Lesson video

Hello, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marx, and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today we're going to be looking at Christianity and support for the family, and the different reasons why and the different ways that Christians and churches will support families.

And for this we'll use a little bit of social science and quite a bit of theology.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to explain how and why churches support families.

So let's start with our key terms. Catechism: a manual of religious instruction within the Roman Catholic Church.

Rites of passage: special ceremonies that mark someone's journey through life.

Sunday school: often classes and activities aimed at children which take place during the time of the service for adults.

So watch out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have two sections: Christian teachings and support for families and different ways churches will support families.

Let's start with our first section, Christian teachings and support for families.

Why might religious groups want to support families? So lots of different religious groups will have things that support families.

Why do they do that? Pause the video and have a think.

And you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, let's see what Lucas, Izzy, and Alex are going to share with us then as they share their ideas.

Lucas says, "To help children learn about the religion." Izzy says, "To help families in difficult times." And Alex says, "To celebrate important times in life." So we can see there's lots of reasons why religious groups might want to support families here.

And let's think about why Christian groups might want to support families.

Within Christianity, there's many teachings which show supporting families would be important, and the Bible is a really important source of authority that's going to inform these Christian practises, isn't it? And in the Bible, in the Old Testament, we have, in the book of Proverbs 22, "Start children off in the way they should go, and even when they're old, they will not turn from it." How could that passage link to supporting families then? Pause the video and have a reread, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, we have this phrase here, "Start the children off." So it's about training and teaching children in the way of Christianity.

And even if they're old, then they'll be able to return back to those teachings, isn't it? Encourages teaching and instructing children in the religion.

Well done.

But then also we have in the New Testament this really important instruction called the Great Commission, which was given by Jesus to his followers before he ascended up to heaven.

And it's in the New Testament in the Gospel of Matthew and it says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you." So how could that instruction link to support for families then? Pause the video and have a reread, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

This idea of making disciples.

So when someone's a disciple, they're learning, about learning something, really dedicating yourself to it.

So making disciples is sort of training up children to be followers of Jesus and teaching them and showing them the different commands that Jesus has taught them.

Encouraging people to become Christian, teaching children and new members about the religion.

And then finally, we have earlier in the Gospel of Matthew a story about Jesus and children.

It says, "Then the children brought the little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.

But the disciples rebuked them.

Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me.

Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

' When he placed his hands on them, he went on from there." So how could that link to support for families then? Pause the video and have a reread.

You can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, the disciples sort of send the children away as if to say this isn't a place for children.

The children need to come and learn from Jesus or be near Jesus, and he rebukes them, so he tells them off and he says, "Let the children come to me." So this has been really influential within Christianity that idea that children should be welcome in the church, children should be welcome to come to the activities and be kind of part of the community, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Jesus shows that children are important in Christianity, and heaven belongs to children.

Well done.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Is this true or false? When the children approached Jesus, he sent them away.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've got in a moment.

That is false, isn't it? But why? It's false because the disciples wanted to send the children away, but Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me." Well done.

So let's understand a little bit more why churches want to support families.

Lucas is asking Jason, who's a Roman Catholic priest.

"As a Roman Catholic priest, Jason, can you tell me why your church supports families?" And Jason says, "I believe the family is the foundation of society and the most important place to raise children with love and good guidance.

Jesus himself said the little children should come to him, so my church has many activities for children and young people to support them as they grow as Christians." What Bible passage could have supported Jason's view here then? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done.

We can have that passage from Matthew where Jesus said, "Let the children come to me." Well done.

Now Izzy's asking Fiona, who's an Anglican Christian, so a different denomination to Jason, and she says, "Fiona, can you tell me why your church supports families?" And Fiona says, "The church should be a support for all the people in its local community, not just those who come to the services.

So my church has activities that everyone is welcome to come to.

