CDM Archive

Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

Children

Doing, Hearing, and Seeing God’s Word

by

sue.jpgThe Covenant of Grace. How do we teach this great doctrine of our faith? God is with us. How does God in his Word teach this great promise to us? He definitely uses all of the learning styles. Abraham heard the voice of God and the people heard the thunder at Mount Sinai. God illustrates the vast reaches of his promise through the stars in the sky. The Israelites travel through the wilderness guided by a cloud and pillar of fire. And over and over, they experience the physical reality of his presence as he protects and provides for their bodily needs. It is a spoken covenant, sealed with a physical and visible sign.

“God has told us stories. He has given us cherished keepsakes. There is a family history with celebrations and traditions that must be embraced and enjoyed by His family. There is a family treasure to discover and share. And there is plenty to go around. We don’t have to squabble over this inheritance. In this economy, the more you give, the more you have.” Heirs of the Covenant, by Susan Hunt.

SOMETHING TO HEAR…

On Volume 1 of PSALMS, HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS FOR KIDS (GCP) there is a precious song entitled, “Covenant Child”. This is a wonderful song to teach children of all ages. Take the time to explain all of the meaning behind phrases like “claimed as God’s own.” Have someone teach the children to sign this song as they sing it. It becomes a beautiful sight and sign of what it means to be a chosen child of God. One of our young couples had the children sing and sign this at the baptism of their baby. It sent such a powerful message that it has become a tradition at all our covenant baptisms.

SOMETHING TO SEE…

If we are teaching our students that church is family because of God’s covenant promise to us, the church should do what families do. Families take pictures and remember.

With today’s technology, reproducing pictures and memory book pages is very inexpensive. How about a class project – A covenant family album. Buy some disposable cameras for all of your students. Give them the assignment to catch on film the fellowship and works of service in their church. Start with pictures of all the Sunday school classes working together, gathered around the teacher. After the film is developed you can scan pictures into a computer and come up with a great memory book for every child. They may want to write their own copy to give the book a personal touch.

SOMETHING TO DO…

Go through your church directory praying for every family by name, one each week. During class make a special card to send to that family telling them that you have prayed for them. Invite the elders and deacons to class to give their testimony. Have questions ready for the children to ask when they come. What is your vocation? What are the names of your family members? What is your favorite hobby, book, sport, etc.? We know these things about our biological family members. Let’s extend the boundaries and really get to know our church family. Give a family party. Each child will make an invitation inviting its family to the class party. Have each household bring something to see, hear, and do that demonstrates important characteristics of their family.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” (Ephesians 2:19)

Children in Communion

by

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Children in Communion

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This may sound like a dangerous topic in our circles, but there is so much we are missing. We do not allow children to take the elements, but why do we ignore them while the rest of us participate? Let’s think through some history.

In Jewish homes throughout the centuries, the Passover was one of the most important celebrations of the year in which a family participated together. While it is the father who would review Hebrew history and tradition on this night, a very unique responsibility was given each year to the youngest child, remembering that at least for one year each child would have been the youngest. It was a treasured position for the youngest child to be able to ask this most important question: “Why is this night different from all the others?” The father would then tell the family the story of Israel’s history from the time of Abraham.

Click here to read entire publication in PDF (Acrobat Reader required)

This tradition serves several purposes. It teaches the family every year about who God is and what He has done for His people. It keeps sacred the traditions that hold a family together. It utilizes a teaching method of question and answer. The meal, and all that goes on at the Passover, teaches the truths of who Christ is and what He has done (even though the Jews do not see that). It also places the children in a position of honor; they are given the privilege of asking this all-important question.

What does this have to do with the church today? There is a big emphasis currently on “intergenerational worship,” but what does that mean? What place do children have in worship, other than feeling like ignored spectators? Communion can be one of those important times when a child can be made to feel a part of the service while being taught what it is all about. Think of it this way, can you imagine the excitement each child in the church would have as they anticipate some upcoming Lord’s Supper when they would have the privilege of asking the question before the congregation: “Why is this celebration different from all the others?” This then becomes the opportunity for the pastor to teach again the truths of what communion is and why we do it as we do. This teaches not only the children, but also the adults. It helps the children to understand how important they are to God and also helps them to understand that one day they too will be able to participate fully in the elements as full members of the covenant community, of which they are already a part.

