Train Up a Child in the Way

A major part of the Church’s mission is to “make disciples.” The Church wants to help parents train their children of today to be the leaders of tomorrow.

Recently, one of my sisters found an old letter sent to my mother from the Worldwide Church of God in 1968, when I was 3 years old. Judging by the contents, this was probably the second exchange between my mother and a representative of the Church, as it mentioned, “Nice to hear from you again, Mrs. Gabriel.” 

The Church representative was responding to a previous inquiry by my mother, asking whether there was a minister near the area in which she was living at the time. This would mark the beginning of my 45-year association with the Church of God. At that point, I was just a child that God was beginning to work with.

We have a song in our hymnal titled “God Is Calling Children.” There’s no question mark at the end of that title. The Church today believes that title to be a factual statement. God is calling children to be a part of the great work He is doing on earth today—and to be a part of the greater work He will do in the world tomorrow.

Train up the child in this way

Notice the official mission statement of God’s Church today:

“The mission of Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc., is to take the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the whole world, to make disciples of those whom God has called and to teach those disciples to observe all that Jesus Christ has commanded (Matthew 24:14; Matthew 28:19-20).”

Take note of the second part of the statement. The Church recognizes the importance of its role in “making” and “teaching” (or training) disciples. This applies to all those whom God is drawing to Himself and calling into His Church. This especially applies to our young people! They are not only extremely important to God, they are vital to the very existence of God’s Church.

Today’s leaders

It is very inspiring to look around at our church services every Sabbath and see so many who grew up in the Church actively serving. It certainly is a tribute to the diligence paid to the biblical instructions to raise a child in the correct way of life (Proverbs 22:6). Many teachers, directors and curriculum writers of our Sabbath school programs today were first introduced to the Bible and God’s way of life in their formative years. The same can be said of many of our current song leaders, sermonette speakers, sound technicians and blog writers.

Parents and their disciples

There is no doubt that the Church as a whole plays an invaluable role in the nurturing of our children spiritually. But while the Church can provide activities and educational programs to teach children God’s way of life, we have understood for years that parents have the primary responsibility for teaching God’s way to their children.

Three things parents can do to more effectively partner with the Church in training their children in God’s way of life include:

1. Engage in one-on-one tutoring of your child. It’s a given that children will spend more time during their formative years in the presence of their parents than anyone else in the Church. Use this time to instill in your children the elementary principles of God’s Word and way of life. Be more than willing to clearly answer the “why” questions whenever they come up (Exodus 12:26-27).
2. Enthusiastically support and participate in your child’s church education and recreation. God has richly blessed the Church today with the means and people to make dynamic educational and recreational programs happen! Nothing enhances and reinforces this learning experience better than when parents and family are involved. You won’t find a better display of this than activities at the Feast of Tabernacles. Other activities, such as summer camps and the Winter Family Weekend, have also been very successful staples of God’s Church. It has been my observation that young people’s extracurricular church activities deeply embed and solidify church life into their character when their parents are involved.
3. Candidly discuss God’s way vs. the world’s way with your children as they get older. As your children mature, you give them different responsibilities and have higher expectations of them. It’s no different with God. He will eventually expect children to act, independent of their parents, on the spiritual information they’ve been fed and nurtured with.

It is at this stage in life that parents should not hesitate to explain their own journey and why they made the decision to follow God’s way. A young person will, at some point, have to contrast God’s way with the way of the world; and it is incumbent upon parents to make a clear distinction between the value and reward of God’s way (despite the tough road ahead) and the sorrow and anguish of the world’s way (which in the short-term can appear easy and pleasurable).

When parents are intimately involved and partner with the Church in their children’s welfare, God takes careful note and blesses those efforts. We must never forget this vital part of our mission to “make disciples” for today and tomorrow!

Peter Gabriel attends the Houston North, Texas, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.