Dear Westwood Family,

Last Sunday morning the Westwood Kids played a game of “Reverse Musical Chairs.” The point of the game wasn’t the typical one: to be the last one sitting on the final chair, with everyone else on the outside, watching. This time, when the music stopped, we took out a chair, but the person standing without a chair found other people who looked ready to make room for them on their chair. As you can see from the photographs, hilarity ensued.

Why would we play this game? How does what we do in children’s ministry echo what we try to do in our entire church?

Later, during story time, we told the scripture from Mark* by using small, plastic figures in modern dress to represent Jesus, his disciples, and children. Then, one by one, our kids brought forward other figures: this one in a wheelchair, this one with a walker, this one with a white cane for their blindness, etc. I asked, “How would you welcome these  people to our class?” They had great suggestions. But we didn’t learn yet to ask what the person needed. “And what about the challenges that some children have inside, like neurodivergency or depression or mental illness or bullying?” Again, we forgot to ask what the person needed from us. But the conversation was rich, and we remembered together the game we’d played earlier — of how they welcomed others to share their chair.

Each week, Deanna and I spend time studying, dreaming, creating, preparing, and offering a morning’s plan based on scripture. Why would we care (and sometimes agonize over it)? Wouldn’t it just be easier to offer childcare so the parents can have a break?

Our church believes that every child is of sacred worth, and that churches have an opportunity to help raise children to grow in the knowledge and love of God: to learn the traditions, to practice critical reasoning, to grapple with scripture, and to experience first-hand what it means to create a Beloved Community.**

I personally don’t call children “the future of the church.” They are the church. But I do believe in the future of each child. Last week, a parent of one of our Westwood Kids met with Molly and me to chat about why she’s invested in our children’s ministry program. She brings her child at 9:30am each Sunday to stay until noon. She knows that setting aside time for kids not to be rushed can help them get off the “hurried child” syndrome from the rest of the week. And she is committed to our church’s theology. “I want a community for my kid not like what they see in society – a twisted version of Christianity. I want them to grow their own faith.”

We have a choice, my friends. Who are we choosing to be? Just as the kids made room on their chairs for others, what do we want? Can these children become our teachers to see that our choices must be fully accepting of all? This brings me to a final word from Mr. Rogers: “You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.”

Pastor Diana

* We studied Mark 9:33-37. The disciples had been arguing who was The Best Disciple. Jesus turned to them and said, “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.” He put a child in the middle of the room.Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, “Whoever welcomes one of these children as I do, welcomes me, and far more than me — they welcome God who sent me.”

**John Wesley’s thinking of the importance in religious life is based on what came to be known as the “quadrilateral”: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.

These highly recommended books came across my desk this week:      

• Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World by Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General
• The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated by Ross Greene
• My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church by Amy Kenny
• Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price

And a wonderful podcast with Dr. Christopher Carter entitled “Creating A Church With & For Families With Disabled Children.”