Children In The Church -- By: Joel R. Beeke
Journal: Puritan Reformed Journal
Volume: PRJ 04:2 (Jul 2012)
Article: Children In The Church
Author: Joel R. Beeke
PRJ 4:2 (July 2012) p. 201
Children In The Church
When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: and that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
—Deuteronomy 31:11-13
Few subjects are as important as children in the church, for they represent her future. Matthew Henry (1663-1714) said God has “appointed that parents should train up their children in the knowledge of his law…that, as one generation of God’s servants and worshippers passes away, another generation may come, and the church, as the earth, may abide forever, and thus God’s name among men may be as the days of heaven.”1 Very soon everyone you see here today will be gone. Who then will praise God on the earth? Who will be His salt and light in our cities, towns, and nations? Christ has guaranteed the church will continue by His divine power and faithfulness; yet He accomplishes this by human means, often through our ministry to children.
Our topic is also of critical significance for the future of our children. Henry wrote to Christian parents, “Consider especially what
PRJ 4:2 (July 2012) p. 202
they [the children] are designed for in another world: they are made for eternity. Every child hath a precious and immortal soul, that must be for ever either in heaven or hell, according as it is prepared in this present state,—and perhaps it must remove to that world of spirits very shortly.”2 This is true not only of our own dear children, but also of the children in our neighborhood and non-Christian friends whom we invite to church with us. They too have souls; they too need the Savior. Do our churches care for these tender and impressionable souls whom God has entrusted to us?
At the same time, we must acknowledge that caring for children in the church involves both laughter and tears. Simonetta Carr shared one woman’s impression of working with children:
With small children, we find, more often than not, that we’re happy when we barely slide through the sanctuary door before the elders file in, all the while firmly telling four bustling, noisy little ones, “Shhh, we are ...
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