Teach the Little Ones

We've just finished this season's round of Growing Young Disciples training events with a day in Rugby. It was a great day, filled with biblical insight (thank you Andrew Sach), wisdom (thank you everyone who led seminars and workshops) and encouragement (thank you Jonty Allcock). But what struck me most was how many hands went up when I asked if this was the first formal training they had done for the ministry they are involved in.

Over half the room of 230 or so put their hands up.

One of Andrew Sach's illustrations from his opening talk springs to mind. He tells the story of Ray the plumber from Peckham, who came to fix a dripping tap and a lavatory that wouldn't stop flushing. Of course, Ray turned out to be a bit of a cowboy, and 5 minutes after collecting his cash, the tap was still dripping, and the loo wouldn't flush at all.

Andrew shared his recurrent nightmare that he's in hospital for some major heart surgery, and just as he slips under from the anasthaetic, he looks up at the surgeon and sees the beaming face of Ray with a scalpel in his hand.

And the point is that Christian ministry, and especially Youth and Children's ministry, is far more dangerous and deadly than physical heart surgery. A botched op from an untrained surgeon may leave me crippled or dead. But a botch job of Bible teaching and ministry over the years we have children and young people in our groups may end up with people who are spiritually crippled, or lost for eternity.

Of course the great news is that the job is not ours alone. When the Bible is opened, and we do even our humble untrained best, God loves to use that. His Holy Spirit will work in their lives despite our weakness and ineptitude.

But it has renewed my passion for the training we are involved in at this level. How vital it is for us to convince those who may often feel they are just "minding the children" that they are doing a vital task in growing children to maturity in Christ. How important to help them to see how the foundations they are laying at age 2 and 3 is something that can shape the spiritual outlook of someone for their whole lives. What a privilege to help leaders and teachers understand how they can make the gospel of grace shine through the legalism which is the instinctive position of the human heart.

So we're planning the next round of training days, and the Youthwork residential next year, not with a heavy heart but with renewed enthusiasm that the task is both vital and needed. Bring it on!

And if, in the mean time, you are keen to stimulate your thinking in this area, the Open Bible Institute offers a distance-learning package on Youth and Children's work as well as lots of other training opportunities.