S I LISTENED TO THE pastor on the radio, my first reaction was one of disbelief--this man can't be saying this on the air. Then I felt sadness--I hoped the kids weren't listening. Then my emotional reaction registered downright anger--the audacity of this man!

The pastor spoke about his feelings of inadequacy and ineffectiveness: Is my ministry making a difference? I think we pastors can all identify with those feelings. But then the pastor on the radio made this statement: "I felt like I was a failure because I had baptized only four young people." He continued, "But then the Lord led me to lead a small group, and from that I baptized several adults. I began to feel like my ministry was making a difference."

Not many people will state it as forthrightly as this pastor did, but I believe that most people, pastors included, subscribe to this mentality: when we begin baptizing adults, then we will have "arrived."

We often quote Jesus' words in Matthew 19:14: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."* It sounds warm and fuzzy. But my question is: Do we really believe it?

Misplaced Priorities
George Barna, the guru of Christian marketing research, recently completed a two-year research project on the spiritual development of children, which is the basis of his book Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions. In regard to the former priority he placed on children in the church, Barna declares, "In retrospect, my view was so far off the mark that I didn't just miss the boat--I missed the entire ocean!"1

In traditional evangelism children are the "bait" we use to fulfill the primary objective of a church's evangelistic efforts: the baptisms of adults. Yes, we provide child care, children's bulletins, and even full-fledged children's programs. And these are good things. But their purposes are usually secondary to the primary purpose of the meetings: the conversion of adults.

However, according to Barna's research,2 the probability of a person accepting Christ after the age of 19 is only 6 percent. It's only 4 percent between the ages of 13 and 18 years old. But the probability of a person accepting Christ between the ages of 5 and 12 years old is 32 percent.3 Of course, this doesn't mean that we confine the workings of the Holy Spirit to cold, hard statistics. In fact, I'm sure most of us can share stories of how the Lord has worked in the lives of adults to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But could it be that these statistics are an affirmation of how the Lord is powerfully working in the lives of children?

"I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days" (Joel 2:28, 29). What inspirational and poetic verses! But do we believe them?

The Daily Battlefield
I sat in the airport with my 23-year-old nephew, waiting for his plane to depart. We watched as a group of young men and women walked by, donned in military regalia. I looked at them, then back at my nephew, and realized that they looked years younger than he did. I leaned over to my nephew and asked, "Kenneth, do those young men and women look as young to you as they do to me?" He responded, "I was thinking the same thing." I almost cried as I thought of what these young people--in many ways still children--would be exposed to as they headed off to war. And how many would spend possibly their entire lives dealing with the effects of that experience.

Our children are involved in a battle no less real. It's a daily battle for their hearts, minds, and souls. I believe that Satan realizes that if he can damage them while they're young, he has much more potential to offer them an entire lifetime filled with pain, heartache, and misunderstanding of the true character of their heavenly Father. "Children need watchful care and guidance as never before; for Satan is striving to gain the control of their minds and hearts, and to drive out the Spirit of God."4

Children require guidance, discipline, and training. However, I believe we must guide--yet not coerce. We must discipline--yet not break their spirit. And we must teach--yet not offer unrealistic expectations. We tend to cater to children, entertain them, or ignore them. Many times we do everything to and for children--except respect them.

God's Call on Children's Lives
God places His call on the lives of children just as He does on the lives of adults. I can't help but wonder if children don't grasp the realization that God places His call on their lives, because we adults don't grasp it either.

Samuel was 4 years old when his mother took him to the temple to devote him to the Lord's work (1 Sam. 1). Hannah respected that call. It's said of Josiah, king of Judah, "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left" (2 Kings 22:2). Josiah was 8 years old when he became king.

Pastor Harewood, a minister in the Gulf, was feeling quite discouraged and overwhelmed when he received a phone call from 5-year-old Renilda. He said hello to her, and asked if her mommy wanted to talk to him. "No," she said. "Pastor, I just want to pray for you!" She did, and the pastor nearly broke down and cried. When the pastor saw her at church the next Sabbath, he put his arm around her and said to another church member, "This is Renilda, my prayer partner!"5

I know it's easier said than done, but we adults must stop transferring our limitations and insecurities onto our children. Sure, children will attempt to do things that may stretch them in their capabilities. But that's the exact thing that adults and children alike need to do in order to learn to depend on Christ. "For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). Times may also arise when some children take on more than they are capable of, don't act responsibly, or neglect to fulfill their commitment to a given task. But that doesn't mean we exclude all children from ministering. Anyone who has been involved in church ministries knows that if we were to apply this rule churchwide, many of our adult volunteers would be excluded from ministering! This is not to say that we should excuse irresponsibility in adults any more than in children and teenagers. However, do we exclude the entire category of adults just because there are some who exhibit irresponsible behavior?

