Gospel Friendship: A Theological Framework

Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. — Proverbs 27:5-6 (ESV) 

Platitudes. Pleasantries. These two Ps have room in the Christian life as entry points into relationship with one another, yet they often take up too much room among the people of God as we gather. “You look nice today” or when asked “how are you” a person replies “I’m good” ring throughout our congregations as if we are extruding gospel friendliness. Friendliness is a fundamental characteristic of the gospel, but platitudes and pleasantries are not the telos or the ultimate end to gospel friendliness. Gospel-driven friendliness presses beyond social norms and pursues sacrificially the very heart of another person, seeking another’s wellbeing under the reign of Christ. Pleasantries are polite social remarks towards a person. Platitudes are banal, trite remarks toward a person. But nothing about the kingdom of Christ or the work of Christ in our life ends with the banal or trite or mere pleasantry. The Spirit is at work among us, having delivered us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Father’s Beloved Son. This changes everything. 

The gospel has changed us. Our identity is no longer bound up in the brokenness of this evil present age. Our identity is wrapped in Christ himself, who is seated in the heavenlies at the right hand of the Father awaiting his anticipated return to gather his people and recreate the heavens and the earth as one fully in fellowship with the Triune Life-Giver. Our hope, our life, is greater than platitudes and pleasantries alone. Through the Spirit of Christ’s empowerment, we press light into the darkness. The ordinary becomes sacred and the sacred, ordinary through the work of the Spirit among us.

With the Spirit among us and our identity in Christ secured, Paul encourages the people of God to set our minds on the things above because that is where Christ is. He reminds us that our life is hidden with Christ, because we have died to ourselves and live to Christ. This changes the telos of our care for one another, no longer relying on small talk to pass the day, but making every moment about the mutual love that spurs one another to seek the life of Christ in us.

Much of the New Testament is concerned with Jesus followers’ care for one another as the Father cares. This is a central theme of the New Testament from the Gospels to the Apocalypse. Out of this theme arises what is known as the “one anothers”. The “one anothers” are commands in the New Testament that refer to the mutual care among God’s people. One of the “one anothers” is found in Romans 15:7 where the apostle Paul writes, “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Paul concludes his letter to the congregation at Corinth writing, “Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”[1] And among the fifty plus references to the “one anothers” that refer to the mutual care of God’s people, fourteen refer to loving one another, such as when Jesus says to his disciples in his farewell discourse, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[2] The trend in the New Testament, whether within explicit “one another” statements or implicit instruction is that our mutual care for one another is grounded in the Triune Life-Giver’s love for us, his self-sacrificial love. 

By his self-sacrificial love for us, our pleasantries and platitudes flower into welcoming one another as Christ welcomed us into his kingdom through his self-sacrificial love. This kind of love is dangerous and risky, because we are left vulnerable to wounding others or being wounded by others and, in fact, we experience both wounding and being wounded. Yet the beauty of Christ’s redemption at work in us is that as Christ welcomed us most intimately so we welcome others, aiming for the restoration that the Father gives by his Spirit and will consummate. For as the Spirit dwells in us, so also the Word of Christ dwells in us. 

With the Spirit among us, the apostle Paul encourages God’s people to live out the ethic of the gospel by putting to death the earthly things while putting on the way of Christ, our new humanity in Christ, so that the peace of Christ can rule in us. This is no easy task, that is to walk in the Spirit, but a gracious work of the Spirit in us. Our minds and hearts desire what is not of the Father’s kingdom. These desires, attitudes, and actions linger in this broken world, but notice with what address the apostle Paul addresses believers in Colossians 3:12: God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. This ethic that the gospel calls us toward begins in our status as God’s new creation and furthermore God’s beloved sons and daughters. Our righteous and familial status before the Father changes everything, especially the way we engage one another. Therefore, we engage one another differently, namely as Spirit-empowered brothers and sisters. We move beyond the platitudes and pleasantries. With the Spirit’s refreshment, we move beyond our inattentiveness to one another toward actively and richly pressing into one another self-sacrificially as fellow heirs of God’s new creation, modeling Christ’s love for us to one another. This is why the Spirit says through Paul, “And above all of these things put on love.”[3] All other characteristics of the kingdom of Christ flow out of our love for one another producing an affectionate care for one another in the broken world.[4] This kind affectionate care, this gospel friendliness among us is grounded by our identity as the Father’s beloved. 

