Hello Mr. Little Agenda
Twirling eyeballs, three-second attention span, gold fish memory capacity, and speech capacity of a politician has become the norm around my parts of the world for kids. A normal kid seems to be defined by a broken home, with multiple people related to him, no structure, no discipline, no morality, no cares, fed only a sugar diet, walking through an assembly line of education, and no direction. With no direction, control and care, lesson times become hazy, frustrating, and filled with the teacher battling ten little kids pushing their own aimless agenda. Result? The teacher’s welcome statement to kids turns from “Hi, Johnny” to “Hi, Mr. Little Agenda, how old are you? Eight? Great. Now I need to un-ravel, un-spin, un-confuse, de-sugar, de-un-discipline the last eights years in the next thirty-minute lesson plan!” Ha!
Twirling eyeballs, three-second attention span, gold fish memory capacity, and speech capacity of a politician has become the norm around my parts of the world for kids. A normal kid seems to be defined by a broken home, with multiple people related to him, no structure, no discipline, no morality, no cares, fed only a sugar diet, walking through an assembly line of education, and no direction. With no direction, control and care, lesson times become hazy, frustrating, and filled with the teacher battling ten little kids pushing their own aimless agenda. Result? The teacher’s welcome statement to kids turns from “Hi, Johnny” to “Hi, Mr. Little Agenda, how old are you? Eight? Great. Now I need to un-ravel, un-spin, un-confuse, de-sugar, de-un-discipline the last eights years in the next thirty-minute lesson plan!” Ha!
One of the toughest battles for teachers is classroom management, especially trying to focus the unfocusable kids to one single agenda of God’s word. Maintain the course, do not waiver. Keep God’s agenda first. Create boundaries for kids. Let them focus on the lesson aims and not the rules. Think of timely solutions through the timeless principles of God’s word.
This series of the gospel in children’s ministry through studying Mark’s Gospel attempts to provide solutions and affirm to you that we all live in the same world, where nothing new is under the sun, the gospel unites, the gospel creates an agenda, the gospel changes people to be on one agenda and we are not the gospel.
Regardless:
Do not abandon God’s word.
Do not abandon the kids.
Do not abandon parents.
I feel your pain.
Stay faithful.
Laugh.
Love.
Cry.
Pray.
Trust in God to develop people over time, including Mr. Little Agenda.
To be continued …
Further Reading:
Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods
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This is part of the blog posts series from Missional Education on the gospel in children’s ministry.