This means we can help spread the message of Christianity to others and encourage them to consider becoming Christian themselves." And again, can you think of a source of authority or a passage from the Bible that we looked at which could support why Fiona believes it's important not just to support the children in the church, but also the children who live around the church who may not already be coming? Pause the video and have think.

And you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done.

It was that Great Commission about going and making disciples of all nations, wasn't it? Well done.

So we've seen that there can be different reasons why churches may support families.

So let's together give two of three reasons why churches may support families.

Hmm, I think to teach children the religion and to encourage more people to become Christian.

So over to you.

Give a third of three reasons why churches may support families.

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done.

We've got here: Jesus encouraged children to come to him, which could be understood as the church.

Well done.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned.

Izzy and Lucas are working on the question, explain two reasons why Christians will support families in their community.

Expand on their points by developing and evidencing them.

So for each point you're going to develop it and also give a source of wisdom and authority.

Izzy's point is: "One reason why Christians will support families in their community is to help more people become Christian." And Lucas says, "Another reason why Christians will support families in their community is to teach children about the religion." For each of them, you're going to develop it and then give a source of wisdom and authority.

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

I asked you to develop the points that Izzy and Lucas have given about explaining why Christians may support families in their communities.

Izzy's point was: "One reason why Christians will support families in their community is to help more people become Christian." And you could have developed this by saying: by welcoming families and children into the church, more people may become disciples.

The source of wisdom or authority is that Jesus said, "Go and make disciples and teach them to obey." And Lucas' point is: "Another reason why Christians support families in their local community is to teach children about the religion." You could develop this by saying: by teaching children about the religion when they're young, they will always have those teachings to return to later in life.

And the source of wisdom or authority could be, in Proverbs it says, "Start children off the way they should go, and even when they're old, they will not turn from it." Well done.

So on to our second section then, different ways churches will support families.

So we've looked at the different teachings and the reasons why churches support families.

And now we can look at some of the ways that churches will do this.

And here's one of our keywords, rites of passage.

Now these mark someone's journey through life.

So from the moment somebody's born until they pass away, different important milestones in their life can be marked, and the church can play an important part in this.

So all cultures and societies have ways to mark someone's journey through life, and these are known as rites of passage.

But in Christianity, some of these are known as sacraments in some denominations.

They mark when someone enters the world and important changes happen until they die.

Some important rites of passage include birth celebrations, coming of age ceremonies, marriage and funerals.

Marking these important moments for people within a church is a way to support families as it shows that each individual is important to the community and helps them with their journey is a Christian.

Within Christianity, many churches will have rites of passage for celebrating births.

This could be an infant baptism or a dedication ceremony for those that only perform adult baptisms. When a young Christian comes of age, they may have an adult baptism or confirmation, when they confirm the promises made on their behalf as a baby.

This is often followed by that young person taking their first communion.

This may follow catechism classes or special Sunday school activities.

Churches will also support those who want to get married by not only having the service at the church, but they may also run classes for couples intending to marry to support them in this new stage.

Finally, churches will often mark the death of a member of the community with a funeral, helping the whole community celebrate the life of one of their members and hand them back over to God.

And social scientists are particularly interested in rites of passage across different religions and communities to show how they are supporting that individual going through life.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Which of these rites of passage could mark someone's passage towards adulthood in the church? We've got baptism, first communion, and funeral.

Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done.

First communion.

So there are different ways that churches may instruct children in the religion as we saw there from that passage in Proverbs and instruct children in the way of the Lord.

There's different ways that churches might do this.

So Roman Catholic churches will often run catechism classes for children before their first communion.

So remember, the catechism is like a manual of teachings within the Roman Catholic Church.

So you've got the Bible as a really important source of authority in the Roman Catholic Church, but so is the catechism as a kind of explanation of different teachings and beliefs within the church for today.

So this helps them to understand the teachings of their religion as well as the traditions of the Catholic faith.

So really particular to that denomination, it can help train up those young people in what it means to be a Roman Catholic.