As God’s beloved, the nature of our relationships is reshaped by Christ’s Spirit, as we seek to let the peace of Christ rule and the Word of Christ dwell in us. Our relationships become about drawing near to the Lord together, spurring on one another toward holiness and good works. This is why the Spirit says through the apostle Paul, “with all wisdom teaching and instructing one another”. The apostle is not referring to teaching and instructing as a spiritual gift only given to some, but rather something we do together whenever we gather. I find it interesting what Paul doesn’t say here, namely “teach what accords with sound doctrine” as he says elsewhere, but “with wisdom”. What then is wisdom, but living in the fear the Lord? This passage in Colossians is shaped by our thankfulness as the peace of Christ rules and the Word of Christ dwells among us as we do everything in word and deed with thankfulness to the Father.[5]

Discerning the reign of Christ in our very personhood and in others provokes thankfulness, because the Spirit is at work making all things new even in this profoundly confusing, deceitful, and evil world in which we live. And it’s out of the work of the Spirit and the reign of Christ that our thankfulness flows in love toward one another and worship toward the Father. This thankful love is the very love that flows in and through and between the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We visibly express this intimate love to one another as a people under Christ’s reign.

How then do we live, gather, and speak truth in such a way that moves beyond our platitudes to gospel friendliness? We allow our Christ community to speak truth into our life. We allow our Christ community to show up in our life. We allow our Christ community to know our life—struggles and all, so that they others may see and participate in the good work of the Spirit through Christ glorifying the Father. But We also do this for those in our Christ community. We speak truth into others’ lives. We show up in their life. We know their life—struggles and all. We walk in sacrificial love alongside one another, making much of Jesus in the life of those with whom we gather. 

We should not expect our gospel friendships and gatherings to be glamorous and struggle free, gathering and sharing life from a position of power and strength, but rather a posture of humility and weakness allowing the Spirit to make much of Jesus through the work he is progressively accomplishing. Even when we are in mire of rebellion or disorientation, the Spirit is at work while also providing a community of God’s people who are also treasured, fragile jars of clay who can support, encourage, and challenge us toward Jesus. 

When my life is accountable under the rule of Christ and to others who I know sacrificially loves and cares for me, I find comfort. I learned many years ago that my heart is deceitful and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). My heart pursues its desires rather than the desires of Christ. The desires my heart pursues are not always in my best interest or in the best interest of others. The Father has given to us his Spirit to reorient our hearts to himself, and he has knitted those who walk with Jesus together through his Spirit to walk together in the midst of this present evil world, displaying his new creation amidst this present evil world.

So, when Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy,” we should expect nothing less than cautions and challenges from people in our Christ community who care for our well-being in Christ. Care sometimes stings and hurts, because we hear truth that does not resolve our heart desires. Pleasantries and platitudes do not open the heart. Pleasantries and platitudes do not press us together toward Jesus. We must press deeper into one another, so that we can sacrificially care for one another in the way of Jesus in midst of turmoil and chaos, pressing one another into the Life-giving Word who is the author and finisher of our faith.

Some of us have never been taught to move beyond the platitudes and pleasantries. Others of us are afraid of the vulnerability required, while others of us have never considered how to be friends in light of King Jesus. But the gospel demands it, and local Christ communities—local congregational gatherings— will most robustly display the goodness and beauty of the Father’s new creation to one another and to the watching chaotic, evil world.

(Part 2 to follow.)

[1] 2 Corinthians 13:11

[2] John 13:34-35

[3] Colossians 3:14

[4] Take a look at the structure of Colossians 3:12-17. Also, notice what flows from love: compassionate affection, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. The governing and chief virtue in the Christian life is love from which all other virtues flow.

[5] And let’s face the music: we often fail at doing in word and action everything in the name of the Lord with thankfulness to the Father. However, our failure to walk in thankfulness is not liberty to walk in our failure. It is an invitation to frame our life with thankfulness to the Father.

