Keeping Your Children's Ministry on Mission (eBook)

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Stop! Believe! Christ Sent Me.

Our Both-And Mission to the Next Generation

There’s a legend about John the apostle that’s tucked away in a book you may have never read, especially if you’re a children’s or student minister. Musty second-century sermon manuscripts aren’t top-shelf reading material for those of us who spend our days shopping at Costco for Goldfish crackers, leading early morning discipleship at Chick-fil-A, sanitizing toys in the nursery, or ordering pizza for Wednesday night gatherings. But if you’ve missed this story, you’ve missed a treasure.

At the conclusion of one of his sermons, Clement of Alexandria provides a beautiful account of ministry to the next generation. The story begins shortly after John, the beloved and now elderly disciple, was released from prison on the isle of Patmos:

After the tyrant’s death [likely Clement is referring to the Roman emperor, Domitian], John returned from the isle of Patmos to Ephesus and used to go, when asked, to neighboring Gentile districts to appoint pastors, reconcile churches, or ordain someone designated by the Spirit. Arriving at a city nearby [probably the city of Smyrna in modern-day Turkey], he settled disputes among the brethren and then, noticing a spirited youth of superior physique and handsome appearance, commended him to the appointed pastor with the words: “I leave this young man in your keeping with Christ as my witness.”1

In his later years, John served the church as an itinerant preacher and traveling advisor. As a wise senior saint, John was also on the lookout for young talent. After finding a young man with some leadership potential, he commended the boy to the local pastor for training. Then, John returned to his home church, and the local pastor took the young man home, raised him, and when he had confessed faith, baptized him.

During Christ’s earthly ministry, he made his heart for children clear (Matt. 18:1–6; 19:13–15). Though his disciples missed the point at first, Clement’s story about John encourages us to believe they eventually came around. John, after all, was on the lookout for future leaders who would continue his ministry in the next generation. And if you picked up this book, I imagine this passion to see the next generation know, trust, and follow God’s ways has been passed along to you too. Children’s ministry exists so that kids might hear the good news about Jesus and follow him all their days.

Children Need the Good News

We can summarize the gospel story as a fourfold movement: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. What does this storyline teach us about kids?

First, we discover that God created children for himself. Kids are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14). Their lives are imbued with the glory of a universe that reflects God’s beauty; they’ve been endowed with imagination and an ability to think and know. A child’s life has value because he or she is made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–27). As image-bearers, children are also made for worship. From childhood, every human is fashioned for giving praise. Our desire as Christians is to bring up a generation that is dazzled by God, captured by his world and his works and always talking about them to one another (Ps. 145:3–7).2

Second, our children are fallen and sinful. They inhabit a world marred by sin, abuse, suffering, and death; they feel its pain. “Sometimes, people talk about coming from dysfunctional families,” writes Robert Plummer. “The reality is that, because of sin, we are all ‘dysfunctional’ at the deepest level.”3 You’ve probably seen that children’s program where the wooly mammoth, vampire, monsters, aliens, and an overgrown canary have all invaded a side street in Manhattan. In his brilliance, Jim Henson took some of our greatest fears and made them cute and educational. The child-friendly terrors that live together on Sesame Street should remind us of the hidden reality of childhood. Children are glorious and beautiful gifts from God and yet within each child—behind the cuteness—there’s a fallen heart that’s twisted from the moment of conception.

More often than not, our kids act like the monsters that destroy poor Guy Smiley’s stage set. Every child is a sinner. It can be difficult for us to shoot straight with kids about this, but even they need to be faced with the reality of their brokenness. Charles Spurgeon says it well:

Do not flatter the child with delusive rubbish about his nature being good and needing to be developed. Tell him he must be born again. Don’t bolster him up with the fancy of his own innocence, but show him his sin. Mention the childish sins to which he is prone, and pray the Holy Spirit to work conviction in his heart and conscience.4

Even kids exchange delight in God’s glory for delight in the pleasures of the moment (Rom. 1:21; 3:23). Just think about what happens when kids are called away from their toys to bath time or bed. There is a battle for affections going on in kids’ hearts. Yes, children need comfort, care, and a healing touch. But they also need honest correction, because it’s only when kids see the terror of their sin that they’ll see their need for redemption. We need to hear Spurgeon’s warning: “Do not hesitate to tell the child his ruin; he will not else desire the remedy.”5

Third, redemption comes for children through Jesus. Remember, Jesus himself said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children” (Matt. 19:14 NLT). Jesus’s rebuke of his friends who would’ve kept kids at a distance should inspire us to include children in the life of our church communities. We must call even the youngest children to faith. We need to help each child see that Christ is his or her only hope. Children need us to help them to look outside of themselves to the salvation Jesus offers.

Through vacation Bible school programs, many of us have been trained to emphasize the ABCs with kids: admit you are a sinner, believe in Jesus, and confess faith in Him. We find this pattern in Scripture (Rom. 10:9–10), and there’s nothing wrong with it so long as we make clear that salvation isn’t about what we do but about what Christ has done.6 If we only talk to kids about what they should do, we run the risk of confusing or discouraging them. When a child becomes aware of personal sin, he may become introspective and worry, “Did I do enough? How can Jesus live in my heart when I still get so angry?” What Jesus has done for us is the most important thing—so much more important than what we do. He saves us; we don’t save ourselves. We must teach kids to look to the forgiveness that comes as a result of Christ’s substitutionary death.

Finally, in light of the coming consummation, our children are potential brothers and sisters in Christ. When we get to glory, the most enduring relational reality will be our relationship to the Savior (Matt. 22:30). To be embraced by God’s redemption is to be adopted as God’s child, gaining a new identity, which transcends every earthly status and relationship. Plummer describes it this way: “If our children stand beside us in eternity, it will not be as our children but as our blood-redeemed brothers and sisters (Rev. 7:9–12).”7 But if our children are going to join us as brothers and sisters in glory, they must hear the gospel now.

Our Both-And Responsibility

John knew this, and that’s why he left the newly converted young man in the care of the local pastor in Smyrna. Sadly, things didn’t go as the old apostle had hoped. We don’t know all the details. Clement just says that after the young man was saved and baptized, the pastor “relaxed his oversight.” At that point, as Clement explains, things went sideways:

Some idle and morally lax youths corrupted the young man with lavish entertainment and then took him with them when they went out at night to commit robbery or worse crimes. Soon, he joined them and like a stallion taking the bit in mouth, he dashed off the straight road and down the cliff. Renouncing God’s salvation, he went from petty offenses to major crimes and formed the young renegades into a gang of bandits with himself as chief, surpassing them all in violence and bloody cruelty.8

How should we respond when a young person turns away from the faith? Certainly, the fallen youth bears responsibility. But can we say each prodigal is just a bad seed? That’s what the pastor in Smyrna thought:

Time passed, and some necessity having emerged, they send again for John. He, when he had settled the other matters on account of which he came, said, “Come...