Frameworks for ministry

What is your framework for ministry?

If you get it wrong you risk teaching error and beleiveing falsehoods. We don’t base our theology on feelings or on circumstances. Our understanding of theology, and by extension of ultimate truth, comes from God’s word.

For example, when it comes to children’s ministry, no one is comfortable with the idea that a child could go to hell. But people are not saved because they are cute, because they are young or because they are liked. Conversely, people do not need salvation because others don’t like them, they are not top of the class or they have no experience in life.

The dividing line between the saved and the unsaved is as simple as it is divine: Those with sin are in need of a saviour.

Sin is simply missing the mark – defined for the Jews as breaking the law and for Gentiles as breaking their own internal law. Access to God’s forgiveness comes through an embracing of Christ – believing in our heart that God raised him from the dead and confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9).

Understanding the depths of depravity that sin leads to, especially when in the face of a righteous God, makes the work of the cross even more glorious. This is the theological framework on which our whole faith is based and we must not dilute it.

Teasing out the minutiae of whether an individual child goes to hell may seem irrelevant for the majority of children in our care, yet our understanding of this will frame every aspect of our ministry. After all, most children will grow up to be adults. But if we have a strong theological understanding of the need for salvation this will impact how we minister. If children do not need to be saved then we will not carry the same urgency that Jesus expresses concerning the children when he tells the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18, concluding the parable in verse 14 saying, ‘Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.’

Equally if we do not see the need for children to be saved then we will simply be laying a foundation for some future time, rather than seeking to bring them into a living relationship with God while they are young.

Where there is sin there is need for a saviour, but our responsibility as ministers to children does not simply end with sharing the truth, we must do so in a godly way. As we serve the children we work with we are in this for the long haul. Pastorally we do not want to scare children out of hell, but rather usher them into heaven with the truth of God’s word. Standing in front of children and telling them they will all burn in hell unless the accept Jesus immediately may be truth but it is not delivered with a demonstration of the love of God and will ultimately be counterproductive as it does not reflect the father’s heart.

To put it another way, on this theological base we must build other frameworks. The second framework is a pastoral one – that everything we do must be done in love. We do not hide the truth but nor do we use the truth as a rod to beat children into submission. The grace and love of God exposes sin and draws people to him. If parents are mourning the loss of their child we would be lacking compassion (to say the least) if we only looked through a theological lens and told parents their children were not saved and were now destined for hell.

If a truth makes us uncomfortable we, as mere humans, do not have permission to change it. Rather, we must deepen our understanding of God’s truth by searching the Scriptures and getting his perspective on humanity. The pastoral framework must not dictate the theological framework, but the theological framework does shape the pastoral. If we allow the pastoral to change the theology then we allow ourselves to be deceived – a state that we are warned to be alert to.

On top of the pastoral layer we build the ministry framework – in the light of the theology and pastoral considerations, how can we effectively minister the truth of God to the children and young people in our care.

We must not shy away from speaking about sin, but must do so with the humility that comes from knowing that we are sinners, greater than the children in our care (this was the Apostle Pauls’ attitude when he described himself as the chief of sinners). So we do not stand and wag a finger at their sin, but rather give space for the Holy Spirit to convict them and do not rush from a place of conviction that leads to the freedom found in Christ.

As we reflect on different aspects of ministry I have found this to be a helpful framework to think about our practice with children: Firstly, discover the theological truth.

On this foundation of truth we can consider the pastoral heart that is required when expressing the truth.

Finally, plan elements of ministry that do not deviate from the theogical truth and wrap it in the pastoral heart of God can be developed.  

To do anything less is to deprive children of an encounter with the true and living God. This is our privilege. This is our responsibility.

Frameworks for ministry