SLUGS & SNAILS & PUPPY DOGS’ TAILS
Helping boys connect with God
By Carolyn Edwards. IVP. 192 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 844 745 234
One of the really important questions facing the church in our generation is ‘Where are the men?’ Why is it that in almost every age group in most local churches, the women outnumber the men?
Carolyn Edwards, an experienced church children’s worker and lecturer in children and family work, has noted that this happens even in youth work: boys either present ‘a problem’ by their attendance, or are turned off, perhaps never to return. She wonders whether this could be because church and Christian children’s meetings have tended to present as somewhat pink and girlie. In particular, she questions whether standard activities at such gatherings unconsciously, and for all sorts of reasons, lean towards the kind of things which appeal to girls. Colouring, for example, is a quiet activity requiring little in the way of space, manpower or resources. But, as a mother of three boys, I myself recall how the lads felt about that. And talking of manpower — too often it is womanpower. There are, says Mrs. Edwards, too few males involved in children’s work. That absence carries a message.
These are all very good questions for Sunday school teachers, church leaders and parents of boys to ponder. Mrs. Edwards conducted her own research in three places: an Anglican children’s church, a series of bi-monthly worship activities for children run by Scripture Union and in RE lessons at a primary school. So her analysis, comments and suggestions are interspersed with findings of her surveys concerning what boys said they liked, or in what context they said they felt closest to God. The chapters cover aspects of children’s lives, exploring ways in which boys may express ‘spirituality’ or develop spiritually, which may or may not be in the same way as girls.
This is where some Christian readers, including myself, may start to feel uncomfortable. This spiritual development idea starts to become rather broad and floppy. In biblical terms, since all are dead in trespasses and sins, is there likely to be any spiritual life, let alone development? If by spiritual development the writer means the willingness and ability to engage with life’s big questions, then certainly that is the concern of every Sunday school teacher. But if it is referring to warm and gooey feelings that can be engendered by a communal sing-song of Robbie Williams’s ‘Angels’, then one fails to see how this is helping boys to be open to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that you have to defend the inclusion of wild games in your programme by seeing them as spiritual expression. Nor am I convinced that using wallpaper, paint and paintbrush to ‘pray in colour’ has anything to do with biblical prayer. As I read the book I longed for a whiff of the idea that children need not be jollied along into the kingdom, but converted. There is a worrying absence of rescue terminology.
I was massively encouraged by Mrs. Edwards’s warnings about presenting a ‘kiddie gospel’ which makes everything nice and cosy. I welcomed the robust approach which is unafraid to examine what we do and how it is perceived. There is certainly plenty of room for improvement in the way we present God’s truth to children. But while we need to embrace the fact that there are different ways of learning and some of these ways are gender biased, we need to be unafraid and unashamed to continue to give the children the word of God. Connection with God comes via the Holy Spirit and the Spirit works through the word.
Ann Benton,
Chertsey Street Baptist Church, Guildford
