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Pastoral Theology Course Notes
Lesson Twenty-four

Lesson One
Lesson Two
Lesson Three
Lesson Four
Lesson Five
Lesson Six
Lesson Seven
Lesson Eight
Lesson Nine
Lesson Ten
Lesson Eleven
Lesson Twelve
Lesson Thirteen
Lesson Fourteen
Lesson Fifteen
Lesson Sixteen
Lesson Seventeen
Lesson Eighteen
Lesson Nineteen
Lesson Twenty
Lesson Twenty-one
Lesson Twenty-two
Lesson Twenty-three
Lesson Twenty-four
Lesson Twenty-five
Lesson Twenty-six
Lesson Twenty-seven

What about the Children?

What about the Children? In this morning's Greenville News, the headlines read, "Kids of Working Moms Do Fine, Study Indicates". The story goes on to say that after surveying over 6000 children of women who work outside the home, they have concluded that they suffer no permanent harm because of their mother's absence. The psychologist from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who conducted the survey said she found "no difference between children 12 years old whose mothers worked and those whose mothers didn't work." As I read this story, I realized what a sad state of affairs the homes in America are in. I'm not the product of an Ivy League school. I don't hold a degree in Psychology. However, anyone with a brain knows there should be a marked difference between kids who have the benefit of being raised by their mom and dad, (dads were conspicuously missing from the report) and kids who are raised by a day care worker or baby sitter.

What about the children? The report says, "Kids of working moms do FINE". What is FINE? I suppose if every knee was going to bow and every tongue was going to confess that the government was Lord, or this psychologist was God, this group or one like it, might be qualified to determine what FINE is. The problem is, this group isn't FINE and their idea of fine isn't close to Biblical. You don't have to go far out in the world to see that kids are not fine. Look no farther than your own church kids. It's apparent in Church every Sunday morning that kids are in a mess today. The church of tomorrow is not in the church pew or the nursery. From where I sit, it looks like the church of tomorrow will be who we reach tomorrow.

The question is, what will we do about it? We can deny there is a problem. Denial seems to be our course in so many areas, adding to the dismal state of children to all the other problems we are denying wouldn't be anything new. We can change the standard of what "doing fine" is. Changing the standard to suit our condition is nothing new either. We can say it's all too far gone, all that left is to circle the wagons and hope for the rapture. This seems to be the most popular approach with a lot of the preachers I know. But what about the children? They are not fine, and they are getting worse every day!

Pastor, what are you doing to reach children and to keep the children you've got? Recently I heard a preacher say, "Paul didn't have a youth ministry, and bless God I ain't either." I don't know for sure Paul didn't have a youth ministry but I do know for sure that Jesus did. The trend of leaving the children alone goes back to the life and ministry of the Saviour. In Mark 10:14 we read, "But when Jesus saw it, (people preventing children from getting to the Jesus) He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." Christian friend, are you involved with any of the youth ministries in your local church? Does your local church even have any youth ministries? What about the children? One thing for sure, they are not fine and there isn't much being done to change things.