Why not try this for a few months and see if it does not give a deeper meaning to this important part of our worship.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Sunday School With a Purpose and Plan

by

Sunday school has been and continues to be a key element in the church’s role of making disciples. The concept of discipling covenant children has been a part of the church’s role of teaching and training at least since the establishment of the Synagogue at the time of the Babylonian captivity. The fact that so many churches are struggling with the idea of Sunday school is a direct reflection of our times. Brett P. Webb-Mitchell in his book Christly Gestures writes, “I propose in this book that the purpose of Christian education in the church is as follows: Christians live out of the true vision given to them by the grace of God in the writings of the Apostle Paul; the church-amid all the dynamics, controversies, and agendas within congregations and parishes-is the figurative body of Christ on earth and is thus the context of educating all Christians; therefore, the church is education-from the intentional or formal programmatic activities of Sunday schools, youth groups, and catechetical instruction to Kerygma and Disciple Bible studies,” (page 2). He goes on to say that everything a church does and is centers around education and discipleship.

It weakens the church’s role to speak of Sunday school in pejorative ways. It may be the churches best opportunity to “make kingdom disciples” if it teaches what is in accord with sound doctrine and teaches doctrine as life and life as doctrine. However, for Sunday school to be an integral part of the church’s role in making kingdom disciples, it must be thought of with that task in mind. It must have those trained and equipped for the role of teaching and training, and then it must have the right resources to assist. That is where curriculum comes into play.

Click here to read entire publication in PDF (Acrobat Reader required)

A church needs to use a curriculum that is biblically, theologically, and pedagogically sound. Many churches in North America do not always use a curriculum that follows that pattern. Hence children and youth, and maybe even adults, learn eclectically. A good curriculum has a clear scope and sequence in its design. For example, while its scope is to teach the Bible and cover all the biblical truths, it must also have a sequence that will carry you through the Bible in an age-appropriate manner with a clear design.

CEP has a curriculum, Great Commission Publications, that does just that. Its design (scope and sequence) will enable the church to disciple its covenant children in a way that equips them to be kingdom disciples. Its foundation is Scripture, understood redemptively from a covenant perspective, within the Kingdom of God world and life view. It enables a church, beginning with the toddlers and preschoolers through senior high school, to have a curriculum that moves the students along to spiritual maturity.

To have a disciple making Sunday school, your teachers must teach the Bible from the kingdom perspective with a definite plan to encourage the spiritual growth of the students. (The kingdom refers to Christ’s rule and reign over all of life. For further explanation see Making Kingdom Disciples, A New Framework, available from the CEP bookstore.) The process of making disciples begins with God’s covenant children at their baptism, assuming they received the sacramental sign of baptism near birth. Webb-Mitchell suggests that baptism is an “unofficial beginning of our education process.” It actually may mark the official beginning of making kingdom disciples.

CEP and GCP have people and resources available to local churches to make that process more effective, but it has to be a priority with the local church to follow through. For more information or samples of these resources, contact the CEP bookstore at 1-800-283-1357.

Adapting Ministry to the Rising Generation

by

By David Nelson

Editor’s note: Equip for Ministry will be featuring selected churches in the PCA excelling in the ministry of making kingdom disciples. The following article features First Presbyterian Church of Stanley, NC., Dan King senior pastor. The article by David Nelson, associate pastor of Christian education and discipleship,was written at the request of EfM. Our thanks to David for his assistance. We asked him to highlight their ministry to the rising generation. We commend them for their vision and desire to begin the discipleship process in the early years of their covenant children’s lives.

Adapting Ministry for the Rising Generation


People were bringing little children to Jesus to have Him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And He took the children in His arms, put His hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:13-16 1

While Jesus’ disciples try to keep little children in the background, Jesus elevates them to the status of kingdom role models. Jesus loves children! What is it about children that Jesus adores? Like Him, they’re humble, meek, trusting, dependent, untainted by the world, loving, accepting of others, not proud or boastful. When Jesus says, “Let the little children come to Me… for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these!” He’s saying, “these are My people, this is what My people are like! AND, they’re important to Me!… don’t disrespect them, push them aside, or keep them in the background. In fact, you should hold little children up as role models, because they’re like the people in heaven!”

