Too Much Church?

This article brings up some interesting (and likely accurate) struggles in children's ministry. I have been wrestling a lot lately with the best approach to children/youth ministry as I am burdened with the problems discussed in the article, fearful that 80% of our youth aren't actually regenerate and will walk away after high school, and dedicated to learning the most godly way to raise my own children to fear God.

What is the best way to solve this?

I am becoming more convinced that the church has bought too much into the American cultural standards of education. We simply take the K-12 model of education, add Bible topics, and cram it all in on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Throughout Scripture and much of history, children were trained to be responsible adults and committed Christians through hands-on mentor relationships; the primary being the parent-child relationships. Children learned responsibility through working hard. They picked up language, math, and science through interaction with people and the world around them; not from a sterile classroom environment.

As I am learning much lately, the church isn't simply about a building and doctrines; it is a community of redeemed sinners who God placed in relationships for our benefit to grow in godliness. Many of the adults seem to understand that, but for some reason we don't include the children in the group. We send them back to the classrooms and nurseries to figure out mature relationships in a pig sty of immaturity.

The linked article continues to spur my thinking to find the most biblical, godly way to point children to a relationship with Christ that results in fruitful lives, not a program of songs and stories that builds knowledge with little action.

Adoption and the Gospel

As my wife and I are moving through the long process of adoption, we have really been struck throughout our studying how beautifully the Gospel is portrayed through adoption and how central the Gospel must be in parenting. Adoption is about bringing a person into a new life and showering him with blessings that he hasn't earned. It is a picture of God reaching into our lives of brokenness and giving us new lives as His children. The experience has made me more worshipful; and we haven't even brought a child into our home yet.

Read through this article in Christianity Today from Russell Moore, author of Adopted for Life (which was reviewed here a couple months ago). He explains it much more vividly than I could.

Christians need to make adoption a priority, not only for the children, but for the Gospel.