The Embodied Gratitude of the Cross

I had somewhere to go. There were few efficient options to get where I was going. The parking lot was crammed with the Chick-fil-A lunch rush. I had my waffle fries in hand. Exiting the drive-thru, I anticipated a turn into the parking lot to get to my designated route except there a car sat still the wrong way with the driver attempting to get into the Chick-fil-A line. My efficient route out of the parking lot stood patently void. I was inexcusably frustrated that I couldn’t go the way that was rightfully mine to go. I’ve theorized for a time that the attitude and actions a person commits while driving speaks to their actual theology (belief of who God is and what he is doing) and theopraxis (outworking of who God is and what he is doing in the world). And in this circumstance, it did. You know those moments when you are inexcusably frustrated at a small, insignificant obstacle? My circumstance exposed a heart desire within me that is not in harmony with the Life-giving Father: selfishness and ingratitude for the situations that change my plans. 

Do you see it? Selfish. Ungrateful. Control. These attitudes all surged in a nanosecond, swallowing and redirecting my emotions from the cross to the self. And without discernment, I chose the self. The driver in the other car? Remained unaffected not knowing the surge of emotion overtaking my soul. Yet for me a stark reminder that while I profess Jesus as King and have right standing with the Father in Jesus by the Spirit’s power, I am feeble and rebellious toward my King. 

Don’t mishear me. The Father created emotions for our good. Emotions are a gift from God. Emotions should be expressed. Anger, frustration, sadness, etc. all have their place in the righteous life. My emotions in this moment were a signpost of the reign of sin within me. Whether the driver was in the right or the wrong, my sin reigned without excuse. Beneath my frustration lurked not merely a sense for justice but of selfishness, ungratefulness, and control.

In that seemingly trivial, fleeting moment, my response to the situation reflected neither my gratitude toward the Father nor his compassion and mercy toward me in Christ. My response was utterly about me: my desire to do what I wanted and my desire for control. You wouldn’t necessarily think that such a fleeting moment would reveal so much about the heart, but these moments reveal our heart desires. These moments are opportunities for the Spirit of Christ to disciple us, transforming us to be like King Jesus. How we respond in the most trivial moments bear witness to our willingness to live under the reign of Christ and in his kingdom and to our actual theology and theopraxis, because there is no area of creation or the human embodied that must not submit to the will of the Father and be transformed by the reign of Jesus.

The gospel is the restorative balm to a broken creation and a wicked human heart. Nothing is to be left undone. And nothing will be left undone. Jesus has redeemed. Jesus changes everything. No moment in time, no attitude in the heart, no action in history is beyond Christ’s rule. This includes those small seemingly insignificant moments, thoughts, and actions throughout your day that are under Christ’s rule. 

The reign of Jesus in a person’s life produces gratitude. Remember, Zacchaeus response to Jesus’s self-invitation to Zacchaeus’s home (Luke 19:1-10)? He received Jesus joyfully. For cynics like myself, seeing and tasting the gratitude of the cross isn't something easily recognized or experienced. Sadly, the rootedness of the gospel did not have this effect on my life very early in my walk with Jesus. I did not wrestle with my emotions in light of the reign of Jesus. My early faith formation was heavily moral and intellectual. My cynicism came at the cost of not most fully comprehending my gratitude of the cross in every thought, action, and attitude. I took for granted the life-giving, peace-encompassing nature of Jesus’ mission to rescue me from my wretchedness. But Christ's goodness overwhelms, and his Spirit changes the heart in darkness's midst.

While Jesus does not leave us in our mire, we do still live in a broken, evil world which has influenced our core identity, our habits, and our emotions. Our personhood still feels the effects of and unfortunately participates in sin, though we have been made righteous before the Father in Christ. The good news is that the Spirit of Christ has changed our identity and is changing our personhood to be like Jesus from one degree of glory to another. And this is where gratitude in the insignificant moments, thoughts, and actions becomes extraordinarily beautiful: we see the life-giving work of the Spirit in our lives and by extension experience presence of the kingdom of Christ in our midst. Yes, that kingdom which we eagerly await which is of the wholly good, holy, beautiful, and just Father of all creation, the very One who by his Spirit raised our kingly brother, Jesus, from the dead and gave him all power and dominion. 

