Whole Family Outreach and Discipleship

Why is whole family outreach and discipleship important? Out of many possible reasons, let me suggest five.

1. For too long we have seen children in isolation.
We have recognised the fact that children are the most unreached people group in the world , but they are incredibly easy to spot because they are found everywhere. Most of our Evangelical churches usually engage in strategies to reach children with sincere and pure motives to tell them the good news of Jesus. Christians are involved in outreaches to children on the streets, in schools, using a huge variety of methods. Yet what about the parents and grandparents….? What about reaching the whole family, the extended household? The wonderful news is that great strides are being made in this area. Something is changing. For many years Bill Wilson’s Sidewalk Sunday School pioneered in this area by visiting each child and their familiy at home every week, providing practical support wherever possible to the whole family. In the UK, the Kidz Klubs around the country follow the same groundbreaking model.

Opportunities to engage with parents outside or church doors are increasing. There is a fresh awakening of a desire in parents to understand more about how their children are wired. And to be the best parent they can. I have also observed (and this has to be a purely anecdotal comment) a rising desire in churches to reach out to and support families. More and more children’s pastors or children and family workers are being appointed to work alongside the army of youth workers and youth pastors. This can be a double-edged sword. Having a paid worker can allow for fresh initiatives to happen in abundance, but I would caution that we need less of a “programme” approach and more of an Old and New Testament approach to families. The church leadership team, and particularly those who teach and preach, still need to direct and guide the congregation on how to include, nurture and disciple the young.

2. In the UK/Europe/USA we face a desperate state of affairs.
God is stirring something up – are we standing at the cusp of another great reformation?

We cannot remain complacent by simply assuming that the children we have already will remain in the church. In both the USA and the UK all the evidence is that this isn’t happening. In the year 2000 the church-going population of Great Britain was 4.4 million and 19% of this figure were children aged 15 or under, i.e. 836,000 children. By 2025 the churchgoing population is estimated to be 2.3 million with 5% aged 15 or under i.e. 115,000 . That’s a huge decrease in 15 years or so, if current projections continue. We will have lost 721,000 children in a 25 year period that we are almost halfway through.
If we were to go back to 1990’s figures and compare this with the 2025 estimate, we will have lost contact with 1.1 million children.
“we (the UK) are one generation away from extinction” - has been said by many voices. We need to let these words sink in without frightening each other into a picture of gloom. There IS hope – and to quote the UK researcher Peter Brierley :

“Strategic action needs to be taken in the next ten years if this position is not to occur. It is no good waking up in 2030 and not liking what one sees; the opportunity to change that future picture has to be taken by 2015”.

I said there was hope. Something is stirring and a reformation is happening that you as readers have the opportunity to be part of. Professor Rebecca Nye has said :-

“Since the reformation, many emergent movements come from lone, marginal voices. Are we in the middle of a new movement or voice?”

There has been a child theology movement for a number of decades now but I believe I have seen a rise in its influence over more recent years. I have watched the advent of movements like “Will You Make a Difference?” producing thought-provoking resources for people to use in their local congregations. The 4-14 window organisation is another movement started in 2009. The Barna Organisation has been researching the religious influences upon children, youth and families for many years now.

Negativity and decline is NOT the picture across the whole world. There are lessons to learn from churches in nations who are experiencing tremendous growth due to what I would summarise as this: children contribute to and partake in kingdom practices – they are being discipled as naturally as drawing breath through the input of the whole church which means they learn to pray with expectant faith, worship chasing the presence of God and engage naturally in mission which is marked by signs and wonders.

3. Discipling children and families is biblical. I finished a few months of research on this in September. Get the book when its finished ;-)

4. Discipling children and their families is one of the areas we need to pour our time and attention into because it’s been ignored.

