Children on mission

Go and make disciples.

That was the last words of Jesus. Jesus' instructions are for the whole church and the clearly includes the children. Yes, those same children who saw Jesus do miracles (and even helped him feed the 5,000), the same children who heard him tell the parables these same children were called to go out and make disciples.

In teaching others we learn much about our faith. We have seen this time after time as children have led their friends to the Lord.

Going on mission is always a thrill. Being plonked in an environment where you are not comfortable somehow makes you depend on God a little bit more. When you come home you are not the same, you have a new boldness of faith.

So, in many ways it seems logical that we would take our children on mission.

Mission types 

There are two types of mission in the modern church: the doing-nice-things-for-people-because-we-love-Jesus-and-want-to-show-his-love mission and the preaching-the-Gospel-because-we-love-people-and-want-them-to-know-Jesus mission. There is also the mixture of the two mission where we aim to do both (preaching and love are both required to share the Gospel).

Taking children to meet the needs of others is a great way to run against the grain of our selfish society. With the right support around them it can be life changing for them. It takes them beyond raising money for the poor to actually meeting the poor and helping them.

We've done this locally as children have made food and taken it to a homeless shelter, given out cookies on the street and cleared an area. Of course all was done under full supervision with many safeguards in place, but it helped move love from something theoretical to something practical that we did together, which in turn encouraged them to be more practical about their faith in school. As one girl said after a week of 'Project Love', I sat next to the new girl at school for lunch, because she needed a friend.

Preach the Gospel

What about helping our children to preach the Gospel? When we talk about this there are valid concerns that people raise. The most pertinent being: Whose faith are they sharing?

There is a danger when we encourage children to go and preach the Gospel that they themselves are still at an early stage of their journey of faith. Perhaps even earlier than we think they are. After all it is only when our faith is tested that we really see how strong it is.

At the worst end of the spectrum we could find the children simply regurgitating the worst version of the Gospel. A version where children are encouraged to judge sinners, shout at the lost or feel compelled to speak under pressure of the lost going to hell. At the other end of the spectrum, and almost as bad, we don't send the children out at all. We never focus on the commission God has given us or encourage and equip the children to share their faith with their friends. Not far from this end of the pendulum we send the children out with flyers and prepared words to say.

How could we send children out to share their faith in God, without risking spiritual shipwreck at a later date because of the experience? What could we do that, not matter what happened to their faith, they would reflect on the experience positively as adults? Perhaps it would even challenge backsliders to return to the Lord as they reflect on the experience.

What if, instead of us telling them what to say, who to speak to, or what to do, God spoke to them directly!

We developed a local mission programme where the children who wanted to would meet together for several weeks, praying into the mission and asking God who they wanted Him to see. They would write messages on cookies to hand out and on a t-shirt to wear. They would also write a letter to one individual that God wanted them to meet.

The first mission we ran, around a decade ago we took several children out onto the street. One twelve-year-old girl had heard God say that she was to speak to a lady called Margaret who was old and had a walking stick. We left our comfortable surroundings of London and went to a small market town in England.

When we arrived, it seemed like every person there was an old lady with a walking stick. The girl ran around for several hours giving out cookies and asking each lady, "excuse me, is your name Margaret?" It seemed that all Margaret's had stayed at home that day. Nonetheless it was satisfying to see the children running around looking for their treasure.

The final person the girl spoke to was Margaret. The girl screamed and gave her the letter she had written. As Margaret opened the letter she burst into tears on the street. The letter told her how she had been unwell, but that Jesus was with her in it. As Margaret spoke she shared how she was going to the doctors the next day to get some test results. It was like someone had read her mail (which of course God had).

Margaret went away prayed for and happy, while the whole team went away thanking God. When a child has experienced God at work through them like this you know that they will either grow up loving God more or they will KNOW that they have walked away from the truth. As it happens, in this girl's case she loves God more and spent most of secondary school shouting about him to anyone who will listen. Even sharing testimonies of her faith and the miracles she has seen in front of the whole school at school assembly.

The mission not only helped to connect Margaret to God, but also strengthened the connection of the whole team with our loving God.

Failure?

What if God doesn't show up? What if we fail? How will this affect our children's faith then. First off God is real. He really does want to show up and He really does want to touch people's lives through His body - the church (which includes the children). When we ran the first mission I said to the team this will either be the greatest thing we've done so far that we will be talking about for the rest of our lives, or it will be the biggest failure that will leave us with loads of pastoral issues to mop up on.

As someone once said, faith is spelt RISK. Sometimes you've just got to risk it to give it a go and see what happens. After all, what if God does show up? I mean, without God in the equation this is a pretty crazy way to run things, but put God into the equation and it is one more way that we can encounter creator God. Fear of failure should never hold us back. In my experience children are often less fazed by one thing which didn't go as planned as long as it is in the context of a whole package designed to help them grow with God.

Which bring us to the next point.

The Context of discipleship

Any time we encourage children to do something for God it should always be in the context of discipleship. Of course parents are the primary disciplers, so we need to be workign with them in all things. But we as church leaders also have a role. Parents focus on their child's relationship with God, their school work, their personal hygiene, their social lives, in sort their everything. For those ministering to children int eh chruch we have the privelege of having one main focus - their relatinoship with God. Wehn we work together with the parents we can help the children to grow closer to God. Ultimately that is surely the aim of all of our labours. IN the words of Paul in Galatian 4:19, my little chidlren for whom I again feel teh pain of child birth until Christ is formed in you (or as the chidlren's Bible says ... until you become like Christ).

Jordan was gifted in many ways, everyone in the church wanted a piece of him. He helped with the worship team, the technical team, the youth work and the children's work and he was no even a teenager himself. Everyone could see God's hand was on him, But not everyone was watching his spiritual life.

When one day I saw that his love for God was not as strong as it had been I pulled him to one side for a chat. Jordan admitted he had not been spending time with Jesus at home for the past month. We talked some more and together decided that he would take time to get his relationship with God right. I acted as a shield from all the well meaning leaders who wanted him to stay on their team in that time.

Now several years on he is a young man, still serving Jesus in the church, living for Jesus outside of the church and loving Jesus wherever he goes. All this because someone cared enough to keep an eye on his spiritual life. As Paul says - you have many teachers, but not many fathers. It is the fathers who care enough to not look at the testimonies but to watch for signs from the heart. It is also the spiritual fathers who have the right to speak into the lives of these children. This is a right that come from months and months of care, prayer and personal interest.

At the end of the day we want our children to be lovers of Jesus above everything else. If we pull them onto the stage to perform we are encouraging them to be performers. When people applaud the children at the end we reinforce the idea that it is all about their performance. When children are in love with Jesus and we release them to minister then people will be touched. After one time of children sharing testimonies from a mission with the local church the response from the church was not "wow these children are amazing," but instead it was "I want God to use me like that too!" The focus was on God. All this helped the children to delight in serving God, rather than in being something great.

Let’s allow our children to be part of God’s mission this year.