Because Kids Matter to Jesus

Last Sunday morning at the church I am blessed to pastor, our Children’s Minister Mona Bowey presented to the congregation some fascinating statistics about children and young people in the United States. She had gleaned most of this information from a book by George Barna called, “Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions.” Let me share with you a little of what Mona shared with us.

Only about one in three adolescents believe that the Holy Bible is accurate in all that it teaches. By contrast, about seven out of ten pre-teens think that Satan is not real, but merely symbolic.

Among children age 8 to 12, 80% think the way to get to heaven is by being good enough. Seven out of ten in this age group believe that the same thing happens to all people when they die, no matter what they believe.

Most preteens say that they would like to have an adult role model, but only 44% of them say they have one.

Children ages 8 to 13 average 48 hours per week of “mass media intake,” which means watching TV, listening to music, watching movies or engaging in on-line entertainment. Yes, that’s right: 48 hours per week!

Only one out of ten Christian families with children ever spend time praying or reading the Bible together outside of Sunday worship.

One additional bit of information from the book may explain some of the above statistics. According to Barna, “Only three out of ten born again parents included the salvation of their child(ren) in the list of critical parental emphases.” Translation: most parents who claim to be born again don’t believe it is their responsibility to lead their children to Jesus. Astonishing!

So let me get personal and ask you parents and grandparents a couple of questions. First, do you trust Christ exclusively for your salvation and seek to follow Him in your daily life? Second, if you answered yes to the first question, are you striving to lead your children or grandchildren to trust Christ exclusively for their salvation and seek to follow Him in their daily lives?

According to the U. S. Census Bureau, just over one in four residents in the Sterling community (where I am a pastor) is age 18 or under. That’s about twice the number of area residents age 65 and over. Do the ministries and budgets of the churches in our community reflect this reality? If not, why not?

Jesus wanted the children to come to Him. He knew the facts that statistics bear out today: the older people get, the less likely they are to turn their lives over to Him and submit to His Lordship. Therefore, kids matter to Jesus; and because kids matter to Jesus, they must matter to us.

But that can’t just be a slogan, a catch-phrase. The Lord is looking for application and action, not just words and rhetoric. The truth is that if kids really matter to us, we’ll do everything we can to lead them to Jesus.