Introduction
I’m not sure how I got caught up in this. It’s my fault, so I suppose I shouldn’t grumble.
My church is one of the few in Sheffield Methodist Circuit with a Junior Church. There used to be more but child participation seems in decline. One thing I’ve occasionally done over 40+ years preaching is to ask children what they would like to pray for, usually when they bring the offering forward, prior to going out to Junior Church.
Responses vary as you would expect but I think it’s worth asking occasionally. I raised this at my church, where we have a small but apparently growing Junior Church. And, what do you know, the issue has ballooned into a major project, with me in some sort of leadership role!
UTU does not focus much on liturgy for people of any age. It’s something most of us take part in every week. I never attended Sunday School as a child but even so, I remember what I was taught at school. In my experience as a preacher, biblical and liturgical literacy is at an all-time low and so perhaps we should pay attention to education of the next generations.
I remember, during the 1980s, John Vincent telling church members in the wealthy southwest of Sheffield that he didn’t want their money. He wanted their children. A message received with little warmth.
Participation in Worship
My church has a rota for intercessory prayers and a member of a small group of adult volunteers leads the intercessions each week. The Junior Church leaders have invited me and one other person to visit Junior Church occasionally and help them prepare the intercessions.
The other person has already had a go. I missed it as I was preaching elsewhere but I gather it went well, although he went with a structure based on the Lord’s Prayer and it seems it became an exercise of filling in the blanks.
This is one of my concerns. If the exercise begins to drag, the children may lose enthusiasm – keeping the whole thing light and lively will be a challenge. Light and lively does not readily come to mind in connection with intercessory prayer.
Self-Expression
The key to this is helping the children express their concerns. Once we’ve agreed that these prayers are prayers for other people, what concerns do the children wish to share with others?
Broadly, there are two types of concern. Concern for others close by, eg family and friends and maybe a few local institutions, eg schools. The other concern is for people and places far away but possibly of concern, eg environment, wars, other events in the news.
With the former, a child may have some agency and with the latter they may be concerned but feel helpless, like most adults too.
If the Junior Church leaders know what the children are concerned about, they may plan later sessions picking up on concerns.
Appropriate Structure
Junior Church will have about half an hour to put together intercessory prayers, so time pressures will be intense. This means we need two structures. We would expect the finished prayers to have some structure. It could be a random assembly of concerns but putting them into some order will help the congregation.
The other structure is the session within Junior Church. Perhaps asking the children to share in pairs and then pool their ideas. Maybe we could use prompts, although the usual headings for intercessory prayers might need adaptation. Also, we may need probing questions, eg a prayer for a school would benefit from naming the school and perhaps more detail about the concern. Also, this need not be concerns alone. The children could integrate expressions of gratitude into their prayers.
Public Speaking
Some children are used to public speaking, although apparently what is agreed in Junior Church doesn’t always come out in the main church. Some children may ask someone else to read their prayers.
Perhaps one way to make this easier would be to ask children to write their prayers or draw them. A mixture of words and drawings may be helpful.
In Conclusion
Does anyone have experience of this type of thing? This can’t be entirely new ground. Even without experience, you might have ideas. Does this post help you reflect about children in worship in your own church?