"If I could relive my life, I would devote my entire ministry to reaching children for God!" ~Dwight L. Moody, evangelist
I've been in several discussions lately regarding children's ministry. Anyone who knows me knows that this is where my heart is - I'm a homeschool mom, for goodness sake! but I've really been giving it a lot of thought lately and thought it would be helpful, at least for me, to collect my thoughts on the topic.
As is always the case, it really all comes down to Jesus, so that's a good place to start. There's an account in the gospels of a time when Jesus had children and mothers with babies clamoring to be near him. The disciples were freaked out by it and started to shoo the children away - to shut them up. (And yes, I'm reading a bit into this passage, but this is how I see it and I don't think I'm off base). Jesus called the disciples down and said "let the children come to me". (It's a popular picture in children's Bibles and flannel graph boards... I'm sure you've seen it). Furthermore, Jesus used the children as an example of what we should be! We should come to Him like a child goes to a loving daddy. I honestly can't imagine children wanting to be around a man who told them to sit down and shut up while He preached to their parents. He must have been ministering to them or they wouldn't have wanted to be there. In our churches, we should be ministering to the children like Jesus did, not telling them to sit down and shut up as the disciples were rebuked for doing.
And I know that traditionally in our culture, children have been expected to do just that - sit down and shut up, be seen and not heard. And traditionally, I suppose that worked (if it didn't, we wouldn't still be expecting this of them). But the fact is, our culture has changed! If churches want to stay relevant and reach future generations, we need to change too (within the limits set by scripture, of course). Children have many things in the culture "ministering" to them now that weren't around 100 years ago (or even 20 years ago in some cases). There are sports teams, scouts, video games... the list goes on and on. And if a child has the choice between hanging out with friends and having fun at a little league game or sitting down and shutting up during, what is to them, a boring sermon with boring hymns, guess what they'll choose! And all too often, the parents go right along with them. I'm not saying that's right or wrong; I just calls it like I sees it. (And of course, you'll always have your hardcore church people who will be there, kids in tow, no matter what's going on outside. But are we a museum for good people or a hospital for the broken? We need to reach them! Not please ourselves.)
Aaaand then it gets personal. What would my life have been like if I'd been ministered to as a child? And I don't mean with Sunday school flannel graph (although that's not necessarily bad if used in the right way); I mean really ministered to. If I had been introduced to the loving, fun God that I know now. If I had a youth leader who really spoke to my life, who lovingly and honestly told me why I shouldn't sleep with my boyfriend instead of going on "Marilyn Manson is a bad man" tangents. If I hadn't hated church so much that I snuck away when I could and eventually stopped coming at all. Of course, all the choices I made were my own. But if I'd known better, would I have thought more before making those choices? Maybe, maybe not. But I absolutely don't want to take that chance with the next generation as a whole, or with my own precious children, specifically. I want to (personally and collectively as a church body) do anything and everything I can to spare those children the pain that I went through as a youth/young adult (that I still deal with the ramifications of today), and ultimately the torment of Hell! Will some still make bad choices? Of course! But I'll be damned if I'm going to tell them to sit down and shut up and hope that they come to me or the church when life gets rough. I will love them to the glory of God and minister to them in any way that I can so that when life gets rough, they already know the answers and know that they can trust God, the church, and me to help them through it.
I'm afraid that some people who know me have the idea that I'm for children's ministry to get my own kids out of my hair during church. I won't deny that sometimes that's the case! But at the heart of the matter, it couldn't be further from the truth. I'm honestly not what you'd call a "kid person" but God has really given me a heart for the children in the church (yeah, he equips the called... go figure...) Growing up in our culture is not easy! The church really needs to draw the children near and help them through it for the well being of their souls, their futures and for the next generation of church kids.
"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." ~Nelson Mandela
