By Wanda Parker
If you minister with children and/or youth, if you are a parent, if you are a pastor – and you haven’t read “Essential Church?” by Thom and Sam Rainer – YOU SHOULD.
The church is in deep trouble. According to the Rainers’ research 70% of churched kids are walking away from the Lord because the church has never been made essential in their lives.
I really like what they are saying and I am going to add my penny’s worth of wisdom that I’ve learned over my 40 years of working with children and parents. As I read the book I will blog in response.
1. In talking about the non-essential church the Rainers say, ”They have no clear process or structure for making disciples, in obedience to the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20″ pg 6
Does your church have a plan for the individualistic discipleship of children from birth up? If they don’t you are going to lose many of your own children.
Years ago I was told of study where they took adult siblings who had grown up in Christian homes and one had walked away from the Lord while the other continued to walk with the Lord. The question they were asking was “Why?” I think that when they began they thought they would learn that it was something that happened within the home.
BUT! What they learned was that the sibling who walked away from the Lord had never felt connected to the local church growing up.
The sibling who continued to walk with the Lord into adulthood had close connections with adults within the local body of Christ other than mom and dad.
In other words he was discipled by members of the church other than mom and dad. He felt he was ESSENTIAL TO THE CHURCH because of these intentional relationships.
This feeling of being essential to the church must begin in the Nursery.
KidTrek is passionate about equipping The Church to disciple children who will grow to become Christ-changed, hope-filled, productive adults. Click here if your church would like to know more about getting equipped to disciple their children.
” My only concern was quality. Size came as a result…
“Be sure the core of your work is good…
It is never a question of building a bigger Sunday School
but rather of building a better one.”
Henrietta Mears
4 responses so far ↓
“Essential Church?” and Children’s Ministry #3 « Why Missionaries to America? // June 29, 2009 at 10:30 am |
[...] my comments in regard to Essential Church? by Thom and Sam Rainer. Check two previous posts #1 here and #2 [...]
Essential Church – Children’s Discipleship and Summer Ministry « Why Missionaries to America? // July 14, 2009 at 11:13 am |
[...] I am continuing the discussion of what an Essential church is for children’s discipleship. I don’t have a quote from the book “Essential Church?” today but wanted to discuss the importance of summer ministry. See previous posts for more on the importance of an essential church and the dsicipleship of children. Following are previous post links and topics: Discipleship of Infants and Toddlers click here, the high calling of discipling children and the difference adults can make in life of a child click here, is your church raising up 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation Christians click here, the importance of parents modeling their faith, of the church modeling the faith click here, research shows that 70% of churched kids are walking away – does your church have a plan to disciple your children click here [...]
Essential Church:Children’s Discipleship Summer Ministry cont’ « Why Missionaries to America? // July 15, 2009 at 3:00 pm |
[...] 70% of churched kids are walking away – does your church have a plan to disciple your children click here Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Essential Church – Children’s Discipleship [...]
Essential Church – Discipleship of Children – Super Summer Sundays « Why Missionaries to America? // July 20, 2009 at 10:47 am |
[...] Here are links to previous posts on the Discipleship of Children: Discipleship through Summer Ministry #1 click here, Discipleship through Summer Ministry #2 click here, Discipleship of Infants and Toddlers click here, the high calling of discipling children and the difference adults can make in the life of a child click here, is your church raising up 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation Christians click here, the importance of parents modeling their faith, of the church modeling the faith click here, research shows that 70% of churched kids are walking away – does your church have a plan to disciple your children click here [...]