It is with great joy that I share an update on what God is doing amongst the children in All Nations church. We know from reading the scriptures the importance Jesus puts on children. In Matthew 18:2-5 we read:
‘He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’
Our children are called by Jesus to know Him right now, at the exact age they are, and they are placed amongst us as a church family for us to teach, encourage and to learn from them.
If you come on a Sunday morning, you may not see the children much as they are in their separate classes, but they are an active and integral part of our church family. Over the last year we have seen great growth in the number of children who now come on a Sunday morning. There are often 80 under-11-year-olds hearing the Word of God every week. In fact, over the last two Sundays we have seen three children baptised. Praise God!
A Passion For Evangelism
These children are passionate about Jesus and are inviting their friends to meet Him too. Many of the children attending our Trailblazers mid-week club, which runs every Thursday night, first came after being invited by a child from All Nations church. Since then we have seen many attend other events with their families, and then begin to join us on Sunday mornings. The children are natural evangelists to their friends and families. When they tell their friends about Jesus, there is no awkwardness or concern for ‘what if I ruin the relationship I’ve been building with this person if I mention Jesus?’ They share with their friends and families with a direct and sincere expectation that the person would also want to hear about Jesus. Seeing the freedom the children have when evangelising to those around them is in equal parts amazing and challenging.
On many occasions, I’ve heard my son walking through the park with his friends and telling them how ‘Jesus is ACTUALLY God!’, and ‘Did you know God made the whole world?’. His friends happily listen to him and often agree with him as he shares the things he has recently learnt about Jesus. As a 6-year-old there is no concern that his friends would not want to hear about Jesus. Yet, as an adult, I can’t think of the last time I started a conversation with someone in the park with ‘Did you know Jesus is ACTUALLY God?’. Instead, I will go with the tried and tested ‘How’s your week been?’ and be surprised why my conversations are far more mundane and surface-level than my son’s. The children set a great example for us in how to be bold and open in our conversations about Jesus.
A Genuine Faith
In Luke 18:17 Jesus says, ‘I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it’. He’s saying that we should also look to the children as an example of how our faith should be in Him: A complete and sincere trust in Him.
I remember once hearing someone teach our children from Matthew 17:20 where Jesus tells His disciples, “…you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” The children were asked, ‘Do you think mountains can actually be moved?’, to which the children collectively shouted “YES!”. The faith in the room was undeniable, and they did not need to hear that “the mountains were actually large difficult situations”, as the children were ready to move literal mountains as they had also just heard ‘Nothing will be impossible for you’.
Having the privilege of serving with the children on a Sunday morning has given me a greater understanding of the purity of faith Jesus is looking for, and I am constantly encouraged through the words the Holy Spirit gives the children to share during our times of ministry on a Sunday morning in their groups.
An Important Work
The impact of children’s ministry is also seen when looking through a wider lens. Historically children’s ministry – or Sunday school – was started by Robert Raikes in 1780, to help educate the children who had no education at the time. By 1831 it was estimated that 1,250,000 children were attending Sunday school. Praise God! Our work teaching the Word of God to children on a Sunday has been done for the last 244 years. The impact of preaching the gospel to children can be seen in the recent ‘Talking Jesus Report 2022’. The report found 50% of practicing Christians in the UK came to faith before the age of 10 years old, a further 26% were saved before they were 18 years old. That is three quarters of all practicing Christians in the UK made a decision for Christ before they were adults. The impact the gospel has on young people is clear, and the importance of investing in the children as they are today, teaching them the word of God, seeing them saved and baptised in water and the Holy Spirit is necessary for the advancement of God’s Kingdom. They are reaching their friends and families right now, and as they grow up, they will play a further important role in God’s Kingdom as adults.
When we teach the children, we are seeing them for who they are today and simultaneously for who they will become in Christ in the future. Proverbs 22:6 tells us to ‘Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.’ This is clearly true for the majority of believing adults today. I thank God for the teenagers I see in the church who are strong in the Lord, having taught some of them 10 years ago. I am grateful to God that I was able to play a part in their journey with the Lord and sow some seeds into their lives. I know this is a feeling of joy echoed amongst all the children’s leaders who have served for a long time, some of whom are now serving alongside the children they taught 20 years ago!
On a personal level, my mother met two children’s workers who used to come into my primary school to run an after-school club to share the gospel (I can’t remember anything that happened in this club except there was a parachute and sweets). They remembered her and asked about me over 20 years later. When my mum told them that I am walking with the Lord and I’m now also serving in a children’s ministry, she said they danced off down the road praising God for His goodness. The seeds sown into children do bear fruit. To those who are sowing seeds into our children currently, or to those who have sowed into the children in the years before us, let us also dance down the road and praise God for his goodness, because the seed of the gospel will bear fruit even if we haven’t seen it yet.
If you’ve been encouraged by what you’ve heard, I would ask if you could join me in praying for all the children in our church, for the weekly Trailblazers and Superstars outreaches that reach many children and families across our city, and for all the faithful volunteers on a Sunday morning and mid-week that serve the children so diligently, displaying the love of Jesus to the them. It is a joy to serve God and the body in this ministry.
