Wow! Four years since my last post. I’ve been busy.

Luke the Physician records the following in Chapter 18:16-17 of his gospel writings:

But Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” (NASB)

Our congregation is blessed with saints from every generation. One of our values is Intergenerational Ministry, that is all generations spending a majority of time together sharing our faith with each other.  That is not to say we don’t have age appropriate classes. However, we have a large number of adults that participate in our Children’s Ministry for cradle roll through 5th grade. Our Sunday and Wednesday morning Children’s classes are unique in this area, in that we have our pre-schoolers through 5th grade meet together on Sunday Mornings to sing songs and then hear a lesson from a “story teller”, which rotates among several adults in the congregation. Then our kids go to their classes to review their memory verses and have activities designed to reinforce the day’s lesson. Wednesday Night’s involve a repeat of time together and reinforcing, age-appropriate activities. It is like VBS every Sunday!

The beauty of Intergenerational Ministry is how each generation helps build or boost the faith of the others. We tend to only think in terms of the older teaching the young, sharing our knowledge, experience, and wisdom to help them grow, and this is healthy and necessary.  However, we can tend toward cynicism as we age, or apathy, or any number of unhealthy attributes if our priorities are not rooted in God, His Word, and His mission for us. Our kids can remind us of the innocence, grace, trust, energy, and excitement we either still have or at some point did have when it came to being a child of God.

It is with this in mind that one Sunday morning our assembly ended with a focus on our kids. We have a large number of kids of all ages, over 80 about three years ago the last time I counted. We are probably over 100 now. I thought I would share the following prayer from a while back that we prayed over them at the end of a particular assembly:

Our Father in Heaven, Creator of all life, Redeemer of all mankind,

We pray your blessings fall like Spring rain on our children here before you now, and we pray you will bless this church family’s efforts to grow their faith in You and Your Word.

We pray we raise them to have the reverence of Noah, the faith of Abraham, the trust of Isaac, the perseverance of Jacob, the integrity of Joseph. To be as passionate as the prophets, and committed as the apostles and followers of Jesus.

We pray that with your blessings we raise young men who will lead like Moses, fight for the faith like Joshua, with hearts like David, and wisdom like Solomon.

Help us Heavenly Father to raise young women worthy of proverbs, loyal like Sarah, devoted like Ruth, and courageous as Esther.

We pray Lord that just as you entrusted your own child to the care of Mary and Joseph, that we fulfill the same trust you place in us to inspire the next generation of the church, with humble servants full of grace, wise leaders, and loving brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. We pray we raise them to one day be our teachers and ministers, shepherds and deacons, ministers, evangelists, and missionaries.

And Father, most of all, help us raise them to love. To love You, Your Son, and the Holy Spirit. To love the Church, the body of Christ and His bride, with the same passion, zeal, and fire in their hearts and souls as that of our First Century brothers and sisters.

Help us Lord to teach and model for our kids what it means to love their enemies as well as their friends. To love sinners and to love saints. And to love their neighbors and the communities where they live.

We thank you Father for these young blessings here before the congregation. We thank you for the awesome responsibility you have given us. We thank you for answering our prayers and wee thank you for your Son, the savior and redeemer of us, your children, and these, our children.

And it is in His name we pray,

Amen

I hope this prayer is encouraging to you and something you can use in the future to pray over your own congregation’s kids. They are worth it.

Blessings,
Don