And many other different churches, including Roman Catholic churches, will have Sunday school classes or clubs for all or part of the church service where the young people leave the space to go and learn about Christianity in an age-appropriate way.

So often the young people and children are all welcome with everybody into the church service, but there may be part of that service where they can go off and do something that's really aimed at their particular age.

Let's look at some examples of this.

Here's Kateryna who supports her church Sunday school, and she's going to explain how.

Kateryna says, "I help with the Sunday school at my church.

Sometimes we have family service where the community stays together, but most weeks there's a period of time when the children and young adults go to have a session more suited to them.

This is usually during the sermon." So the sermon within a service is usually where somebody speaks or talks about the Bible.

So during that time, rather than sitting and listening to that, the young people might go off and do an activity related to the same subject matter but in an age-appropriate way.

"We teach Bible stories and important principles of Christianity to the children in groups based on their age." Why do you think there might need to be different ages within a Sunday school, as Kateryna has said here? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

And here's Hannah, who's explaining how she supports her church through teaching the catechism.

And Hannah says, "I help run the catechism classes for the young people at my church.

They take these classes before they take their first holy communion so they understand the faith more fully.

I really enjoy volunteering in this way, and this year we took the group to visit Taize, a very special site pilgrimage in France.

It was so moving to see them discover their religion more deeply there." Why might young people take catechism classes before their first holy communion then? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Catechism classes usually start after someone has had their first communion.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

I'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done, it's false, isn't it? But why? Because catechism classes are usually taken before someone has their first to ensure they understand more fully the faith and Catholic traditions.

Well done.

So there's lots of other ways that churches may support families in their communities other than just catechism classes and Sunday school classes and the different rites of passage that we've seen.

Can you think of any more? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well, we've got here, parent and baby groups.

So often this might be a time where someone's at home more than they were before they had the child.

Maybe they're on maternity or paternity leave, and it can be a nice place to come and meet other parents with children of a similar age and spend some time together in a kind of communal space together.

And it can be a really good support for a parent who's got a young child.

There might be youth groups.

So this is a place where young people can come together in the church building or in a different space together, spend time together and think about what it means to be Christian in today's world, what it means to be a young person as a Christian and really be a support for those young people and different activities they can do together.

There could also be marriage counselling.

So this could be not only running classes before a couple get married to sort of ensure that they're ready for this step in their life, but also once they are married to help with any difficulties there may be to kind of help them stay together, especially if they are a family.

There could be financial support.

So many churches run or support food banks, or many churches might run financial advice in terms of debt counselling and some of the different problems that people are facing in today's world.

Also just having different types of services can be a great support for families.

If there's a family service that people can come to and the family know that the young people are going to be engaged, maybe there's going to be activities for them to do, maybe there's going to be the kind of music and the songs they like to sing, that can be a real support for getting the family there together and to be learning about their faith together in that community.

And also many churches will also have involvement in schools.

The schools themselves might be from particular domination of Christianity where someone comes in to give a lot of talks to do with it or maybe lead some worship and prayer.

But also churches can come and give talks in schools and support and help schools as well.

So let's hear from Noah, who supports the young people in his church, and he says, "I'm a youth pastor, which means I'm employed by the church to help guide the young people in the religion.

I run a youth club at church each Friday where we have games and film nights and talks about being a young person and a Christian in today's world.

I also play guitar in the worship band, and the young people really enjoy that kind of worship and often get involved too.

Each summer we have a trip away, and this year we went camping in Iona." What could be some of the issues that are being faced by young people in today's world as Christians that Noah could be supporting them with then? Pause the video, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

And now Beth is going to explain how she helps support families with couples counselling at her church.

And Beth says, "In my church, before a couple get married, we run classes where we talk about Christian principles in marriage in families, but our support doesn't stop there.

Sometimes there are issues and difficulties in a marriage and so we also run a free couples counselling service.

This means we provide a space and some tools for the couple to communicate more effectively.

