Little 5-year-old Kayse Poland grew more and more excited about her first day of kindergarten, and her 3-year-old sister, Jayme, watched her with great fascination. On the Sunday before the first day of school, Kayse fell and skinned her knee.
Tears began to flow, and Jayme, seeing the blood on her big sister’s knee, tried to comfort her by saying: “Don’t worry, Kayse, if you die, you’ll go to heaven.”
Buy Kayse wailed even more. “I don’t want to go to heaven,” she said. “I want to go to kindergarten!” (Hugh Poland, “Kids of the Kingdom,” Today’s Christian, July/August 2005; www. PreachingToday.com)
I love children with their simple faith and their unpretentious expressions. And Jesus loves them too! In fact, He wants them ALL to go to heaven. He wants them ALL to come to Him and to be in relationship with Him.
We’re all concerned about the next generation or two, because they are leaving the church in droves. So how do we reach them? How do we become the kind of church where children come in contact with Jesus on a regular basis and enjoy being with Him? How do we help the next generations get to know and love Jesus as much or even more than we do?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Mark 10, Mark 10, where Jesus shares his heart for children and helps his disciples learn some important lessons in ministering to children.
Mark 10:13 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. (NIV)
They censured them. They warned them to stay away.
Now, maybe we wouldn’t be so blatant, but sometimes our attitudes and actions say to children, “You’re not welcome here.” For example, what do we do when a group of children come to sit in or near our row? What do we do when they get a little antsy after sitting still for a few minutes in the service? What do we do when they seemed bored with our music and sermons? The way we respond can draw them in or push them away.
Jesus first disciples pushed the children and their families away, and Jesus did not appreciate that.
Mark 10:14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant – i.e., he was aroused to anger. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them – literally, STOP hindering them – for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (NIV)
If we want to become the kind of church where young people get to know and love Jesus as much or more than we do, then we must be careful not to hinder them in any way. We must be careful not to put any roadblocks in their way. To put it simply, we must do everything we can to make this a welcoming place for children and their families.
That was a core value of Walt Disney himself. When he created Disneyland, Walt’s dream was to create an unforgettable experience for children. He wanted a place where kids could be with their parents or grandparents and be totally amazed – not just amused, but amazed. He wanted a place where children mattered and were valued. Walt Disney once wrote, “Both my study of Scripture and my career in entertaining children have taught me to cherish them,” and that’s exactly what he did.
Today, kids love Disneyland and Disneyworld. They are safe places to have fun. They bring families together, if only for a short while, and children talk about their experience for weeks afterwards. (Randy Croft, The Wonderful World of Children, www.SermonCentral.com)
Now, I’m not saying that Bethel Church has to become another Disneyland. God didn’t call us to be an amusement park. But we can be a “safe place where children have fun” getting to know Jesus.
By the way, we ARE that place for an average of 15 or more children every Sunday morning. The children enjoy coming here, and I commend our Children’s Ministry team for the good work they do with the kids.
If you have helped out in any way with our Children’s Ministry this last year, please stand so we can express our appreciation. That includes Sunday School, Junior Church, the Edge, the Nursery, the Children’s Christmas Program, or our Kid’s Island Adventure. If you’ve helped out in any way in any of these ministries, please stand (applause). Thank you very much!
This is an important ministry, because if we don’t reach the children, we are not likely to reach them as adults. The sad fact is: the older people get, the less likely they are to respond to the Gospel. In fact, the overwhelming majority of Believers in our churches today came to faith in Christ before they were 21 years of age. So we must do everything we can to…
BRING A CHILD TO JESUS.
We must do everything we can to reach them when they are young, and we dare not do anything that hinders a child from coming to Jesus.
Dave Stone put it this way in a poem:
I took a piece of plastic clay,
And idly fashioned it one day.
And as my fingers pressed it still,
It moved and yielded to my will.
I came again when the days were passed,
And the bit of clay was hard at last.
The form I gave it still it bore,
But I could change that form no more.
