The Social community is the next section of the United Methodist Social Principles. This section includes the rights of racial and ethnic groups, religious minorities, children, young people, the aging, women, men, immigrants, people with disabilities, and sexual orientation. This section also include principles about …
My response to Southwest Airlines was published on The Salt Collective this morning. I was really disappointed in Southwest Airline’s response. You can read my initial open letter to their CEO and VP of Diversity & Inclusion here. One of Southwest’s mottos is “Heart Sets …
We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage, and the family. “Our Social Creed,” Accessed October 5, 2016
This is the third Children’s Message in a series on the United Methodist Social Principles. If you missed the explanation you can find it here; the introductory message is available here; and the message about the natural world is available here.
Today’s message is about “The Nurturing Community.” To read more about the social principles in general, or “The Nurturing Community,” in particular check here, and here.
A Bible or a storybook Bible to show the Genesis story.
If you do interactive option #2 you may want to have the scavenger hunt printed out on a big white board, or chart paper with an easel and markers.
No other physical materials needed, but I did borrow quite a bit from Teaching Tolerance’s Family Tapestry lessons. If you are using this message in a Children’s Church, Sunday School, weeknight program, or camp you may want to use some of their resources to expand upon the message.
We’ve been looking at this list of how to love the world that our church has, called “Our Social Prinicples.” We talked earlier about how we are made in the image of God, which means that all of us, have a job to do, which is to show the world what God is like. And God is love, so we show the world that God is love.
And last week we talked about how God has given us an important job of caring for the natural world.
When we read the story of God creating the world, God makes something, then the Bible says, “it was good.” Over and over and over again. It’s a poem story, God’s creation is GOOD! The plants are good, the water is good, the animals are good, stars are good, dirt is good, and God takes the dirt and makes an earth creature (a person) and God says that the person is good.
But there is one thing in the story, one thing jumps out, because it’s so different. God says, it is not good, for the earth creature, the person to be alone. So God makes a second earth creature, and God creates the first family.
Now, since that day there have been lots and lots of different families. There are big families and little families. There are families that live all in one house and families that have to move houses. There are families where everyone looks a lot alike and families where people are different colors. There are families with a mom and a dad, and there are families with just a mom or just a dad. There are families with two moms, or two dads. There are families with a mom and step-dad, or a dad and a step-mom. There are families where Grandma and Grandpa live in the same house and there are families where Grandma and Grandpa live far away. Some people have cousins. Some people have brothers and sisters. But they are all families and loving our family is one of the ways that we show the world what God is like. God says, “it’s not good for a person to be alone,” so he gives us a gift of our families.
Interactive piece option 1 (from Teaching Tolerance, “My Family Rocks“):
I’m going to read something, and I want you to stand up [or raise your hand] if you think that this thing is a family. Ok?
We stood up for all of these because all of these are families. Every family is different, and every family is the same!
Interactive piece option 2: (From Teaching Tolearnce, Family Scavenger Hunt)
We’re going to do a scavenger hunt this morning in church and see if we can find a famliy that fits each one of these things:
Below are 10 different family descriptions. See if you can find one person whose family fits each description.
Some people don’t live with their family. Maybe they live by themselves, or have roommates, or live in a hospital, or a jail, or a shelter by themselves. Some people live with their families but they don’t get along with their families. And God loves those people too. And that’s another way that we show the world what God is like. The church is a family. The church is a family of families. Because we need each other and it’s not good for us to be alone.
In addition to using this as a part of a series on Our Social Principles, this message could also be used as a part of the “Christian Home Month,” celebrated in some Methodist congregations. It could also follow the announcement of a marriage, birth or adoption. Some churches even offer divorce blessings. How meaningful would it be to affirm a family’s value as a community, even after divorce?
There are a few “Christian Home Month,” litanies available online, I particularly like this one that prays for families called to justice. And this one for families called to hope:
…We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind… – The United Methodist Church, “Social Creed,” accessed October 5, 2016 Materials Visuals Needed A Gym Bag with running things like: running shoes; water bottle or camel …
Wondering what this is all about? Check out my post from yesterday Wondering what the Social Principles are? Check out this page from Discipleship Ministries Materials/Visuals Needed: Either have physical uniforms, uniform/carreer costumes/or pictures of people in uniforms. If you use pictures be mindful of …
God’s love for the world is an active and engaged love, a love seeking justice and liberty. We cannot just be observers. So we care enough about people’s lives to risk interpreting God’s love, to take a stand, to call each of us into a response, no matter how controversial or complex. The church helps us think and act out a faith perspective, not just responding to all the other ‘mind-makers-up’ that exist in our society.”
Excerpt from The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church 2012. Copyright © 2012 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Accessed October 4, 2016 – found online here
Tomorrow I start a series of Children’s Messages on the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church. These could be used in a Sunday worship setting, Children’s Church or Sunday School. They could also be adapted to be used in a mission or service learning camping program or even a confirmation class or retreat.
I’m writing from the perspective of a United Methodist Christian, committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that seeks transformation of our world.
