Anyone who is part of God’s kingdom is called to make disciples. So, if the children in your group have accepted Jesus, they are God’s children, a part of His kingdom. As His children they are called to be His witnesses.
It would be easy to discount children’s role in sharing the Good News with their friends, but they can receive the same Holy Spirit who is given for the express purpose of helping us to be bold in witnessing to others (Acts 1:8). To hide this aspect of faith from our children is to stunt their spiritual growth and purpose.
In Matthew 5, Jesus put it this way – “You are the salt of the earth.” Notice he doesn’t say you need to grow to become the salt of the earth by following God for longer. He says you already are. The only question is are you going to lose your saltiness (in which case unsalty salt is good for nothing except to be thrown out).
He also says, “You are the light of the world.” He doesn’t say you need to try to become the light or find a way to switch on your light. Instead, he says you are already the light of the world. The only question is are you going to hide your light under a bush or let it shine out for all to see.
It may be tempting to leave this aspect of discipleship out of our regular weekly programme, but discipleship without action is like a man who builds his house on a sand. We should not just hear the words of Jesus, but we must put it into practice – we must become doers. This puts a responsibility on us as leaders of the children to train them as doers, not simply as hearers. We must give them opportunities and support to put their faith into practice.
Faith without service is meaningless. As James puts it in James 2:17-18 , “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
Our children instinctively know this. If their faith is real, they want to do something about it and we have an opportunity, even a responsibility, to provide the scaffolding that can help children to begin to share their faith.
While some are concerned that children are too young to witness to Christ, I am concerned that if they don’t encourage them into this, we will be raising a generation who hide their light and lose their saltiness. Or to put it another way a generation who know how to talk the Christian talk but who fail to walk the Christian walk. In the days that we live in this cannot be. We must not raise them as if their faith has no relevance to the rest of their lives, rather we must help them to see that our faith in God is the central factor which decides every aspect of our lives.
So, what kind of support can we give to our children to help them share the Gospel.
Firstly, I encourage you to take time each week to reflect with the children about their role as witnesses for Christ. In this kid min basics series we have looked at 4 elements we should incorporate into a Sunday session with the children: Welcome, Worship, Word and Prayer (which we can call Warfare to keep the W theme going!). What we are talking about here is introducing a 5th element. Witness.
Each of these 5 sections can be given equal time. To begin with as a leader that may make you feel uncomfortable. Most of us if we have an hour with the children would naturally spend 10 minutes on the welcome, 45 minutes on the word and a few minutes on prayer and worship, with no time given to thinking about witnessing.
To help offset this I encourage you to think of each of these sections as having an equal amount of time. To being with you may struggle to lead children in prayer for 10 minutes, but this simply highlights the need to strengthen this aspect of your children’s discipleship. It may be that you invite an intercessor from the church to come and help equip the children (or an evangelist, or a worship leader if these are the areas where you need to strengthen your session).
If you do this you will be raising balanced disciples. You will also have significant time set aside to help the children think about how they can be a witness to their friends and community.
This time can be used in one of three distinct ways:
1. To share the Gospel.
If there are children in your group who have not yet accepted Jesus as their Lord and saviour this is a great time to introduce the simple message of faith and give an opportunity to respond (we’ll be looking at the role and potential pitfalls of altar calls in another blog). In any group that I disciple it aim to share the basic Gospel message at least once a month. This gives children who have never heard it an opportunity to hear, but it also reinforces the heart of our faith to those who know it.
Children easily move towards of a salvation of works (I must be good for God to accept me) so by repeating the Gospel on a regular basis this error can be offset.
2. To build to an event.
It may be that you are planning a special event for Christmas or Easter where the children can invite their friends. To take time to pray and plan who they are going to invite and what they are going to do. You might use the time to design some invitations together or to discuss what should happen at the event.
Alternatively, it may be that you are working towards a street outreach event where the children learn a dance, practice a song and prepare to share with people on the street. While street evangelism is not everyone’s cup of tea, it is amazing how taking a stand for your faith in public increases boldness among friends.
3. To equip the children to do the work of an evangelist.
Part of this will involve leading the children to pray for their unsaved friends. I like using the prayer of three – where they choose three friends to pray for on a regular basis and look for opportunities to share the Gospel with them.
Another part will be equipping them with the tools to share the Gospel. A great way to do this is through role plays. Group the children in pairs and get one person to share with another then swap roles. Give them a specific way to share, this may include thinking about their testimony – why do they follow Jesus and what difference has He made to their lives. Or it may be that you give them a tool to use such as the wordless book. You can read some ideas in this blog here.
Our Gospel tracts, available from Children Can’s website, are designed to give children 5 different creative ways to share the Gospel using one simple tract. This is a great starting point for children to learn outreach.
We will also want to train our children to be led by the Holy Spirit so that they know when He is prompting them to speak, or even when He is prompting them to go somewhere. In the Josiah Generation we tell the story of John who had been equipped to hear the Holy Spirit and obey.
John is a great example of this. One day he was stood waiting for a London underground train to arrive at Earls Court tube station. As he waited for the train, he heard the Holy Spirit speak to him and instruct him to go to a different platform. His train was still quite a few minutes off, but it was a good five minute walk within the station to get to the other platform.
John obeyed and, as he stepped onto the other platform, he saw a girl from his school that he had been praying for over the past few weeks. They got chatting and he had just enough time to lead her to Jesus before her train arrived. Sprinting back to his platform, he arrived just in time to step onto his own train. His act of obedience – and indeed the immediacy with which he acted – resulted in one more soul being added to the kingdom.
Of course this is just the start. We are not called to make decisions for Christ – we are commissioned to make disciples. As children start to share their faith, and as their friends respond, it may be that you choose to use some of the witness time to look at how they can help their newly believing friends to grow with God.
You can find over 100 ideas of helping children grow in their witness in our book Give me 5. (You’ll also find over a hundred ideas for each of the other Ws that we have mentioned.)
Let’s raise up a generation who will make a stand of the Kingdom of God and be true Ambassadors for the King.
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