| Building Spiritual Champions by Establishing Sincere Faith in Children
By David Boyd, National BGMC Director
In 2 Timothy 1:5, the Apostle Paul wrote, “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (NIV).
Paul seems to be saying that sincere faith requires we build spiritual champions. We can’t just introduce the things of God to children; we have to make sure they “get it.” Our goal is to help every child live for Christ the rest of his life—no turning back!
How many kids never receive a sincere faith and end up losing out with God because their children’s pastor or teacher never worked to establish a sincere faith in the children they lead?
Hebrews 10:22-24 states, “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,” (NIV, italics mine).
That, then, is our goal: to raise up spiritual champions who will live for God the rest of their lives. To help ensure that we develop a sincere faith in the lives of children, here are three points to consider:
(1) Sincere faith is built;
(2) Sincere faith is perceived; and
(3) Sincere faith is influenced.
I’ve outlined four components that can help you build sincere faith—and which should be a part of every aspect of children’s ministry:
Prayer. Children must learn how to talk with God. Kids want to become grown up, and they want to learn how to pray. The question to ask, then, is “What percentage of kids in a given service or activity get the opportunity to pray?
Are the kids in your ministry given the opportunity to pray for a need? Are they given the chance for altar time? Children learn to connect with God when given the opportunity to pray for a need, for God’s anointing on the service or activity, or for someone who needs the laying on of hands for healing.
Adoration—loving and honoring God, seeking and adoring God
Sometimes we lead kids into the presence of God, then we just leave them hanging. Children do enjoy fast-beat music with lots of action. But they also like spending time in worship before a holy God when His Spirit is there. Often, when the Spirit of God is just preparing to move, we proceed with the service because we have a schedule to keep. Allow the kids the opportunity to show love and honor to God, to seek His face and to adore Him.
Biblical instruction
Many children’s leaders allow the author of the curriculum to provide all the biblical instructions during a given meeting. We can fall prey to that. Curricula is great, but you must rely on God to direct you and to use you. Make sure that you, with the Holy Spirit’s help, direct what the children are learning. Needs will arise in the child’s world that the Holy Spirit wishes to address. So listen to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide you through each opportunity when providing biblical instructions.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit
Just before ascending to heaven, Jesus commanded His disciples to wait until they received the Holy Spirit. That’s because they lived in a world that was unfriendly to Christians. Hello! What kind of world do our children live in? Children need the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The power of the Holy Spirit helps children to seek more of God, to find more of God, and to utilize more of God. It is a cementing factor to building spiritual champions.
Sincere faith is not only to be built, but also to be perceived.
In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul wrote: “I have been reminded of your sincere faith.” He saw that sincere faith in Timothy. If we’re not careful, we can teach about sincere faith and not even realize the children are not getting it. By doing so, we are raising up insincere faith.
George Barna, a leading Christian researcher and founder/president of The Barna Group, says this about our teenagers: Amazingly less than half of the born-again teenagers who were surveyed said they were committed to the Christian faith. In other words, at least half of the children growing up in our churches do not have sincere faith. Barna goes on to say that when asking teens to estimate the likelihood that they would continue to live for God and participate in church life once they were on their own, only one out of three teens said they would continue going to church as an adult. Now remember, Barna was talking with teenagers who grew up in the church!
But you may be saying, “Well, our church is much better than most churches; we only loose about half of the kids.” Think about that! How would you divide your group? Which ones would you want to see lost? We don’t want to lose any of our children! We want to build spiritual champions, and that takes perception. It takes being willing to look at our children—observing them as we are preaching or teaching, watching them to see if what we are saying is sinking in. Stop in the middle of the service if necessary and back up until the children understand and integrate into their lives what we are talking about.
Here’s another study I learned about. The study was conducted by the Lutheran Southwestern Seminar, which was entitled, “Factors in Youth and Adult Faith Experience in Development and Longitude Study.” The seminar had launched a study based on the adults who never turned from their faith—throughout their childhood and youth years all the way to adulthood. The studies revealed six common factors that the adults had in common—four of which were relative to their junior high and high school ages.
The first category of adults were those who had Christian parents. The second category were those who had a deep and working relationship with God from the time they were in the fifth grade, leading up to and including their involvement as adults in ministry.
In other words, they were the ones who had such a sincere faith that they were the ones who made it! The adults who, as teens, went on missions trips but did not have the earlier foundation in their faith were the ones who didn’t make it—according to these statistical findings.
Where am I going with all of this? It’s simply this: We have the opportunity to change the future if we are willing to build children into spiritual champions. And that’s by perceiving what’s happening in the lives of kids.
Perceiving worship
What about worship? Have you ever heard it said, “Our girls really get involved in worship, but few of the boys do”? That’s a scary thought. What we are saying is that few of our boys are building spiritual sincerity, and few of our boys will remain committed to Christ when they become adults. We have to do something about it! We must perceive what kids are understanding about worship, then do everything within our abilities to help the children understand what true worship is and how it should become part of their everyday lives.
We don’t want kids to go home singing a peppy praise song. We want the worship time during our kids’ services and activities to be so powerful that the kids will lay on their beds at night worshiping Almighty God!
We have to perceive if the children are understanding the concept of worship. If not, then we need to change something.
Perceiving prayer
Who taught you to pray? Somebody did. Children need to be taught to pray. You can raise up spiritual champions who will serve God the rest of their lives if you teach them to pray.
Perceiving spiritual growth
We have to perceive what spiritual level our kids are at. Their actions should show it. Their attitude should display it. Their attributes should exemplify it. Someone’s attitude should give you a clue as to what next week’s sermon should be about. The Holy Spirit ought to direct your lessons. He can tweak a curriculum that’s already written. So watch the children. Do your kids witness? Do they minister? Do they obey? Are they holy? Are they sacrificial? Observe the children you minister to, then allow the Holy Spirit to show you how to pour into their lives what they need to become spiritual champions.
Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1:6,7, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (NIV).
This is Timothy’s teacher teaching him. This is you speaking into the lives of kids. You’re influencing them. That is what God called you to do. And there is no lesser or greater in the kingdom of God. He has called you to influence young lives—through your life, through your love, through your care, through your personality, with your open arms.
Paul spoke personal insight into Timothy’s life, and he personally displayed a godly intimacy. Likewise, regardless of the size of your children’s group, invest in them. Love each kid. Learn about them. Build relationships with your kids, and keep those relationships going. And if you keep influencing the kids they will keep receiving it.
What is influence all about? It’s when an adult remembers how his teacher or children’s pastor taught him how to pray, how to understand God’s Word, and how to build a relationship with Christ.
There’s going to be a moment when we appear before God and our efforts on earth have ended. The heavens will erupt, and the stands of heaven are going to empty as the heavenly hosts applaud. Why? Because of every child whom we have won to Jesus and built into spiritual champions. Because of every child who lived for God and will go to heaven with us. Just think about that, and realize the critical need for children to receive sincere faith through your influence and empowerment by the Holy Spirit!
That’s what our job is all about: to build spiritual champions. We have to deposit sincere faith in the lives of our kids. Anything less and we risk their eternity. So keep your eyes open, look at your kids, and ask yourself which kids may not have sincere faith and be at risk of not making it to heaven. Then ask the Holy Spirit what you can do to ensure that they make it! And in doing so, the Holy Spirit will anoint you and give you creativity to build spiritual champions!
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