Since the greatest opportunity for salvation happens in most individuals life before the age of 21, who or what is the means for salvation for this age group?
Barna addresses this question as he continued his research. The following graph gives his answer for those who are ages 4-12:
The means of salvation for children under 13 are:
- Parents 50%,
- Friend or other relative 20%,
- Minister prompting 7%,
- Special event (kids revival, youth camp, etc) 12%
- Media evangelism 1%.
This informs us that the family unit, home and individuals parents must take the responsibility of teaching their children the values of the Word of God, prayer, giving, faithfulness to the house of God and participation in service to others and not to hand off religious training to the church and especially to the children's ministry! The church as the means to salvation is only 19% (Ministers prompting 7% plus special events 12 %). The church and in specific, the children ministry, do not have the influence that the home has! The church can support but is limited in its influence!
Here the results of Barna's study for those 13-21:
The means of salvation for children who are 13- 21 are as follows:- Friend 20%,
- Parents 20%,
- Special event 20%
- Other Relative 16%
- Minister prompting 10%,
- Media evangelism 1%.
What do these figures speak to me?
As a parent they speak the following:
You have a window of opporutunity that is huge to influence your child to salvation! (Barna says that after the age 21 that the percentage for parents being the means to salvation for their children drops to 8%!!) You might think they are young and do not totally understand but they are watching your life and hearing your comments about God and the church! When they are under 13 you must give yourself to leading your family in prayer and having a family devotion. You must give rewards not just for good grades but the memorization of key scriptures! Even though you are tired you must be at every church service and prayer meeting teaching them the importance of House of God! At this age they will not fight you but will follow you in your walk with God because of your great influence! This is not the job of the church but your highest calling as a parent!
Your influnance will drop as your child approaches their teenage years and the influnce of friends will increase! You must know who your childs friends are! Are they Godly? What is their home like? The chances that their friends will be Godly will be better if you are making sure that they are going to the special events of the church! Sacrifice for them to go to the Youth Camps and Conventions! Limit their involvement in events at their public school! You don't know the spiritual lives neither the homelife of the students your children rub shoulders with at public school! It will influence their salvation!
Look at the spiritual lives of your own family, that is, your parents, brothers and sisters. Are they Godly? If so allow your teen to spend time with their cousins etc but if your family does not live for God then you are going to have to limit and control their time with your family. If your family is Godly it will be a great support for the salvation of your child.
Understand that media is not the answer for the spiritual teaching of your children. They need the interaction with their parents. The reading of the bible books and answering of questions not the babysitting of the television or computer. They need to hear and learn the songs you sang when you were a child in the church. The media is limited in influnancing for salvation!
How do I look at this as a Pastor?
I understand that I must do all I can to teach and provide resources for family to have family nights and family altars. What do they do during a family night? What lessons should be taught? How do you make it enjoyable?
I've got to make sure there is a night during the week that there are no events at the church neither ministry responsibilities so that family can have a night at home for a spiritual training.
Our youth program must have spiritual events yet they must be exciting! As a church we must have youth revivals, camps, retreats and youth mission trips! I've got to make sure our youth are particapting in events where they are mixing with other like trained young people. These events will influence the teens more than when they were children. At these events they will be mixing with friends by faith who are Godly!
I've got to understand that my influence grows during these years of an individuals life. I can not be a specator of the youth ministry but need to rub shoulders with them attending their events and understanding that they have something to give today! I've got to provide opportunity for ministry even as teenagers!
Settle the fact that media is not the means to salvation for this group! They will be attracted to it but as a means of salvation it is limited. I must continue to preach against the dangers of it because the dangers outweigh the benefits!
As a pondering pastor I come to these conclusions:
- I must pray and ask God to help me to develop family ministries in the church by providing resources and protecting a week night for spiritual training in the home.
- I must do all I can to make our children's and youth ministry the best they can be with leadership, funds, buildings and program never letting the leadership think that they and their ministry are unimportant.
6 comments:
Hello my older, wiser friend! Thanks for stirring my mind today. I am 110% convinced that God intended for the bulk of children's and youth ministry to take place in the family. As far as organized youth ministry is concerned, I'm thinking that maybe we are missing it when we do youth ministry by separating youth from the rest of the body. After considering biblical examples, it seems to me that biblical youth development takes the from of mentorship and intergenerational relationships. Just thinking...
Love ya,
Mark King
Great to hear from you!
You comment was interesting. Yes, I agree that God intended for the spiritual growth of children (no matter the age) to be the main thrust of the family unit (Deuteronomy 6:3-7). In fact as we look at this scripture we see that the main thrust of the teaching of the parents are to be "these words" (vs 6) which are stated in verse 4 & 5, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might". This is not about practical living but a teaching of doctrine! Doctrine is to be taught by parents to children!
Yes, I agree that with you that the church must be multi-generational and have multi-generational worship services. Yet I also realize that age specific times of ministry are valuable and very productive. There are times that it becomes important for a young mother to have the freedom to be able to be spiritually fed and challenged. That is very hard when she is trying to take care of her children in a service. The support of a nursery and children ministry become important for her spiritual life! Yet that can not be for every service for then the children are not able to be taught prayer, worship, respect for the house of God or doctrinal truths by example of the parents and other believers in a corporate worship service. There has to be a balance not only for the child but for the parents spiritual growth.
In previous discussions we have spoken of N.T. Wright and his belief that you can not separate Paul and his Jewishness. His roots were not cast away but where the building blocks for his understanding of the church. Perhaps you and I need to begin to study out the children and their interaction with the ancient synagogue. That might give us more understanding of how we need to proceed in our development of the interaction of family and the church.
Thanks for responding!
Yes, indeed! I see the great value of sunday school... both for the sake of our mothers and for the sake of our children. In fact, I think that we ought to give much more attention to the deliberate indoctrination and development of our children in this one hour per week that we have to affect them. This should be doubled up with a strong push for their spiritual development in the home.
I became convinced of the value of age specific children's ministry when I studied child psychology. The stuff that kids learn as their minds are being formed become a part of who they are. Their minds develops around those things. However, in order to capitalize on this stages of their development, truths must be presented at each stage in ways that they can register them. I would be very curious to know they went about this in the jewish synagogues.
I think that youth ministry is different than children's ministry in this regard. Didn't the jewish boy became a man at the age of 13? Are we prolonging childhood when we continue to segregate youth beyond the age of 13? This is what I have been wrestling with for the past couple of years.
It's our methods of youth ministry that I feel we must re-evaluate. This is where I think that we must shift away from segregated youth ministry and toward the facilitating of mentorship and intergenerational relationships. And yes, I would love to study deeper into the jewish model with you!
Your post here has me stirred convicted and thrilled that someone has such a burden for family.Your church is blessed.
I would like to respectfully point out that there are *no* instances of age segregation in the Bible.
There is only one Bible, not one for youth and one for adults, therefore that must mean that what applies to us old folk applies to our littles too. Why separate? You said it...parents are responsible for their childrens salvation and for their entertainment. I know those are polar opposites, but really that is about all a Youth Group offers these days.
The Bible says foolishness is within our childrens hearts...so putting all of them together cant possibly produce anything wise.
You want your children to be wise and Godly immerse them in a wise Godly culture, not a silly youth group.
FYI: The above "Anonymous" post was not from me although it appears so because it follows my post and overlaps my train of though.
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