Not Without the Children By Beryl Voorhoeve Children's Minister Writer for the Dutch version of Charisma Magazine Amsterdam, Holland Beryl was born in England, is married to a Dutchman, and has been living in the Netherlands since then. She has been in children's ministry for thirty years and is involved in leading the transition from Sunday school to dynamic children's church not only in her home church but also throughout the Netherlands. Her vision is to see children have an encounter with God and to train them to speak the words and do the works of Jesus in their own environment. This vision is extended in taking children on mission trips to other countries.

In today’s whirlwind society, in which men and women alike are challenged to come up for their own rights and their own identity, cowers a great danger for families. Through pressure at work, pressures in the home, economic pressure, pressure to excel at sports, study or in other realms, the understanding of the family as being a safe haven is gradually getting lost. Doing things together as a family is getting harder – everyone goes their own way and when all are at home, the television or the computer frequently dominate the atmosphere. Parents have to stand strong in order to be able to make the choice to go against the flow and turn back to the pattern, which God gives us in His Word.

We can’t stop or reverse the (technical) developments which are taking place – and we don’t need to – but maybe it’s time that we as Christians and as parents need to take an honest look at the way we are functioning personally and as well as our families, and see how far we have let ourselves get drawn along in the current, drifting away from family life as God had meant it to be. This isn’t only something that affects our social lifestyle, but also our spiritual lives. Families were Gods idea – and He gave the responsibility and authority to the parents and especially to the fathers for the spiritual rearing and mentoring of the children.

In the Jewish culture the family has a central place – which is very obvious when you study the celebrations and the way they practice their faith. In the Old Testament God told the Israelites not to mix with the people of the surroundings nations and He instructed them to live a set-apart and holy life. The children were all part of this. This meant that the father – as priest in his own house – had to make clear-cut choices in the way he lived and the way he practiced his faith and mentored his children to walk in the same way.

A new time coming

During the past few years a lot has been written and spoken about renewal in the church - other ways of ‘doing’ church or ‘being’ church together. In very few of these discussions have there been any references to children and how they will be catered for. This is also a weak link in many of the house church movements—how to involve the children in a way which helps their faith to grow and be relevant.

Just recently I was again reading in Exodus about how God led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. While I was reading about the ten plagues, God pinpointed very clearly that it was His plan to take the children along with the adults into freedom and renewal. Moses went to Pharaoh and asked permission to take the Israelites into the desert to worship God. It was only after the 7th plague that Pharaoh seemed to realise that Moses was really serious!

“Who do you want to take with you?” he asked. When Moses answered him that he was going to take all the adults and the children Pharaoh got agitated. His answer was clear: I would rather send you off with God’s blessing than give you permission to take the children. In the natural Pharaoh realised that, if he kept the children in Egypt, the adults would come back. God showed me there is a spiritual principle here. Pharaoh knew that if he kept the children in his power while the parents went off to do their thing—to renew their faith and worship God—he would be able to influence the lives of the children forever. He could deceive them into a way of life in the world without God or he could deceive them to stay in the bondage of religion.

Moses wouldn’t waver: without the children he wasn’t planning to leave. During the years in which the Israelites had been living in slavery they hadn’t offered any sacrifices. Now a new time was coming; time of freedom in which they could worship God in a way that would please Him and children were to be part of it. What about us? Our longing to be free of the yolk of the enemy can be sincere. Offering our worship to God as a sweet smelling sacrifice – can be our deepest longing. But are we looking to go into the freedom of the wilderness without the children? Jesus said that we mustn’t hinder or prohibit the children to come to Him.

The word hinder can mean that we literarily stop them but we can also hinder them by denying them the opportunity to join us as we enter into Gods freedom and worship. Leaving them behind in bondage of slavery….

This wasn’t an option for Moses. Without the children there was no way he was going to move on.

The youngest is still outside

Later on in the Bible we can read about a similar sort of situation. Samuel is told by God to go to the Bethlehemite Jesse, a grandson of Boaz and Ruth, to anoint one of his sons as the new king (1 Samuel 16). Samuel didn’t tell Jesse straight away why God had sent him there but instead he said: I’ve come here to bring a sacrifice and to lead you in worship. Get yourself and your sons ready. He sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

One by one the sons came in – but God showed Samuel that none of them were the chosen one. Eventually Samuel asks Jesse if he had any more sons. His reply was: the youngest is still outside. He obviously wasn’t considered to be important. It wasn’t thought important that the youngest took part in the worship service. Samuel said that he wouldn’t start the celebrations and wouldn’t start to worship God until the youngest had been brought in.

At the moment David entered God showed Samuel that this was His chosen one. He had chosen and destined the youngest one to be the new leader of His people. Samuel poured the horn of oil over David’s head while his brothers stood round watching. The Spirit of God took hold of David and gave him power for the rest of his life. A new day dawned for Israel. The youngest was full of the Spirit and anointed.

Leaders gave the example

Moses and Samuel - two leaders who both refused to move on to a new phase unless the youngest were part of it.

Once again God spoke to me through these two Old Testament examples that we – as adults – must stand up as advocates and mediators and let the voice of the children be heard. Even though I long to see a new wave of God’s power and long to see revival flood the land – I will not move on unless the children are part of that end time move of God.

Joshua’s words must sound again: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. This is the choice that every father and every mother has to make.
The hearts of the fathers will turn again to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers and then…..God will step in and heal the land.
Move on together – it’s a choice.

The enemy tries in many different ways to keep our children in slavery and to destroy families and family life. Sometimes it will be an obvious attack or deception but at other times he comes as an angel of light. Let us stand up as a Moses or as a Samuel and choose not to take another step unless the youngest is going along as well.

Renewal is daring to step out

The Israelites had to take radical action in order to change their situation and their way of life. They had built up a tradition over 430 years and this is what they had to leave. Leave behind everything they were used to and – together with their children – move into the freedom in the desert where they could worship God in a new way.

This may mean that we also will have to make some radical changes and step out of our comfort zone and our (spiritual) traditions. Only then will we be able, as one family and one body, to move on to the new dimension that God has planned for His Church stepping out together into the new wave of renewal and revival that is coming.