EDITORIAL: Invest in the eternal welfare of children_61305

Posted: 6/10/05

EDITORIAL:
Invest in the eternal welfare of children

Imagine you have $1,000 to invest in a new company. If you deposit your money within the next five to 12 days, you will have a 32 percent chance of getting a huge return–say $100,000. If you wait until days 13 to 18, the odds on receiving the big payoff fall to 4 percent. And if you invest after day 19, your chances for the dividend improve, but only to 6 percent. When would you invest?

The technical, scientific classification for this question is “no-brainer.” You don't even have to think about it. You'd invest somewhere from day five to day 12.

Of course, every analogy breaks down. But this little math problem illustrates churches' challenge of evangelism: The probability of an American becoming a Christian is 32 percent between the ages of 5 and 12. That likelihood falls to 4 percent for people age 13 to 18 and increases only slightly, to 6 percent, for people 19 and older.

Those are the findings of surveys conducted by the Barna Research Group, which in recent years has zoomed the focus of its research onto America's children. The results are published in an important little book, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, by the company's founding leader, George Barna.

Unfortunately, churches aren't capitalizing on those probabilities. Barna Research has learned about 41 percent of the people who attend the average U.S. Protestant church on a weekend are under age 18, and 50 percent of the people who come onto the campus in a week fall in that age range. But less than 15 percent of the average church budget is allocated to children's ministry.

A wise seminary professor often repeated: “Show me a church's budget, and I'll show you its priorities.” So, if we say we are concerned about the care and nurture of children, why don't we invest in children's ministry? More importantly, if we claim to care about the eternal fate of souls, why don't we put our resources where evangelism is most likely to succeed?

One reason, frankly, is we don't take children seriously. Barna admits as much when he discusses why he researched religion for years before ever studying the faith-life of children: “Somehow, the wisdom and necessity of seeing children as the primary focus of ministry never occurred to me. … In my mind, they were people en route to significance–i.e., adulthood–but were not deserving of the choice resources.” Sadly, Barna was not alone. His research shows the majority of pastors and church finance and program committees don't place a priority on leading children to faith in Christ and developing them into strong, mature Christians. Only 24 percent of pastors even mentioned ministry to children as a top priority for their churches. As long as children are safe on the church campus and their parents are satisfied that they're happy, everything is OK.

But it's not. Children hold to the same “odd palate of spiritual beliefs” that muddle the minds of most adults, Barna's research shows. Of 13-year-old Americans, three quarters believe Satan does not exist; “a good person earns entry into heaven by doing enough good works”; and the Bible, Quran, Book of Mormon and other religious texts “are merely different expressions of the same spiritual truths.” Half or more believe “there are no absolute standards for morals and ethics,” “we have no real say in how our lives unfold” and “when Jesus lived on Earth, he committed sins.”

Childhood is the best time to shape those beliefs and form a Christian worldview. According to Barna's research, there is “an astounding level of consistency between the religious beliefs of adults and children.” In other words, whatever beliefs a child develops aren't likely to change later in life.

So, why not pour the resources of our churches into the lives of children, who are most open to the gospel and to spiritual formation? Why not shape their hearts and minds, focusing them on the ways of God, so that they will develop into strong, mature Christians who will lead others, including their own children, toward lives of faithfulness?

Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions should be a must-read for every pastor, children's minister, church budget and education committee member, and Christian parent. It provides not only a prognosis of what's wrong with our churches' ministry to children, but also excellent diagnosis for how to create vibrant, effective ministries.

We need to be about transforming children's souls. They're not pre-people. They're creatures made in God's image, of infinite value, who desperately need salvation.