Why I want to get involved in Promiseland - By Fi Moore
I spend quite a lot of my time with children, whether it is my own at home or the children I teach at school.
I am the sort of person who, if you put me in a room full of adults, my anxiety levels increase, I feel nervous, intimidated and insecure and I generally want to stand at the back, in a corner and be noticed as little as possible!
However when I am with a group of children I feel comfortable, excited, inspired, enthusiastic, energised, positive, I feel I belong. I feel I have a God-given ability/gift to mingle with children, to communicate with children, to feel passionate about children and to stand up for children.
That's why I want to get involved in Promiseland - because I feel that's where I fit. But I realise that unless you happen to feel the same way about children as I do, which is unlikely, what I've just said is even less likely to inspire you to get involved. You'll be thinking "It's just not for me."
So I want to say this:
Children spend their lives searching.
For:
• Love
• Acceptance
• Security
• Knowledge
• Attitude
• Outlook on life
• Moral code
• Boundaries
• Ways of behaving
• Understanding of who they are and why they are here
• Safe environment
• Friends
Children are like empty vessels/jugs waiting and wanting to be filled. The question is what are they going to be filled with? What answers are they going to find in their searching? As a parent my deepest concern for my children is not how many GCSE's they are going to end up with but what attitudes and values they will carry with them as they grow into adults.
And quite rightly, from the day they are born, children begin by searching for those answers from their family. But some children receive either no answers or some very dubious answers to their searching because of what they see, hear and experience from their family. And actually there comes a point in all children's lives when they start to look beyond their immediate family for clues as to how they should be and what they should think. They look at friends, the television, computer games and other people around them for answers.
And for me that is the reason why Promiseland is so important for us all at PBC. As a community who believe that our lives should be inspired and directed by God's values and attitudes we have a particular answer to all of those things children are searching for. And unless our own children, unless the children of Pembury who have no connection with the church, HEAR, SEE and EXPERIENCE the Christian answers to all of those things they are searching for then something else/somebody else will be the answer to their searching - mates up at the park, friends at school, their football peers or the prevailing attitudes on television. We can't be surprised if as children grow into adults they don't automatically grow into Christians if Christians aren't being influential in their early development.
Surely we are making life more difficult for ourselves if we wait until a person is in their 20's, 40's or 60's, with all their baggage, life experiences and hang ups, before we start telling them about the love, acceptance and attitude of God.
But children are a little bit like cats and dogs - they know within seconds whether you are genuinely interested in them or not, whether you like them or not! They are not daft. And if we want to be serious about our mission - "to know Jesus and to make Him known" we have to create an environment that appeals to children, genuinely values children, that gives the best we can to children, includes children, is safe for children, that reflects our modern life but with a Christian outlook and attitudes.
If you tell children you are going to have a fun and exciting morning and then take them in to the smallest most uninspiring room in the building which is obviously not suitable for children, where there is no room to move around and the equipment is a bit old - quite frankly they won't believe you and they probably won't believe or see the relevance of what you are telling them either.
They have their school clubs, their after school clubs, their weekend activities, the times when they play at their friends house to compare us with. We want to make the hour they spend at church the "best" hour of their week. One in which what they think and feel, what they like to do, what they think is fun, what is important to them in their lives, what is happening to them right now, matters and is important to us.
So if you are somebody who doesn't particularly enjoy being with children, or who doesn't feel inspired by children and the idea of getting involved in Promiseland then please consider these two things:
1. Don't adults sometimes annoy you, irritate you, behave in silly and inappropriate ways, test your patience, wind you up, be rude to you, ask awkward questions of you - maybe children aren't all that different, and think of the potential that we are being offered with these young lives. Come and see how much fun being a Christian can be!
2. If it really doesn't appeal to you then help me to live out my passion. It would help me so much if there were people who could set up the hall down at the school; if there was someone who was prepared to spend 20 minutes before church making the squash and putting out the biscuits; if somebody could cut out the bits I need for the weekend; if I know that there will be people welcoming the children (and their parents) as they arrive; someone who can help with singing songs.
Please don't just discount the idea of getting involved in Promiseland, talk to me or Simon and see how you might be able to get involved in just a small way. Click here for more information about the vision of Promiseland and for links to all the different roles.
