Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 6: The Role of Parents in Discipling Children

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

Chapter 6: The Role of Parents in Discipling Children
Over the years, many parents have abdicated their responsibility to be the primary discipler of their children. According to recent Barna polls, a great children’s ministry is one of the number one things parents will look for when selecting a church. As a result, churches feel pressured to take on that responsibility.

Becky suggests that Jewish model of parents training and discipling their children deserves more attention. The Bible is full of instructions for parents to take on this responsibility. However, many parents feel inadequate to fulfill this responsibility so it puts children’s minister is the awkward position of helping guide the parents.

The Barna polls reveal that the inadequacy is quite obvious. Even though 85% of parents recognize their responsibility as spiritual leader, more than 66% place that responsibility on the church. In a typical week, less than 10% of parents who regularly attend church: 1. read the Bible together, 2. pray together, or 3. participate in an act of service as a family. And, less than 5% have any worship experience together in a given month (outside of church).

Becky believes that parents who intentionally have a stronger devotional life and a desire to seek God for themselves will be more likely to do the same thing with their children. The thought is that the priorities and practices of the parents will become the priorities and practices of our children. Therefore, an effective children’s ministry will do their best to help equip parents with the tools, confidence, and understanding to nurture the spiritual lives of our children at home.

Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 5: Eli! Eli! I’m Calling You to Children’s Ministry!

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

The main thrust of this chapter is two-fold:
1. To encourage the senior pastor of a church to take interest and get involved in the children’s ministry. Becky has noticed that when the spiritual father of the house is mentally and emotionally engaged with the children of his church, the children are more spiritual healthy, on fire, and secure in who they are in Christ. When the spiritual leader of the house is absent, then the opposite can usually be observed.

2. To recognize the call to children’s ministry. Becky was “tricked” into doing children’s ministry because there was simply no one else who wanted to do it. With a kind of righteous indignation, she took on the task and stumbled upon her destiny. Becky also openly wonders if some senior pastors, missionaries, and five-fold ministers might have missed the call to children’s ministry considering 1/3 of the world population is less than 19 years of age (I’m assuming she has noticed less than 1/3 of five-fold ministers are ministering to children). Lastly, she discusses what many churches would look for in hiring the ideal children’s pastor. Many churches tend to look for clowns, puppeteers, good entertainers, or great administrators who like kids. She challenges churches to hire a person that walks in some type of five-fold ministry. Her reasoning is that children need to be equipped for ministry, not just entertained and managed.

Book: With Christ in the School of Prayer
Chapter 12: Have faith in God; OR, The Secret of Believing Prayer

Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:22-23)

Jesus points out where the faith in the answer to prayer takes its rise, and ever finds its strength. HAVE FAITH IN GOD: this word precedes the other, Have faith in the promise of an answer to prayer. The power to believe a promise depends entirely, but only, on faith in the promiser. Trust in the person begets trust in his word. … The value of the promise depends on the promiser: it is on my knowledge of what the promiser is that faith in the promise depends.

This is so basic, yet so profound. Faith isn’t grounded in how boldly we proclaim a promise. Faith isn’t grounded in how often we pray, or how ferverently we pray, or how much we “stir” up our faith for something. Faith finds it’s foundation in Who (not what) we place our faith in. First and foremost, we must Have Faith in God.

Faith is…the ear by which I hear what is promised, the eye by which I see what is offered…. Through this opened ear the soul tarries under the influence of the life and power of God Himself…. Faith is also the eye to which God shows what He is and does…. When faith now is in full exercise as eye and ear, as the faculty of the soul by which we see and hear God, then it will be able to exercise its full power as hand and mouth, by which we appropriate God and His blessing. The power of reception will depend entirely on the power of spiritual perception.

The above excerpt was originally taken from two long paragraphs. It’s really heavy! In summary, there is an incredible connection between there ear and the eye. These two senses are necessary to perceieve The Promiser and His promise (hear and see). Next, we use our hand and mouth to receive the promise (ask for what has been promised and hold out our hand to receive it). Take a minute, using your imagination, seeing these four things working together: Eye & Ear, Mouth & Hand.

Faith is simply surrender: I yield myself to the impression the tidings I hear make on me. By faith I yield myself to the living God. His glory and love fill my heart, and have the mastery over my life. Faith is fellowship; I give myself up to the influence of the friend who makes me a promise, and become linked to him by it. And it is when we enter into this living fellowship with God Himself, in a faith that always sees and hears Him, that it becomes easy and natural to believe His promise as to prayer.

