How is the Gospel doing in your area? How many new families from the community have become regular attendees over the past five years? 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 asking them to pray for greater effectiveness in reaching the community with the Gospel?

Are you relying on growth from within 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.

How vital and integral is youth work to the spread of the Gospel throughout your community? Consider the perspective of Jesus in contrast to His disciples.

And they were bringing children to Him that He might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, He was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to Me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God… And He took them in His arms and blessed them, laying His hands on them.” Mark 10:13-16

The disciples thought it was a waste of time paying attention to the children. We can think that way, too. Maybe that’s why some places rarely have special children’s efforts. Gospel campaigns, yes, but children’s meetings, no. Children’s work often takes a back seat to the 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 can usually be obtained easily by conducting an online search. 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 and youth in our area?

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 40.6 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 in the United States and approximately 4.1 million in Canada, not to mention other countries. This is the age group most likely to attend children’s meetings or youth efforts.

Are you planning to purchase a 15-seat passenger van to transport them? Are you a Christian of means who could afford to donate a passenger van to an assembly that’s fully engaged in reaching children in the community? Do we really want to take this seriously and reach these children, or are we content with our routine Sunday Schools—primarily for the benefit of our families?

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 Gospel 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 three? It does take money, time, and effort, but the crux of it is that it takes heart. Yes, heart!

Bridging the Cohorts

A related burden should be our success in bridging the cohorts. Many do well with the 6 to 11-year-old cohort. Kids love spirited songs like “Countdown,” “How Did Moses Cross the Red Sea,” “Jesus Loves Me,” and “The Crayon Box,” among others. However, as they grow older, they tend to drop off. Those songs start to feel “kiddish” to them, as well as other things we do and say.

How do we build bridges to the next cohort — the 12 to 15-year-old age range? And then the driver’s license age to the late teens? How many organize a little event and gift to celebrate their graduation from High School? Is that a legitimate expense of a local church seeking to win the lost? How many of us systematically keep up with their contact information so we can stay in touch with them throughout their college years?

Is it a foregone conclusion that we just have to let them go when they stop coming to our Children’s meetings or Sunday School? Or can we adjust and adapt our approach and content to appeal to the other cohorts? We invest heavily at the front end when children are very young, but lose our focus on them as they grow older. Isn’t it encouraging to think that the spiritual ROI would be significantly improved if we invested in bridging the age cohorts all the way to adulthood? Check around. Some are working diligently on bridging the cohorts and are being greatly encouraged.

Youth Work – Make the Message Clear

Paul wrote about the various roles believers play in advancing the Gospel and seeing fruit for our labours. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” 1Corinthians 3:6

Do you have a heart for children? Your Master did and still does. It is hard work and heart work. Like many other very significant undertakings in life — rarely is it easy, and much patience is required.