as they get older have we switched gears to teach them the “so what?” How does worship apply to them? How does the Gospel apply to their week? Does it have any impact? They may ask: Does it have impact on my parents? On my friends? On my friend who is bisexual? Of course our answer is that it absolutely does, but do we show how? Do we give them living examples? Is the body of Christ, a living answer to the question, “so what?” The following are some areas where I have found we can do better in answering the “so whats?” for our children.
Teach Them About Women in the Bible
My daughter asked a “so what” question. She’s been asking it since she was 7. “Are women important to God?” And she’s not the only one. A teacher of our all girls class came to me with a similar concern. The girls had been asking her questions like, “why is God a male?” This was a 3rd grade class at the time. Behind the question are so many other questions, and so many possible assumptions the girls can make about God if no one answers the “so whats” that they are bringing before us. And our older elementary girls aren’t the only ones asking. I recently found out that a youth student who graduated from our children’s ministry not too long ago, refuses to attend youth group because she is staunchly feminist and doesn’t agree with the way things are in church. This convicted me that they are not too young in elementary school and we should teach them when they are asking, “so what?” and not when they have checked out. I was so thankful that there were other teachers around, because one of them wisely said, “we should teach them about woman in the Bible and not just the girls, but the boys too.” (Lily, I haven’t forgotten!) Ministry partners, if there is a children’s curriculum that you know of from a trusted Gospel-centered source, please send it my way, otherwise stay tuned, it’s something God has laid on my heart to do. Or if you know of someone who would be perfect to write this, please put it on their radar.
An Easy Way to Answer the “So What” Questions: Intergenerational Relationships
You can’t manufacture relationships. I believe it can be more harmful if we try to, but there are times when they occur organically and when intergenerational relationships occur, what a gift they are and how much more within the church. Each of us carry within us the story of God’s goodness. In our church, most of our children know the resurrection story of Christ, but do they know it in the context of the hope that it brings to someone who has lost a loved one? The children know the story of Christmas, but do they know it in the context of what hope it gives to us who are waiting, waiting to be healed by an illness or waiting for a broken heart to heal, or just waiting on Jesus to come again. I think of people like Joni Erikson Tada and I’m reminded of one particular story shared by Paul Miller. She was at a book signing, signing each book lovingly with her pen in mouth and in line a woman looked at her and said, “Oh you poor thing.” She placed her pen down and began to sing a hymn and praise the Lord with her eyes closed. Do we share these kinds of stories with them? It’s so important for them to hear and see living testimonies of God’s goodness. To see how people praise God even still in the midst of struggle.
Get Them To This Place
We live in such difficult times and the face of evangelism has changed. I see leaders like Tim Keller have created The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics recognizing the need to “strengthen the faith” of the next generation in a post-Cristendom world where so many things have changed. Watkins, in his book shares the following quote by Blaise Pascal:
Men despise religion, they hate it and are afraid it might be true. To cure that we have to begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason. That it is worthy of veneration andshould be given respect. Next it should be made loveable, should make the good wish it were true, then show that is is indeed true.
Watkins continues to share Tim Keller’s comments on this quote:
So there’s really no reason for me to get out the guns on the evidence for the resurrection, which is trying to show that Christianity is true, if they don’t want it to be true. But if I get them to want it, if they get to the place of saying, “Gee wouldn’t it be great if that was true, but is it?” then I can do my apologetics.
Let’s get our children to this place where they say, “wouldn’t it be great if that was true, but is it?” My daughter is here in this place right now. I’m sure there are many of our children. I hope I can encourage you and play my role, however small, in helping to find more ways we can answer the “so whats.” I’m looking forward to reading more of Watkin’s book. I hope to share more and I’m thankful for his work and for leader’s like Tim Keller who are working to equip church leaders and lay people in how the Gospel is very relevant even in today’s complicated messed up culture. I pray that today’s newsletter gave everyone some food for thought. What are some other “so what” questions we should address for our children. Please do share.
With a grateful and hopeful heart,
Rosalyn
P.S. Until next time, I’ll save a seat for you at the table.
I'm glad to hear your thoughts on Watkin's book so far! I've got it on my shelf, but it's been intimidating looking.
In our Sunday School I hope that we are answering the "so what" in all that we do: we pray for others who are hurting and ask for his comfort and peace. We praise him for his attributes and trustworthiness. We acknowledge our needs, our fear, loss, anger, and sadness as we look to him. We sing hymns that are rich and beautiful, memorize passages, read scripture, and look at art that all points to God's grace and love for us. We point to how Jesus is better in every Bible story. Our teachers will often confess their own failures (in a general way) after reading about how beautiful and safe Jesus is. We work with our hands to encourage the sick and lonely. And we hear Christian biographies which can be particularly good at showing how non glamorous the Christian walk of faith can be and how faithful God is. I pray that many seeds are planted as we memorize Mary's song, read a thank you letter from a teen facing cancer who received their cards, and read aloud about the challenges of missionaries such as Lottie Moon who saw God work mightily in small unseen places and also had to teach the mission board back home how to care for Christian workers' mental health and empower women for service.
Your question has me thinking about how to be more explicit in answering questions they may have. I value your thoughts in these newsletters so much.