Gratitude is an immediate response to the work of Jesus, like we see in the story of Zacchaeus, but gratitude is also a cultivated response to the work of the Spirit in our life. It’s an on-going response to the work of the gospel that is fostered through seeing and tasting the goodness of the Father in every attitude, every action, and every moment of our life precisely because Christ is at-work in every moment. 

Frustrating moments and sinful moments happen, although they are not to be excused. What I do when these moments, attitudes, and actions happen matter: repentance. Repentance is the answer. Pressing into Christ’s forgiveness and seeking to change our heart response by the Spirit’s power. I can pursue repentance by acknowledging the lies I believe or the sins I commit, confessing them to the Father, and seeking wisdom and accountability from others who love Jesus.

The apostle Paul says “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). This is the embodied gratitude of the cross. When our gratitude for Jesus shapes us, it shapes our response to the world around us, even in all of its malevolence, because Christ brought life to us in the midst of darkness. As we surrender our trivial moments, attitudes, and actions to the reign of Christ, the Spirit brings life to us and to others. And every action, every attitude, and every moment visibly demonstrate what you and I actually believe about who God is and what God is doing in our midst. 

An Ode to Christ's Healing Hurt

Hurt among God’s people is a very deep realty in this broken world. Many of us have deep agonizing wounds caused by others or ourselves have wounded. But, O, how beautiful is the gospel that brings peace and restoration through the Spirit of Christ. Jesus sets us free from our hurts and brings us peace-encompassing forgiveness. While the scars of our wounds remain as the wounds on Jesus remained, we have been freed from our rebellion and the hurt that keeps us in the bondage of rebellion and destruction— no longer a slave to our destructive bondage but bound to the goodness of Christ. May Christ’s compassion and mercy lead the way in our actions and attitudes. For the sweet aroma of his processional has already gone before us victoriously, defeating the stings of death. O may Christ’s compassion lead the way and ever be present as we live under his rule in this cruel world, anticipating the consummation of his new creation.

Headaches & the Spiritual Wellbeing of Our Children

Headaches are the worst. Headaches that don’t go away feel like death. Unending headaches in a foreign land make life difficult, very difficult. It began on a spring day during a Chinese listening class and followed as I raced home. Lights and noises ate me alive, disrupting life as I knew it—classes, sleep, and relaxation. My life in a foreign land already possessed unique challenges without any added stress. Yet these unending headaches sprang themselves upon my life without consent. Within a week, I went to a doctor. These headaches were debilitating. Doctors initially were uncertain what to make of the headaches. They ran tests and scans eventually determining the headaches were a form of cluster headaches. 

 When we’re sick, we make a visit to the doctor. We want the doctor to check our bodies for infections, diseases, and abnormalities that threaten our wellbeing. While visiting the doctor, she’ll often remind you to return for regular checkups. Why? Regular checkups help the doctor anticipate encroaching diseases. The doctor wants to know your health, and you want her to know it too, just as you expect your accountant to understand tax law or your lawyer to understand case law.

 As a pastor, the fundamental nature of my responsibility is to know your child and how best to minister to your child and family. While the nature of my responsibility is the spiritual wellbeing of a child, this responsibility extends into the life of the whole child and family. Spirituality invades the life of the whole person. Faith and spirituality cannot be healthily compartmentalized. Your child’s relationship with others affects his affections. Your child’s interests affect her affections. Your child’s successes and struggles affect his affections. Your child’s affinity for her education affects her affections. The more comprehensively we are in relationship with one another gives pastors an opportunity to minister to your family holistically. 

 Since I began serving God’s people as a kid pastor, I have observed a disconnect between parents and the church that I believe is obstructing the wellbeing of the whole child and family: a lack of communication about the individual child outside the church. What is happening in a child’s life is paramount for me, as a pastor, to best minister to your child and family.

 The question aggravating kid ministry leaders all over the United States is: how do kid ministry leaders connect and partners well with parents? Don’t believe me? Explore kid ministry social media groups and conferences! It’s all the rage, because very few have a solution that satisfies them. It seems like we have tried EVERYTHING: emails, text messages, websites, apps, take-home papers, mini-conferences with parents, and the alike. Some are a hit for a while; others are duds, but nothing seems to catch long-term. The disgruntled, burnt-out kid ministry leader will blame parents, but I think it’s bigger.

