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Only Children?
by Rick Chromey
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So they're just children, right? They don't matter, really. This unfortunate expectation is a primary reason many churches fail to raise up a generation of believers. We have become so "adult-centered" in our perspectives, we miss the importance and value of children.
Marlene LeFever, a noted Christian education specialist, wrote in a "Teacher Touch" this insightful story:
"Forty years ago a Philadelphia congregation watched as three nine-year-old boys were baptized and joined the church. Not long after, unable to continue with its dwindling membership, the church sold the building and disbanded.
One of those boys was Dr. Tony Campolo, Christian sociologist at Eastern College, Pennsylvania. 'Years later when I was doing research in the archives of our denomination,' Tony said, 'I decided to look up the church report for the year of my baptism. There was my name, and Dick White's. He's now a missionary. Bert Newman, now a professor of theology at an African seminary, was also there.
Then I read the church report for MY year: "It has not been a good year for our church. We have lost 27 members. Three joined and they were only children.'"
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ONLY CHILDREN! But it's a sad fact that this reflects the thinking of many churches today. An advice columnist once penned "it's better to build a fence at the top of a cliff than a hospital at the bottom." When we work with children, we are building fences. "Pens" that prevent the evil one from pilfering and plundering faith later. Barriers that bar brazen sinful attitudes and lifestyles from crippling and controlling. Strongholds that later church ministries too often take for granted. I've yet to see a well-balanced, Christian teen youth group that didn't have an effective children's ministry behind it. Nor have I witnessed a functional church that didn't celebrate, confirm and concentrate on their younger ones.
ONLY CHILDREN! Most people have heard that 80% of all decisions made for Jesus happen before age 18. The untold statistic in this number is that 80% of THAT NUMBER are decisions made before age 12! Consequently, children do matter to God and to the church. If we don't reach them early, we might not reach them at all.
ONLY CHILDREN! It reminds of the time when parents were bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed (it was an honor to have your child "blessed" by a rabbi). Unfortunately they were "rebuked" by the disciples who probably saw these little ones as a nuisance (not unlike a church I was in last week!). But scripture says Jesus became "indignant" (read: ticked off) and replied: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Mark 10: 14)."
ONLY CHILDREN! Children grow up someday. What you expect of them now will return down the road in either faithfulness and service to God or attitudes and lifestyles of sin, apathy and "churchianity." What you plant is what you'll pluck later. Guaranteed.
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Rick Chromey is Professor of Christian Education and Youth Ministry at Saint Louis Christian College, St. Louis, Missouri.
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