I was given this book by a friend; another Sunday school leader who, like me, worries about how we connect with boys at church. I'm so thankful she shoved it into my hands.
Here are some quotes which have particularly struck me.
Boys' spirituality can be likened to a butterfly.
While seeming delicate and frail, the dragonfly is a creature of immense strength and stamina. At a distance it looks like an ethereal jewel; close up it has muscularity and speed. Incredible and beautiful, the dragonfly is constantly under threat from Predators and the destruction of it's natural habitat.
Also incredible and beautiful, boys' spirituality is under similar threat from a society that measures success and value in pounds and column inches, and from a church which seems to many boys and young men to be irrelevant and boring.
The book states the Five categories of spiritual connection:
- relational
- aesthetic
- active
- intrapersonal
- ritualistic
From this basis and with the authors research she then identified Ten spiritual connections {which hold truth in our lives}:
1 relationship
2 play
3 story
4 pain and loss
5 humour
6 music and creativity
7 thinking
8 service
9 risk
10 technology
The book then follows these connections as chapters; paying attention to how they look if we are wearing our "God goggles" to see the sacred moments and the work of the spirit.
I love this, I have a healthy amount of boy-personality in me.
I will say no more about this book other than one simple phrase "go buy it"!
It sounds worth a read, but I find the title off-putting because it sounds like gender stereotyping, as would a similar book about girls called 'Sugar and Spice and all things Nice'. (Yuk!)
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