What are we teaching our kids?

I have the great privilege to Pastor Restoration Church.  Restoration is far from a perfect place but I love what God is doing in and through His church.  When we started Restoration January of 2012 we wanted to do some things a little bit different. 

I had been a youth pastor for many years, and during my time as a youth pastor I had the opportunity to meet lots of teens and see many different youth ministries.  What I found over and over again was that most youth ministries were full of hype, fun events and good talks on relevant subjects but there was very little time in the Bible.  It was more about what scripture can I find that backs up this thought that I already have instead of letting the word guide what we spoke about.  You might not realize this but youth ministry is a relatively new thing.  For thousands of years families went to church together and the home was the primary place where students learned about God and the Bible.  Well things have definitely changed and today we have amazing youth buildings, cool conventions, camps, and professional pastors but the percentage of Christian teenagers is lower then ever in our history.  We are sending teens off to college understanding they shouldn’t have sex before marriage, and we should be a good person but they have no understanding of the foundational truths of Christianity or God’s word.  They have very little understanding of the Bible in general.

When we felt called to plant a church we began to take a harder look at church as a whole and we found that most “adult” services were built the same way youth services were.  Whatever audience they are trying to reach the topics would be based upon them.  There service would be built for that person and there was very little interest in truly knowing God and knowing the Bible.  It was more about filling a building than filling the person.  Now no one ever said that we just showed it. Don’t worry about brining your Bible to church we will put it on the screens for you.  Just trust us that what we are telling you is really in there.  There is very little personal accountability for what you believe and there is a lot of trust given to the pastor and the church.  Just keep me happy pastor, give me what I want and I will be here, don’t give me what I want and I will leave.

Then I started to think about kids’ ministry.  I had very little experience working with kids.  I taught a 4^th and 5^th grade boys Sunday School class as a 16 year old and I would help in VBS but I really had no clue what to do.  The more I studied kids ministries the more of the same trends I found.  Kids ministries were like Disneyland and there was a lot of hype and energy, oh and let me throw a little thought or Bible story in at the end.

Am I some Grinch that’s against fun at church?  No not at all, but I think we have gotten it twisted.  It’s become more about keeping families or getting them to come then it is about growing the family and making disciples.  When we had our core team meetings before the launch of Restoration I kept telling the team over and over again you probably shouldn’t come to Restoration because it will never be about you.  Candice finally told me “Scott you have to stop telling people not to come to the church.  We need people to come”.  Did I really not want people to come to the church?  No of course not.  I wanted them to understand that this church was not going to be about them, it was going to be about brining glory to God and fulfilling the mandate He left us to do.  Go into all the world and make disciples Matthew 28.

So we decided to do things different not knowing if it would work, but feeling like it had to work. 

As a church we primarily speak through books of the Bible and what I am teaching on in “big church” the kids ministry teaches downstairs, and the youth teach it in their Sunday life groups.  Then we give the parents family devotions so that they can now go through the same verses with their kids throughout the week. 

This week I was reminded why we do what we do.  A new family at the church shared with Candice (my wife) that their kids were so excited after Sunday because “they actually used the Bible in kids church”.  The parent said “I always just assumed they were using the Bible in the other churches that we’ve been a part of but I guess they weren't".

Today’s blog is not about style or our way of doing things. It’s more about getting back to the basics.  I’m all for a cool environment, fun, and lots of energy.  We just have to make sure that we don’t lose what is most important.  Our goal isn’t to fill a room or to make sure people don’t leave. Our goal is to make disciples who make disciples.