Andy's Blog: A Personal Word

April 23, 2008

Apr. 23, 2008

Children! That seemed to be our theme on Sunday. Our Children’s Choirs sang in worship and presented a wonderful concert on Sunday evening. We baptized two babies at the early service. At the 11 AM service, we had Baby Recognition for children born in 2007 with forty families present, babies in tow.

One of the great privileges and responsibilities we have as a church is to nurture the children God has entrusted. Whenever a child in baptized at Trinity, the parents make a promise to nurture their child in the faith so that they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves. Then we, as an entire congregation, make a promise to surround this child with steadfast love that they may be “established in the faith, and confirmed and strengthened in the way that leads to life eternal.”

These are sacred promises. Promises which all of us should take to heart. Every child is a gift of God to be treasured and nurtured. It takes a church to raise a child. Given all the pressures of our society and all the things that our children will be exposed to – it behooves us to be the kind of place where they are grounded in the grace of God. 

We are fortunate at Trinity to have an outstanding children’s ministry. Our staff and lay people do a great job. But what we do can only support what is done at home.  Study after study has shown us that the most powerful predictor of a person’s growing to maturity in faith is the faith of his/her parents. In this, as in so many other ways, children follow our example. 

Deuteronomy 6 contains the shema, the daily prayer to be said by God’s people:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

It takes a family and a church to raise a child in faith.

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