The other day I read a great article encouraging churches to be more intentional about reaching children with the life-changing message of Jesus. It quoted the Barna Group’s report that what people believe by the age of 13 will likely stick with them the rest of their lives, and that unbelieving adults over 19 have just a 6% probability of becoming Christians. International Bible Society added their findings that 83% of Christians make their first commitment to Jesus by the time they are 14. It was a challenge to churches to engage those gifted in child evangelism to train their people to clearly communicate the Gospel to kids using methods that bring results.
While I applaud this effort, I can’t help but wonder if one of the reasons 83% of people come to faith before the age of 14 is because that’s where the church puts 83% of its effort. Is the church creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that is then validated through their practices?
The Book of Acts records the unfolding of the gospel across the world, and children are never mentioned. It began with Jesus’ marching orders to His adult followers … “You are to carry the good news to every corner of the earth,” (Acts 1:8), and when the starting bell sounded a few weeks later, 3,000 became followers of Jesus: adults.
The Apostle Paul’s first stop on his missionary journeys (Acts 13-19) was usually the local synagogue where he'd reason with the adults from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ (Messiah). When he spent two years disciplining new followers of Jesus in the city of Ephesus (Acts 19), one of the outcomes was that all of Asia heard the gospel. It was adults reaching adults, and it changed the world.
There is no question we should be doing all we can to reach children for Jesus, and training adults to clearly communicate the Gospel to kids using methods that bring results is critical. But where are the churches and leaders who are offering this same kind of training to help adults reach adults? Where are those who are coming alongside adults to equip them to clearly communicate the Gospel to their peers and friends using methods that bring results? Most pastors desperately want their people to talk about Jesus with those they're around, but few provide any practical help.
This has been happening—or not happening—for decades. But as a church planter and pastoral leader for 35 years, my experience has been very different. The “83% before age 14” has not been my experience and the reason is simple: We put great intentionality into training adults how to engage with those God has placed in their orbit. It’s not rocket science.
Are children under the age of 14 softer concrete for the indelible impressions of Jesus? Absolutely. That’s why the church should be doing everything it can to reach this impressionable age.
But it's time we stop letting self-fulfilling statistics govern our behaviors and start being influenced by the statistics of Jesus:
God so loved the world that He gave His Son so no one would perish…John 3:16
God desires every person to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth… I Timothy 2:4
God does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance…2 Peter 3:9
God doesn’t stop loving the billions of our planet once they reach 14, and neither should we. Let's be the generation that changes those statistics by equipping adults to clearly communicate the Gospel to adults using methods that bring results. It’s the heart of God.