work. It was, instead, to ensure the integrity and relatedness of the facets of the organization’s work in the service of the one mission of God through the church. It is not insignificant that David Russell was chosen to chair the BWA Committee on Structural Changes. He served as BUGBI’s representative

to

the WCC on whose Central Committee he was a member from 1968-1983. Russell was among those who were familiar with

the thinking that led to to

the existing design of the WCC structure and undoubtedly he would have contributed

the

BWA process insights gained from his experience in the WCC. Over the years, BWA has

devoted much time in discussing what constitutes the proper structure for its operation. Many changes have been made and it is likely to

attempts introduce that it believes will contribute T

that changes will continue be made as the organization to

structures to

the fulfillment of its mission. Those who invest the enormous amount of time needed to develop these structures must be commended for their serious commitment and patient work. Hopefully, their output will be analyzed again and again. When we ensure that the texts they produce are read in context, we may gain a fairer sense of the intention of those who have been architects of many of the structures that we have inherited. May the integrity of the BWA at

mission not suffer

those for whom control over the administrative

machinery,

the ministry is delivered, is a priority consideration.

the hands of whereby

Children in the Worship Service By Alison Sampson & Nathan Nettleton

he concept of the priesthood of all believers underpins the participation of children in worship. Children, who are part of

the life of the church are regarded as members of the priesthood. As such, they have pastoral and ministerial gifts to share. Like adults, they need to worship God and as catechumens, they need to learn about faith. By being enabled to participate fully in the worship service, children have an opportunity to share some of their gifts. They are encouraged to engage in worship and they learn the patterns of the faithful. Facilitating the involvement of children in the life and liturgy of

the church has proved challenging for churches across the board, but in small and under-resourced churches, the challenge can be even greater and much harder to hide. In many larger churches, the approach has been to pay to make the problem go away: We invest in well-resourced Sunday School or Kids’ Church programs and send the children out to be entertained and educated while we get down to the adult business of worshipping God. A dozen or so years later, they grow out of Sunday School and a large percentage of them disappear, and we are left wondering why children who we thought of as having grown up in the church can’t

Children have pastoral and ministerial gifts to share.

seem to feel at home in it. But, of course, they didn’t grow up in the church. We sent them to grow up out there while we were doing our adult things.

Like the adults, our children at South Yarra Community Baptist

Church in Melbourne, Australia, take pride in and ownership of their roles, and tend to see themselves as participants in the service, rather than as people being entertained. If, at times, they are bored, we are comfortable with that: Boredom is something all of us have to work with, and the sooner we learn to deal with it, the better. Fundamental to the way our church practices worship is the

notion of the priesthood of all believers. That is, we take seriously the idea that every participant in the life of the church has pastoral and (Continued on next page)

Above: Korean children’s choir

APRIL/JUNE 2016

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