Yesterday, we celebrated children’s day in our church. It’s an annual tradition, we celebrate the kids who are moving into the student ministry and we invite our children to participate in leading worship. They greeted us, led us in singing, prayed publicly, read scripture, collected the offering and even participated in the sermon. It was great.
Another aspect to our service yesterday was testimonies from a couple of parents about our church and our children’s ministry. Now, the fact that we are talking about children’s ministry and not family ministry makes some of your skin crawl, but yesterday, we heard testimony of the value of children’s ministry and the intersection between “children’s ministry” and “family ministry.” A woman in our church, Gina, stood and shared her testimony about our church.
Gina’s testimony is powerful. She and her husband (Tate) have a beautiful family and they have grown dramatically in our church over the last six years. Their entrance to our church was unique, however. They were first acquainted with our church through our annual Fall Festival and decided to visit after being asked not to return to another church (yes, that really happened). Gina and Tate have a child who struggles with behavioral issues, and as a result, were shunned by a local church. Obviously, when they got to Malvern Hill, their guards were pretty high, but by God’s grace, some loving people within our church embraced them and their family has become a strong part of our church family.
I had the privilege of baptizing Gina and Tate on the same day several years ago, and they have been growing in our church since that day. But, six years ago, they were brand new believers and they did not know how to lead their children toward Christ. It was during this time that they continued to attend church services and continued to grow, but their dependence on the local church to teach their kids was huge because they didn’t know how to be Christians themselves. As Gina recounted their story during worship yesterday morning, she said this, “I am so thankful that the church was there to teach our children when were couldn’t do it.”
For new believers and for people who have not been disicpled, they need the church to come along side and teach their children. Yes, we should have as our goal the effective discipleship of families so that they can teach each other, but until the discipleship has reached a certain point, a part of hand-holding young believers may very well involve taking major roles in teaching their children the things of God.
Gina’s family is a shining example of what can and should happen when the church comes together for holistic ministry. Six years ago, they did not know how to teach their children the things of God, but on Father’s Day of 2014, their child who was once asked not to return to a church, asked Tate (the husband and father) how to be saved. Six years later, this couple had the necessary knowledge to walk their child through the message of the gospel and as a result, we now celebrate a new child in God’s kingdom.
So, what is the answer? Children’s ministry, family ministry, youth ministry? Yes, because the answer is the church, the family of God, and God’s family is made up of children, youth, young adults, senior adults, families, single moms, divorced dads, and widows. The church is a family, and when one part of the family can’t, the other parts of the family of God can.
