What Children Need for Faith Development
We know God wants us to pass our values to the children so the Church can extend itself through generations and across time. It’s a part of God’s plan.
At LifeResource Ministries we specifically focus on the children, knowing that they are a not only large part of the present day church but also the Church of the future.
Ignoring a Generation
We know that children are spiritual beings, and that they have spiritual needs. We continually observe that in Western culture adults may give lip service to the needs of children. But when it gets down to allocation of resources (such as time, money, attention, and care) the needs of children almost always take a back seat to adult issues (such as control, recognition, and doctrinal correctness).
This deplorable phenomenon cuts across all aspects of life in the West — the Church included.
When we founded this ministry, we asked ourselves the question, “What can we do to help all the children?”
Most people in the West answer that question by saying that parents have the greatest influence on children and therefore care of children falls completely on parents. This answer seems true to us because as the extended family is diminished in a disconnected culture, our family experience becomes increasingly nuclear.
Most parents bring up their children in isolation, rather than in an environment of extended support. The idea that two parents, or in some cases one parent, are sufficient to properly bring children to a spiritually mature adulthood is a new concept in human history. Ours is the first culture to accept it.
It is interesting to consider where the concept has taken us. Several years ago, I hear Dr. Bruce Perry, one of the nation’s leading brain researchers and child advocates, say that Western culture was the first culture in the history of civilization to lose the ability to transmit it’s values to the next generation.
When we think about the Church as a chain of faithfully followed beliefs passing through time and spanning generations, the meaning of Dr. Perry’s observation sobers us.
If he is right, the fate of the Church in the West hangs in the balance.
Before the West, all other cultures saw the extended family and the community as vital in the process of passing on cultural values and bringing children to healthy maturity. We believe that God intends each child to grow up as part of a nuclear family which is part of an extended family which is part of a community.
For Christians, as society loses its ability to transmit values, the Congregation becomes the most important faith-transmitting community.
We, then, approach the problem as a systemic issue. What do we mean by the term “systemic?” If you have a mobile hanging from the ceiling, and you touch one of the figures hanging from it, what happens to all the others? They all move, of course, because they are all connected.
If our efforts are to make any difference at all, we must approach the problem as systemic. What does that mean in terms of strategy and application of resources?
We focus on four initiatives.
1. Engaging children one-to-one
We see from scripture that faith is transmitted from person to person. Consequently we try to engage as many children, teens and young adults as we can. We believe it’s not only good for them, but also for us. If we are going to encourage people to do likewise, we feel compelled to set an example. As a part of the faith community, we want to make a difference one at a time, as God permits.
2. Support for parents
All the research shows that until a person is college age, parents have the greatest influence on their children. We try to provide parenting materials based on solid research and contextualized for Christian parents. We also know that it’s not just parenting that passes faith, but mostly the lived Christian life — the example that parents set. We provide bi-weekly presentations to raise awareness of parenting skills and modeling among Christian parents.
3. Support for congregations
While we all know that we are to put our faith in God, and not in men we also know that God has given us the Church to be “the mother of us all.”The church, then, is the place where Christians are to go for support and help. As the greater community moves further away from Christian values, the congregation must step up to the challenge.
Adults need to stop playing at church and become sincere practitioners of the lived Christian life at church. Arguing over doctrine, vying for power, creating a cast system — these all have to depart from us in favor of becoming sincere, kind, honest — all the things Jesus told us to do and be.
To help with these spiritual necessities, we not only provide an ongoing stream of materials but also host activities, such as Camp Outreach where people can learn the value of caring for the poor, and seminars, delivered in congregational settings to educate, train, and encourage congregations to engage the children in their midst more inclusively.
4. Support for individuals
Each congregation is made up of individuals who are all challenged by God to care for their spiritual brothers and sisters. We use our professional counseling skills to help people and families who ask for help. We provide support, insight, and help people find help locally if necessary through our profession. It is our hope that each person we help will be able to help others, multiplying God’s efforts us.
