30th August, 2011

DARREN CRONSHAW

Beth Barnett & Keith Dyer

Welcoming Families: Communities of Love and Justice – Resources for nurturing faith at home from the Gospel of Matthew

Scripture Union, Northcote, Melbourne, 2011

ISBN-13: 978-0987150028

"Like the Gospel of Matthew it is based on, Welcome Families invites us to revel in the vision for justice, reconciliation and love. It starts with activities for children and families, but celebrates the village of people that it takes to raise a child."

God is a welcoming God who likes people and wants to invite us to join in with God’s story, God’s plan, God’s business in God’s world.

The Gospel of Matthew is full of invitation for people of all ages and levels of interest to discover what it is to live a Jesus-inspired life of love and justice.

And we learn best as we learn from one another, in community, and mixed together with people of different ages and different backgrounds. Schools might age-segregate and ability-stream children, but churches and families will learn best as we learn from one another.

These are the three basic frameworks or assumption of Welcoming Families.

But the main idea it inspired in me is to be open and creative in inviting those I live and do life with to think about and act on the ways of Jesus. It has challenged me to help family and friends make natural connections between faith and the Bible with everyday life and the dilemmas of the world.

The writers have a deep love and respect for Bible, but also a thorough commitment to connect faith with home and public life. As a parent and playgroup Mum, Beth speaks of naturally "reading the Bible with cardboard boxes and Lego and sand and playdough" but now also, as her boys reach teenage years, she brings their Bible engagement into the world of "technology, trampolines, pillow fights [and] large serves of carbohydrates". When Osama bin Laden was killed, when disasters strike across the world, when Facebook conversations debate TV censorship, when financial and ethical dilemmas face parents, Welcoming Families models thoughtful and culturally engaging ways of drawing on the Bible.

The old way of doing ‘family devotions’ was for Dad to bring out the big black Bible and preach a mini-sermon. But that hardly helped children engage interactively, or let adults learn from children's insights. We need new practices and patterns, with tactile objects and resulting actions not just words; and not just for nuclear families but for all of us in community. Welcoming Families counsels making space for an open Bible (reading it together, repeating the same passage again and again), open minds (asking lots of questions and looking for different angles), open prayers (in accessible ways and perhaps with tangible symbols like candles or a prayer table), open hearts (and caring for one another and taking an interest in the world), and an open world (bringing events from the newspaper into conversation with the Bible), and open hands (adopting projects). It is not that we have to do all those six open things every evening, but they are ideals to weave into life as rhythms allow.

The book offers more than 50 activities for delving into the Gospel of Matthew in ways that are unashamedly creative and often tasty. For example, it suggests eating salty potato chips as we read about salt (Matthew 5: 13-16); sharing knock-knock jokes and hide and seek games as we learn to pray and advocate for others and not just our own wants (Matthew 7: 7-12), and redesigning a Monopoly board as a world map for the Great Commission.

There are 12 parenting conversations around discipline and ethics, chores and sibling rivalry, listening and leaning on others, and connecting these with God’s story in Jesus. I am looking forward to using some of the passages around Easter including discussing our traditions around Maundy Thursday, family grief on Good Friday and the challenge and invitation of change on Easter Sunday.

There are 10 new songs – ballads, a cappella gospel and kids’ songs. For example, “The Voice” sings about Jesus born into poverty and destined to be a voice of other marginalised and threatened children around the world. “Living our Prayer” sounds a longing for our worship to overflow in mission (great with communion or justice themes). “This is my voice” invites the singers to express their voice as a reflection of their hopes and dreams for change in the world.

Keith Dyer offers 11 Bible Studies, 49 pages of conversation starters, word studies, background context and imagination-grabbing vision for the Kingdom and its prophetic and hope-filled consequences. I appreciated how Dyer brings out Jesus’ sense of humour and Matthew’s clever writing, the interest in a just society that Jesus shows (for example, Matthew 5: 38-48) and a series of insights on Matthew 1-2’s subversive implications that will be useful for Advent.

In the final section, the book offers 10 further reflections and resources. I plan to use the idea for meal graces (different sung graces on different cards to choice from) and make a never-ending Christmas chain with the family and visitors through December. And I love this ritual and prayer as a community enters New Year together:

"We wipe off the dry dust of hurry

And the sludge of weary work

We wipe off the residue and stains of sin

We step across into a new space of grace

Into the gift of community together

Into the call of mission

Into the Love of God and God’s Passion for Justice."

Like the Gospel of Matthew it is based on, Welcome Families invites us to revel in the vision for justice, reconciliation and love. It starts with activities for children and families, but celebrates the village of people that it takes to raise a child. It is also a multi-age worship resource for churches; not just for a sit, listen and sing, but for churches to face, think, listen and interact together. School classrooms may be still age-segregated but they are certainly becoming more interactive and engaging in order to facilitate active learning, and some households and churches are learning from the trend.

Four other associated resources are available: Welcome Mat: Curriculum Resource, Welcome Mat: Songs and Bible Bytes CD, Welcoming Voices: Songs of Love and Justice CD, and Mat Time: Resources for Pre-School and Playgroup Ministry.

These resources are not the most methodical, well-ordered approach to discipleship. They are more a chaotic file of good ideas than a well-rounded syllabus. But in their deep engagement with Scripture, their modelling of fun and creativity, and their appeal for disciple-making in the midst of everyday life, they point in some profound and helpful directions.

It is a valuable resource book for parents, pastors, worship leaders, Bible-study teachers and leaders of children’s and intergenerational ministries. Be encouraged to get a copy, use a few of the ideas, come up with other similarly crazy ideas of your own, and be open to surprises of where it all might lead.

Welcoming Families: Communities of Love and Justice – Resources for nurturing faith at home from the Gospel of Matthew is Available from Scripture Union).

Darren coordinates leadership training with the Baptist Union of Victoria, pastors Auburn Baptist Church and is an honorary research associate with Whitley College (MCD).

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