what is your security philosophy?

there's a lot of conversation today around security programs for children at church. i love the conversation around the philosophy of implementing security programs. ivy beckwith's book, "postmodern children's ministry" really challenged my thinking about the ways in which security programs often break down community.  after reading her thoughts, i came to my own conclusion that when we offer a safe environment for our children at church - we actually encourage community by engaging our children in a faith experience free from emotional and physical danger.

i'm a volunteer at my own church First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights.  recently, we worked hard to evaluate and implement new security procedures. with the help of the willow creek association, we put together this video series to show our simple journey.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx_5GhkX86Q&feature=PlayList&p=C69184530D4B7122&index=0]

there's nothing fancy about our security - but i'm convinced that our children will have a fresh faith experience because of the secure environment we implemented.

what is your security philosophy?

my new adventure

for the past 2 years, I've been working as the executive director of children's ministry for the willow creek association. i've had an absolute blast working on the conspire conference and developing new resources for children's ministry leaders. and the team i've been privileged to work with has been phenomenal! there's nothing like working with a team where passions are aligned and everyone is working in their strengths area.

but now i'm on to new adventures! i'm fully convinced that we need to re-think the ways in which we are modeling and teaching faith to our children. something is not right. children are not choosing faith for a lifetime. i think we desperately need to re-think our curriculum to children on sunday morning, both written and unwritten - and re-focus our leadership efforts as children's leaders. we are doing so many good things on sunday mornings, but the research still continues to show - our kids need something different. i'm currently on a mission to spark new conversation so that together we can offer a fresh faith experience to our children. and i'll be doing this full time with my company lemon lime kids.

won't you join me in this conversation? we need your voice.

the disappearance of childhood

i'm really enjoying neil postman's book, "the disappearance of childhood." my friend phil vischer referenced the book during his conspire conference message "discipled by culture" so i figured it must be a good and important read! in the first chapter, postman describes the closing gap between adulthood and childhood by using examples of clothing (a rapid change in children's clothing to be more like adult clothing), children's games (children's sports and games are increasingly modeled on big league sports), and crime (the difference between adult crimes and children's crimes is rapidly narrowing).

I believe the theme and direction of this book can best be summarized by postman's statement on page 4:

"Everywhere one looks, it may be seen that behavior, language, attitudes, and desires - even the physical appearance - of adults and children are becoming increasingly indistinguishable."

I know that this bothers me - but I'm still trying to figure out why. Is it because I don't want children to be forced to grow up too quickly? Or because I'm nostalgic for the days of my own carefree childhood? I think it bothers me because I'm fearful that while we are trying to instill values of self-confidence and independence in our children - we are actually unintentionally teaching children to leave behind their childhood ways that include creative thinking, imaginative play, honest speech and ruthless faith.

I actually wish that postman were able to write a book titled "the disappearance of adulthood" so that as adults we were able to embrace our childhood ways that we so long ago left behind.