The Importance of the Children’s Work in the Church
Posted on Nov 10, 2015 in Lord's Day Ministry | 0 commentsScripture Reading: Deut. 6:7-9; Prov. 22:6; 2 Tim. 3:15; Acts 16:31; 1:14; Rom. 12:12
I. In the past we did not focus on the children’s work; however, if children’s education is not developed, it will be difficult to have a healthy society—cf. Deut. 6:7-9; 11:18-20; Prov. 22:6; Eph. 6:4; 2 Tim. 3:15.
II. At the beginning, children’s meeting was mainly to care for the saints who brought their children to the meeting; it was simply a child-care service; gradually, the matter of preparing teachers came in, and we compiled material:
- From our experience we feel that the children’s work is very important; the children’s work should not simply be babysitting in order for the saints to come to the meetings.
- However, the children’s work has another function, that is, to cultivate and nurture our next generation; this is worthy of our careful consideration and examination.
III. The children’s work has an additional function, which is to gain the families of the children—Acts 16:31; cf. Exo. 12:3-4; Gen. 7:1:
- Children like to make friends; it is particularly easy for children between the ages of six and twelve to make friends, and they listen to their friends:
- It is therefore easy for a child to lead another child; when the children sing hymns together, the gospel is operating and spreads from one child to another child.
- Our purpose, however, is not focused only on the children, but even more, through the children, we want to reach their parents and siblings.
- From this we can see the importance of the children’s work; the children’s work is greatly related to the growth of the church.
- There is not a definite way to take care of the children’s work; there should not be only one aspect to the children’s work:
- There should be many locations for the children’s work, meetings can be held at different times, and we can use different methods to conduct the children’s meetings; there should also be many goals, and the teaching material should also cover many aspects:
- Having many locations—their meetings must have many locations; every saint should open his home and have a children’s meeting in his home.
- Having material—we have considered using videotaped material, which some localities use; we want to produce a video that shows children from various countries wearing their traditional dress and singing the hymns.
- Having many purposes—we can also contact the children’s parents and preach the gospel to them and to their relatives; this is the principle of our gospel work; the more people we contact, the better.
- Having many ways—the households with children can take the initiative to open their homes and ask their children to invite other children in the neighborhood; the children can watch the children’s videotapes, sing children’s songs, or listen to a story; this is the way to have a children’s meeting once a week.
- Having different times—it is best to have different meeting times for the children’s meetings; the schedule should be flexible; we need to utilize the time when the children are out of school to have children’s meetings.
- The way to carry out the children’s work depends on the brothers taking the lead in the children’s work:
- We should not make any special arrangements to get teachers for the children’s meetings in the meeting halls; rather, we should find a number of younger brothers and sisters who meet regularly to be the teachers; this kind of service does not require much manpower.
- We need to prepare material for the children’s meeting; we should not have children’s meetings without preparation:
- The brothers taking the lead in the children’s work need to write and compile material; but the saints can decide the best way to use it.
- If some saints are designated to prepare teaching material, the saints will not need to labor that much; we can give only some principles related to the children’s work; it is up to the saints to carry them out.
- The children’s meetings should be in many locations, at different times, and use different methods; we hope that all the saints will pray concerning this matter and not take it lightly; this requires everyone’s cooperation—Acts 1:14; Col. 4:2; Rom. 12:12.
recorded November 8, 2015 in Irvine