Children and new forms of church

Having briefly discussed last night how 'emerging' forms of church can cope with children and young people, I can begin to see a little clarity on the subject. I had been concerned that groups such as Third would be seen as rather exclusive and could only cater for a particular type of person. Having been heavily involved in the past with children's and youth work in the church I was particularly concerned about how they would fit into the sort of group that Third has become. A quote from a book on Postmodern children's ministry helped to crystallise a thought.
I don't think we need Sunday school (that wasn't what it was about in the beginning anyway). I don't think we need youth groups. What I think young people DO need is friends. They need friends who will be honest, caring, trustworthy and loving. They need to relate to a community that is willing to share its experience and resources honestly and generously. (Ideally this would occur within a family). We need to move away from the expectation that young people will be 'taught' Christianity. We need to begin to trust them and to trust God. We need to move very far away from the unspoken premise that 'We'll arrange some fun activities if you'll behave in the way we prescribe and perform publicly in a particular Christian fashion'.
Some who read this will ask 'So what will you organise for them, how will you cater for them?' Ask the same question of the current Third group as far as the adults are concerned and I would still have difficulty answering. I suppose I'm saying that it's the duty of such a gathering to encourage those friendships and make its resources available. It is not its duty to dictate how that should occur, and what form it should take. It is essential that we move away from inflexible structures. I am very inflexible about that. For the moment I shy away from saying that we should move away from structures altogether, but I may be saying that tomorrow.

Soul saving

I heard a very sad story on Desert Island Discs at the weekend. Here is the BBC's summary of the interviewee:
"Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Britain’s most popular writer of historical fiction Bernard Cornwell. His work has sold more than five million copies in nine languages. His most famous character is the rifleman Richard Sharpe – an embittered, slightly villainous career soldier whose fortunes are followed through the late 18th century and early 19th."
Bernard was adopted by a fundamentalist Christian family. His adopted father's only interest was in "saving his soul". As this was never achieved he had no relationship with his father. There were times when he very much wanted to respond but it never came true for him. I found it extremely sad that a relationship could be destroyed because a child could not respond in the way that had been defined. I know there are many families where standards of "Christian" behaviour are defined and children ostracised if they cross the line. I just find it so sad that relationships are wasted because of this and could get quite cross at whoever started this whole "fundamentalist" thing.