We are having daily Vacation Bible School this week at Delaney Street Baptist Church. I have made it a practice for years to have an evangelistic message in the first half-hour of each day at VBS. As a rule, the week of VBS we see more people come to Christ than in any other week of the church year. Oftentimes, I preach the evangelistic message myself, although sometimes I assign it to our youth pastor or summer intern.
This week we have had an extraordinary start to VBS. Usually on the 1st day (Monday), we see no more than 2 or 4 kids “come forward” to accept Christ. Monday this week we saw 27 come forward, and on Tuesday another 12. Many of these are visitors. Nevertheless, I was surprised.
As a rule, someone always asks, “Well, how many of them really meant it?” Or, “How many of them knew what they were doing?” We never ask that about adults, but we always ask it about children. I have very little patience with such questions. Only God knows how many truly accepted Christ in their hearts. We present the gospel, do our best to lead children (or adults) to Christ, do our best to follow up on them, and leave the results with God.
If we are not certain each child genuinely accepted Christ, then what are our alternatives? Shall we quit presenting the Gospel? Do we quit evangelizing? People sometimes live in fear that we will give a child a false assurance of salvation. I do not worry about that. Only the Holy Spirit can give assurance of salvation. If a child makes a false confession of faith, that child will not have assurance of salvation. The Holy Spirit will speak to that child again in due time.
Do you see my frustration with such questions. If 27 kids come to Christ, I would predict that a certain percentage of them truly understood what commitment they were making — and thus make our evangelistic effort well worthwhile. If only 4 come to Christ, I would predict that a certain percentage truly understood — and again our evangelistic effort is worthwhile. Should we be more excited over 27 as opposed to 4? Why not? So, we simply do our best and rejoice over what God is doing.
Do we believe in childhood conversions to Christ? We should. Surveys show that a vast majority of pastors and missionaries on the field today all accepted Christ as a child. Wasn’t it Jesus Himself who said, “Let the little children come to me.” I believe in child evangelism.
Twitter
RSS Feeds