What does it mean to be like a child?  Jesus gave a very clear teaching that if you wanted to enter the kingdom of God you needed to become like a child.  What exactly did he mean by that?  What attributes did he think were beneficial for us to emulate?  What is a child?  So often we are pushing through  stages — baby - toddler - preschoolers - school aged - tweenagers - teenagers - young adults.   We are children for only a time being and yet Jesus calls us back to being a child to be able to enter the kingdom of God.   

 Recapture the Childlike Feelings

What does it mean to be Like a Child?

Child as Prophet

Children seem best qualified to be the prophet’s of our faith communities.  “We can’t because” does not enter their thoughts.  Their imaginations are still nimble and their enthusiasm marvels us all.  If we see children fulfilling this important role in our congregations and  fellowships how could things be different?

If we saw their imaginings as prophecy rather than pie in the sky daydreams might we be more open to new ways to let God break into our lives.  As with all prophets the people are hesitate to listen to their wisdom because perhaps their perceptions are too truthful and condemning.  As with all Prophets translating their visions into action that can follow God’s lead becomes the faithful task at hand.

Child as Imaginative

Children are intended to have ideas and try out thinking thoughts.  Just as a children tries out language in their adorable babbles —their thinking is explored in their outside the box thinking.  Through their play they are able to test those ideas.  Their play shows them what their abstract ideas look like in the concrete. 

This  natural trait in children is often learned out of us as we master the “right way” to do things.  Their expertise in imagination is worthy of our attention.  If we observe their imaginative play and process perhaps we can glean new ways of approaching problem or challenge.

Child as Vulnerable and Connected

A child is the ultimate example of vulnerability and connection.  They unite these two concepts in their very way of being.  They are unabashed about their connections to others and all living things — they operate out of the perspective of how does everyone and everything relate to me.  This takes them one step closer to the unity that we all crave spirituality.

A child arrives in the world vulnerable and filled with joy and courage  and empathy.  They only know how to be who they are so they are authenticity gurus.  They are are best teachers of living a vulnerable life.

Child as Sacrament

To consider children as a means of grace is to consider the child  to be a sacrament. Typically children are seen as a recipient of grace rather than a means.  Many look at children and see them as empty vessels needing to be filled.  Often, children’s ministry programs look as children as being in need to information that their program will provide rather than the means of inspiration. 

To shift our perspective, and see children as sacrament, opens our faith communities to a glimpse of God’s kingdom.  How would we treat children differently in our world and communities if we  saw them as a sacrament?

Practices of Vulnerability

David Jensen wrote  Graced Vulnerability A Theology of Childhood (2005) Pilgrim Press.

He outlines four activities of  North American congregations.  These activities seem odd and out of place in a society that celebrates acquisition, competition, and independence.   However they are in alignment with  the Judeo-Christian covenant to care for the least of these amount us.

Baptism - Announces full participation in the covenant, and publicly  pronounces that this child will be cared for and taught the ways of the faith.  In this public act the congregation makes promises to the infant or child that they will be nurtured and encouraged to be who God created them to be.

Peacemaking - Peace is not a nice ideal  but a way of life and living.  The church is about bringing in God’s reign/Kingdom that that reign is a peaceable Kingdom.  This is where the familiar images of children  playing together in peace with the lion and the lamb in harmony.  This is where the words “A little child shall lead them” comes from—Isiah 11:6  It is a description of a time of peace through out the world.

Sanctuary -  Is a place to escape, a retreat, a safe haven. AT best the church can be for children (really for all) a place that is physically and emotionally safe.  A place where questions of faith can be expressed and answers to mysteries explored.

Prayer - Is a practice of vulnerability.  We communicate in prayer our deepest needs and hopes.  The most often spoken prayer begins  “Our Father…”This prayer comes from the posture of a child. Prayer perhaps puts us in the mindset of a child.  WE are open and attentive and awake when we pray.

On page 126 he answers our question of what becoming like a child would be. “What would becoming like a child resemble?  The escape of Peter Pan?  The wail of a baby?  The curiosity of a preschooler?  Drawing on a suggestive essay by Karl Rahner, I suggest that becoming like a child implies our partnership with God, in frank admission of the vulnerability and brokenness of human life.  The become like a child, this sense is to become who we already are- the full inheritors of God’s blessing and election of us, valued not for who we will become, for for whose we already are.”

The Sacrament That Won’t Sit Still - pdf

“What is a sacrament?” They would answer: “A Sacrament is an outward visible sign of an inner invisible grace”

Guest Lecture by Rev’d Canon Dr Andrew Sheldon,
presented at the National Godly Play Conference in Australia,
Expo Day, July 16, 2011

Kendon, Frank (1950). The Small Years. Cambridge at the University Press.

Berryman, Jerome W. (2009). Teaching Godly Play: How to Mentor the Spiritual Development of Children. (2nd Ed.). Morehouse Education Resources.

May, Posterski, Scottie, Beth (2005). Children Matter: Celebrating Their Place in the Church, Family, and Community. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Caldwell, Elizabeth (2016). I Wonder: Engaging a Child's Curiosity about the Bible. Tennessee: Abingdon Press

Coles, Robert (1996). In God's House: Children's Drawings. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Stonehouse, Catherine (2010). Listing to Children on the Spiritual Journey: Guidance for Those Who Teach and Nurture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Co.

Berryman, Jerome W. (2017). Becoming Like a Child: The Curiosity of Maturity beyond the Norm. New York: Church Publishing.

Brueggemann, Walter (2012). The Practice of Prophetic Imagination: Preaching an Emancipating Word. Fortress Press.