When I studied for my theology degree, I had to audit the theological content of a range of resources in a category of my choosing. I chose to focus on published material that discipled children. Here’s what I found:
Most devotional/educational resources in the UK/USA concentrated on:
- telling children about the gospel (VBS, holiday clubs, midweek clubs, Scripture Union group material)
- getting them into the Bible (Bible reading notes, Bibles in age-specific formats, Bible quiz books)
- telling children narrative stories about past of present-day heroes of the faith in paperback form or fictional stories about children and their families
- there are some specific Christian resources written for children dealing with specific pastoral situations such as divorce, bereavement and loss.

You will quickly see that this list focuses on the impartation of information – head knowledge. Thankfully this is beginning to change but I would argue not fast enough and, actually, a curriculum or book of itself is not going to bring about a sea-change.

There are relatively few resources possibly because Christians aren’t always in agreement with the status of children before God. And because it’s not seen as an important area to write about. (Consider how many books on church leadership there are!)

5. Discipling children and their families results in natural mission - you'll need to ask me about my experiences in this in person or buy the book in 6 months time!

It looks pretty certain that we are going to move city to step into the next phase of this in our own lives and I just can't wait. The time of preparation has felt quite long but it feels like its been a car revving up and I am so grateful to those leaders around me who have cheered me on and held my arms up when I've got tired.

You've let me - and wanted me - to be around you, but most of all you really have loved me and guided me these past 8 months and you have believed in what I'm doing. You don't think I was crazy to leave my last post as you recognised a "God At Work" roadsign. At the start of this "sabbatical time" I needed folks to get where I was coming from and what the motivation of my heart was. I'm a broken vessel, I am so aware of that, and I won't ever forget what it has felt like to be a recipient of such honour, love and acceptance.

The ditches are being dug and all, ALL, glory to God for whatever fruit comes out of this time.

Can't sleep

I was teaching a seminar this week on Holy Spirit gifts to men and women on our year-out programme and there were loads of questions related to past experiences and inaccurate teaching in other places and it so reminded me that the church is CRYING out for solid theological and practical teaching on the Holy Spirit and his work in the world today. One of the personal highlights for me was Professor David Ford teaching on the gift of tongues with such clarity and insight. And he's Prof at Cambridge. CAMBRIDGE!

All of this stuff came flooding back to me, partly related to a proposed second conference on the Holy Spirit in the World today, down in London town.

It's a long, long way away and not cheap to get there...some things are worth investing in though!

Children and the Holy Spirit in the World today

This is a very brief splurge..........

Why is a children and family pastor at a theological conference on the Holy Spirit?
What direct application does this have for my role?
Why was my church so kind to let me go in work time and pay my train fare?
(to shut me up?)
(to get rid of me for a few days?)

No way. Wasn't for those reasons.

I have accumulated some head knowledge about God through studying, but in addition I have spent the last six years teaching and modelling things to children and more so teaching my teams who teach children the things God has taught me. I have, in particular, been watching the signs of how young people are responding - and watching the signs of what God is doing over the nations of this world through the young.

Since 2006, I have been talking with my equivalent staff members in centres of outpouring and powerful renewal moves such as Bethel and TACF. I have visited Toronto twice. I have had the Toronto guys in Scotland to minister to my families. I have studied theology and in particular church history as it pertains to children and young people. I have looked at biblical instructions to families in the OT and NT. I have read how eminent theologians saw children (early church fathers, the Reformers - check out any Marcia Bunge books). I have read scholarly reviews of how faith develops (Westerhoff and Fowler) and combined these with educational theory (Bronfenbrenner) and studies on nurture (Bushnell, Wilhoit/Dettoni)

Then I have looked at the trend of children leaving the church in swathes e.g.in Britain and in the USA (Christian Research findings, Barna Organisation, empirical observation). I have watched how families respond in church (must have toys or edible distractions for all non-puppet moments). I have listened to the thoughts of hundreds of children under my pastoral care (literally) in two churches - how they have expressed their experience of faith; their hopes for the future and their faltering fear of not making it through 12 years of education with their faith still in place.

