How to Not Mess Up the Great Commission too Much

[tellville]

What do you guys think of this video? I wasn't sure if it was a joke at first and I am still not totally sure because it potentially makes some good points (E.g. raising children up in the Lord) and links to a Christian Ministry site.

[video=youtube;KaI6wmapPIc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaI6wmapPIc[/video]

 

[Hamalas]

Interesting. I definitely don't see this as a joke, clever yes, a joke no. There seems to be some good advice in here, however, there is an emphasis on human effort and technique. Also, while God does call us to minister to children that pattern should happen in the family. "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our god calls to himself." -Acts 2:39

 

[tellville]

Interesting. I definitely don't see this as a joke, clever yes, a joke no. There seems to be some good advice in here, however, there is an emphasis on human effort and technique. Also, while God does call us to minister to children that pattern should happen in the family. "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our god calls to himself." -Acts 2:39

I guess I got confused by the "2,000,000 life forms on the planet" comment. Usually Atheists make comments like that to mock the idea that humans are anything special.

I find it interesting also that people like Dawkins particualary want to aim at younger children (E.g. New Athiest Bill Board campaign against calling children "Christian" or "Muslim", teaching kids religion is child abuse, etc.).

I went to the website this video links to and they definitely have an emphasis on child evangelism.

Still looking to hear from others on their opinions.

 

[Pergamum]

I can't get the audio for some reason.

 

[tellville]

I can't get the audio for some reason.

Hmmm. I know there is no audio for the first 5 secs. Other than that I don't know. Maybe go to Youtube and watch it there? Or go to the site and download the video (it's called World Congress Video: aim lower) :

Logosdor age=aimlower

 

[rrfranks]

Interesting. I definitely don't see this as a joke, clever yes, a joke no. There seems to be some good advice in here, however, there is an emphasis on human effort and technique. Also, while God does call us to minister to children that pattern should happen in the family. "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our god calls to himself." -Acts 2:39

I would agree with Hamalas that while this video makes some good points, its emphasis seems to be on human effort & technique. Overall this video appears to be a promotional video to encourage people to focus their missions dollars on child evangelism. I do see that there is great opportunity for the church to reach out to children. Personally, our family has had many opportunities to share Christ with unbelieving children in our neighborhood as our house was always the house that kids hung out at. However, I do not think that we should only target children in our evangelism. God is the One who gives us the divine appointments and we should share Christ with anyone the Lord puts in our path.

 

[Pergamum]

Okay, the audio works now for me:

THOUGHTS:


-I hate the commercial-sounding commentary and the British accent.

-"Going to have a cup a coffee" is a cutesy-sounding phrase that just does not work for me. It seems to devalue the hard work being done, and urges lack of hard work in evangelism to all.

-Missiological fads and Cookie Cutter solutions and "Magic Keys" to evangelizing the world just do not work. The work is hard and there is no getting around it.

-He says "The only problem is that not every human has heard it [The Gospel] yet." Hmmm...that's not the problem. The problem is not merely a lack of hearing but a lack of believing.

-It is true that statistically, many who believe believe before the age of 18. Thus, we SHOULD NOT leave out children. And we should labor harder among them. Yes, that is true.

We should sink more resources into Child Ministries. I am trying to recruit some people to come and love some of the street kids where I minister.

-But, this commentator acts as if children can be reached in isolation apart from families. This may be true for orphans, but most children still live in families of people.

---Also, planting and assembling believers into local churches seems to be the NT pattern of missions and would have greater long term effects, because of the establishment of indigenous bodies of learning and training that can then multiply indigenously and reach the children themselves. Given limited time and resources, direct church planting and training up local leaders might be a better strategy than large-scale orphan ministries. Though seeing orphans is heart-breaking, one might better help them by concentrating on teaching local pastors to include these ministries into any indigenous churches planted.



Practically speaking: There is a great need for groups like Child Evangelism Fellowship. We should never, however, pit children and parents against each other....unless we absolutely have to.

Stealth evangelism is not a preferred method, but only a last resort. Some seem to want to covertly sneak the Gospel to children and bypass their parents. This might be necessary, but if a parent can see the changed nature of their children, then a more biblical picture would be that of the whole family being converted.

Right now, Siti and Erni (2 single Christian women workers concentrating on women and children) in WJ, a heavily Muslim city which is often aggressively persecutory, are teaching reading as a means of teaching the Word of God. Their two previous efforts were shut down by mobs (one time stone-throwing mobs broke all of their windows). And so, if this area was NOT persecutory, they would work more openly, but due to the nature of the area, they MUST work covertly. This is NOT ideal. In a more open area, they are teaching the mothers and daughters together and this also strengthens the family ties.

-There is a "household principle" in the New Testament. The Gospel often spreads along family lines. Why wouldn't we want to include the parents, and mothers?



Examples of good works among childen: I have co-workers (nationals) that are using single women Christian as Laborers for the women and the children. This is a GREAT need and a great opportunity for single women to come and help. Orphan ministries, street kid ministry are all very needed.


SUMMARY: The video makes a good point that MORE resources and efforts ought to be sunk into this vital demographic - but the poor way of presenting this info might be an unnecessary turn-off to people.

Wherever there ar willing and open parents, I long for every ministry to incorporate the parents as well and even teach the parents how better to love and nurture their children and, hopefefullyl the love displayed to these children, and the changed natures of redeemed children will be a key that opens the hearts of their parents as well so that a multi-generational church may be birthed and the Gospel transmited generation to generation, instead of merely snatching isolatd brands from the fire.


But, trying to be charitable, this video believes in child evangelism and HOORAY for that. They make a poor presentation of it, but let's look past that and strive to engage vigorously in reaching children, since many, many nations are made up of very young demographics and we want the faith to be their future.

 

[Pergamum]

A Billion Teenagers, for Better or Worse - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

 

[Southern Twang]

I enjoyed the video. Yes it's not theologically perfect. But the it's gets brownie points in my book for being creative yet simple and to the point.

I also would like to add that it will take tons and tons of human effort to fulfill the great commission. God uses real means, like people talking with other people to accomplish his purposes. Sometimes I think we get so caught up in God procuring our salvation that we forget that he uses real people to proclaim his message.