The Adventure for our family involves children. Yesterday I laid out the overview of what this looks like, and over a series of posts, I want to go into more detail on the different arenas that we can equip the next generation for a life in Christ, namely our Family, Church, Culture, and World.
- Our Family. God has called us to disciple and shepherd our own children. We want to equip them to become mature followers of Jesus Christ. Of course, this is ultimately a work of the Holy Spirit, but we have a responsibility to share with them the grace of God, and to teach and model to them what a spiritual life looks like. God has given that call primarily to parents, not to the church, school, or anything else. One day, if God wills it, we desire to come alongside our own children as they disciple their own children (our grandchildren). What a joy and reward it would be to have a godly lineage!
- Our Church. There are two main ways that we want to reach the hearts of children at Grace Church: through equipping parents and through our weekend programming. (You can read about our church’s tension between these areas here.) We can help equip parents through our personal relationships, and through leadership over and participation in equipping events and conferences. As for our weekend programming, Joanna and I have been serving with children at Grace Church since even before we dated. Then we served together for years, and after a while, we were asked to take on more and more leadership roles. And by January 2007, I joined the church staff as the Pastor of Children & Families. We have been continually passionate about how our church can reach the next generation through Children’s Ministry programming and volunteers.
Tomorrow, we will look at the other two areas through which we want to equip the next generation.
-- Joey Espinosa
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