I took a piece of living clay,
And gently formed it day by day;
And molded with my power and art,
A young child’s soft and yielding heart.
I came again when the days were gone,
It was a man I looked upon.
He still that early impress wore,
But I could change that form no more. (Dave Stone, “Keep the Dust Off the Highchair,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 143)
If we want to reach the next generation or two, then we must bring a child to Jesus. More than that, we must…
BE A CHILD OURSELVES.
We must throw off the pretention and the stuffy sophistication and put on the simple faith of a child. That’s what Jesus tells us to do.
Mark 10:15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
In other words, DON’T act your age. Instead, be like a child when it comes to your faith and simply trust the Lord.
It’s the only way we’ll ever get into the Kingdom. The rich young ruler in verse 17 missed getting into the Kingdom, because he lacked that simple faith. He wanted to know, “What must I DO to inherit eternal life?”
Well, inheriting eternal life is not a matter of something we DO. It’s a matter of something God has already DONE on the cross when Jesus died for our sins and rose again. All we need to do is accept it like a little child. All we need to do is trust Christ in simple, childlike faith.
In his book, Holy Sweat, Tim Hansel describes a time when he and his son, Zac, were out in the country, climbing around on some cliffs. All of a sudden, Tim heard a voice from above yell, “Hey Dad! Catch me!” He turned around just in time to see Zac joyfully dropping off a rock straight at him. In fact, Zac had actually jumped and then yelled “Hey Dad!” They both became an instant circus act, with Tim catching his son and both of them falling to the ground. For a moment, Tim could hardly talk.
That could have been very dangerous. So when Tim found his voice again, he gasped in exasperation: “Zac! Can you give me one good reason why you did that???”
Zac responded with remarkable calmness: “Sure...because you’re my Dad.” (Randy Croft, The Wonderful World of Children, www.SermonCentral.com)
Zac trusted his dad with the simple faith of a child. He didn’t stop to consider the details of weight, wind direction and trajectory. He just jumped into the loving arms of his father.
And that’s what Jesus invites us to do. Just jump into His arms like a little child and trust Him to lift you up; trust Him to take you all the way to heaven when you die, because it’s the only way any of us will ever get in.
The Kingdom of God is not for adults. It’s for children or for those who receive it like little children.
If we want our children to come to fait in Christ, then we too must believe in Him just like a little child. My friends, if we’re going to reach the next generation, if they’re going to know and love Jesus like we do, then we must bring a child; we must be a child; and finally, we must…
BLESS A CHILD.
We must praise our children with some real passion and zeal. We must fervently celebrate who they are and what they can become. Instead of criticizing our young people for their shortcomings, with enthusiasm, let’s speak well of them. That’s what Jesus did!
Mark 10:16 And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. (NIV)
That word for “blessed” means to praise ardently. The Greek word is kata-eulogeo. We get our word “eulogy” from the second part of that word, which means to speak well of someone. And the first part of that word is added for emphasis.
In other words, Jesus didn’t just speak well of the children, He spoke with enthusiasm about how wonderful they were. And that’s what Jesus wants us to do. He wants us to speak with enthusiasm about how wonderful the children are that He brings into our church.
If all we do is criticize them, we’ll drive them away. But if we honestly praise them, they’ll know they are loved and keep coming back for more.
Bless the children. Don’t curse them. It’s the only way we’ll be able to reach and keep the next generation or two for Jesus’ sake.
Mary Cooper, a preschool teacher in Lowell, Michigan, had trouble with one of her preschool students who had a habit of patting her on the seat of her pants. She tried several things to make him stop, but nothing worked. Finally, she resorted to a time-out chair.
Later, when his father came to pick him up, Mary quietly mentioned the problem, asking whether he had any insight on the situation. Smiling, the father explained his son’s fascination with football – and his curiosity as to why the players “spanked” each other. The father said, “I told my son that they were telling each other what a good job they were doing.” Mary says, “It seems the same applied to me.” (Mary Cooper, Lowell, Michigan, "Kids of the Kingdom,” Christian Reader; www.PreachingToday.com)
Too often we’re quick to criticize the children when we should recognize that sometimes they mean well. Now, I’m NOT saying it’s never right to discipline our children and to correct inappropriate behavior. But even that should be surrounded by a lot of praise for what they do well.
