Church-Parent Partnership in Discipling Children

The church's role is to nurture, encourage and equip parents to train and disciple their own child. This was the main theme of my article in the summer edition of the ChinaSource Journal titled, "As the Family Goes, So Goes the Church." The local church has the responsicility to engage and equip parents to be spiritual leaders of their child. God's Word teaches that parents have the primary responsibility to disciple their child - not the church or the school. Parents have become distracted by the self-imposed pressure to help their child excel intellectually and are not giving as much attention to mentoring their child to know, love and serve God. Church leaders in china must reclaim their responsibility to nurture the spiritual life of parents so that they, in thurn, can train their own child spiritually.

During the last few years, there has been a growing realization in the church around the world of the need to develop far more effective ministries with children and youth. Leaders recognize that they have not given proper attention to targeting this demographic group. In response, there has been an increasing realization in China to "rethink" the way we mentor and disciple children.

Helping Children Do Great Things for Tomorrow

What are you doing today to help your children accomplish great things for God tomorrow? This morning I read 1 Chronicles 22-27. These chapters describe how David prepares for the temple that his son, Solomon, will build to honor God. David gathers the building materials but the task of finishing the duty goes to Solomon.

David is a good example of a farsighted father. The greatness which Solomon would later achieve was a large measure due to the careful planning and provision which his father, David, made before his death. Though Solomon receives the acclaim for building the temple which bears his name, it was David who drafted the blueprints, gathered the materials, signed up the workers and created an elaborate public relations program to ensure support! David envisioned greatness in his son that he himself would never achieve, and he did his best to pave the way for it.

What sort of heritage will you leave your children to build upon? Will they someday be able to thank God for your farsightedness in building a library, providing for their education, or instilling a vision for ministry that they can continue after you are gone? Take some time today to plan a project for future spiritual greatness for your children.

Raising The Next President

We received some wise parenting advice today from an unlikely source. We visited the William Howard Taft Historic Site, the birthplace of the only man to serve as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the United States. The park ranger's guided tour emphasized the importance of Taft's family, and the National Park Service brochure amplified the purposeful efforts of his parents in guiding his upbringing. Taft's mother Louise wrote about her parenting strategy in 1860, when Taft was three years old and the Civil War was about to begin. Louise Taft wrote, "I am more and more impressed with the responsibility of training children properly. It is what we are, not what we do in reference to them, which will make its impression on their lives." Listen again: "what we are, not what we do" that fulfills "our responsibility of training children properly." The brochure recounts the efforts that Taft's parents made toward that end, opening their home for Christmas sing-alongs, games and dances, dinners with Taft's friends, and discussions about slavery and women's suffrage with visiting celebrities. Taft fondly remembered his childhood as he matured into the President and the Chief Justice.

How do we fulfill our responsibility to raise our children properly? How do we use our homes? How will our children remember their childhood? I pray that we will have the same impression on our children that Louise Taft had on her future President and Chief Justice of the United States.

"4/14 Window Summit" in Cameroon

My 13 year old daughter, Laura, and I just returned from a two week trip to Cameroon. We went with a team of people to launch the vision of the 4/14 Window movement in that country. We partnered with Silas Nfor and a steering committee of Cameroon children's ministry leaders.

The 4/14 Window is a missions strategy to focus on a demographic season of life comprising the years between 4 and 14. This is the time in a person's life when they are most receptive to the gospel of Christ. Research data shows that 85% of those who become Christians do so between the ages of 4 and 14.

On January 4-5, 2010 we launched the 4/14 Window Summit in Bamenda, Cameroon. The purpose of the summit was to bring the vision of the 4/14 Global Movement to church leaders in Cameroon. Eighty leaders representing 25 churches and ministries gathered to hear about this new global mission strategy. Ten people gave presentations on the importance of the 4/14 Window and strategies to raise up a new generation to transform the world.