Eight Reasons for Emphasizing Children's Ministry
Testimony★★★★In the first chapter of her classic book, Children in the Bible School, Dr. Lois E. LeBar listed eight reasons for emphasizing children’s ministry: 1. The Bible clearly teaches that Christ Jesus calls the children to Himself (See Matthew 18:1-14 and 19:13-15).
Jesus said about adults, “Compel them to come” (Luke 14:23), but he said of children, “Let them come unto me” (Matthew 19:14). Much more readily than adults, children feel the need of the Savior, and gladly come when they hear that He is near, if only parents and teachers are willing to take the time to lead them gently to Him.
2. The most favorable soil for sowing the seed of the Word is the plastic (pliable) heart of a child. 3. Early childhood’s natural faith and dependency are soon outgrown.
Faith is natural to a child, for complete physical dependence is accompanied by absolute emotional confidence. 4. Habits of the first seven years are indelibly established. 5.
Less time and effort are necessary to win many children to Christ than one adult. 6. Children have their whole lives ahead of them for service. Suppose that Paul had been converted at seventy instead of twenty-five.
There would have been no Paul in history. There was a Matthew Henry because he was converted at eleven and not at seventy; an Isaac Watts because he was converted at nine and not at sixty; a Jonathan Edwards because he was converted at eight and not eighty; a Richard Baxter because he was converted at six and not sixty. 1Letters to the editor in USA Today, Thursday, May 28, 1998, Page 12-A. 7.
Children open many homes for personal work. Visiting children’s homes furnishes a natural approach for conversation about spiritual things. 8. A teacher’s own life is matured as he sees himself as God’s child learning His higher ways.
The disciples of old were amazed to discover not only that Christ gave children preference over adults, but also that adults had something to learn from children. One children’s worker said, “Outside the Word itself, no other single factor has helped me grow spiritually as has work with children.”1 1 Lois E. LeBar, Children in tire Bible School (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1912). chapter one.
2 LeBar, Children in the Bible School, 26.
The point
This illustration presents eight reasons to prioritize children's ministry, such as children's natural faith, the lasting impact of early habits, and the spiritual growth of teachers themselves.