Read entire publication in PDF (Acrobat Reader required)

In America, younger and younger children have ever-growing access to anti-Christian philosophies through school, TV, internet, music, and contact with “well-read” friends. Our children’s potential saturation with ideas contrary to Christian ideals is greater than it has been at any time in history! Author Marva Dawn writes:

My experiences over thirty years of working with thousands of young people in churches and schools, convocations and camps make me especially troubled about children in Christian families, members of the Church, residents of God’s household. How are our children being formed? Do they know themselves primarily as citizens of the kingdom of God? Do we and our offspring look, act, talk, and think like people who are shaped by the narratives of our faith, by God’s Revelation? 2

In recent years First Presbyterian Church has seen the truth of Dawn’s concern; therefore, we stepped up our efforts to confront this rising tide of ideas which compete for our children’s hearts and minds. In so doing, we’ve grown in our estimation of children. We have greater ability to see our children as Jesus sees them; kingdom role models most worthy of blessing, time, energy, primary ministry resources, dignity and respect.

In response to that challenge, we’ve worked to improve all of our children’s ministries. Changes are made with an eye toward equipping our children with the answers and attitudes of the Christian world and life view necessary to help them navigate the anti-Christian philosophies they’ll engage in the future and, which we’ve learned, they already encounter to a much greater extent than we realized.


What are some things we do to equip them, and ourselves, in this battle for hearts and minds?

Children’s Ministry Coordinator – three years ago, a member with years of experience working with children accepted our invitation to become our volunteer Children’s Ministry Coordinator. She used training from the 2004 CEP Children’s Ministry Conferenceto create a Sunday school class, “Totally Equipped,” to prepare new teachers for service; to give helpful advice toward our “Image Bearers” ministry design (below); and to provide helpful encouragement in all our children’s ministry endeavors which continue to develop.

Image Bearers – As we grew in awareness of the need to purposefully capture our children’s heart and minds at a younger age, we decided to create opportunities, in addition to Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, to develop the Christian world and life view of our younger children. Under God’s direction we created a children’s ministry to help our first through fifth grade children grow in: 1) Their ability to give an answer for their hope in Christ (apologetics); 2) Their vision for and ability to make disciples; and 3) Their ethic for Christian service.

In Image Bearers, we use an innovative model that enables a few adults to successfully provide this ministry. The basic concepts we follow: 1) All the children stay together the whole time; 2) One adult leads games, one provides a snack, one leads music, and one teaches the lesson and provides a lesson-enhancing activity or service project; 3) For music, teaching, prayer, service projects and disciple-making – children divide into family groupswith an equal balance of children from all grades; 4) We teach interactive lessons at a third grade level where older children are coached by adult leaders to help the youngest children and thus gain experience and vision for disciple-making.

Sports Outreach and Recreation (SOAR) – In 2004, our 16-year-old youth sports outreach ministry went to a year-round status as we added our fourth sport – Spring soccer. A concept that arose with our soccer league was the idea to change from a head coach/assistant coachmodel to a sport coach/prayer coachmodel. The sport coachdevelops athletic and team skills, while the prayer coachensures prayer, team devotions, and spiritual encouragement occur at every game and practice. This change has improved spiritual aspects of our whole ministry! At our recent basketball finale, we registered over forty first-time commitments to Christ – the largest single SOAR event harvest we’ve ever seen! Upholding the truth of Christ by elevating the gospel among these young people is reaping great rewards!

Strategic Planning for Children’s Ministry – In May of 2006, a retired businessman used his skills to lead a First Presbyterian Church team of fifteen through a Strategic Planning Session for Children’s Ministry. In our planning session we produced a Mission Statement, a Vision statement, and an Action Plan for children’s ministry while evaluating strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Our strategic planning continues to bear fruit as we’ve formed a Children’s Ministry Team to focus on continued improvement and promotion of children’s ministry in our congregation.

We thank God for where He’s taken us in recent years. We’re learning to be more like Jesus who said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these…” And then He took the children in His arms, put His hands on them and blessed them. We look forward to God’s continued leading in this fight for the hearts and minds of His youngest people! We’re grateful to be a part of it!

