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Children discipleship is a very important and vital ministry. Nothing encourages me more than to see many brothers and sisters coming together to serve the little ones, teaching them God’s Word and to be faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Allow me to highlight the importance of the children discipleship in the church:
1. Jesus places a high value on children. He said “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (cf. Matt 19:14). Jesus attributed faith and belief to the children who played in His presence and found themselves on His lap and in His stories. Jesus used them as an analogy of commitment to His discipleship. He affirmed their childlike faith and He accepted them at their stage of development for what they were, but saw beyond that to their potential as full-grown adults made in the image of God.
2. Children are open to God. The typical child does not need arguments to prove the existence of God, nor does he need to be convinced that prayer and other acts of worship are important. Beyond this, the evidence is overwhelming which suggests that young children are capable of religious experience. Children are especially capable of such experience because of the very nature of the development of the human mind.
It is good for us to take note of a survey done by the Barna Research Group. The survey data showed that people from ages 5 through 13 have a 32% probability of accepting Christ as their Saviour. Those aged 14 through 18 have just a 4% likelihood of doing so, and those aged 19 through death have only a 6% probability of making that choice. The overall survey has shown that a large majority of Christians accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour before they reach the age of 18.
Charles Spurgeon once spoke on the conversion of children, saying, “Let none despise the stirrings of the Spirit in the hearts of the young. Let no boyish anxieties and juvenile repentances be lightly regarded. I, at least, can bear my personal testimony to the fact that grace operates on some minds at a period almost too early for recollections.”
May we continue to reach out to the children and disciple them. God help us.