I love getting to hang out with little kids. Their complete sense of wonderment and excitement at even the smallest thing reminds me of a time when I truly thought that anything was possible. If in my mind I could reason it out and absolutely believed in it, anything I could imagine could happen. Sadly enough now the world doesn't seem quite so optimistic to me, but looking in my past does make me take time to step back and wonder what kind of mindset we should have when examining our faith.
The idea of having a "child-like" faith is an enticing one. The fact of the matter is that children just believe. Whether it's that there is a monster in their closet, Santa can fit down the chimney, or that babies are delivered by storks, a kid will believe it as absolute fact even while adults know it couldn't be any further from the truth. The same applies to their faith in God and when a little boy comes up to you and says that Jesus loves him, that boy believes that with all that he is. How difficult of a struggle is this for the grown ups you work and fellowship with to grasp. There are always exceptions to the rules and nothing can be absolutely certain, right? But the truth is that Jesus himself said in Mark 10:14, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." I think that it is their ability to whole hearted-ly embrace something, to accept something as absolute truth that Jesus is talking about. Children can love God with everything they have because they know that God loves them. However, even knowing this I struggle with the foundation of what my faith is based on and what it takes to make a child feel like they know.
About a year ago Becca and I got to volunteer in the children's's ministry first teaching a Kindergarten class and then later a class of third graders. After teaching the third graders for a while I used to joke with Becca about how I missed the kindergartners because I could always "trick" them into behaving. If I could make behaving fun I could get them to sit down and work on their weekly lesson. This is a great opportunity in the hands of someone with the children's best interest in mind but it also leaves kids highly susceptible to bad influences which is why we try so hard to protect the little ones we love. My fear is that we as a church whole (not just FBC) are developing only Kindergarten Christians. Kindergarten Christians can be led to Christ; we can utilize their emotions and their fears, their love and their struggles to have them develop the relationship they need so that they will believe. However, the same people who have been brought to the church through some emotional experience can be easily pulled away using those same emotions. Kindergarteners are not ready for the real world but I think we set new believers out into the world only after telling them how things are and not asking them to search within themselves to ask the right questions and base their faith on something more than just a he said/she said foundation.
So what should we be doing? Is it ok to have Kindergarten Christians? What can we do to make sure our church members don't just feel their faith but also believe and know their faith? I'll talk about some of my ideas in the next post, but in the mean time I'm always interested to here others comments and questions.
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