The start of the new school year is nearly upon us and with it with the resumption of Explorers, Sunday School, Kid’s Club, youth group and growth groups. On Sunday week Kirsty H, Clarissa and I will be meeting the parents of the children commencing big Sunday School as we do every year. My role is to give them a copy of the New City Catechism and encourage them to use it with their children, first when they are just starting school, and then when they are starting high school, and letting them know that this catechism will then be used in preparation for profession of faith. More generally it is to encourage them, as I encourage all parents, to engage intentionally and perseveringly in what I like to call the eighteen year discipleship program the Lord has called Christian parents and Christian congregations to by giving them children.
Eighteen year discipleship
Eighteen years may seem a long time to stick at the same task, and there can be many unanticipated twists and turns along the way to maturity. For some committing to this God given task may also mean sharing in the painful experience of the Father who waited patiently for his son to return from that far country. But helping others be disciples of Jesus is the commission the Lord Jesus gave to all His disciples [Matt. 28:18-20] and that task starts with our children, those closest to us, those we are commanded to bring up ‘in the training and instruction of the Lord.’ [Eph 6:4] Discipling our children will also help us disciple others, and hopefully this is something we engage in with cheerfulness, for sharing the gospel with our children and teaching them to do all Jesus commanded equips them to live well in this life, and brings them to know the Saviour who will be with them always and raise them to eternal life. What could be better?
Sometimes the closeness and the constancy of the task can make us lose sight of its eternal significance, but training your child in the faith is part of the work of the Lord, work that is not in vain [1 Cor. 15:58]. So don’t sacrifice it to your career or your hobbies or even your busy church involvement, and don’t give up in discouragement. If you are a parent, show your trust in the Lord by keeping on using the means He has given you to bring your children to the faith – prayer, God’s word, and inclusion in the fellowship of the Lord’s people.
Use the Means of Grace
Prayer – for the Lord to make His word fruitful in children’s lives as well as protect them and give them good company. And prayer for the prodigal that the Lord would bring them to their senses so they see the poverty of rebelling and return to the Lord. Scripture says we can draw near to the Lord with confidence seeking mercy and grace to help us in our need [Heb. 4:16], and that mercy does not depend on us being or having been perfect parents, only on the Lord who is merciful and faithful.
God’s Word – read, memorised and taught. Preaching on Psalm 1, on what it means to meditate on the LORD’s Torah, has only strengthened my conviction of the good of both immersing our children in the word, and helping them memorise it. You are giving them a resource they can draw on all their lives even into old age, to both protect them from evil paths [Ps. 119:9, 11] and comfort them. I have more trouble sleeping now than I used to, and I am glad that in those night hours I can turn remembered Scripture over in my head, be both instructed and comforted by verses my parents [and Scripture Union and Crusaders] encouraged me to memorise.
Inclusion in the life of God’s people – this is so important. In our gathering we and our children are exposed to all the means of grace, they see others living the Christian life before them, they are served and encouraged by others – especially those who give up their time to teach Sunday School or lead in Kid’s Club or Youth Group – and they have the opportunity to develop Christian peers. And you, parents, have the opportunity to be encouraged by other parents, share information, and develop a common mind on some of the issues complicating parenting in our time. But all these things depend on the commitment of the parents to be regular, and that commitment itself communicates to your children a priority and a truth – that we should please the Lord in the way we organise our lives, and recognise that He is the source of all our blessings by honouring Him with the way we use the time He gives us.
Prayer, God’s Word, inclusion in the life of God’s people, all in the context of modelling the Christian life before them.
It is only disciples, those who themselves do all the Lord Jesus has taught us, who can make disciples. So work at transparent trust – committing your concerns to the Lord and not being anxious, and genuine obedience, obedience that in our homes often starts with the love and respect husbands and wives are to show each other.
And use every opportunity to keep equipping yourselves to face the particular challenges our children face in being disciples of Jesus. So for example plan to participate in the session with Patricia Weerakoon on Discipling Kids in an online world on March 15th, for this is a challenge many of us did not grow up with and our own parents never had to worry about.
A whole church responsibility
But discipling the children the Lord has given us is not just the task of parents. It is a whole church responsibility. We are reminded of this every time we baptise or give thanks for a child in our gathering.
We can all share in this task by serving in ministries that support parent’s involvement in church and their own instruction of their children. Those ministries start with creche and morning tea [food is very important to children] and continue with Sunday School, Kid’s Club, and Youth Group, the last two also providing opportunity, along with Playgroup, for children whose parents aren’t in church to hear of the Lord Jesus.
And we can all encourage. Encourage our parents by letting them know you are praying for them and their children by name, by welcoming them and their children at church, by dealing patiently and kindly with their children, by supporting the ministries of the church that teach children. And encouraging those who serve in those ministries by continuing to provide resources for them and taking an interest in their work - do you ask the Sunday School teachers or youth group leaders how they are going, how you can pray for them? If you have a child in Sunday School do you know the name of their teacher for this term?
Encouragement
Eighteen year discipleship may seem a big commitment, but GSF, which I find always encouraging as I see so many working together to share the Lord Jesus with children, was particularly encouraging this year because of the number of leaders who had themselves been the beneficiaries of that discipleship, young people whose parents had faithfully taught them, prayed for them and included them in Sunday School and Youth Group who were now serving in the GSF team itself, and serving with energy, enthusiasm and creativity, themselves disciples who were making disciples.
The gospel seed we sow in the lives of others matures at different rates in different people, but it is always powerful and effective to do the Lord’s work. As we come into the New Year let’s give thanks that our Lord has given us another year to make disciples and embrace the opportunities we have, starting in our own homes, not being anxious about our children but prayerfully using the means our Lord has given us to ‘bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord’, instruction that is life giving. But let’s not stop there, for the gospel of the Lord is for all, for, as John says, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” [John 3:17]. Let’s pray we see the Lord save many out of the world this year.
