How the church can help

It’s a joy to work with children who are polite, respectful , love God and have a thirst to know more of His word.  The first 12 years of a child’s life are the time to plant God’s word into open hearts that have not yet learned to be sceptical or cynical and to ground them in character and faith.

When the call of God finally came to Samuel he was a young man. During his first 12 years under the tutelage of his parents then Eli the Priest, he was growing in the  wisdom and knowledge of the Lord. 

Church statistics tell us however that 50% of children leave the church and the faith sometime soon after the age of 12 years.  This is the time when peer pressure begins to take  affect and  children start making some of their own decisions.

I have agonised with many parents as their children,  who have come to church, been to Christian schools, given every opportunity to succeed, turn their back on the faith to follow the ways of the world.

Sometimes people are inclined to blame the church for not providing a suitable program for their young teenagers.  “They loved coming to Sunday School but after that they drifted away”. 

Yes, that can be a problem.  Here at Churchlands plan to hold a graduation service for young people graduating from the Kids Alive program into the Youth Progam to acknowledge their entrance into a new phase of church life.  In the last semester of the each year, our Youth Pastor will regularly meet with the year 7s to begin building relationship with him and his team so that relationships exist when they start attending the Friday night meeting.

In the first semester after these young people have finished in Kids Alive we will run a course on the basics of the faith so that with more mature thinking processes they can carefully consider what it means to be a Christian and how they will respond to that.

I believe we can stem the flow of young people out the church doors by equipping them with the courage, character and conviction of faith to withstand the pressures of life that will come.