 The contest for our time and energy has always been at issue. Fourth century bishop and theologian John Chrysostom writes, “In our own day every man takes the greatest pains to train his boy in the arts and literature and speech. But to exercise this child's soul in virtue, to that no man any longer pays heed.”[1] Innate within us is a desire to see our children succeed. Yet success takes on many forms not always recognizable. Through my faith journey and international travels, I have come to see that our views of success are often culturally constructed and even more often taken for granted and unquestioned.

 This worries me. If our views of success are culturally constructed and are often taken unquestionably for granted, what else do we adapt without question? The answer is too much. Why would the Christian want to adapt without question cultural practices and norms? I am not sure that we intend this. Nevertheless, we have. It is inescapable to shed all cultural conditioning, nor should we necessarily shed all cultural conditioning but that which fits not within a kingdom ethic as manifested through Scripture.

 It seems to me the reason we would never question visiting a doctor for our medical needs or a lawyer for our legal needs is because we expect these professionals to perform services to meet our needs. We expect the same of pastors too; yet, my assertion is that the expectations we have for professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and the alike are different than those we have for pastors and the larger Christian community. This requires a conscious philosophical adjustment for both kid ministry leaders and parents to act on behalf of their children’s holistic wellbeing through holistic conversations about holistic wellbeing of the child and her family.

[1]St. John Chrysostom, Address on Vainglory and How to Bring Up Children.

Game Time Captains & Imago Dei

[This essay was initially written Fall of 2015 in Theology of Christian Leadership class at Criswell College under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Graham.]

“Why are they team captains,” a 5th grade boy shouted, as a four and a five year old boy were picked as team captains. He was dismayed by the choice. How the youngest and the incapable could be chosen as team captains was beyond him. Most remote from Noah’s mind was these youngsters' identity and who they are in relation to Christ.

On any given Wednesday or Sunday, churchmen choose the best and most athletic children during game time as team captain and compliment children on their dress with no recognition of the child’s character or who the child is and is becoming in Christ. Against the concept of the image of God (imago dei) in man, normative social practices can be examined for the edification of the church and its witness in the world. This examination is exceptionally important within children’s ministry. During this period, a child’s identity is forming and shaping who he will become.

The concept of the image of God in man is derived from Genesis’ creation account, when God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gn. 1:26a). While there has been some debate throughout Christian history concerning the mode by which God’s image is in man, Stanley Grenz argues that “at the heart of the divine image…is a reference to our human destiny as designed by God.” How then does mankind created in the image of God affect the way we engage our children in the church?

1. We evaluate our social practices and values. Evaluating our social practices allows us the opportunity to recognize where we are placing value. Do we really value the dress of a little boy or girl on Sunday over their relationship in Christ? Of course we don’t. Whenever we find ourselves putting emphasis and value on these things to the neglect of the child’s character and person, we reinforce social practices that do not strengthen the child’s identity in Christ or as created in God’s image. It is important for us to consider something as simple as the manner we handle a child learning memory verses. A child should not be considered as more valued because he can’t learn or retain verses as other children. While none of us would consciously agree that a child who learns more verses is valued more than a child who does not, often times this is unconsciously worked out through unevaluated practices that we have unthoughtfully picked up. What we reinforce in a child’s life will play a role in the formation of their identity.

2. We conform our social practices and values to reflect the image of Christ. For the apostle Paul writes, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). As we assess our social practices and values under the matrix of imago dei, we begin to conform these practices in support of a child’s image as being made in the image of God and as being conformed to the image of his Son.

3. Conforming our social practices and values to reinforce a child’s understanding of their identity as being made in the image of God and being conformed to the image of the Son brings glory to God. God is glorified by us conforming our social practices toward supporting a child’s understanding that she is created in the image of God and being conformed to the image of his Son, because it honors and brings into existence what He values. In other words, God’s kingdom is demonstrated when children experience and exercise imago dei.

