Well, it all started with talking about baptism and then moving on to leading a child to faith. For some reason I don’t feel completely done with the subject. Maybe this is more or me than you, the reader of this blog.
There are a lot of ideas swirling in my head and I’ll try to grab them and formulate coherent thoughts concerning them.
The other day Henry Zonio wrote a post discussing the idea of careless evangelism being equated to child abuse. Henry wasn’t saying this, just responding that idea.
Henry did reference Mark 9:42 about the heap of trouble we’ll be in or leading a child toward sin. I can’t quite get this verse to completely fit in this context. I don’t condone careless evangelism, having kids raise their hand and repeating a prayer to fulfill the greatest decision in life, but I can’t quite believe that this is the same as the action described in Mark 9:42. HOWEVER, as a rational human being and a Christ Follower with a brain, I can’t see careless evangelism as something that God’s crazy about. I imagine that it makes him sick, but that’s just my opinion.
Again, that’s one of the factors that bugs me about rushing baptism. We’re in a rush to make sure a child is a Christ Follower just so they can be baptized. I’ve prayed with several children minutes before getting in the water and it bugs me that they’re making the greatest decision in life because it’s something they’re supposed to do before they get baptized. If that’s the case, we’ve cheapened the thing that’s most precious in life. I came to faith as a four year old. Why? Because I didn’t want to go to Hell! For the next two weeks I prayed in tears that Jesus would come into my heart every day becasue I didn’t want to burn. What four year old wouldn’t? Sure, Hell is a reality for those who reject Christ but when getting out of Hell is our motivation for following of Christ, have we cheapened Christ’s one desire.
I follow Christ becasue it’s what I was created for. I follow Christ becasue it allows me to have community with God. I follow Christ becasue it brings fullness to my life. I follow Christ becasue he’s got a better plan for my life than I have for myself. Shouldn’t this be our motivation.
Perhaps we can begin to curb careless evangelism of children by starting with the proper motivation.
Hey thanks for the mention… As for the reference, I know that I am taking liberties with the context, but I think the sentiment is the same. The verse speaks about leading children astray, and when we carelessly get children to repeat a prayer or get baptized or commit to something without building the necessary relationship needed to follow up with all of that, then we set up that child to walk away from faith disillusioned… we see that happening today with all the statistics of people choosing to opt out of following Christ. Anyway, just my attempt to further explain myself 🙂
I think one other important question we need to ask, even more than giving the proper motivation for a child wanting to be saved (because I think only the Holy Spirit can do that for each individual), is what is OUR motivation for evangelism? The answer to that question dictates much of what we do and how we do evangelism.
Henry Zonios last blog post..What Would You Do Different?
Yeah, I get what you’re saying. I can’t get the verse to go quite there, but I think there’s an over-arching theme there about how we lead kids. No need to explain yourself.
Good point on our motivation for evangelism. Yeah, that can be a big problem if numbers factor in to our urge to see kids come to faith.
This hits right at the heart of where I’m most frustrated. (And I mean frustrated in a Holy Discontent sort of way.)
I think it goes to show how much the parent understands about salvation and baptism if the child is praying “the prayer” right before stepping into the pool. We live for the ‘feel good’ moments. The ones that confirm that “I’m a good parent.” “I’m a good christian” “I’m doing the right things”
As church leaders are we creating hoops to jump through to confirm readiness (“the prayer”)? Or are we defining outcomes (fruits of the Spirit) to confirm readiness?
Tough topic, Kenny. Thanks for bringing it to the table. I’d love to hear more thoughts on it from others.
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