[Collette]

This interesting article from Praxis East explores:
1 The theology of recognising children as ministers
2 The practical experience of children in the life and worship of the church
3 recognising the things that only children may be able to do?
4 the risks and barriers to children in ministry

One of its powerful messages is in this extract from the article:
“…the key is not to start seeing the ministry of children as a means to an end, but as a way of honouring their identity before God, their worth, for their own sake.

Children can be immensely useful, but their worth does not depend on that usefulness. If you have had the experience of following a call from God, you will probably have found that that experience of following that call has been bound up with profound questions about who you are and what your life means. Children have just as profound questions about their identity as adults, and enabling and empowering them to experiment, to serve, to lead, to grow, to have their voices heard, and to become more fully who they have been created to be, in the context of the worshipping and serving community that is the local body of Christ.

Ultimately, the full inclusion of children – of everyone, in fact, in the ministry – the priesthood – of all believers is the way that we as a church most fully express the body of Christ. It is in our diversity – young and old, male and female, introvert and extrovert, that we are the image of God on earth. In this scheme, the ministry of children needs to be valued for what it is: children being empowered to offer who they are and what they can do, as children, not as proto-adults.

And we know that doing this enables the church to flourish, and has huge ongoing impact on the way that discipleship and vocation grows well into adulthood”

To read the full article please visit:
Empowering Children as Ministers

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