These three words had a striking impact on me: Faith is Fellowship. Just meditate on this. Seeing God and Hearing God in fellowship. If you could see and hear God, how much easier and natural would it be to believe his promises?

When [God's Children] desire earnestly to obtain an answer from God, they fix their whole heart upon the promise, and try their utmost to grasp that promise in faith. When they do not succeed, they are ready to give up hope; the promise is true, but it is beyond their power to take hold of it in faith. … Learn to believe in God, to take hold of God, to let God take possession of thy life, and it will be easy to take hold of the promise. He that knows and trusts God finds it easy to trust the promise too.

Again, unanswered prayer may the result of extending our faith to obtain a promise. Let’s not give up trying! Let’s redirect our efforts to direct that faith toward’s God, The Promiser.

Precious lessons that Jesus has to teach us this day. We seek God’s gifts; [rather,] God wants to give us HIMSELF first. We think of prayer as the power to draw down good gifts from heaven; [rather,] Jesus is the means to draw ourselves up to God. We want to stand at the door and cry; [rather,] Jesus would have us first enter in and realize that we are friends and children.

Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 4: Determining Our Purpose

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

Chapter 4 – Determining Our Purpose
The origin of Sunday School has an interesting story. In the 18th century, Great Britain was going through an economic downturn. Children were being put to work full-time in factories. Since children were being pulled out of school, they never learned how to read and write, and it resulted in generational poverty. Robert Raikes saw this injustice and organized adult volunteers to teach these kids on the only day the children had off: Sunday. The churches of England took note of his success and decided they too would have Sunday School, but with a Biblical curriculum. Today, churches have a classroom setting for teaching children the Bible because, “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Becky suggests that traditional Sunday School is a 200 year-old wineskin. She believes that God is doing something new in our time, and in our specific situation.

Becky asserts that establishing a vision for a Children’s Ministry is paramount. Everything flows from the vision. In order to determine our vision, two questions must be asked: “What does a child who is a committed ‘follower of Jesus’ look like?” and “What will it take to get him to that level?” Once we know the end result, we can put in place an effective strategy.

For instance, if your vision is to equip children for ministry then the traditional Sunday School model (Bible stories, snack, and coloring pages) would not be enough. Becky suggests that we model our ministry around the passions and gifting of the adult volunteers. Instead of shoving a curriculum book into the hands of a reluctant adult, why not find out what’s on their heart and the gifts that God has graced them with. For 2-3 months, our children could be *passionately* mentored in intercessory prayer, evangelism, mercy, healing, prophecy, altar ministry, and the list goes on. Once our children have been equipped in these areas, they could activity minister in the adult service or even go on a field trip to minister outside of the church.

Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 3: True Discipling & Mentoring of Children

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

Chapter 3 – True Discipling & Mentoring of Children
Becky Fischer reflects on faith practices of the Shiites that she learned about while on a missions trip to India. She was shocked to find the father of a household demonstrating to their sons how to self brutalize themselves with sharp razors one day a year as an act of penance for the sins of their forefathers. This teaching process would begin at the ripe age of 3-years old. Becky realized that an immersion into their faith at such a young age has created boys who will never be neutral about their faith and will most likely never have a desire to leave their faith.

Becky asserts that the discipling process for our children begins at a young age too. She reflects on Isaiah 28:9-10 which says that little-by-little the teaching process begins from the time a child is weaned from the breast.

She defines discipleship as “doing what Jesus did” not just having another Bible study mid-week. In order for our children to do what Jesus did, she suggests that our classrooms need to be setup in such a way to facilitate active participation in the learning process. She gleans wisdom from two subjects in school that got it right: Home Economics and Shop. She suggests hand-on learning is the best way to disciple children in doing what Jesus did. She promotes the following methodology: 1. I do… you watch. 2. I do… you help. 3. You do… I help. 4. You do… I watch.

Becky is encouraged to see many churches using this methodology in the gift of helps. That is, allowing children to serve in every facet of the Sunday service. However, she encourages us to not limit our imagination to just discipling children how to do church on Sunday. Christianity must be taken outside of the four walls of the church, and skills like puppetry, audio/video, and drama are probably not skills that children (or even adults) will use in everyday ministry. She suggests that training and releasing our children to be evangelists, prayer warriors, intercessors, worshipers, healers, and to know God’s voice are life skills that will take them farther and deeper in their relationship with God, as well as, make a greater impact in the people they come across in their everyday life.