Discipling Children

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates."

All over the world, I find that most parents, are not discipling their children, or looking for them to be discipled. When ask them why this is, in any culture, the conclusions are the same. Primarily, most parents were never discipled themselves, and without any modelling or resourcing they do not know how to go about it. Many of them have not been discipled even in adulthood, and so the cycle continues down the genrations.

Sadly, the church has colluded with this, albeit for the most commendable reasons, taking upon itself the primary task of overseeing the child's spiritual development, Parents are left feeling inadequate, and dependent on the children's workers. They do not see themselves as God's chosen and anointed for the task.

Then there are many who never consider that their children need discipling, they are happy that they have been born again and presume that everything else will now safely wait until they are older. It is quite remarkable that this principle is not applied to other profoundly important areas of their children's lives. Sadly they have not be told or understood the value of discipling, the scriptural command to pass on the lifestyle that is based on Godly values!

So why do children need discipling?

Basically, for the same reasons as adults! Each child is a unique profoundly precious individual in the eyes of God, and their parents. That individuality needs to be recognised, they need some one who knows where they are in their relationship with Jesus and what the problems they are facing, some one who will nurture them, just as they do in every other area of their young lives. God has a unique plan each one!

The way forward must start with the parents, though if the children come from unchurched homes it may be another adult. They need to be supported, equipped and resourced for one of the most important roles they will have...discipling a child.

This opens up more questions than can adequately be answered in one article. What if the parents aren't Christians, does it have to be the parent who sponsors the child, what is the role of the cell leader, what about the cost, can we photocopy and so on. The small book " Hand in Hand" is written to answer these and many other questions, also explaining the ethos of the Living With Jesus equipping track.

Just like adults, children need a track of their own, and one that will give them the opportunity of increasing their love for God, their love for each other and their love for those who are lost to Jesus.