Gospel-Centered Kids Ministry

How the gospel will transform your kids, your church, your community, and the world

Brian Dembowczyk

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781535939560
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

The story of Jesus interacting with the Emmaus disciples after his resurrection provides an outline for what a gospel-centered kids ministry looks like: gospel-centered teaching that points to Jesus in every session, gospel-centered transformation that positions the gospel to change a child's heart and then his or her behavior, and gospel-centered mission where kids join in on the big story of Jesus that continues to unfold. Seven out of ten kids will walk away from church after they turn eighteen. About five will return when they have families of their own. But two will never return. Clearly, something isn't connecting with our kids. As kids ministry leaders, we need to take a hard look at what we are missing in our kids ministries and provide kids the one thing that will satisfy them and keep them connected to the church—the gospel. Gospel-Centered Kids Ministry also addresses how to communicate with and encourage gospel-centered leaders and parents as part of your ministry.

CHAPTER 1

Failure Is Not an Option

“Failure is not an option.”

That line was made famous by NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz during the Apollo 13 mission. While we don’t know if he really said it, the sentiment certainly was true of the NASA teams on the ground and the three astronauts in space in April 1970.

Loss of oxygen. Depleted power and water. Square carbon dioxide filters in round containers. Navigating without the stars. Powering up a cold and wet Command Module in space. Dehydration. Exhaustion.

Problem after problem was thrown at NASA over the course of the four days following an oxygen tank explosion. Any one of them was enough to make most people throw up their hands in despair and give up.

But not NASA.

For them, failure was not an option. The reason was simple. The stakes were too high. Three astronauts’ lives hung in the balance. These three men, 200,000 miles from earth, were friends. They were also husbands, fathers, and sons. Failure meant their certain deaths. It was not an option.

Reducing water and power use by 20 percent? “We’ll make it work. We have to. Failure is not an option!”

Make square filters work in round containers? “We’ll make it work. We have to. Failure is not an option!”

Navigate using the sun? “We’ll make it work. We have to. Failure is not an option!”

Power up a freezing craft in outer space for the first time ever? “We’ll make it work. We have to. Failure is not an option!”

Gene Kranz may not have said it, but NASA certainly practiced it. This relentless pursuit of success is why the events surrounding the Apollo 13 mission are often considered some of NASA’s finest hours. Because failure was not an option, NASA turned a near tragedy into one of the most remarkable achievements of the program.

NASA resolved to do whatever was required to get their three astronauts home alive. Thanks to their determination, that’s exactly what they accomplished.

CHAPTER 2

Church, We Have a Problem

Failure wasn’t an option for NASA, but if you look at the statistics, failure sure seems like it is an option for the church in America today.

According to LifeWay Research, roughly 70 percent of young adults drop out of church.2 That means seven out of ten of the kids you love, serve, pray over, teach, mentor, cry with, laugh with, high five, and hug will walk away from the church when they are out of high school.

Interestingly, the research also indicates about two-thirds of those dropouts return to the church later on—perhaps when they have kids of their own. So, only about 23 percent of young adults drop out for good. Let’s be optimists and call that 20 percent.

According to those statistics, here’s how your kids ministry breaks down right now:

• Twenty percent of your kids will walk away from the church for good.
• Fifty percent of your kids will leave the church for a season but return later on.
• Thirty percent of your kids will stay in the church.

Let those numbers sink in. In a few years, two out of every ten kids in your church will walk away for good.

Five more will leave the church for an extended period of time. They will remove themselves from a church family and dramatically reduce their ability to glorify God. Without the church’s accountability and encouragement to guide them, these young adults will increasingly put themselves in the way of temptation.

Only three of the ten will stay connected to the church. Perhaps failure is not an option for the church today after all. It’s not an option because it is reality.

So let’s cut to the chase. Whose fault is it? Who is to blame for this failure?

Is it the parents’ fault? God has given them the primary responsibility to disciple their kids, right? Did parents drop the ball?

Or is it the college and young adult ministry’s fault? The dropout is occurring “on its watch,” right? Is this ministry simply failing in its role to pick up the baton from the student ministry?

Speaking of student ministry, perhaps it’s to blame. Student ministry has students for six to seven years—very formative years. Isn’t this plenty of time to make sure kids are tethered to the church before they leave for college or to start a career?

What about pastors? Maybe they’re to blame for not casting a vision of disciple-making to parents and ministry leaders and not equipping them to succeed.

While each of these may play a role in the dropout rate, there’s one other ministry we have to put under the microscope, a ministry which may be key in reversing the trend of young adults leaving the church—kids ministry.

I know what you might be thinking. How in the world does kids ministry share in the responsibility for the dropout rate of young adults leaving the church years later? It’s a great question. A fair question. In fact, I believe we will see a dramatic decrease in this dropout rate if we can successfully answer this question.

But first, we need to understand what this dropout rate really means.

CHAPTER 3

Empty Pews and Empty Hearts

It would be a mistake to see this dropout rate simply as an indictment of the church. While it certainly may be in part, there’s something much deeper at play. The church dropout is a symptom, albeit an important and harmful one, of a much more serious disease.

To see this, consider Hebrews 10:24–25, a passage often used to argue that believers need to be part of a local church.

And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

There it is. We shouldn’t neglect meeting together. The Bible instructs us to go to church. It doesn’t get any clearer, right? At least this is how we often hear the argument phrased. Go to church because the Bible says to.

I fully embrace the complete authority of the Bible. If Scripture says to do something, I take it at face value. However, I also want to get to the why of the Bible’s commands. If possible, I want to understand God’s heart behind the command so that I can know Him more fully.

So let’s break this passage down some and see if we can find God’s heart behind this command.

Notice the three reasons the author of Hebrews gives for gathering together as a church. One comes right before the imperative, the other two right after it.

First, we gather “to provoke love and good works.” The Greek word translated as provoke means to contend. Interestingly, it’s found in just one other place in the New Testament—Acts 15:39—where it refers to the heated disagreement between Paul and Barnabas on whether to include Mark on a mission journey.

So when the writer of Hebrews is talking about provoking one another to love and good works, he means that we should be connecting deeply with one another so that we cannot sit still as believers. We have to do something. Our affections for Christ are stirred so deeply when we gather that we cannot help but love others as a result. We cannot help but seek to bring God glory through what we...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Part 1: When the Gospel Is in the Margins
• Part 2: Gospel-Centered Teaching
• Part 3: Gospel-Centered Transformation
• Part 4: Gospel-Centered Mission
• Part 5: Gospel-Centered Leaders
• Part 6: Gospel-Centered Parents
• Conclusion
• About the Author