1 From the The Holy Bible, New International Version, Zondervan,

Does Curriculum Make a Difference?

by

chd-inside.jpgI am responding to two related questions below that focus on curriculum, the main topic in this edition of Equip for Ministry. One is what difference does it make what curriculum we use in our church? A second question has come from pastors who basically ask, why should I get involved in the curriculum used in the church? Several years ago in a random sampling, I found that only one-fourth of the pastors queried knew what curriculum was being used in their Sunday school.

Let me respond briefly to both questions before more elaboration. Curriculum choice becomes an extremely important question. If you read the lead article by Dave Matthews on curriculum evaluation, you will see its importance. So much of the materials that are put together in curriculum format, especially for Sunday school and other Bible study materials are either heavily moralistic or legalistic, generally reflecting a theology that is at odds with our Reformed and covenantal doctrines. Paul told Titus in the discipleship process to teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Solid, biblically Reformed curriculum will avoid the simplistic and erroneous moralism and legalism so prevalent today. It will focus on God and his kingdom perspective, focusing on a creation, Fall, and redemption motif.

In response to the pastors’ questions, as the teaching elder in the church, it is your responsibility, as we will note below with the session, to be certain that what is taught is in accord with sound doctrine, particularly our biblically Reformed distinctives. That’s what Paul says to Pastor Titus and by implication to us today. But even from a pragmatic view, we have dealt with too many churches over the years where conflict has developed over the contrast between what is being taught from the pulpit and what is being taught in the Sunday schools and other Bible studies. I remember one church that we worked with having five adult Sunday school classes. One class was taught by a charismatic, another by an old-fashion fundamentalist, one by an knowledgeable dispensationalist , another younger couple’s class that was broadly evangelical, and one of the five that was distinctively Reformed taught by a seminary graduate. The church was an eclectic mess. I would describe the pastor as a classical Calvinist, but he would not interject himself into that part of the church’s ministry. I don’t have to tell you what that church had to go through before the session finally stepped up to the plate, hopefully from our encouragement, and dealt with the problem.

We have so little time in the church to disciple God’s people that we cannot afford to be theologically eclectic in our approach. There is enough confusion, especially with our younger generation, with today’s education systems, television influence, and the internet.

As Dennis Bennett references in his “Equip Tip” article in this issue, do not confuse curriculum with ends or objectives. The purpose of curriculum is to be a means to an end. It should assist the discipling process, including the leader/teacher, with ideas, information, activities, and good biblical exegesis. We do believe and encourage local churches to clearly define their objective in all the educational/disciple training programs to assure and insure accountability and meaningful evaluation.

The Presbyterian Church in America Book of Church Order (BOCO) chapter 12-5d states that the Session oversees the life and ministry of the church (with pastoral leadership), which includes all of its parts. It must approve the activities related to each group, including the people and study materials used in its ministry programs, especially its educational/discipleship activities.

To apply that oversight principle, approving materials that are not at cross-purposes with the churches mission and philosophy of ministries is essential. We noted some of our experiences above with one example. Whatever the church does as a whole or through its various groups must contribute to the overall accomplishment of the church’s mission.

The teachings throughout the church should also support the mission and direction of our PCA churches; therefore, the materials (curriculum) used must be consistent with Scripture. This is the most basic element in choosing curriculum or materials, though this is not intended to suggest that all studies have to basically Bible studies, though the Bible must be at the heart of the curriculum.

The materials used should be supportive of our confessional position, as set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger, and Shorter Catechisms in order to under gird the idea that as a PCA congregation we do represent a certain biblical, theological and philosophical perspective which should be woven throughout the ministry, and to insure that what is taught from the pulpit ministry will be carried throughout the church’s life.

The materials or curriculum should also be spiritually helpful to those using them. For example, they should reflect good solid exegesis and teachings that are consistently with sound doctrine. Remember that is the biblical principle!

We should be certain that the materials and people involved in the education/discipleship process are able to apply those resources to their specific situations so that the students, young and old, will have more of a kingdom perspective.

Last, whatever curriculum we choose, it should be clear and easy to use. Not only should the author’s purpose and intent be clear and attend to the above suggestions, but the students should be able to use them without too much difficulty. Christian Education and Publications has a network of regional trainers that are regularly assisting local churches with things like planning and teacher training. They can be scheduled from the CEP office by calling 1-800-283-1357.