The future of the church is with our children.
Very few people would disagree with that statement. But really, how many of us act on that? I’m here in Mukono, Uganda, helping Pastor D at Celebrate Jesus Ministries. This church has amazing point of view on their children’s ministries.
This week, the Sunday service was a Celebration Service, and this time the celebration was for their children. The children ran the service. The worship leader was about 10 years old, and the entire group of children was up there with her – singing and dancing and praising the Lord with all their hearts. Then, a group of 5 children brought the message. Granted, it was pretty short, but imagine the empowerment that comes from being only 10 years old, and bringing the Word of God to your church! After the children spoke, there was a short sermon by one of the parents about the responsibility of parents for raising their children to become leaders in ministry.
After the service there was a church wide picnic, cake, and presents for each of the children.
This is a church that knows what it means to empower their children. On the World Race we’ve been talking about how children don’t have a mini Holy Spirit inside of them – they have the whole thing!!! There isn’t a mini sized Jesus for children, and when they reach a certain age they graduate to a full sized Jesus. So, if that is true, then whey do we in North America often present our children with watered down Bible stories?
This church raises up leaders. The pastor apologized for a smaller congregation – because his congregation keeps leaving to enter ministry in other areas. We didn’t accept his apology, because that is how its supposed to be! He is not holding onto his congregation, but releasing them to follow their own callings. This church is sending out workers to bring the Kingdom.
He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”. –John 10:2
