Lately I have been thinking about the strategy that the church uses as a means to encourage the spiritual formation of others, specifically children. The following is the beginning of a series of articles that attempts to understand how we can do this (better).

Before any effective and biblical strategy can be developed, the church must understand its role and how it relates to the role of the home. If the church does all the intentional spiritual teaching and the parents do little or no intentional spiritual teaching, then the child suffers. This reliance of the parent upon the church is not only a poor use of time, but also an abdication of their God given responsibility. Children are highly influenced by the environment around them. Parents spend far more time with their children than the typical Children’s Ministry teacher on Sunday morning. If a child attends a school, then he is further influenced by that school’s philosophy of education and by their peers around them. The Children’s Ministry teacher spends far less time with the student than any other major influence in their lives. However, if the parents are relying on a one hour a week Sunday morning program to educate their children in Christian foundations, the church has to fight against these other influences that have far more access to the child.

Barna has said, “When a church—intentionally or not—assumes a family’s responsibilities in the arena of spiritually nurturing children, it fosters an unhealthy dependence upon the church to relieve the family of its biblical responsibility” The church and the home are partners. The home bears most, if not all, of the responsibility and the church bears the biblical mandate to supplement that teaching and to give biblical guidance. Since there is this preferred symbiotic relationship between the church and the home, it would be in the best interest of each to work together. Also, the church has no oversight regarding the activities the child does when they are away from the church classroom. It is the parent’s responsibility to have oversight of the child and to keep him safe.

Fields, while relating specifically to youth ministry, gives several ideas on how to bring the home and church together. Developing a growing relationship between the church’s educational team and the parents is very important. Fields says, “It is impossible to create healthy teamwork with people you don’t know.” As this relationship develops, parents can inform the teachers of issues that are going on in the student’s individual lives in times of difficulty. As the children grow older, the parent’s control and influence will decrease. This may bring feelings of fear, inadequacy, abandonment, or failure. By working together the church has invaluable background about the students, and the parents have a support network. Another benefit of working together is that the weekly flow of life can be better managed. The home and the church can work together to ensure that both calendars are balanced. If a children’s ministry has an event planned and desires for it to be a success, then it needs to make sure the parents are aware of it and thoroughly informed well in advance. Many precious resources have been wasted, when a church event or program is planned and few people show up. The same is true for the home. Once parents are committed (financially or personally) to an activity, they feel as though they miss out on a much desired church activity.

(blogger won’t let me add footnotes, so there are many assumptions above that I will footnote elsewhere.)

Mrs. Denise Portis and Chloe (her hearing assistance dog) came to Cub Scouts tonight to help the boys earn their Disabilities Awareness belt loop. The boys sat quietly as Denise explained hearing loss, how Chloe helps her, and what the color of the dog’s vest mean (among many other things).

Thank you Denise and Chloe!

Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law” (NIV). The general meaning of this verse is that without someone explaining God’s Word, holding it with great regard, and directing the people to look to it for answers, then the people will perish. They perish because they turn away from God and His law and begin to do what they feel is right in their own eyes. The Hebrew verb yipaara` means ‘are dissipated;’ also ‘revolt,’ ‘become unbridled,’ and so perish. This unbridled, and consequently ruinous state, is opposed in the parallel clause, “happy;” as “the law” stands in contrast to “no vision.” The following principle can be drawn from this passage of Scripture: If a ministry within the church does not have a leader, then the ministry will plateau and decline. Weekly objectives will not be met, and the overall quality will diminish. As people involved in the ministry begin to do things as they think best due to a lack of direction; there will be disunity, confusion, and decline.

Therefore, before a strategy can be developed for any ministry, there must be someone to champion the ministry within the church. This leader must cast a vision of a desirable future and see that the Sunday-to-Sunday objectives are accomplished, along with hundreds of others items that need to be addressed on a weekly basis. Clark says:
Effective leadership is essential for progress. Someone must be responsible for planning, organizing, directing, and making decisions. Some groups operate in a leaderless structure with group members sharing responsibility equally. However, unless individuals are skillfully trained and experienced, they need leaders to motivate them towards goals to be accomplished. The leader acts as a guide to show the way and to coordinate activities.

A lack of this characteristic of seeking to improve by casting vision and goal setting is analogous to the carpenter who uses a piece of wood as a way to measure another piece of wood to cut. When the carpenter has cut the wood, he then casts the original measured wood aside and substitutes it with the new cut piece of wood. This process continues for some time, until he realizes that when he measures the pieces each is a different size. If he had used one piece as a standard, instead of using each new piece with a slightly different cut size, he would have been able to accomplish his task. But the carpenter has to go back and start over. In ministry if everyone is ministering the way they feel is best, or referencing the analogy above, “a different size,” then nothing really fits together; but if they are all the same size, it is much easier to build the ministry and Christ’s kingdom. A leader needs to make sure that standards are kept and bars are raised in order to improve the ministry. Otherwise people tend to do what they think is best; there is a lack of uniformity and purpose; and decline becomes inevitable.

For the purposes of our discussion, Blackaby’s definition of leadership will be used. This definition of leadership is, “spiritual leadership is moving people on to God’s agenda.” He explains that spiritual leadership has not occurred if a person has not left their personal desires and plans and if they have not been influenced to move towards God’s plan. A leader in any ministry seeks God’s plan for the ministry and then leads the rest toward this God-ordained purpose and plan. In Luke 9:33 Jesus brought Peter with Him to a mountain in which God chose to transfigure Jesus so that He had a glorious appearance. Peter, not understanding what was going on, says, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah” (He did not know what he was saying) (NIV).

In any ministry people will want to do things that are counterproductive to God’s agenda, and do things that just do not make sense. It is the leader’s role to have clear instructions from the Lord and to explain these instructions to others. Otherwise, everyone is trying to build shelters and miss their mandate to transform the lives of others. A leader keeps his team on task and does not allow them to become involved in activities that distract them from their task of directing others towards God.