We Have an Adult Problem, Not a Kid Problem

Children are the Church today—believing children, that is. You might ask why I consistently say this. The reason is the work of the Holy Spirit. I have been working with children for more than 35 years. As a children’s pastor, I spent 25 years in children’s ministry, and I have been working with L.I.T. training and equipping leaders for the past 10 years.

My discovery of the work of the Holy Spirit is not what I learned in seminary. It was from personal observation. I have led or participated in at least 40 preteen (4th-6th grades) mission trips. These were not family mission trips where kids worked alongside their parents or watched their parents serve. Trained preteens led these trips.

Stay with me here. While on these trips, I observed the Holy Spirit move in kids' lives like I had never seen before. I found that the problem was not with the kids on the trips. The issue came more from the leaders and parents who hindered them because of their disbelief.

Yes, the problem was the leaders and parents, not the kids. You see, we have been taught that children are limited because of their age, that they can only do limited things for God, and that they can only comprehend so much. They are just concrete or abstract thinkers.

What I learned, however, was that when parents and leaders stepped out of the way, He—the Holy Spirit—worked and moved powerfully in the preteens’ lives. I found myself questioning what I had been taught all along, and I have four seminary degrees. As I observed the Lord speaking through kids on these mission trips, I was challenged to test the waters even more.

That is when I discovered that the Holy Spirit also gifted them. I found that they had the gifts of leadership, administration, teaching, mercy, help, faith, and more—yes, they had all of them. Again, this happened when we got out of the way and allowed them to serve and minister. The Holy Spirit was there all along; we have been hindering Him.

Like many of you, I was saved at a young age—nine years old. From my memory, salvation was the beginning and end of my discipleship. I went to church on Sundays and Wednesday evenings. Yet, I was never allowed to experience the Holy Spirit working through my life in ministry until I was twenty-seven years old.

When I discovered I had spiritual gifts, it was a game changer for me. It turned my world upside down because I experienced the Holy Spirit working through me when I taught or served the Lord. You see, the same is true for kids. We have to get out of the way and allow them to become who He called them to be now—His Church.

Here are some suggestions:

1.      Pray.

2.      Look for obvious places for kids to serve within your church.

3.      Teach them how to do it and allow it to become their ministry.

4.      Teach your leadership to become mentors, with the intention of allowing children to walk alongside them and learn from them, like Paul with Timonthy.

5.      Release them to ministry, and you will witness their spiritual gifts manifest before your eyes.

Thank you for reading this blog. It has been my heart for the past 22 years to work alongside pastors, children’s pastors, and children’s leaders to help them see the Lord’s bigger picture for their lives. He has excellent plans, and you can join Him on this incredible journey.

For more than 22 years, we have been working on and developing our resources with a focus on discipling and equipping children and preteens for ministry and missions. Check out our resources by clicking this link.