Post-Easter and Children's/Youth Ministry

I overheard a pretty intense theological discussion this past Sunday between two 9 or 10 year olds. It went something like this:

“The Easter bunny didn’t really come to my house.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. Maybe the Easter bunny didn’t make it to a lot of kids’ houses.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, maybe you did something really bad.”
After some deliberation, “No, that’s with Santa Claus.”

I marveled at this because just over two hours earlier after the sunrise service, where both of these kids read scripture extraordinarily well, they were given the choice between a chocolate cross or a chocolate bunny and they immediately chose the cross. And yet, there are two parallel universes occupying these very churched kids. And other kids who have little or no church background will be lucky to hear and remember the real story of Easter hope.

It’s an interesting time to be the church. It’s about far more than whether the bunny or the cross wins out. It occurs to me that we desperately need to move beyond a story that we know and love, although with kids first knowing the story is the best place to start, and to really look at what difference the story makes for us.

How can we share what it means to us personally that Jesus died and rose from the dead? Because if we don’t live like Easter people, who cares how nice a story it is? If it has little to no impact on our lives, then why should it matter to anyone else, particularly kids who have a zillion other things vying for their attention?

To help sort out the meaning of Easter for you, try one or more of the following:

1. Sit in silence and take the time to really imagine none of it happening. No Messiah – no crucifixion, no resurrection, no church built on Peter the rock, no Paul, no New Testament. What would the impact be for you to not know Jesus or have Him in your life?

2. Write down as many endings to one or more of these sentences as you can think of:
If Jesus hadn’t died on the cross…
If Jesus had said no to God’s plan for saving us…
If Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead…   
Easter challenges me to…

3. Take a blank sheet of paper and a pen and draw a line down the middle. On one side write “Life with Jesus” and on the other write “Life without Jesus”. Write words, images and doodles on both sides.  

4. Go for coffee with someone you love talking to and share some of your thoughts about this topic. Try a dry run of sharing the difference Jesus has made for you so that you can share with children and youth more easily.

As leaders, we have a responsibility to live out our faith and make it real for those who are seeking and trying to make sense of it. Not that we have all the answers or get it all the time or even are Super Christians, but we do need to be transparent, open and able to show that our faith makes a difference in our lives. It’s not just celebrating an old story in a book – it’s something that impacts us every day in the choices we make and in how we live as disciples.

Make sure that you have taken the time to celebrate the story and to express your gratitude to God for the faith you have been given. Take the time to encourage learners to share what Easter means to them and, if possible, to hear from others in the congregation about how Easter has changed them. This could be the start of something new and exciting and there is no better time.