Readers, its time for the church in Britain to stop giving birth to children whose experience of faith causes them to feel like victims. Where they are picked on and ashamed of having a faith. Where they are marginalised in their classes because they go to church. With all my heart I want to teach and train pastors, leaders, parents and children that children were created to be victors, not victims. This is *not* about triumphalism. This is about children understanding that those who love Jesus are invited into the most loving and accepting community - the Trinity!- that they could ever find. Those who are hidden in Christ become one with Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit! As much as I need the Father and the Son, I need the Holy Spirit to empower me and give me hope just when I feel I'm running low.

Pneumatology has a place in the spiritual formation of the young. We talk lots about Jesus and tell all his stories, but we also need to tell stories about the work of the Holy Spirit! I posted elsewhere on this blog: how can children love someone whose name they haven't even heard? Right now, in this nation, boys and girls are going to churches where they are taught either nothing or half-truths about the Holy Spirit. How can they keep on, keeping on without the precious Holy Spirit? I don't say this flippantly, but if I spent seven years in primary education being told the same stories again and again, engaging the head without the heart being touched by the phileo - demonstrated love of the Father - I'd be off out the door too.

And its through the Holy Spirit that we release our children into the supernatural - there is no junior Holy Spirit! It's exciting to be a Christian! Not meant to be dull and one-dimensional, but to be felt, experienced, laughed, cried, tried and practised. And dare I say - played with? Yes! It's fun listening to God! Praying for others! For more on this, read anything by Heidi Baker and how God uses the young in Mozambique. Or Visions Beyond the Veil
by H A Baker. <--- That one will get you!

I don't say any of this flippantly. I am absolutely serious about the fact that I know the set of circumstances that led me to leave a secure teaching job to do the job I do now, to labour under a second degree, to have the opportunities to influence some kids leaders and pastors in this little nation here, are all because of what is coming. Most people doing the kind of job I am doing did not intend to do it. They were involved in other work, secular or otherwise. This fact is substantiated by Becky Fischer in her book "Redefining Children's Ministry in the 21st Century".

With all my heart I believe that we will once again see children flooding through the doors of the churches who have repented of the wrong attitudes and are ready to receive a little child. I believe the hearts of fathers and mothers will be won through many, many children and we are in a season of "getting ready" - to disciple children who in turn will disciple their parents. I wrote a paper on this for Alpha at one point in the past. I also believe that theological trainers and church leaders need to weigh what I have just said: if it is true, or even possibly true, then every major church growth initiative/minister training school should have some component somewhere that looks at children and family in the Bible, looks at discipleship amongst children and families and most important of all, examines their own heart towards children. I have found these statements here to have been the most requested material I have ever written.

Further info here: Can Children Be Filled With The Holy Spirit?

And so I need good theology. I need to be well taught. I need to read and reflect because I am often so busy "doing".. I need to rest from work so that I can work from rest (HT to mark stibbe for that line!) for I think I am to help other people catch this vision and therefore I am deeply grateful to my church leaders for allowing me to go.

I am really blessed to be in a place where resources are released to me when I need them, where the leaders are permissioning, where the young are considered, even though I am probably a pain, but please do read as a last word the prophecy by Jean Darnell. I don't just believe it's coming but I believe I am witnessing some of it now.

Splurge over. This all kind of flowed out in a oner so I may just delete it in the cold light of day.....

Follow up to last post due to popular demand

Thanks for all the comments on the last post and the emails and phone calls that I have received. Seems like some pastors sent people to read this post :-)
I guess I wanted to add briefly that loads of people are telling stories from lesser-read places in the Bible and that's immense. Great news and go for it! The challenge is: the application. I am presenting a seminar that might on first glance sound a little controversial. It's on why telling stories is not enough. (Bear with me!)

