The following excerpts come from The Church by Edmund Clowney which is one of my required readings for my Doctrine of the Church class.
...[he] sought to correct the one-sided approach of traditional Christian nurture...however most evangelical churches had abandoned the view of Christian education as indoctrination. The pendulum had swung far from arid intellectualism.
...The threat to Christian nurture now comes from the other extreme: the loss of ordered instruction in the Word of God.
Traditional 'Sunday School' moralism remains a problem, however, even in churches committed to evangelism. Teaching often consists in admonitions to be good, offered to restless children who already know the rules. The gospel is good news because Jesus Christ has the power to save and to renew. Only a Christ-centered message is a life-changing message. This is not to say that Christians have no need of instruction in the Ten Commandments.
...Against the climate of our age, children need to learn that sex must be pure before God, and not simply safe, in order to be OK. But to know the Bible's morality does not in itself bring either repentance or new life. To change lives, the commandments must be heard as God's voice, spoken in God's plan to point to Calvary.
...Nurture is rooted in our new position in Christ. Without hope there cannot be growth; without a new identity there is nothing to hope for.
I found myself nodding a lot while reading this.
Too often Christian growth is made parallel to Christian morality. As a result, the Bible is taught primarily as a book of moral teaching. The stories are gleaned for lessons learned promoting morality. Jesus and the apostles sound more like philosophers and philanthropists than the Son of God and Spirit-inspired writers, respectively.
Church members, children in particular, end up viewing the Bible as merely a list of do's and don'ts instead of the self-revelation of the Triune God who is pleased to make His glory known everywhere. This makes the faith depressing and burdensome, which stands contrary to what Christ promised.
As Clowney writes, Christian growth needs to be rooted in the believer's position in Christ. It is the only place where growth actually happens. Only we know who we are in Christ are we not only motivated, but empowered to live lives in line with God's Word and the example of Christ.
...[he] sought to correct the one-sided approach of traditional Christian nurture...however most evangelical churches had abandoned the view of Christian education as indoctrination. The pendulum had swung far from arid intellectualism.
...The threat to Christian nurture now comes from the other extreme: the loss of ordered instruction in the Word of God.
Traditional 'Sunday School' moralism remains a problem, however, even in churches committed to evangelism. Teaching often consists in admonitions to be good, offered to restless children who already know the rules. The gospel is good news because Jesus Christ has the power to save and to renew. Only a Christ-centered message is a life-changing message. This is not to say that Christians have no need of instruction in the Ten Commandments.
...Against the climate of our age, children need to learn that sex must be pure before God, and not simply safe, in order to be OK. But to know the Bible's morality does not in itself bring either repentance or new life. To change lives, the commandments must be heard as God's voice, spoken in God's plan to point to Calvary.
...Nurture is rooted in our new position in Christ. Without hope there cannot be growth; without a new identity there is nothing to hope for.
I found myself nodding a lot while reading this.
Too often Christian growth is made parallel to Christian morality. As a result, the Bible is taught primarily as a book of moral teaching. The stories are gleaned for lessons learned promoting morality. Jesus and the apostles sound more like philosophers and philanthropists than the Son of God and Spirit-inspired writers, respectively.
Church members, children in particular, end up viewing the Bible as merely a list of do's and don'ts instead of the self-revelation of the Triune God who is pleased to make His glory known everywhere. This makes the faith depressing and burdensome, which stands contrary to what Christ promised.
As Clowney writes, Christian growth needs to be rooted in the believer's position in Christ. It is the only place where growth actually happens. Only we know who we are in Christ are we not only motivated, but empowered to live lives in line with God's Word and the example of Christ.
I'm a little behind - but this is exactly why I hate most kid curriculum. and why I love the Jesus storybook bible. my goal is to shower the kids with the gospel, not lame lessons with little nuggets that they will remember forever and then need undone in therapy as young adults. (extreme but what seems to be the truth of many I encounter.)
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