Trend Watch - Christianity Today

The senior class of 2012 is born this year. These children are part of the 50 million children dubbed the baby boomlet–a surge of children under age 12 born to baby boomers.

Savvy marketers have targeted these children and their parents. Magazines, books, toys, and playlands abound to serve young families’ voracious appetites for quality entertainment. Four years ago, Disney launched Family Fun magazine; today, circulation is almost 700,000. Resorts target families with ski-free or stay-free offers for children. Each year, SKI magazine awards ski resorts for “family appeal.” In 1993 and 1994, Snowmass resort in Colorado, which offers a menu of daycare options including ski school, won the coveted award.

In short, kids–and parents with kids–are “in.”

NEW FAMILY ORDER

One defining characteristic of this generation of children is that their families can’t be defined. According to a Census Bureau report, 65.7 million children under age 18 do not live in so-called traditional families–married parents with offspring. The “baby boomlet” household is often headed by single parents, step-parents, grandparents, or non-relatives.

Even married-with-offspring households are shifting. Working Mother magazine recently put the number of dual-earner families at 64 percent. In one of every five dual-income households with preschool children, men are the primary caregivers. And because of working parents, the number of children in daycare quadrupled between 1976 and 1990, according to a report from the Committee for Economic Development.

These sociological realities have given the parents of the boomlet some unique concerns:

Safety.

Parents are more concerned with safety issues than ever before. According to Parenting magazine, three million parents have bought child-safety identification programs in the last five years. “Just Say No” campaigns and McGruff safe houses permeate school systems and neighborhoods. Today, churches are more liability conscious than in years past, given well-publicized cases of child abuse.

Even the White House and Congress have jumped on the bandwagon. Child advocacy is more organized today, and recently Congress passed the first-ever Family Leave Act that enables mothers and fathers to take time off for family.

Time.

Parenting magazine points out that children spend an average of just 17 hours a week with their parents. In a 1993 Parents magazine poll of 8,200 fathers, 72 percent said they wanted more time with their kids.

But not only are the parents too busy; with soccer, piano lessons, school activities, and church programs, kids may seldom be home. Children often live in a frenetic world. Some parents, feeling guilty for not spending enough time with their children, schedule their kids in after-school enrichment activities. But then they’re criticized for raising “hurried” children.

Influence.

In a Lear’s magazine editorial, Caroline Miller echoes what many parents feel: “The pop culture that pervades our children’s lives these days–drowning out most of what we parents have to say, offers very few useful markers for growing up … the fact is that we have shockingly little influence at our disposal.”

Parents are looking for answers.

In the three months after MCI published a “Guilt Trips” pamphlet of positive parenting tips for parents who travel, 10,000 people ordered it.

Education.

With quality-conscious baby boomer parents calling for massive reforms in the school system, what kids experience in a normal school day would be foreign to most people over age 12. Today, the process of learning is more important than the content.

Kids learn their lessons by building a rocking horse or designing a pool table. Fewer sit in straight rows and listen to lectures–at least not in innovative school districts. Kids work together in cooperative learning groups. Math is governed by “manipulatives” that kids can handle, and language instruction focuses on meaning more than mechanics.

CHILDREN-FRIENDLY CHURCHES

This tidal wave of kids, and their anxious parents, provides some fresh opportunities for ministry. According to Wade Clark Roof in A Generation of Seekers, the most religiously active people are young families with children between the ages of 6 and 15.

Churches attempting to reach out to this new generation should note the following:

Lean scheduling.

The frenetic pace of many suburban kids can make ministry to them difficult. “People want less and less church,” says Mark Lauterbach, pastor of El Camino Baptist Church in Tucson. “They want Sunday morning period. … They want minimal involvement for their kids. Finding room in their schedule is like trying to squeeze a size-10 foot into a size-5 shoe.”

And building a team to reach children can be even more trying. “It’s difficult to get volunteers,” says Carmen Kamrath, children’s pastor at Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona. “The parents don’t seem to mind their kids being involved, but they do mind spending the time helping because they are really busy.”

To address this, El Camino Baptist Church plans all adult training on Sunday mornings. “We’ve had to learn how to bring training to people,” says Lauterbach.

Jim Kallam, pastor of Church at Charlotte (North Carolina), says they have shortened the length of their programs for children. “We don’t run any of our programs year-round.”

Other churches simplify the calendar by scheduling all meetings and classes on the same night. On that evening, a meal is provided, and then family members meet separately or together in various activities. Still other churches ask volunteers to take short-term commitments, such as once a month, every other month, each quarter, or for just nine months.

Parent training.

Nobody’s an expert in parenting; every parent could use better parenting skills. Joe Young, children’s pastor at Perimeter Presbyterian Church in Norcross, Georgia, finds that parents in his church “are committed to training their children. They see that God has given them the primary responsibility to train them and the church is an assistant.”

Helping parents develop those skills can be an important ministry of the church. “Many of the problems parents have,” says Rob Morgan, pastor of The Donelson Fellowship in Nashville, “reflect a need for maturity. The wisdom and love they need for parenting basically flows out of their Christian maturity, which the church can help them to develop.”

But parents can seem a little too eager to hand their kids to the church. Mark Lauterbach says that some parents seem to “delegate the teaching of their children to the church–they subcontract it out.” Coming alongside parents, not replacing them, is the role of the church.

Nurturing relationships. Given the number of broken families, today more than ever, effective children’s ministry puts relationships first and programs second.

At Perimeter Church, classes for children begin and end with small-group time led by an adult. Kids meet in the same group every Sunday. The first small-group time is for prayer, sharing, and accountability; the second is for application of the lesson.

El Camino Baptist Church works hard at developing shepherding for children. “Each team member,” says Mark Lauterbach, “has a group of kids they’re assigned to; they’re supposed to pray for those kids daily, get to know them, and spend time with them.”

Flexible, active learning.

Two things affect the way Carmen Kamrath chooses curriculum for the children at Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona: transience of today’s kids and the interest factor.

Because of divorced families, Carmen chooses curriculum that can stand alone from week to week. “We don’t expect kids to be there every single week,” she says. “If they haven’t been there for two weeks, I don’t want them to feel lost when they come back.”

Since kids are used to innovative methods at school, Carmen orders activity-based curriculum. Every lesson, she says, must be hands-on and interactive. No more filling in the blanks and one-way, teacher-to-student communication.

Safety.

Churches with effective ministries to children are churches committed to safety issues. To address the concerns of parents, El Camino Baptist Church is developing through its insurance company a screening process for all children’s workers.

Ministry to the 50 million children of the baby boomlet, and their parents, is critical to the future of the church. As the church reaches out to them, a new and godly generation can be raised up.

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Christine Yount is editor of Children’s Ministry magazine in Loveland, Colorado.

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