Making children a priority in your church

• In our final excerpt from Dave Roberts' book God's Plan for Children (Children's Ministry/Kingsway), the author looks at how your church can reassess its ministry to children
  

Children as a priority will need to be lived out, not simply theorised about.

Here are some provocative questions that a church might want to ask of itself:

• Do the adults in our church greet the children by name?
  
• Is there any cross-generational conversation?
  
• In the case of toddlers and younger children, are we willing to crouch down to their level to talk with them?
  
• Are the facilities we provide for their classes warm, comfortable, age-appropriate and well kept?
  
• How many times a year does the church leadership meet with the children's ministry team?
  
• Is there a role for a children's activity in the main congregational worship time?
  
• Do we use younger people and children in servant roles in church life, such as ushering, worship groups and a myriad of other tasks, thus significantly increasing their sense of belonging?
  
• Do we publicly affirm those who teach the children, in the same way that we honour others in the congregation who undertake major projects or foreign trips?
  
• Do the children in our church ever get asked to read the Bible publicly or pray?
  
• If our church prays for people who respond to what God may have said to the congregation, are their children amongst those doing the praying?

We face a huge challenge as we seek to 'reclaim a generation'. Penny Frank, summarises the growing passion of many in Every Child a Chance to Choose:

"I want all of us to own the problem as our responsibility. Maybe our local church has a thriving children's work; perhaps we are thrilled at what God is doing through us with children. But I would still like us each to pause where we are and, for a moment, look further afield. I beg you to consider that the way things are going in your church may not be typical of the British Isles as a whole. I would like each reader to be willing to get involved in some way in bringing children's evangelism across the land into a 'better place before God'. Our society is concerned about human rights. That's good. Let me offer this challenge: how can we express genuine concern for the rights of children if we ignore their basic right to their Christian inheritance?

"We need to give them a chance to choose. In calling for every child to have the chance to choose Jesus, I am not campaigning for high-pressure missions or indoctrination programmes. I simply want children to hear the Christian good news in the way that most helps them to understand and absorb it. I don't want them put in a position of dilemma and anxiety. But I do want them to go through their lives knowing how to have an everlasting relationship with God that will enable them to achieve their full potential as human beings."

RESOURCE LIST

Books

• Every Child a Chance to Choose - Penny Frank (Children's Ministry, Kingsway/CPAS). This book is both practical and strategic. Penny is committed to equipping the church to reach the nation.
  
• Reclaiming a Generation - Ishmael (Children's Ministry, Kingsway). Decades of experience distilled into book form. You'll be provoked.
  
• The Child in Christian Thought - Edited by Marcia J Bunge (Eerdmans). A big book covering all the key figures in church history and their perspective on children. For those seeking to clarify their overall thinking on ministry to children, this is a landmark book.
  
• Biblical Perspectives on Evangelism - Walter Brueggmann (Abingdon). Worth buying for Chapter 4 on how we pass on the faith to children.
  
• Passing on the Faith - Merton P Stromen/Richard A Hardel (St Mary's Press). This book explores in some depth the role of the family in faith nurture - it is detailed, thoughtful and practical.
  
• Children and the Holy Spirit - Chris Leach (Children's Ministry, Kingsway). A rare gem - so few people write about this important area. If a book can be radical and very sensible at the same time, then this one is both.
  
• Children in the Heart of God - David Gidney (Children's Ministry, Kingsway). This is an important book, which examines the perspective of the Old Testament on children. It touches in some depth on wisdom for the parent with respect to spiritual nurture.
  
• Children in the Early Church - W A Strange (Paternoster Press). A clear and comprehensive guide to New Testament perspective on children.
  

Internet
www.heartforchildren.com
The 'articles' section is particular helpful, with several practical articles alongside helpful academic material.
www.dianedew.com/children.htm
Comprehensive list of scriptures referring to children.

• Dave Roberts is a writer and speaker. He helped found the Children's Ministry conferences which attract over 3,000 people a year. He is working on further books on parenting and particularly fatherhood. He can be contacted at Tahilla Communications, 70 Milton Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex Tel No 01323 735496 e-mail info@tahilla.com

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