I read a seminal book at Bible college on allowing the Holy Spirit to influence one's preaching (by the wonderfully named "Zuck"). Yet why is it with children, some "lessons" always seem to have the same teaching point - so a few weeks ago SU's Xstream material examine Acts 16 v 16 onwards - Paul and Silas in jail, how did they get out, what happened to the jailer and his family etc. Great stuff. Brilliant, inspiring story.

But what got them put in jail? v 16 onwards was in the childrens' readings/leaders notes, indicating to me that the SU writer didn't want us to overlook that.

A woman under the influence of a demon was delivered! Paul and Silas were fulfilling Jesus manifesto from Luke 4 - this is THE key point in the story to me!! They did as He did, and what He did demonstrated the Kingdom, and where we are the Kingdom is as He lives in us. And when they rebuked the evil spirit........they incurred the wrath of the religious authorities. Could it just be possible that we teach children to:
(a) ignore the miraculous?
(b) defer to our experience and expectation?
(c) not teach kingdom theology which isn't just a matter or words but of power?
(d) not relate Scripture to everyday experience?

And so I found the Holy Spirit whispering to me to talk to the children about occult practices and also about the power of God to deliver people out of the enemy's hands. I showed the Bible story itself from the Visual Bible on DVD and it shows what happened very well when she was set free, in my experience. I particularly liked how the servant girl was part of the gathered church in a later shot :-)

I then led into a discussion with the children (older ones, P6s and 7s) as to what happened; eliciting their responses: what did she look like before? what change could they see in her face and expressions after she had been delivered? Was it a complicated process? Why were the religious authorities so angry about what happened? What lessons are there for us in this story?

Every day in UK schools vulnerable children are told about/encouraged in or actually practise: reading horoscopes/palm reading/throwing runes/ouija/fortune telling etc
How will they know this is wrong if Christian parents/influencers do not tell them?

So, in your preparations: - ask the Holy Spirit: what would He have you draw out from the Scriptures tomorrow? Has it breathed life into you as you prepare? Holy Spirit, what is the application you want me to bring to THIS group of children?
I am truly sorry for the times when I have not allowed your word to do that.

Children Seeing Angels

I am heartened by this little piece of research reported in The Telegraph, on children having "dreams with a religious connection" and about children seeing angels, reported here

I spoke about this very topic on the Vision and Training Day on Saturday and I am reminded of many of these occurrences in the past six years of pastoring children and their families. Here are some I have experienced - and I am only one person in one country....:-

A 4 year old drawing the throneroom of God, complete with correct number of creatures around the throne with the prerequisite number of wings.
A 5 year old who has been raised (in her mum's words) in a religious vacuum because of her own atheism, the child never been to church, did not own a Bible, never (at that point of P1) having had any RE lessons in school and yet asked her mum why Jesus had died on a cross. Her mum (not a believer) did not know how she could know this and we wondered if it had come to her daughter in a dream or a vision.
A 6 year old seeing a very tall angel in the church's meeting room and describing its position in the building to me.
A 7 year old seeing an angel in exactly the same position in the building and telling their parent, who told me, neither of them knowing that another child had described the same thing.
A 6 year old waking up in the morning to tell their parents that God had taken them up into heaven and showed them a golden city there. He described the colours he saw and then told his parents that God had spoken to him and said: "there is nothing in the sea that will harm you" (exact words. Not your usual 6 year old kind of words)

I am UTTERLY convinced that we need to release and expect such revelations in our children. Are these to be unusual prophetic manifestations? Perhaps. But perhaps more likely, I believe, is that we who parent, teach or train are to build EXPECTATION in our children; that God is living and active; that he wants to have a positive, godly, heavenly influence on our children's minds, because if he doesn't, then there is one who will. I hardly need to conduct a blog poll to ask how many of us reading this have or know of children who have bad dreams.

