December 14, 2018
Jonah 4
Today is the sixth-year remembrance of the Newtown shootings. That year, as we gathered for our Christmas party, our hearts were heavy because of the 20 children and 8 adults who had lost their lives; Newtown is just 27 miles from our church. When we lose a child, it creates in us a sorrow that is, at times, unbearable.
The prophet Jonah had lost this compassion and so he was chastised by the Lord.
Jonah 4:10-11 But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
Jonah was concerned about his comfort but not about the eternal souls of 120,000 young children (they can't tell left from right yet.) Jonah was suffering from a bad case of values myopicness. The very center of ministry should be to reach children for Jesus. There are 74 million kids under the age of 18 in the USA. They are 23% of the U.S .population.
Barna Research points out that right now just 4% of 13 year-olds consider themselves followers of Jesus. The probability of reaching a child for Jesus between the ages of:
5 to 12 is 32%,
13 to 18 is 4%, and
19 and older is 6%.
In other words, if people do not embrace Jesus Christ as Savior before they reach their teenage years, the chance of their doing so at all is slim. By age 13 one's spiritual identity is largely set in place.
As we contemplate the future of Grace Church, wanting to have the greatest possible impact, we should focus on passing the baton of faith on to the next generation. Training parents, building strong families, and reaching children is the very center of the mission.
I am so grateful for all of our children and youth workers. Thank you for investing your lives in this baton passing.
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