heaven4sure.com
Youth Work: Heart Work. Hard Work.
How is the Gospel doing in your area? How many new families from the community over the past five years are now regular attendees? As an overseer in your local assembly, would you consider counting them up and sharing the number with the believers sometime over the next month and then ask them to pray for greater effectiveness in reaching the community with the Gospel?
Are you depending on growth from the inside OR from the community? Seeing our own saved is a threshold level of activity – the minimum expectation for our Gospel efforts. The real indicator of a robust and thriving testimony is the number of new families we are reaching each year.
Have you ever wondered what it was about Christ that attracted children and parents to Him? Why did parents travel down dusty roads and over hills and through fields to get perfectly healthy children to Jesus? And did you notice these kids didn’t seem to cling to their parents or scream with fright or in shyness as Jesus reached out to them and wrapped His arms around them?
The disciples thought it was a waste of time paying attention to the children. We can sort of think that way too. Maybe that’s why some places never have special children’s efforts but always have the big hard-core Gospel campaigns. Children’s work often takes back seat to the annual Gospel efforts targeting adults. Someone sadly said: ‘Children’s work is a poor cousin to Gospel preaching.’ The reality is – both are needed; not one more than the other.
Do you know how many children live in your area? The statistics are available if you want to dig for them. And when you have found the number, ask yourself: what percentage of these kids are we reaching or trying to reach? How many dollars are we annually pumping into the Gospel to reach these children?
Don’t be discouraged by the Christian armchair accountants who always want to tally up the results. “Three years, $10,000, and many hours of hard work and just how many have you seen saved?!”
There are approximately 40+ million children between the ages of 5-14 in the United States and approximately 4 million in Canada – not to mention other places. This is the age group who are most likely to attend children’s meetings or youth efforts.
Are you planning to purchase a van to pick them up? Do we really want to get serious about reaching these children or are we content with our routine Sunday Schools or once-a-week Children’s meeting? Could you be doubling your efforts in your community – in different locations?
How many have an annual week long effort to reach the youth in the community? Let’s face it – don’t you get more in from the community when you have a Children’s effort than when you have adult meetings?
Almost without exception, when you invite parents to attend a children’s meeting function to see their child do or get something family members will show up. Why don’t we increase these special events from one a year to five? It does take money, time and effort but the crux of it is – it takes heart.
Do you have a heart for children? Your Master did and still does.
Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.
Warmly in Christ,
Reconciliation – The Big Story of the Bible Read the Latest Story on heaven4sure.com
One Way to Witness: Include www.heaven4sure.com as a FACEBOOK Link: Links really do work! Every day new visitors are finding their way to the Gospel website via links posted on Facebook or other social networking sites.
Vehicle Magnet: 9.75″X1.75″ (22cmX4.5cm) Blue lettering on white. Unobtrusive and inoffensive way to help promote the Gospel in traffic and parking lots. For your free magnet, click here to email your name and postal address. Also put ‘magnet’ in the subject line of your email.
Automatic Signature: If you include www.heaven4sure.com in your automatic email signature, you will increase the number of visitors to the Gospel site. This is particularly relevant if you are in contact with those who do not yet know Christ.
Facebook Twitter: pdr_heaven4sure