Children play an essential part in God’s mission.
By Karissa Glanville, Mdiv;
Candidate for Children at Risk PhD program in Fuller’s
School of Intercultural Studies
God desires every child in every
generation across the world to know Him and make Him known. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus
calls the whole Church (which includes children) to reconcile relationships
throughout the earth: with God, with family, with community and with society.
God
intends that children be an active part of His Church in every community, and
as such, be a witness of His transforming power. As active members of the Church, children will
then move further toward fulfilling the extent of God’s mission and grow
towards the unique purpose for which they were created.
Theological Foundation
There are three major areas from
which to draw our Biblical theology on children as an essential part of God’s
mission. Each of these areas is also
informed by historical backgrounds and contemporary examples. The three major areas are 1) narratives of
God calling and working through children and youth in both the Old and New
Testaments, 2) the teachings of Jesus that mention children, and 3) the mention
of children and families in the Epistles and in the Old Testament.
First it must also be understood
that the views of children and childhood that we have today are in many ways
different than they were in Biblical times. For example, in the time of Jesus, when a
Jewish boy reached the age of 12 he was considered a member of the adult
community
and was completely responsible for his actions.
Children were considered as some of the weakest and least privileged
members of society.
As far as narratives, there are
many examples of God speaking to and working through children and youth in the
Bible, especially in the Old Testament.
As a youth, Moses’
sister, Miriam, helped to further the plans of God in the lives of Moses and
all of the people of Israel
(Ex. 2). Samuel ministered to the Lord
as a child (1 Sam. 2:18), heard the
voice of God and prophesied to Eli when he was still as a boy (1 Sam. 3). David was still a young man when he was
chosen as the next king (1 Sam. 16). A
young slave girl helped Naaman find out about the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs.
5). Josiah was anointed king at age
seven, and at age 12 was used to bring a reformation to Israel. Jeremiah was probably between the ages of
eight and eighteen when he was called as a prophet to the nations in Jeremiah
1.
In the New Testament, Mary was most
likely a teenager when she was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, Jesus
was 12 when he confounded those in the synagogue (Lk. 2:42), it was a boy who
provided the loaves and fishes to Jesus for multiplication (Jn. 6:9) and little
children cried out bearing witness in the temple that Jesus was the Son of
David (Mt. 21:15).
Obviously, God was not above using
children to further his purposes in this world.
In fact it seems that God takes delight in using the “foolish things” to
confound the wise (1 Cor. 1:27) and
says that we must in fact become like little children to enter into the Kingdom
(Mt. 18:3).
In our time, most of these youth
would have been overlooked, just as David was, and relegated to unimportance
and the sidelines of participating in God’s mission. God however, chose to meet them and use them
where they were. At least four of the
ten narratives listed above refer to youth probably around the age of 12 or
older, and thus were considered members of the adult community. This should cause us to rethink our views of
defining ‘childhood’ and the role of teenagers in the mission of God.
Regarding the younger children as
participants in God’s mission, Samuel is probably the clearest example. Samuel heard God and participated in the
mission of God before he grew into full adulthood by prophesying and
ministering in the temple before the Lord (1 Sam. 3:19). The other
key example is the children in the temple that cried out in worship of Jesus
(Mt. 21:15).
The children in this passage were
bearing witness to Jesus as the Messiah; they were proclaiming to the world who
Jesus was. They had insight that even
the religious leaders and other adults of the day did not. Jesus showed “that children who ‘know
nothing’ can also ‘know divine secrets’ and believe in him.” Jesus quoted Psalm 8:2 to the religious
leaders, saying that God had gone so far as to ordain strength from the mouths
of young children and infants. There is
no one who is left out of participating in the mission of God. God can even use nursing children to silence
His enemies. John the Baptist is another
example of an infant who testified, even before birth, to the Spirit of God as
he leaped in Elizabeth’s womb in the presence of Mary pregnant with Jesus (Lk.
1:41ff).
In regards to children in the
context of families, young children were not expected to have adult roles but
were to be brought up in the context of a family. Jewish male infants were to be circumcised as
a sign of being a member of God’s covenant people. Even as infants, they were not excluded from
the covenant with God. Children were taught the ways of God and
expected to live them out. Children are exhorted in Ephesians, in the
context of how a family was to operate, to obey their parents in the Lord (Eph.
6:1). ‘In the Lord’ modifies how they
are to obey their parents. The phrase does not modify their parents. This shows
that children are able to operate ‘in the Lord’ without a moderator at a young
age.
As far as contemporary examples,
there are numerous examples; the following are just a couple. In Mozambique,
thousands of children are being trained to minister, preach, and pray for the
sick, with the amazing results of healings and conversions. In Argentina,
a children’s congregation would go out into the parks and offer to pray for
businessmen during their lunch break.
The adult congregation grew as a result of their work.
Children can be an example of a
life of faith, and through that and other ways, bear testimony to others and
participate in the mission of God on the earth.
| 
