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Can Children be Transformed by Sitting and Listening in Church?

Bored92
Being one who was raised in the church, I find it interesting how my role as a child was to sit and listen to my teacher teach me about God. I accepted Christ at age nine, yet I walked away from the church not knowing about the joy found in Christ through a personal relationship and walk with Him. Churches today are very excited about reaching kids, but are we truly preparing them for a journey of faith? Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10, NASB). If there is an abundant life in Christ, can it be experienced by sitting in a classroom? Or, does it come through an active faith that experiences all aspects of the church and the body of Christ in service and ministry?
 
Pete Hohmann shares, “If we train up children to believe that quietly sitting and listening while someone else ministers to them fulfills their Christian responsibility, then it will be very difficult toSign Up Bar change their attitudes as an adult. About 85% of our attitudes are formed in childhood.”[1] If you have ever played in a sport, you know that there is a difference between those who are watching the game and those who are in the game. The ones who play, whether they win or lose, are in the game. In a recent study by Fuller Theological Seminary, they discovered that many students left the church because they felt like spectators and that the churches were overprotective of them. They were never allowed to be a part of the body of Christ. Luis Bush shares, “The urgency of this hour is the issue of rooting them in the Word of God and the purposes of God and raising them up to be His instruments, His agents. Not as adjuncts in the mission of God, but agents in the mission of God.”[2] It is time to stop and evaluate what we are doing with the future church. It’s time to embrace our kids and invite them to join us in God’s mission and to be instruments in His mission.
 
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[1] Peter Hohmann, Kids Making a Difference, Incredible Stories of What Kids Today Are Doing Around the World (Richmond: Instant Publisher, 2004), 24.

[2] Luis Bush, Opening Presentation at the 4 to 14 Window Global Summit, Bangkok, Thailand, October 15-18, 2013. 

 
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