Treating Kids as Christians
How can we as a church treat kids as authentic Christians? How can we challenge them, yet remember that they're kids and not miniature adults? How can we help kids understand that God wants to use them now to minister to others--and not in some distant tomorrow that never comes?

First, I believe we can affirm their value to us by allocating our church funds more proportionately than we do now. We say we value children highly, yet monetarily we speak otherwise. As a church that instills in its members the notion that stewardship is revealed through our pocketbooks as well as our mouths, do we apply the same standard in how we allocate our church funds for children?

Linda Koh, children's ministries director for the General Conference, has her fingers on the pulse of the world church. She states, "Most Adventist churches do not have a children's ministry program or a children's pastor because they say they don't have the money. However, if we as a church were to break down the numbers of people baptized and reveal the percentage of those that are children--which we don't do at present--we would be amazed. For example, two years ago in Thailand, 700 people were baptized. What most people don't realize is that approximately half were children between the ages of 8 and 14."

Some may respond, "But what about all the money we put into education?" That is good, but our educational system is not geared toward intentional discipleship for children.

Second, I believe we can affirm their value by involving them in ministry--now. Children can greet, pray, take up the offering, tell children's stories, read scripture, sing, pass out literature, make phone calls, preach the gospel. The possibilities are endless--if we adults are willing to teach them.

While I served as an associate pastor, one of my responsibilities was children's ministry. Once a year we would conduct a children's ministry Sabbath. On this Sabbath children would lead out in worship--offering prayer, reading Scripture, taking up the offering, telling the "adult" story,6 even playing the organ. This was no small feat--the church's usual Sabbath attendance is more than 500 people. But the children took their roles seriously, and were a real blessing to everyone. The only clue that you were being ministered to by children was the presence of a step stool behind the pulpit!

Third, I believe we can affirm their value by taking them seriously. What do I mean by that? One way to do that is to speak directly to them. So often we adults will talk about children in their presence, and answer for them, instead of asking what they think.

A woman named Linda shares the story of how her neighbor came to her house one day and said, "My daughter really likes you." Linda asked, "Why does she like me so much?" To which the neighbor replied, "She says you treat her like a person, not like a kid."

Another way to take children seriously is to ask for their help. I think this falls outside of our usual paradigm of thinking, which goes something like this: "We are the adults; they are the kids. They need our help. There's nothing they could help us with."

Whether it's leading the church, our families, or our personal lives, children have something to offer. They exhibit an energy, an enthusiasm, and an expectancy that adults often deny--or lose with age. It takes humility to ask for help from a child. But humility begets humility. If we want our children to grow up to be adults who are teachable and humble, we must model it for them. We must open ourselves up enough to say to children, "I can learn from you, too!"

Conclusion
My sister, her children, and my mom were visiting us last December. One evening we were waiting for my nephew, his wife, and their two young daughters, Alyssa and Mia, to arrive for a holiday dinner. My 7-year-old niece, Sara, decided that she wanted to make cards for Alyssa and Mia, and wrap presents for them. So I gave Sara blank paper for her cards, a pen, tape, and wrapping paper.

A while later Sara brought her treasures downstairs and began laying them out on the table near where Alyssa and Mia would be seated. I came into the dining room, and upon seeing her handiwork, said, "Sara, how thoughtful of you!" She looked at me, and with a sigh in her voice, replied, "This is hard work for a little girl!" But she continued to carefully place each gift, smiling with satisfaction and joy.

Treating kids as authentic Christians will take work--for us and for them. But when we see our children experiencing a personal relationship with Jesus, as well as the satisfaction and joy that ministering to others brings, we will know that we have arrived.

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*All Scripture texts in this article are taken from the New International Version.

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1 George Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 2003), p. 12.
2 Barna's research represents a two-year
project consisting of nationwide surveys among adults, teenagers, preteens, and pastors. Barna then took the data from these surveys and conducted in-depth studies of children's ministries in several dozen churches across the nation.
3 Ibid., p. 34.
4 Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 199.
5 This story was related in Homer Trecartin's weekly e-mail newsletter from the Middle East Union of Seventh-day Adventists, 2004.
6 Since the sermon was geared toward the children, we gave a special story for the adults during the usual "children's story" time.

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Bonita Joyner Shields is an assistant editor of the Adventist Review.