Readers, it's time to REDEEM our children's dreams and daydreams for God. Teach your child that God communicates today in all manner of ways. He really, really does. Please note that I will never undermine the importance of the Bible - anything God reveals in dreams and visions is to be tested and matched up against the Bible and in all of the examples I have come across children have heard and seen exactly as if written in the Bible.

Consider the words of the Jean Darnell prophecy given in 1987

The Lord is going to send a tremendous revelation of Himself to boys and girls in this country. Between the ages of nine and fifteen particularly, children will begin to have a revelation of Jesus. They will see Him, they will know Him, they will hear Him, He will speak to them. He will come to them in visions and dreams, He will reveal His word to them. They will be converted and filled with the Holy Spirit and gifted by Him. And they will start praying. They will be healed themselves, and they will start praying for each other; and there will be wonderful healings through these boys and girls.

They will not only be the children of Christian parents. The Lord is going to manifest Himself to those who are in non-Christian homes where there is no love nor real family unity, where there is no knowledge of the Lord at all: perhaps not only for one generation but for many generations no Christian person has been in that family. But Jesus is going to meet them and reveal His power and His presence to them and His love for them. When they start coming to our children and to our teachers and telling what they are seeing and hearing from the Lord, our duty will be to receive them and love them as they are- because they will be rough diamonds, and they will have rather unusual, un-churchy language. But their experiences will be real. Some of their experiences will be so unusual you may doubt them. At that point receive their testimonies at face value, give them the word of God, and teach them how to love: because these children will have ministries not only as children, but as leaders in their adult life, and they will bless your country and other countries. So receive these children, teach them. Those of you who teach Sunday school, those of you who have children in your home and neighbourhood whom you are concerned about, begin to ask the Lord to raise your level of expectation of what they can receive, because they are going to start hearing. And just like the adults, they will start hearing the word and receiving the Lord and being able to receive deep spiritual experiences in the Lord.

We need to not only get ready, but to open our hearts to all that God has prepared for our children and young people. It's time to get ready, to get all hands on deck.

Can children be filled with the Holy Spirit?

I have written this as part of a research paper. It may end up in a book, so please do not quote me without acknowledging the source
However, I got fairly panned for my views in my theology degree. Ah well. I was a bit upset about it I'm over it now!

Can children be filled with the Holy Spirit?

We need to first ask if children can have a personal faith and love for God.

John Westerhoff’s Theory of Faith Development is relevant to this question. He uses the analogy of a tree to describe the growth of faith in developing human persons. He says “a tree with one ring is as much a tree as a tree with four rings” , in other words experienced faith, the first stage of faith development, is as valuable for a person to possess as owned faith, the final stage. So a very young child can profess love for God the Father and Jesus the Son AND the Holy Spirit their helper – but adults need to teach even very young children about the Holy Spirit. How can you love someone whose name you do not know?

All those who nurture, teach and train children need to make clear that faith is a journey and the goal should be to move towards owned faith; which is the point at which one would lay their life down for their faith. I believe the Holy Spirit, in his role as empowerer and helper, assists with this journey, as I hope to prove later.

Is there any historical evidence of children being filled with the Holy Spirit or exercising spiritual gifts?
Ronald Kydd has examined spiritual gifts in the first three centuries of the church. He draws a clear conclusion that spiritual gifts were very important in this period. He says:
“We have drawn (material) from virtually every kind of person in the church. We have heard from bishops and heretics, philosophers and poets, storytellers and theologians. Generally speaking….the church prior to AD 200 was charismatic .”

Around AD 177, Bishop Irenaeus provides a list of spiritual gifts seen in the church very similar to those found in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 . Irenaeus is just one of a number of Christians from the past who observed gifts in action firsthand and recorded their occurrence for interested parties to read today. Although children are not specifically mentioned in the ancient primary sources under investigation in Kydd’s book, this does not mean that children were excluded from being filled with the Spirit or from exercising the gifts brought by the Spirit. Non-mention does not necessarily mean exclusion. One can assume that children were part of communal worship. They were learning about faith in action from their parents and the extended community around them. Catherine Stonehouse points out that many events recorded in the Bible included children as well as adults.

