Making Children Our Priority

In Mark 10:13-16 we read a story about people bringing children to Jesus for his blessing. Mark's account of the story goes this way:

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

A few years ago, an author by the name of Donald Kraybill wrote a book titled The Upside-Down Kingdom. In it, he talks about how Jesus in the gospels turns our value system upside-down. Jesus regularly tells us that those who are unimportant (to people) are important to God. We read statements like: "The first will be last and the last will be first" (Matt. 20:16) and "He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty" (Luke 1:53), and "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

Nowhere is this upside-down kingdom more plainly seen than Jesus' evaluation of children and adults. In every culture, the natural human tendency is to marginalize children, pushing them to the sidelines, and to lift up adults. In Jesus' day, children were thought to be ignorant, having no opinion that would be worth listening to. In 19th century Victorian England, it was commonly held that "children are to be seen and not heard!" Today in our perversely over-sexualized society, clothing companies sell clothes with sexually suggestive messages (and sexually suggestive styles) to elementary school and middle school children. We want children to grow up to be like us, to know what we know, and to act (however perversely) as we act.

But Jesus turns our fallen human value system on its head. Jesus tells us that he prioritizes children even above adults. He calls us to imitate children and says the kingdom of God belongs to children. One great evidence that someone has been transformed by the Spirit of Jesus is when that person begins to make children and their welfare a priority.

For many years we've had a gift in our church of a woman who has continually advocated for prioritizing our children, our children's pastor, Linda Heselton. She has assembled an amazing team around her, all of whom share her passion (which is the passion of Jesus) - namely that Vineyard Columbus would be known as a church that values children.

It is common for churches to give children "all of the leftovers." It is common for churches to give children the leftover space in a building, the leftover chairs after they are broken down and can't be used for the adults, the worst musicians ("He is not ready for primetime yet in the main sanctuary, let's have him train with the kids"). Linda, and her team, have regularly held up a different standard. They've asked, "Can't we give the children our very best?" Rather than having a perspective that "any warm body will do," they have sought to recruit people who have been captured by the heart of Jesus; they have recruited people who understand Jesus' upside-down kingdom and his prioritizing of children above adults.

I recently heard a children's pastor at another Vineyard church speak. She used two powerful illustrations in pointing out Jesus' prioritizing of children. She held up a short pencil and a tall pencil and said, "Which one of these represents children to Jesus?" We, of course, would say the short pencil. But Jesus would say the tall pencil because children have a lifetime of serving and walking with God ahead of them.

She then used a second illustration and spoke about her grandmother's orange trees. She said, "There comes a point when the orange ripens and is ready for picking. That ripened orange on the tree represents children. But if the orange becomes over-ripe, it can drop and rot on the ground."

Here is the application: There is a window of opportunity in children's lives where because of their softness and openness, children can receive Christ and be radically saved. But if we miss that opportunity because we think that children can't possibly know enough to respond to the gospel message, or because we fear that children might be manipulated, or because we think Jesus works for adults and not for kids, the window of opportunity may close. Sadly, if we don't invite children to Christ, they can make terrible life decisions (many of us did), and become like rotten fruit fallen from the tree.

One can occasionally dig through rotten fruit and find a good orange. And God can turn rotten fruit miraculously into good fruit. But it is so much easier to get good fruit if we pick it while it is still on the tree.

What does all of this mean?

1. As a church, wouldn't it be great if our reputation in the community was this: Vineyard Columbus is a church that values children?

2. As a church, wouldn't it be great if instead of pleading for help, jobs were seen as the jobs in which adults got to work with children?

3. As a church, let's remember that a child is never too young to be invited to pray, to receive prayer, to be taught about Jesus, and to be invited to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.

4. As a church, let's stop making children an afterthought in programming. In small groups, in men's and women's ministry, in our community center, let's give our best to children.

As a church, let's make children our priority!