For the past 12 years I served in Children’s and Youth Ministry at a medium/large sized multi-racial, inter-generational urban/metropolitan church in Minneapolis, MN. These principles are laid out in the United Methodist Book of Resolutions and so these talks will be organized in that framework. However, I believe Christians of many traditions could easily adapt these messages to fit their context, Methodists are not alone in our belief that God’s love is active and engaged in the world.
My background before working in church ministry is Elementary and Middle School Education in the Public Schools. I have a great deal of admiration for early childhood ministry and nursery workers and preschool teachers, but I have never found that age an easy fit to work with. While I have tried to make these messages accessible to all ages, I am aware of my limitations as an early childhood educator.
Tomorrow’s message will be an introduction to Social Principles overall, and especially focus on what it means to be made in the image of God whose love for the world is active and engaged in the world.
The next post will highlight our call to show God’s love in our care for the Natural World, followed by: The Nurturing Community; The Social Community; The Economic Community; The Political Community and The World Community.
After the messages are all published, I’ll share a reflection about my desire to write and the process of writing these messages.
I am hoping to get these posts out quickly, but I may need to ask for some grace. I have the first two messages written and would have liked to have more done by now. I am recovering from a major injury and have found that I need to work at a different pace in recovery than before the injury.
Please offer feedback or other ideas. These messages aren’t meant to be an exhaustive study in The Social Principles, but are rather meant to be a way to start us thinking about how we talk with our children about how our faith is lived out in the world outside of our sanctuaries and education halls.
I’m looking forward to this conversation.
This summer, when Philando Castile (a black man who looked a little like my husband) was shot. This summer, when Mr. Castile was shot (on a road that my husband and I often drive, close to our apartment and close to his work) by a …
Cheer 1: When I tell her I’m sick she offers to bring me soup. Cheer 2: When she shows up, it’s ok that I’m in my threadbare pajamas and haven’t washed my hair. We sit on my dirty kitchen floor, in my messy apartment together. …
My body has a physical response to making phone calls. We’re talking racing heart, muscle tension, fight or flight mode – a tiger is about to eat you – that kind of response.
My body also has a physical response to the shame that comes from dropping the ball or cancelling plans. Like all energy is drained from my body, and I curl up into a ball, I want to make myself as small as possible, tears welling up in my eyes – that kind of response.
So when I woke up yesterday morning with a fever, a sore throat, plugged up sinuses and three appointments on the calendar in the next 24 hours my first response was, “well, I guess I should just push through.”
Then, I remembered that I had made a promise to myself and my therapist the last time I was sick that NEXT time I would listen to my body.
And I remembered that I had just finished Shauna Niequist’s book, Present Over Perfect and had been inspired by the courage that she showed in saying, “no,” slowing down and choosing the health of her body, her family and her soul over her professional reputation. And I remembered that I wanted to be more present and I wanted to care about my soul and my health. 
So I picked up the phone. And I cancelled all three appointments. And I slept. And I drank orange juice and ginger tea. And I took medicine. And I feel better today, not all the way better, but I feel better today.
I’m taking part in this one week #OneThingThatScaresYou series from the author Kelly Rae Roberts. Each day she sends an email with a prompt to do one courageous thing. Yesterday’s prompt was “courageous conversations.”
My courageous conversation was cancelling my appointments. It’s not romantic, or exciting. No one is going to make a Lifetime Movie Network film about my courageous conversation. I called, spoke to receptionists and said, “I’m sick.”
In Present Over Perfect, Shauna Niequist writes:
It’s easy to get lost in this idea that “Brave” has to be this grand gesture, this crazy leap, instead, being brave can sometimes look boring. Being Brave could actually mean saying No, because you believe that God is calling you to a time of rest. Life does not need to consist of all these cliff diving moments of free-falling, you can still be Brave in the stillness, as you’re resting in the unknown, trusting in the Lord and knowing He is Good. That to me is bravery.
Don’t let this notion of Bravery, make you do the crazy things because you think it makes you seem more exciting. Bravery can be Boring, and that’s okay!!!
It’s sad isn’t it? The pressure to push through even when we’re physically falling apart. Yesterday I heard alternate interpretations of Hillary Clinton’s pneumonia. Either, “She’s so badass, she kept campaigning even with pneumonia.” Or, “See she can’t be President. She got sick.”
Neither one of those interpretations is particularly healthy. People get sick, even important people, even competent people.
Even my medicines yesterday were telling the story that we should push through when we’re sick. The wrappers on my cough drops were filled with messages to push through:
So while it seems like a small thing, a boring thing, I am absolutely going to claim my calling in sick and cancelling appointments as a courageous thing. Because we live in a culture where everything from cough drop wrappers to the news will tell you that you do not stop, you do not rest, you power through and dust off. Choosing rest and health is a boring but courageous thing.
The thing with pain and beauty is that they both are real. They exist at the same time. One of ways that we can help our souls expand with suffering rather than shattering by suffering is to allow beauty to expand our souls as …
