October 04, 2007
Do Not Hinder
Since I no longer have school age children I’m somewhat out of the loop, but it appears from the church bulletin that we no longer offer any children’s Sunday school. I find that shameful on so many levels. I still see a few young families coming and going on Sunday mornings, but I can’t help wondering how they feel about a church that no longer ministers to their children on a child’s level. I think Jesus makes it perfectly clear how he feels, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matt 19:14 NIV)
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Gail;
-----If a person does not want Sunday School classes or children’s church for their kids then they should not have to take them. If they are the preachers and elders who do not want such for their kids, they should not have to take them either. But those who do want them should have them. Their sensibilities should be considered needs as much as are the sensibilities of the elders or any other person of prominence. And that is actually more basic to this issue.
-----Church leaders have taken a two-thousand year fall into the misunderstanding that theirs is the duty to shape the church. They are to make its programs and determine its objectives. They will choose its ideas and fill its roles with bodies who unswervingly will carry only those ideas. Therefore what the leader determines to be important is somehow supposed to satisfy everyone in the church. After all, he has been ordained. So this looking inward to the spirituality of the leader is supposed to bring out of his goodness all the programs and services the little people need. What a sadly inadequate situation.
-----In fact, how insulting to God! The Creator of the Universe and all of His heaven beyond can serve His masses of children through the mind of one man! Indeed one man holds all the answers to how God can reach all of the intricate subtleties of the flock with His abounding and sufficient supply of counsel, teaching, and sharing! Each heart of the hundreds of members of the church organization can be delved into and set at peace by the penetrating presence of the programs of one preacher’s imagination! Right! And I’ve got a Colorado Rockies World Series Pennant to sell you!
-----I have not read in either I Corinthians chapter 12 or Romans chapter 12 that the gifts given by the Holy Spirit should be passed out and administered by the preacher through the elders. These are the projects of the Holy Spirit. In fact, all godly activity in the church is by the Holy Spirit’s own projects. If the church leaders were ever to release their paranoid grip on church control and revert to the exemplification of godliness and the manning of the guardrails we all would be surprised at what a sufficient matrix the Holy Spirit is for assembling programs when and where they are needed and disassembling them when and where their needs have been fulfilled. It isn’t the preacher and elders who run the church. How idiotic to assume that men can delve into the hearts of his fellows and know the answers they need and the programs for the delivery of such. Leave that for the Holy Spirit and get out of the way!
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