Childcare programmes are an altogether modern invention. It can be presumed that children were present when spiritual gifts were being exercised and even practicing them in a very natural way, as part of the body of believers. Just because we do not specifically read a chapter and verse reference to a child prophesying or exercising the gift of faith, does not mean it did not happen.

There appears to be a dying out of charismatic practices in written records of early church history after AD 260. Ronald Kydd notes that after this point in time the church was “highly organised, well educated, wealthy and socially powerful ” which sounds remarkably similar to the present day.

Harry Sprange describes many situations from past centuries where children were present during great moves, or effusions, of God’s Holy Spirit in the nation. Sometimes children were present in the gatherings alongside adults; sometimes in there were separate meetings for children. Particularly striking are accounts from the time of George Whitefield’s visits to Scotland, from 1741 to 1743, where children under twelve years old hear the preaching to repent and show great manifestations of sorrow and subsequent signs of being overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is difficult from snippets of primary sources contained within a secondary source to accurately grasp the extent of how the Scottish revivals affected children. The quote below from a Church of Scotland minister, James Robe, in 1734, is a striking example:

“ I had a room full of little ones yesternight making a pleasant noise and outcry for Christ; and two of the youngest; one of them but ten years of age, fainting and so distressed they could scarcely go home. I cannot write to you of the wonder I saw; one of eleven years of age crying out that she was sick of sin, and crying out with hands uplifted to heaven…….. “

The Cane Ridge camp meeting in Kentucky is an example from another continent and at a later date. In 1800, upwards of twelve to twenty-five thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds stayed for days and weeks to receive “the mighty power of God….with heavenly fire spreading in all directions…” At one meeting there was between twelve to twenty five thousand people present. Evidence from sources like this has to lead to the conclusion that children were not excluded from the opportunity to deepen their faith and experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Whole families came and stayed to partake in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at that time.

Sources:
J Westerhoff, Will Our Children Have Faith? (Revised Ed) Toronto: Morehouse Publishing 2000, 90
R Kydd, Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church Peabody: Hendrickson 1991, 87
C Stonehouse, Joining Children on the Spiritual Journey, Grand Rapids: Baker Books 1998, 32
H Sprange, Children in Revival, Fearn:Christian Focus Publications 2002, 37
K Hardman, Issues in American Christianity, Grand Rapids: Baker Books 1993, 120

Children and the Holy Spirit

I have been feeling a strong urge for some time to teach into the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Can children be filled with the Holy Spirit? What are your views on the Holy Spirit? Are you very cautious, as Francis Bridger is in his book "Children Finding Faith", or are you the exact opposite, like Rich Hubbard in his book "Taking Children Seriously"?

if this question is to be answered in an unbiased manner, one must first ask if children can have a personal faith and love for God. For if children can love God, then they receive the Spirit of sonship and can be filled to overflowing with his Holy Spirit.

John Westerhoff’s Theory of Faith Development is relevant to this question. He uses the analogy of a tree to describe the growth of faith in developing human persons. He says “a tree with one ring is as much a tree as a tree with four rings” , in other words experienced faith, the first stage of faith development, is as valuable for a person to possess as owned faith, the final stage. So a very young child can profess love for God the Father and Jesus the Son AND the Holy Spirit their helper – but adults need to teach even very young children about the Holy Spirit.

How can you love someone whose name you do not know?

There is much more I could say here, but it is the subject of a research paper that has to be externally marked so I will have to leave it here! ** Update - I have now been able to reveal more of my views now that my degree is finished! See entry on 27 Augus 2009.
I have to recommend Clark Pinnock's book "Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit". An awesome book in every meaning of the word!

I feel a call to make sure in our kids ministry programme that the Holy Spirit is taught about at cerebral level, welcomed at a personal level and free at a corporate level to minister to children.