So my aunt sent several people this video of a TED talk on “5 dangerous things you should let your kids do.” Play with fire, own a pocket knife, take appliances apart, and the like. The idea seems to be gaining traction from a lot of quarters, that keeping kids in a hermetically sealed bubble hinders creativity and does not prepare them for life.
The other day some moms and kids were walking home from the bus stop and one of the kindergartners started running down the hill towards our house and the mom yelled, “SLOW DOWN!” I wanted to say, “In the name of God, why?!”
I remember R telling me about this story of a woman who let her 9-year-old ride the New York City subway by himself. The blog post is up to 496 comments, most supportive, but a few are ready to turn her in for child neglect. I would like to say I’d consider something similar, with the right kid and the right circumstances—though I’d probably give him or her a cell phone.
On this topic, check out this graphic from an article in the Daily Mail called “How children lost the right to roam in four generations.” I can only imagine the angst from the neighbor moms if I let my kids roam! The neighbor across the street is a very sweet person, and I know she loves her son, but she will not even let him walk the half block from the bus stop to their house. Kindergartners are required to have an adult meet them, but I am really excited for the day that Caroline can walk herself home. Of course that will probably be seen by the moms in the neighborhood as neglectful, or as my mooching off their attentiveness.
Anyway, that’s not why I’m posting this video. I’m actually thinking about an article for the National Crankypants Monthly, “5 dangerous things we should let churches do.” I think we’re too risk-averse in general. What should those five things be?
10 Responses to “dangerous things for church”
Leave a Reply
Search
Asides
» There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. -Wendell Berry
» “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.” -Barbara Kingsolver
» It’s National Procrastination Week (who comes up with these things?), and in honor of people like me who like to celebrate NPW all year long, here’s a good article.
Links
Join | List | Prev | Next Random | Prev5 | Next5
Skip Prev | Skip Next
Join | List | Prev | Next |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Admit you don’t know stuff.
Speaking only for myself… Check.
Serve with abandon. Avoid the (as my pastor puts it) “holy huddle” — here in these pews, God has come to us, aren’t we wonderful. Instead, use worship as a jumping-off point for being Christ in the world. As the signs on every exit of my church say, “The mission field begins here, now.” Go do something!
I am sure you have seen this but this might be a good place to begin:
http://www.tcpc.org/about/8points.cfm
I think point 6 echos Keith, “more grace in understanding than dogmatic certainity…”
Even though I knew it was coming I am just disappointed in the way the vote on Amendment B has turned out.
as presbyterians, I think we could benefit from both:
*doing something unpopular but faithful (and sticking to it)
and
*doing something popular to be faithful.
I think we avoid both and end up in some pointless, boring, wishy-washy looking place. blah.
I also think we would be served well by simply SAYING what we think and what we mean, rather than endless prevaricating that leads nowhere.
but that one might just be me.
I don’t know about the subway. I’m not even sure what age is appropriate to let them walk a few blocks alone. Scrapes, bruises–no big deal. Falling off bikes, falling out of trees, I figure it goes with the territory. They’re kids.
But then there’s the stuff we know about and they don’t. We live at the center of this map:
http://homepage.mac.com/noteon/Sites/predators.png
Fail. So often we hesitate to do something because we are afraid it will fail or not be “succussful”. We do the same old things because we konw that they work, and fear trying new because what if it fails.
Call folks when they stop coming to church.
Embrace rejection.
when our kids were young (and on until they were in college) we lived in a house w/ a big woods/creek behind us—it was floodplain that went on and on. we told the kids that if 2 kids were going in the woods their total age had to be ___ (can’t recall the #) and if all 3 kids were going the total age had to be ___. (and we never wanted just one going out there because there IS safety in numbers.) they never roamed too far but it did foster a sense of independence for them to be able to go out in those woods w/o adults.
no ideas on the church thing but one thing i loved about church as our kids were growing up was the extra parenting they got from folks who loved them through sunday school, youth group, choir, mission trips, etc. one of our kids is now helping other families by being an extra parent as she helps w/ youth group, choir, mission trips, etc at her church.
be joyful about the gospel