On the topic of children and house church I have offered this quote before from Wayne Jacobsen before. I think it’s extremely insightful:
But don’t our children need church activities? I’d suggest that what they need most is to be integrated into God’s life through relational fellowship with other believers. 92% of children who grow up in Sunday schools with all the puppets and high-powered entertainment, leave ‘church’ when they leave their parents’ home. Instead of filling our children with ethics and rules we need to demonstrate how to live in God’s life together.
Even sociologists tell us that the #1 factor in determining whether a child will thrive in society is if they have deep, personal friendships with non-relative adults. No Sunday school can fill that role. I know of one community in Australia who after 20 years of sharing God’s life together as families could say that they had not lost one child to the faith as they grew into adulthood. I know I cut across the grain here, but it is far more important that our children experience real fellowship among believers rather than the bells and whistles of a slick children’s program.
Comments
4 responses to “More On Children”
Where did you get that statictic from…?
That would be a question for Wayne Jacobsen at: http://www.lifestream.org/lsfrontpage.html
If you find out, let us know.
Great info. Roger! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Roger! Very insightful (inciteful?) quote. I am in agreement. This issue is huge because at the core is what our faith and what God has done is all about. To “transmit” our faith through will or teaching is virtually impossible. Faith grows like the grass, or comes as the wind as does the Spirit of God. The DNA that is in us IS GOD’s SPIRIT, that’s transmittable. Kids can get that through Godly relational love: our inter-relationships, our close, abiding, discipling attentions.Listening, caring, helping, living life together, getting through stuff together. We don’t really get that in programs, although some are excellent and very valuable. Nothing compares to the bond between a parent and child, brother and sister – family ties. That’s why God is called our “Father” and we are all to be family. Are we really living as family? Perhaps we have yet to experience true “church”?