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HOW MANY YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THE CHURCH FAMILY CAN YOU NAME AROUND THE TABLES?

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What doesour churchlooklike from a child’s point of view?

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 1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.[a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

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CHILDDEUTERONOMY 6:1-9

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Spiritual development 1. a parental responsibility 2. not restricted to gatherings or classes3. developing a love for God that affects head, heart and hands

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DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9

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Robert Raikes was concerned with the plight of the poor. He recognised education as the means to escape so, he began ‘a school for the poor’ with a focus primarily on ‘teaching reading, writing and … manners; but catechetical instruction, reading the Bible and attendance at church were regarded as central from the outset.’ These ‘Sunday’ schools were established ‘more for the benefit of those children of parents who did not attend church or chapel than for the benefit of those children who were brought up in practising families.’ Raikes started his first school in 1780; by 1831 one and a quarter million children in the UK were being educated in this way.

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 1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.[a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

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CHILDDEUTERONOMY 6:1-9

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 4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

 5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

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MALACHI 4:4-6

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Spiritual development 1. a parental responsibility 2. not restricted to gatherings or classes3. developing a love for God that affects head, heart and hands4. is intergenerational and on this hangs true repentance

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DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9

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 1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Causing to Stumble

    6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!

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MATTHEW 18:1-7

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25000

50000

75000

100000

2000 2009

under 12s 13s-19s 19s-25s

Stats from

Baptist union Uk

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• The total number of 10-19s attending church on a Sunday has declined from 863,500 in 1985 to 394,300 in 2005, a drop of 65%.

• The total number of 20-29s attending church on a Sunday has declined from 520,900 in 1985 to 230,600 in 2005, a drop of 62%.

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‘The churches ministry to children is broken. A cursory look doesn’t reveal its brokenness. From the outside children’s ministry looks healthier than ever, but it is broken. It’s broken when church leaders and senior pastors see children’s ministry as primarily a marketing tool. The church with the most outwardly attractive program wins the children and the parents. It’s broken when we teach children the Bible as if it were just another book of moral fables or stories of great heroes. Something’s broken when we trivialise God to our children. It’s broken when we exclude children from perhaps the most important of our community activities: worship. It’s broken because we’ve become dependent on an 18th century schooling model, forgetting that much of a child’s spiritual formation is affective, active and intuitive. It’s broken when we depend on our programs and our curriculum to introduce our children to God – not our families and communities.

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CHILDBeckwith, I. Post Modern Children’s Ministry (2004, Zondervan) p13,14 cited in the BU report encouraging young missionary disciples

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WHICH ADULTS WERE THE BIGGEST INFLUENCES (PARENTS EXCLUDED) IN YOUR DEVELOPMENT AS A YOUNG PERSON / CHRISTIAN?

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Metaphors for the church:

Body of ChristBride of ChristTemplePriesthoodArmyColonyHousehold of God - 1 Timothy 3:14-15Family - 1 Timothy 5:1-2,

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CATCH YOUR NEPHEWS AND NEICES DOING SOMETHING GOOD AND ENCOURAGE THEM IN IT

 3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

1 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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2 TIMOTHY 1:3-5

2 TIMOTHY 2:1-2

2 TIMOTHY 3:14-15

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Spiritual development 1. a parental responsibility 2. not restricted to gatherings or classes3. developing a love for God that affects head, heart and hands4. is intergenerational and on this hangs true repentance5. includes other trusted adults working in co-operation6. is “caught” as much as taught

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CHILDDEUTERONOMY 6:1-9 MALACHI 4:4-6 2 TIMOTHY

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