Are you passionate about discipling children? Here at Harvest we believe that our mission to go and make disciples includes the discipleship of our children.
The name of our children’s ministry is Higher Ground. We use the acrostic climb to communicate some of the values of our ministry. We want to see children climbing to higher ground in their relationship with Christ through:
C – Community – We want to help children establish spiritually healthy friendships.
L – Love – We want our children to be loved and to provide opportunities for our children to serve others in love.
I – Imitate – We want our children to be imitators of Christ as they are discipled from the Word.
M – Magnify – We want our children to magnify Christ through worship and prayer.
B – Boldly – We want our children to be bold in sharing their faith in Christ.
Although we believe that the church has a great responsibility to disciple children,
Parents are to take primary responsibility to disciple their children.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Psalm 78:5-7
5He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
We believe that the role of the church is to support parents in discipling their children. Our desire is to partner with parents to provide encouragement, accountability and resources while being another voice speaking words of truth to their children.
Since we are all one family in the body of Christ we believe that:
Discipling children is everyone’s responsibility.
In so many churches children’s ministry is accomplished by a few brave souls who are “gifted to” and “really like” working with kids, but we believe that it is the responsibility of the entire church to disciple children. Whether or not a person is involved in the nursery or teaching a group of 4th and 5th graders, as a member of the body of Christ everyone is responsible to make disciples and that includes discipling our children.
We want to be a church that is passionate about children as Jesus was passionate about children. We want to be a church where children feel that they have many spiritual mentors and leaders. People who, even though they may not be involved in children’s or student ministries, don’t mind stopping a child in the lobby to offer a word of encouragement, or who don’t mind taking a high school student to lunch to share the story of what God has done in their life. We want to be a church where people are looking for different ways to invest in and pour into the lives of children and their families. This is what Jesus expects.
Mark 10:13-16
13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
Luke 18:15-18
15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
It doesn’t appear the disciples were real passionate about discipling children and Jesus becomes angry at their apparent lack of genuine concern for the children and infants that were being brought to him. Jesus wanted them to be just as passionate about reaching children as they were in reaching adults.
We take our children’s ministry just as seriously as any other ministry in our church. We are not baby-sitting, we are not providing child care, we are discipling children. We hope you will join us in raising up children who are passionate about worshiping, walking with and working for Christ.
We had a great time of prayer at our core group meeting this week. Here at Harvest we believe firmly in the power of prayer and we recognize that apart from Christ we can do nothing (John 15:5).
How’s your prayer life? Are you relying on your own strength to accomplish the things of God or are you trusting and asking Christ for the power to live the life he has called you to live?
If you are struggling to have a consistent and meaningful time of prayer with Christ write down this acrostic
A. C. T. S.
It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. We walked through and prayed through this together in our core group meeting and I want to challenge you to do the same.
Adoration
Simply put – Worship God! To avoid making your prayer time just a call to a “help line”, start your prayer times by worshiping God. We spent the beginning of our prayer time this week just praying and acknowledging the attributes of God!
Take time to pray through some of these Psalms and call out the attributes of God described in some of these passages.
o Psalm 121
o Psalm 142
o Psalm 144
o Psalm 145
Confession
After worshiping God, examine your heart and spend some time in confession.
· Read Psalm 51 and pray for God to “create in you a clean heart.”
· Confess known sin in your life and ask God to reveal sin that you have suppressed or ignored.
Thankfulness
After a time of confession, express your thankfulness to God.
· Read Romans 8:31-39 and remind yourself of the Gospel by praying through this passage.
o Pray through 8:31-34
o Pray through 8:35-37
o Pray through 8:38-39
Supplication
First read through Hebrews 10:19-23 to remind yourself to pray with a heart that is sincere, confident and unwavering in the belief that God is faithful.
Go ahead and break out your prayer list and begin to pray for the things that God has laid on your heart. You can find a prayer guide for our church here: http://www.harvestchattanooga.org/10564/content/content_id/219474/Prayer_List
I hope you will continue to pray for our church family here in Chattanooga, we know God is faithful and hope he will use your prayers to bring about his plan.
Mike
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
- Philippians 1:21-26
Paul writes Philippians from a prison cell, as he wrestles with the tension of whether he prefers death in order to go and be with Christ, or to stay in order to continue the work that needs to be done.
Paul says, “to live is Christ,” which describes our complete dependence on Christ, the centrality of Christ, and the all encompassing presence of Christ in our lives.
Then he states, “to die is gain.” At death we gain all that has been promised to those that are God’s children. We could go on and on about what we gain at death, but Paul wants to communicate why he is choosing to stay.
Paul says, “if I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” Paul’s motivation for staying is to be used by God in order to produce fruit in people’s lives.
Always live to bear fruit in the lives of others!
Are you a disciple maker? Are you helping others to become more like Christ? The question that I want you to ask yourself is:
What kind of spiritual void would be left in people’s lives if I were to die?
Would people miss your leadership? Would people miss your encouragement, being challenged by you, praying with you?
Sure your family will miss you, and people will miss hanging out with you and they will remember how friendly you were at church on Sundays – but spiritually would anyone know that you are gone? Are their people in your life whom you are having such a spiritual influence on that if God were to take you home, God would have to raise up someone else to continue the work?
The purpose and mission of Harvest Bible Chapel is “to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission.” In one word it’s discipleship. Not just becoming better disciples, but going out and being disciple makers. We want to see people living to bear fruit in the lives of others.
This means that as we learn and study and experience the things God has for us, it is with the intention of not just being changed ourselves, but to go out and teach others through what God is teaching us. This means that as we study God’s word, not only should we be seeking to apply his word to our lives daily, but we should be trying to learn in such a way that we can go out and teach it to others.
So what kind of fruit should we be seeing in others lives if we are truly making disciples?
Paul says, 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
Paul focuses on three kinds of fruit that we need to be looking for in people’s lives:
1. Fruit that reveals progress in the faith.
Are you progressing in your faith? Are the people you are discipling growing in their knowledge of Christ and their likeness to Christ? Are you further along today then the day you met Christ?
2. Fruit that produces joy in the faith
Are you increasing in joy? Genuine, growing faith produces genuine, growing joy! People who are experiencing Christ through seeing him work in their lives, answered prayers, changed lives are going to have a greater joy because of their faith.
3. Fruit that points back to Christ.
Paul recognizes that fruit that is being produced in people’s lives has nothing to do with his strength and abilities, but should always point back to and bring glory to Christ. If we ever start to take credit for the fruit that is produced in our own lives or the lives of someone else, we are on the way to becoming a judgmental and legalistic church.
If we attribute our growth to pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, we will always struggle to understand, and look down on people who haven’t been able to achieve what we have been able to achieve. But if we understand that sanctification is a process that is done by the power of God, we will have more grace, love and affection for those that are striving to be changed by God, and we will trust in the power of God to accomplish the work and give all the glory to him when he does.