Why bother with kids’ outreach?
Anyone who claims that their local church is an assembly committed to evangelism, but is not committed to kids or youth ministry, just doesn’t get it.
Billy Graham’s Evangelistic Ministry has been telling us for decades that most North Americans come to Christ before their 18th birthday.
Child Evangelism Fellowship’s (CEF) ministry, founded in 1937, is currently working in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.
I found some interesting information and statistics in a back issue of a CEF newsletter. CEF states the importance of evangelism to kids and youth. The reality is that 19 of 20 Christians come to Christ before the age of 25; after 25, the odds of someone coming to Christ decrease dramatically.
The evangelist D. L. Moody was once asked how the night’s meeting had gone. “We had two and a half conversions,” he replied.
“You mean two adults and one child?”
“No,” Moody said. “Two children and one adult. The adult only has half his life left.”
Shortly before his martyrdom at age 95, Polycarp said, “Eighty-six years have I served the Lord.” Likely, he converted at his mother’s knee.
Billy Graham was converted as a teen. Matthew Henry was six, Isaac Watts was nine, W. A. Criswell was eight, and Stephen Olford was seven.
They were not only saved from their sin, but the results of a sinful lifestyle in their teenage years. As former Youth For Christ President Jay Kesler once said, “any evangelism after high school isn’t evangelism; it’s really salvage.”
Some say children who make early professions of faith often struggle with assurance, thinking, “I wasn’t really sure of what I was doing when I was seven.” However, could it be that the individual explaining the Gospel may have not been sure of what they were doing?
None of us know or understand the full salvation story upon conversion—children or adults. The criterion for salvation is not a seminary degree, but a willingness to believe and receive God’s gift of salvation.
The great British Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon once said, “Out of a church of 2,700 members, I have never had to exclude a single one who was received while yet a child. Teachers and superintendents should not merely believe in the possibility of early conversion, but in the frequency of it.”
Why would church leaders believe that we should wait or be cautions to influence young minds? Advertisers don’t wait, nor does Hollywood. Advocates of cultural wars in our schools don’t wait.
So what are we doing to win children and youth to Christ?
What are you doing?
I’d love to hear what your local church is doing this summer to win kids and youth to Christ. Please take just a moment to respond to this email and let me know. Briefly tell me your approach and what the outcome was.
I plan to share some of these stories of outreach and conversions in a future “Word from Steve” Monday email. Don’t delay… start typing right now!
Jesus says it plainly, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14 KJV).
That is a double imperative, as strong a statement as Jesus can make it. Not only allow them to come to Him, but also do not forbid them.
You say your church is not doing much outreach these days—then start with outreach to kids. It’s a wonderful door into your community.