One of the church’s prayer requests for the year 2020 is “to walk with our children”. There are many limitations with the church school. Meeting once or twice a week and learning Bible for 30 minutes to one hour is not enough to protect the faith of our children. Our children spend a whole week learning, listening and dreaming the messages that this secular world offers. Sometimes they deeply indulge themselves in the worldly pleasure or exhaust all of their energy and strength to keep up with this fast-moving world. Trying to defend our children with just 30 minutes in a week is like trying to cover up from a storm with a torn down umbrella.
I am not doubting God’s grace which always fills up what is lacking in regard to our short comings, and I see that His grace sometimes miraculously rains down on us and our children. However, if we try to overcome our short comings by ourselves, His grace will abound all the more.
If we exclude the family and parents in teaching faith to children, we are losing something very important. Children learn from their parents, God’s personality and the example of good Christian life. In addition, they get offered the testimony of faith that the family experiences. Parents learn from their children the love of God and see the mirror image of themselves reflected in their children. They also find themselves seeking God with poor spirit for children’s sake, and ultimately walk the true path of sanctification.
The church school needs to be paired with family. I plan to solve this assignment this year, and carefully take the first step. Recently you noticed that youth and adults have been worshiping together (gradually you will notice changes in the youth group worship service and other areas. For now, I am trying to find the compromise that works in the current situation). It may be difficult for youth to understand the entire sermon, but I believe that they will understand at least the important points. The short video clips of testimonies that I show every week can be one of these points. I hope that the family discusses it on the way home or during the family worship time. It might be good if the children first initiate the conversation to the parents. Whenever there is an important article in the Pastor’s column, it will be good to discuss that with each other. It will be a good opportunity for parents to explain anything the children might not understand as well.
Talking about faith tends to be difficult if the mood is not set. I plan to create an atmosphere where parents and children can walk together in the faith. Please grab this opportunity.
From pastor Choi, Jin-Won