Hey! It's A Mission Field Out There

I want to first start off with something that I found and I want to read it to you about how I feel about what I do for God. It’s entitled I Minister to Children

I am a minister. I minister to the largest mission field in the world. I minister to children.

My calling is sure, my challenge is big, my vision is clear. My desire is strong. My influence is eternal. My impact is critical. My values are solid. My faith is tough. My mission is urgent. My purpose is unmistakable. My direction is forward. My heart is genuine. My strength is supernatural. My reward is promised and my God is real.

In a world of cynicism I offer hope. In a world of confusion I offer truth. In a world of immorality I offer values. In a world of neglect I offer attention. In a world of abuse I offer safety. In a world of ridicule I offer affirmation. In a world of division I offer reconciliation. In a world of bitterness I offer forgiveness. In a world of sin I offer salvation. In a world of hate I offer God’s love.

I refuse to be dismayed, disengaged, disgruntled, discouraged, or distracted. Neither will I look back, stand back, fall back, go back, or sit back. I do not need applause, flattery, adulation, prestige, stature, or veneration. I do not have time for business as usual, mediocre standards, small thinking, outdated methods, or normal expectations, average results, ordinary ideas, petty disputes, or low vision. I will not give up, give in, bail out, lie down, turn over, quit or surrender.

I will pray when things look bad. I will pray when things look good. I will move forward when others stand still. I will trust God when obstacles arise. I will work when the task is overwhelming. I will get up when I fall down.

My calling is to reach boys and girls for God. It is to serious to be taken lightly, too urgent to be postponed, too vital to be ignored, too relevant to be overlooked, too significant to be trivialized, too eternal to be fleeting, and too passionate to be quenched.

I know my mission. I know my challenge. I also know my imitations, my weaknesses, my fears, and my problems. And I know my God.

Let others get the praise. Let the church get the blessing. Let God get the glory.

I am a minister. I minister to children. This is who I am. This is what I do.

In my view, I see that I am an extension of the home or parents. I train children. Yes, it is a challenge, but it is very rewarding. I love my job as a Pastor. I really love when I see a child that I had in children church go on through youth ministry and really apply themselves to studying God’s Word, because it shows me that their parents were even more intense about that child’s spiritual walk.

According to a poll taken from Child Evangelism Fellowship. They say this about at what age do people get saved?

 1% are saved before 4 years of age.

 85% are saved between ages of 4 and 14.

 10% are saved between ages of 15 and 30

 4% are saved after 30 years of age.

Proverbs 22: 6, “ Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Is the base verse for this study tonight and one of the great commands of Scriptures directed to parents? But is there anything more challenging or rewarding than this responsibility and privilege? Training children in the way they should go has always been a huge and vital task in every generation because of all that’s involved in the process of nurturing children, but has there ever been a time when the challenge was greater than it is today? A child’s development and attitude about life is of course a product of the training process. It is here that children will develop their ideas about God, man, themselves and about society and its world viewpoint. But the more society move away from the truth of Scripture and its values, priorities, and beliefs, the more difficult the task of child training becomes. This is partly because of the negative influences in the world and a child’s surroundings, but also because parents are too often begin to think and act like their society. They take up its belief structures and live according to the values and priorities of society. The impact this has on the thinking and behavior of the children is tremendous and just a casual look at our world today tells the story. What a society believes will always determine how it lives. There is a flow to culture, and the river of this flow is always found in the headwaters of the thoughts of people.