Discipling Our Children

On Sunday May 15th, parents with children ages 2-5 and 6-12 were requested to meet with pastor and leadership teams directly following the service to discuss the process of making our children disciples of Jesus Christ. (A disciple is a person who has come to know and love God, their neighbor and is making disciples.)  This will require a radical change from what we and many churches and parents do to train up their children in the admonition and nurture of the Lord.

The presentation will challenge parents and other gifted members of the church to engage in discipling children.

The presentation on the 15th laid out a scriptural process that included incremental steps to accomplish our goal. It will be necessary for the parents and members of the leadership team to develop metrics to guide the  process. The metrics will permit us to judge the progress by the fruit that is produced in the lives of our children and parents.

The biblical philosophy was laid out during the May 15, 2011, Sunday sermon.

As we move forward in the discipleship process it would be profitable to consider the following:

• Every member of humanity that interacts with our children has the potential of  depositing something positive or negative in their lives.
•  Parents have the greatest influence on their children. In a very real sense God has engaged them in the creative process of forming their character, including manors, philosophy, work ethic, and spiritual formation,(Genesis 18:19) “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”(Ephesians 6:4)  And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
•  It is only logical that parents must be discipled, encouraged and reinforced by the members of the body of Christ if they are disciple their children to be true followers of Christ.
• After our initial meeting it became obvious that it would take a concerted effort on the part of those who have successfully raised children and the and those graced with the ministry gifts enumerated in Ephesians 4 to participate with parents to accomplish our goal.