Our Evangelism and discipleship of children happens without the cm team
Your Question:
“How do we create a process that lets the individual CM team members play a role in leading children to the Lord, while also protecting the integrity of the process?”
The Issues:
You desire CM team members who are passionate about influencing children for the Lord, but you also understand the value in having an organized plan to follow that protects the parents’ desire to be involved in leading their own children to the Lord.
Scripture Foundation:
“But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect…” (1 Peter 3:15)
“But all things should be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40)
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9)
Short Answer:
It is important to create an evangelizing and discipling process that empowers the CM team members to play a significant role in leading children to the Lord. The “extremes” of the range of possibilities is important to visualize. On one “extreme” end of the possibilities is a CM team that is told to never address the need to become a Christian with the children because it is the parents’ role and not ours. On the other end of the “extreme” spectrum is to tell the CM team that they must invite the children to accept Jesus at every opportunity because the parents aren’t going to do it at home. Both “extremes” are unhealthy. Your evangelism and discipleship plan needs to rest somewhere in the middle between these two “extremes.”
The CM team members should be given the authority to be “salt” and “light,” and to talk with the children about their own personal relationship with Jesus. The CM team members need to understand the overall process utilized by everyone on the CM team and be submitted to that plan. The process must include involving the parents in the actual moment that the child prays to receive Jesus, and not be simply informed that this has already happened.
The process should clearly identify what being “salt” or “light” to the children includes, and what it doesn’t include. This understanding must be established through clear CM communication and training. Each CM team member must feel free and encouraged to use the curriculum, lesson plans, and personal interaction with the children to stir the children’s interest in giving their lives to the Lord.
The CM team members must realize that they should view the parents’ involvement as critical and scriptural. The CM training in this process should include how to build relationships with the children through conversation, interaction, stimulating questions, and personal testimonies. All of these factors should be a critical part of the overall process of leading children to the Lord. See the document entitled “Leading Children To The Lord” in the APPENDIX. For other documents that might help, click on the APPENDIX link below.
View other articles in the “Evangelizing And Discipling Children APPENDIX“