If we want our children and grandchildren to know and love Jesus like we do, then we must bring a child to Jesus; be a child ourselves; and bless a child every chance we get.
Just this last May (2009), author and speaker Gordon MacDonald was invited to spend a weekend at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Mount Zion’s pastor, Bishop Joseph Walker, III, had invited MacDonald to preach to his congregation on a day devoted to honoring those who were graduating from one level of education to another. Here’s what MacDonald wrote about that weekend:
Early in a two-hour (plus) service, the graduates paraded, single-file, to the front of the sanctuary to be acknowledged by the audience, to receive a gift, and to pose for individual photos with the Bishop. I’m guessing at the number of people in that parade, but I’ll bet it was well north of 200.
First came beautiful children who were transitioning from kindergarten to first grade. They were followed by handsome teenagers who graduate this month from high school. After them: a dignified line of college graduates and those who have just received master’s and Ph.D. degrees.
As each—from the smallest to the oldest—was introduced by name, a word was said about what they intended to do with their lives.
The five and six year olds: “This is James H. Brown, and he wants to be a police officer … this is Leticia T. Clark, and she wants to be a surgeon.” On and on it went. This child wanted to be a pilot; this one wanted to be a filmmaker; this one wanted to be an Olympic track star. There were future basketball players, barbers, astronauts, and firefighters. Some indicated a desire to be actors, teachers, or musicians. There was even a wannabe preacher or two. Every child had dreams of doing something. No small thinking among them.
Each high schooler was introduced by name and by the college or university they would attend in the fall. They were all headed somewhere up the educational ladder. One girl was headed for Princeton; others were on their way to University of Tennessee, Spellman, Morehouse, and Georgetown.
And the college grads? More than a few of them were pointed toward graduate school with the intention of tackling medicine, theology, law, biology, or music. You had the feeling that each of them was going to do something very, very good in the coming years.
As each child, youth, and young adult stepped to the bishop’s side for his or her picture, the audience (extended families, friends, and even me) cheered, and whistled, and applauded. You would have thought that these young people were superstar athletes being celebrated by a sellout crowd at the Tennessee Titan stadium just a few miles away.
To me the whole affair was like a great church party. And I found myself as enthusiastic as anyone even though I had never met anyone in the parade. Why?
The answer, I suddenly realized, was that I felt a rush of simple, unadulterated hope. In these young men and women, I saw possibilities for tomorrow. I had visions of them carrying the love of Jesus into airplane cockpits, classrooms, biology labs, and operating rooms. And the visions made me glad.
You get this kind of a celebration in a church where older men and women make the development of the younger generation their highest priority, where those of us who have been around the block a few times engage with younger people in order to teach them, tell them our stories, and affirm them as they listen for God’s voice.
You get a lot of hope boiling to the surface when the generations connect with each other as they appear to do at Mt. Zion.
The last six months haven’t been that hopeful for a lot of us. We have come to dread the morning news because so little of it has been good. We’ve watched economies tank, suicide bombers create havoc, leaders crash in scandal, and tornadoes and floods destroy ways of life. It’s been like living in the tabloids.
But the weekend at Mt. Zion altered my mood. It provoked some fresh thinking. Chief among my thoughts was an upgraded commitment to do whatever I can as a spiritual father to encourage younger people to aspire to the greatest heights God has intended for them.
There once was a man named Zechariah. In his aging years he and his wife birthed a son named John. Of this child, Zechariah sang these words: “And you, my child, will be a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him…”
And John did. But only because an old guy, his father, started pouring hope into him when he was still fresh from the womb.
And that’s what they were doing at Mt. Zion: pouring hope into young people. Why not the same in every church? (Gordon MacDonald, Hope Reborn After a May Day, LeadershipJournal. net, 5-21-09)
Why not the same here at Bethel Church?
