In September I was walking through a store that already had Christmas decorations on sale. Among all the glittering gold and silver ornaments and red and green ribbon were snowmen, reindeer, and Santa Claus—but nothing that spoke to what the true anticipation of Christmas is all about.
When Jesus first calls his disciples along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he invites them to follow him into mission. In Luke 5 Jesus tells Peter, James, and John, “From now on you will be fishing for people.” Then Jesus spends the next three years showing them and the other disciples what this mission looks like.
In a conversation with Peter in Mathew 16:18, Jesus announces he will establish the church, described in 1 Corinthians 13 as a “body” of interdependent parts. Later in Mathew 19, Jesus makes it clear that children are a welcome and vital part of the body.
When we use the word ‘worship,’ we usually think of the gathered body of Christ—the place where we come to sing praises to God, pray, read scripture, offer our gifts, and hear the word proclaimed. However, worship is also affirming the reality and Lordship of God, confessing our dependence upon God, and celebrating our life with God. This can happen anytime and anywhere.
One of the things we learn from Jesus is that knowing God’s Word requires more than memory or recitation of content. The leaders of faith in Jesus’ day knew the Word of God and its promise of the coming Messiah well but didn’t recognize their Savior when he was standing in front of them.
Prayer is a gracious and powerful gift from God. Often, we just take this gift for granted and often we ignore it. But it’s our opportunity to communicate with God, the one who made us and who loves us and who, through prayer, is always accessible to us. So how do we share this precious gift with our children?
We can tell children about Jesus and children may believe and recite what we say. But in Mark 10:14 Jesus says, “Let the children come to me.” This is something deeper than simply knowing about Jesus. Jesus makes it clear in this passage that he desires a deep and lasting relationship with children.
Since the pillar of smoke first rose from the tabernacle, worship has included ushering others into the presence of God. Worship invites us into the
Siloing became a part of church environments during the seeker movement of the last generation. The idea was to pack everything into an hour’s time frame. Because it wasn’t seeker friendly and didn’t fit into the one-hour time frame, classes for Christian formation (Sunday School) for everyone disappeared. Consequently, adults went to worship while children’s ministry happened simultaneously, and youth groups often had their own worship service.
When we think of preschoolers in the church, our first inclination is to make sure they are well cared for—and this is a loving response by the body of Christ. But Jesus wants more from us. When Jesus says, “Let the little children come,” it’s an invitation for them to participate in the kingdom.
