In my last blog post, I wrote about Kids and Communion. That following Sunday, in God's providence, we had two children in our congregation pray to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. In both cases, they prayed to receive Christ after asking and learning about the elements of communion (the bread and the cup).
This past Sunday, we got word from our Children's Ministries Director that six more children indicated their desire to receive Christ following the Bible lesson on repentance. We use Generations of Grace, which is a biblically based and God-centered curriculum designed for children three years old through the sixth grade. The GoG motto is "Teaching the whole counsel of God to the next generation." Over a three-year period, this curriculum covers the Old Testament historical books, the life of Christ, and lessons from Acts and Revelation.
One of the features our teachers love about this teaching material is the flexibility it affords. When asked how he taught the children about repentance, the children's teacher for this past Sunday replied,
The curriculum really lent itself to an altar call. It's not something I would do regularly but it seemed to fit in with the message which was based on Matthew 3:1-12, the preaching of John the Baptist. We started by reviewing the previous lessons about the birth of Christ and I pointed out how amazing it was that Christ would leave the perfection of heaven to live in a place like this with sadness, sickness, pain and death. But that he did it because of his love for us.
Then we talked about how John was sent to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming of Jesus. His only method of preparation being one of repentance. I illustrated repentance by having my daughter Ellie walk away from me (life of sin) and then when I said "repent" she would turn and run back into my arms. I emphasized that God was always willing and ready to embrace every repentant sinner. I then explained (in costume as John including live crickets) that by his manner of life John set himself apart from the religious elite of the day as he pointed people to confession and repentance.
We talked about how the Pharisees demonstrated a false repentance. I illustrated this by reading them a book which on the cover looked like the story of The Little Three Pigs, but when I started reading it they immediately recognized it as The Three Billy Goats Gruff. I made the point that God is most concerned with what's on the inside. I also had my kids come up and asked them if the fact that I was a doctor made my children doctors as well. In the same way we cannot rely on our parents' faith for salvation as the Pharisees were doing.
Finally we looked at verses 11-12 which describe Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit or with fire. I told them that this referred to salvation and judgment and that the ONLY way to escape the coming wrath was to turn from their sins in repentance and place their faith in Jesus. I then asked if their was anyone who had never actually done this for themselves. Several kids raised their hands. I told them if they wanted to repent now to not be afraid and come forward. Six children came forward and with them gathered around me I thanked the Lord for their repentance and faith. [My wife] Cheryl followed up with the parents, giving them a booklet describing the plan of salvation.
Praise God for parents and teachers who faithfully teach the Word of God to children. I think this is a classic illustration of the maxim that the more you put into something, the more you'll get out of it. Yes, God is the one who gives the growth (1 Cor. 3:7), but he delights to honor those "those who labor in preaching and teaching" (1 Tim. 5:17; cf. Psalm 126:6).