Symptoms … Part 2

There I was…minding my own business.  I was actually looking for something to eat when my wife says, “Hey honey, look what came in the mail today.”  “Stimulus check?”  I asked.  “No.  Just read it.” She said.  “Wow…unbelievable,” is all I could say out loud because my kids were nearby.

Some company…we’ll call it “Christian Kids, Inc.” sent us a postcard mailer advertising their products.  I won’t go into my rant about how we didn’t request this solicitation from them…just sayin’.  The flyer said, “Kids love church…when there’s something there for them.”  They were not selling children’s Bibles or the latest Sunday school curriculum or this summer’s coolest Vacation Bible School package.  No…they were selling coloring sheets.  COLORING SHEETS!

My first thought was…are you kidding me?  Coloring sheets?  For kids while they are at church?  Really?  This is what keeps bringing kids back to church?  Coloring sheets for them to do while their parents sit and listen to the truth of God’s word.

My wife explained that in many churches that is the extent of the discipleship or teaching about Jesus and the Bible that kids get.  They go into adult worship with their parents and, while the pastor is teaching, they…get to color.  Really.  I’m not making this up.  I did not grow up in the church so this is completely new to me.  Apparently, there are so many churches who employ this type of “children’s church activity” that there’s a company (possibly many companies) that make and sell coloring sheets so kids can be kept quiet and occupied during the message.

The funny thing about that is a few days earlier I had been watching a message by a pastor that I highly respect and actually saw, on the video, a young girl sitting between her parents coloring.  While she was coloring she was happily talking to her father who was talking to her and being completely distracted from some great teaching that his pastor was sharing.  I don’t fault the girl or her father.  They are merely doing what their church has decided is the best thing for kids to learn more about Jesus.  Coloring pictures of Jesus…and lambs or doves, I suppose.

This is one of the symptoms of what is wrong in many churches today.  We believe that children can’t possibly understand the deep and mysterious teachings that are found in God’s word.  We think that children, because they don’t tithe or because they can’t become deacons that it’s easier to occupy their time with some useless activity than to spend some money, recruit some folks who have a heart for God and for kids and develop an age appropriate worship experience that focuses on Jesus and the Bible.

Nickelodeon and Disney spend millions of dollars each year figuring out new and creative things that capture kids attention and their hearts while churches argue about spending a few hundred to do the same.  I would love to know how much money denominations have spent to boycott Disney when they really would be better suited spending it on age appropriate worship experiences for kids.

That’s what I love about our Kidz Creek folks at Cedar Creek Church.  They get it.  Their heart is to help Kidz ‘Love God and Love People.’   They are making disciples by Equipping parents to be the spiritual leaders in their homes, Engaging kidz in an age appropriate worship experience on Sundays and Empowering kidz to share Jesus in their world.  It works!  I hear story after story about families becoming followers of Jesus after coming to Cedar Creek because their child was invited and loved Wee Worship or Kidz Worship or Centerpoint.

Yesterday I had a friend say that they were going to be coming to church because their granddaughter, who is now living with them, did not want to change churches.  She has been coming to the Banks Mill campus for a while….and now so will her unchurched family members!   She is not coming for the coloring sheets.  She, and they, will be coming because the love of God is being taught and shown in very real, age appropriate ways that reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Praise Him!