Of course, children belong in Sunday school. Children and school go together like peanut butter and jelly. But some have suggested that faith is caught more than it is taught. If this is true, children also belong in worship, though there are Sunday mornings when we would rather this were not so. Like it or not, children should be in worship every Sunday, alongside their parents, catching faith. It follows, though, that if they are learning from us what it means to worship faithfully, that we must be worshipping faithfully, also.
In his book Will Our Children Have Faith?, John Westerhoff puts it this way:
The challenge facing the church is in the bland, unconverted, ignorant lives of its members. Until adults in the church are knowledgeable in their faith, have experienced the transforming power of the Gospel, live radical lives characteristic of the disciples of Jesus Christ, no new curriculum, no new insights on learning, no new teacher-training programs, and no new educational technology will save us.
Remember the parables of Jesus about the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price? The question we need to ask is this: Do I have in my experience anything to offer for which anyone would conceivably want to sell all they have to obtain? The quality of our faith will always reveal what we are. And what we are will in the end determine the value and effect of what we do. We must, therefore, pay attention first of all to ourselves.*
Ouch. Tough words. That line about living a radical life "characteristic of a disciple" is particularly convicting. Do I? Do you? Have you found the pearl of great price?
Lord, give us the courage and teach us what we need to know in order to live radically and faithfully.
*Will Our Children Have Faith, John Westerhoff, Morehouse, ©2000. p. 85
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