Yet how is this conformity specifically worked out in the context of children’s ministry? Two considerations come to mind. First, those responsible for children are to consider how they relate to children. “Why do I” questions, “How do I” questions, and “What do I” questions may help us start this process. For example, “How do I compliment a child?” or “What do I compliment about a child?” Once the question is answered, explore the answers’ relation to God’s image in man. Does this answer support the child’s person as being created in God’s image and being conformed to his Son? If not, ask yourself, “How can I compliment a child in a manner that reinforces his/her image as made in the image of God?” The second consideration to take into account is the child’s perception of himself/herself (as well as others) as made in God’s image. Ideally speaking, a change of practice for us who are responsible for children will help a child’s understanding of her self as made in God’s image. Another way to support a child’s understanding is to teach them and keep on his mind that he is created in God’s image and is being conformed to the image of Jesus.

Imago dei is an important concept which affects the social practices and values of the church, and is particularly instrumental in helping children understand who they as their identity is forming and being shaped in a broken and chaotic world.

Justification & the Shape of Children's Ministry

[This essay was initially written Fall of 2015 in Theology of Christian Leadership class at Criswell College under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Graham.]

What happens when a child who receives Jesus fails to ever understand the implications of his new standing before God? This is an unfortunate reality in the life of many churches and children’s ministries. There are children in the church who never (or late in life) come to a lived-reality that their lives are reoriented toward God’s kingdom because of their new standing before God. While they have access to God, they neither understand his power nor the worldview of his kingdom. They continue to be enslaved to the social practices and norms of their culture, rather than living under the reign of Christ. While it may be granted that responsibility lies on the individual, particularly once these children reach adulthood; yet responsibility also lies with the church and in particular within the children’s ministry.

To what end do we enact the structures, practices, and activities in children’s ministry which embodies the reality of our new standing before God? Children’s ministries have enacted structures, practices, and activities for numerous reasons. Some of these reasons have been based on pragmatic and/or theological grounds. This essay explores the relationship between the doctrine of justification and children’s ministry.

Justification is a forensic term denoting a change in our legal standing before God. Stan Grenz writes that justification “is God’s ultimate answer to the condemnation that stands over us because of sin…As a result we can enjoy new standing before God.” Thus, how can a children’s ministry structure its practices and activities to operate with this reality in mind?

1. Recognize that our new standing before God enables our worldview to be reoriented by the power of the Spirit. This includes both a (re)structuring of children’s ministry and the (re)orientation of the child’s life to this end. I fear that some Christians fail to recognize that our new standing before God has brought forth particular new realities associated with God’s redemptive activity in Jesus and by the Spirit. When we fail to recognize these realities, we fail to shape our life—ecclesial and individual—from the reality that we now are in fellowship with the Triune God and living under his reign. This failure effects not merely ourselves but those to whom we minister the gospel of Christ. Our new standing before God enables us by the Spirit to be reoriented to the practices of God’s kingdom.

2. Evaluate our practices in light of our new standing before God. Coming out of and living in a world predisposed to sin and rebellion against God makes it necessary for us to evaluate the social practices and structures in which we participate. Evaluating our practices in light of our new standing before God helps us understand and participate in God’s present reign. So how do we evaluate our practices in light of our new standing before God? It may be helpful to begin with questions, such as: How does this practice support, demonstrate, and/or embody the reality that we (Jesus followers) have a new standing before God? How does this practice support, teach, and/or help a child understand her new standing before God?

 3. Perform the realities that our new standing before God has given us. Because of our new standing before God, we live as justified ones. We are no longer alienated from God, but have put on the righteousness of Christ Jesus. This reality enables us by the Spirit of God to be in fellowship with the Triune God and live under his reign. For all Christians, this new standing before God transfers us into his kingdom. No longer are we to represent the way of sin, rebellion, and death, but we are to represent God’s way—a way of peace, reconciliation, and freedom. We are not merely made right before God in order to go our own way, but to come into fellowship with him in his kingdom. 

Central to structuring the practices and activities of children’s ministry under the reign of Christ is the fundamental reality that we who follow Jesus have a new standing before God. This is a fundamental aspect of our worldview, both for those leading children and children themselves, and must be embodied—ecclesiastically and individually. Children’s ministries cannot leave children grasping for their identity in the world and before God, but must lay the child’s foundation as one who lives in new standing with God (and all that it implies) through its structures, practices, and activities. May a child not fail to grasp the lived-reality that she has new standing before God, because we choose a model of children’s ministry that does not negotiate this theological reality.