The great evangelist D. L. Moody returned hometo his wife from an evening of preaching the Gospel.That little anecdote changed the way I saw children's ministry. Especially the children's ministry I am involved with, namely with my kids.
"How did it go?" she inquired.
"2 1/2 converts" he replied.
She pondered on the unusal reply for a moment and then worked it out. "Oh, so how old was the child?"
"No, two children and one adult" She gave him a quizzical look. "The adult's life is nearly half over, but the children have their whole life ahead of them to serve Jesus" he explained.
So my 5 year old son, Calvin, and I instituted a new tradition called "Phenology Time" (should be Theology Time, but he mispronounced it once and it has stuck!). We spend about a hour or so on a Friday afternoon doing something together about the Bible. This is on top of our daily reading the Bible and praying. Part of this is that I thought I should be training him because he is my son, part of this is that I did not have a ministry apprentice at uni this year and train people because...that's what I do.
We have done a poster of the time line of the Bible, made a prayer diary for him to pray through, done a lego picture story of Esther and are currently working on a video of one of his favorite Christian songs.
Anyway the reason I mention this is that it is starting to pay off. He has been giving me feedback on my talks for a little while now. "You should say this next time you talk about Jesus...". Some of his feedback is more helpful than some adults!
But the big highlight was this week when he announced at dinner that he would like to be baptized.
"Do you know what that means, little mate?" (my name for him)I wish some of my friends in ministry had as clear view of the sacraments as a 5 year old!!
"Yep, it is what friends with Jesus do."
"Right, but you know there is nothing special about the water don't you?"
"Yep, it is about making promises and praying. But I, dunno, I just like the idea of the water."
2 comments:
Great post! I also want to say how cute, how wonderful C is really getting into learning about Jesus, what a great way to train up children, how important kids' ministry is...but my brain isn't working so I can't say it any more eloquently than that. :)
For a moment there I thought you were having "phrenology time", which would be entirely more questionable.
I look forward to having to teach my kids about Jesus with both expectation and immense trepidation.
Post a Comment