We also step in with practical help like running a babysitting circle for couples to have date nights together." Why do you think Beth's church wants to support couples after their marriage, not just before? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

And now Sophia's going to explain the kind of services her church do that include young children.

I said that sometimes services can be tailored to meet the needs of young people and families.

Let's see what Sophia says about her church.

Sophia says, "I love going to church because it's always fun.

Sometimes there's a big family service and we all stay together.

There's usually songs we can do actions for and ways that we can join in with the sermon, the talk.

Sometimes we go to Sunday school, and different ages spend time together learning more about Jesus and Christianity.

My favourite service is Messy Church because this is when we do really fun activities.

It doesn't feel like church, but we're still learning about God." Thank you, Sophia.

And can you think of one of those teachings from the source of authority we had in the first section of the lesson which could support this idea of running services which young people want to come to and that children feel welcome in? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So let's look at a case study there.

Sophia just said that she likes going to Messy Church.

Let's see what Messy Church is.

Messy Church has a focus on hands-on and interactive learning about Christianity.

So there'll often be maybe cutting and sticking or Play-Doh.

They can even be going out into the world sort of forest school style, going out and spending time in nature.

And it always has that focus about learning about Christianity, but not necessarily in in someone at the front talking at you kind of a way.

It encourages families into churches with a very informal and non-liturgical style of worship.

So even though it doesn't seem like it's traditional worship at all, people are still learning about stories to do with God and to do with Jesus and Christianity, still learning different Christian principles, although it's not done in a way that feels very traditional as church.

So it can really encourage people in who don't normally go to church services as a different way of approaching it.

We saw how much Sophia enjoyed it too, didn't we? So can you think of a source of authority we had from the first section of the lesson which could support this idea of Messy Church, encouraging people into church who don't normally go there then? Which one of those sources of authority could you apply to this? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So we've seen here that there are different ways that churches may support families.

So we've looked at the reasons why, but now this is the ways they may be doing this.

Let's together give two or three ways that churches may support families.

I think marking rites of passages.

Also, catechism classes before first communions.

So over to you then.

Give the third of three Christian ways that churches may support families.

Pause the video, have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

I've got here Messy Church and other activities aimed at welcoming young people.

Well done.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned.

Here is a full evaluation question.

Supporting families is the most important role for a local church.

And a full answer would discuss this statement showing you considered more than one point of view, and it must refer to religion and belief in the answer.

You are going to use the key terms for this lesson and write a paragraph agreeing with the statement.

And our key terms are: catechism, rites of passage, and Sunday school.

So you're going to write a paragraph agreeing with the statement.

The statement is: supporting families is the most important role for a local church.

So pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some really good thinking there.

So I asked you to write one paragraph in support of the statement that supporting families is the most important role for a local church.

And you could have said: supporting families is the most important role for a local church as this can encourage more people to become Christian as well as support those who are Christian in the religion.

The local church can perform rites of passage for members which mark the special moments in their life and support young people through these.

For example, with marriage classes taken before a wedding and the catechism classes taken before the first communion.

Also, the Bible instructs Christians to teach others about the religion.

And this is done through Sunday school, which can teach young people about Jesus, God, and Christianity.

This is especially important because Jesus said to make disciples, and that heaven belongs to those like the little children who come to him.

So I've used my three keywords there, rites of passage, catechism, and Sunday school.

And I've also brought in that source of authority from Jesus about making disciples of all people and also encouraging the little children to come to him.

Well done.

So let's summarise everything we've learned today then.

Christianity and support for the family.

There are many teachings in Christianity that show support for families is important.

The Bible instructs Christians to make disciples and teach them Jesus' commands.

Jesus said the little children should be able to come to him.

There are different ways that churches will support families.

Marriage counselling, rites of passage, Sunday schools, and catechism classes are all examples of how churches may support families.

So well done for your hard work today, and I hope to see you soon.

Bye-bye.