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In the past, according to our concept of the church life, we did not focus on the children’s work. However, with the development of human society and culture, there has been more social and educational emphasis put on children. If children’s education is not developed, it will be difficult to have a healthy society. For this reason, more and more scholars and experts are beginning to pay attention to children.
I entered the church life in 1932, and a church was raised up in my hometown in July of the same year. The following year there was the need for a children’s meeting. We did not know anything and were simply groping around. At the time, our purpose in beginning a children’s meeting was mainly to care for the saints who brought their children to the meeting. It was simply a child-care service. Later, I moved to Shanghai where the children’s meeting was more developed. When we began the work in Taiwan, we also began the children’s work because the number of children among us was increasing.
This is also the principle in America. The children’s work there is more important than any other work. In America before a child turns twelve years of age, his family has quite an influence on his life. Families there manage children as if managing a machine. A child does whatever his parents say. I have been received by many American families and was never bothered by the children under twelve. For example, one family who offered me hospitality had their children take a nap at one-thirty in the afternoon or simply stay in their bedroom. The children were also sent to their bedrooms at six-thirty in the evening. The children could even jump in their rooms, but they were not allowed to shout. This allowed us to have dinner with the parents without any disturbance. Neither was there any interruption in our fellowship when we returned from the meeting. However, it was entirely different when I stayed with a Chinese family. At ten-thirty at night the children were still running around and very noisy. This often did not allow us to have good fellowship.
American society pays much attention to the children, so when we began the work in America, we studied extensively the best way for children to participate in the meetings. According to the American custom, when parents go out, they never leave their children alone at home. Therefore, most American parents bring their children to the meeting, and the children even sit next to the parents. When the children squirm a little, the mother stops them. As a result, all the children sit quietly. However, this way of handling the children gives them an unpleasant feeling, and eventually they do not like to attend the meetings when they grow up.
Based on our study, we decided to watch the children for the saints. Children’s meetings began with the intention of babysitting the children. Gradually, the matter of preparing teachers came in, and we compiled material. The work progressed like a snowball that grows bigger and bigger as it rolls down a hill. Sometimes the children’s work needed more than fifty serving saints to prepare the material, teach the lessons, and care for the children. Many saints joined the children’s service.
When I returned to Taipei in 1965, I saw that there was quite a number of children. According to the brothers, from 1966 to 1967 there were about four thousand children in the meetings. However, currently there are not more than five hundred children in the twenty halls in Taipei. This situation can be likened to the sun going down. For this reason, I often reminded the brothers to pay attention to the children’s work.
From our experience we feel that the children’s work is very important. The children’s work should not simply be babysitting in order for the saints to come to the meetings. Because of their circumstances, the saints need to bring their children to the meeting, and there is the need to take care of the children for the saints. However, the children’s work has another function, that is, to cultivate and nurture our next generation. This is worthy of our careful consideration and examination.
Today several young brothers are elders in various halls. In 1949 when we began the work in Taiwan, the parents of these brothers were not married. They were brought together by us. Thirty years later, their children have grown and are serving in the church, bearing important responsibilities. Similarly, last November I was in the Philippines and was greatly surprised because a new generation of serving ones has replaced the older generation; a younger generation has been raised up. The co-workers, elders, and my translators were young brothers who were born after 1950. This situation shows that the children’s work is very important.
God ordained that man be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28). Thus, man has multiplied, but how do we raise our children? Many years ago we did not know that children could have great potential for the gospel. We stressed preaching the gospel but neglected the fact that children could also be the fruit of the gospel. When we realized that children could also be considered fruit of the gospel, I fellowshipped with the brothers, asking them to work with the goal of having ten thousand children in Taipei. If we had carried this out at that time and contacted ten thousand children, a majority of them would be older brothers and sisters today. We cannot guarantee that every child would have been saved, but at least eighty percent of the children would have been saved. This would equal eight thousand children. In addition, the ten thousand children was not a fixed number. Every year new children would have been added to us.
When children are saved, they become our young brothers and sisters. After they graduate from primary school, they become seeds of the gospel in junior high school. When we work in the schools, they become our inside helpers and bring their classmates to us. In this way it is easier to work in the junior high schools. It is difficult to bring the gospel to a school where there are no saints who are teachers or students. However, young brothers and sisters in a junior high school can be likened to little seeds; they are waiting to sprout by responding to our call and bringing their classmates to salvation. When they enter into high school, they again become seeds of the gospel. During their three years of high school, we could bring three times as many people to salvation. When these young saints finish high school and enter college, they are seeds of the gospel in their college. In this way the number of people saved is continually multiplied. This is truly a great thing.
Suppose these children begin to be cultivated in the children’s meetings at the age of six and are saved. They will continue to be cultivated through three years of junior high school, three years of high school, and four years of college. In all, they will receive a total of sixteen years of spiritual education and cultivation. While they will receive sixteen years of secular education, they will also receive sixteen years of spiritual cultivation in the church. How valuable this is!
After graduating from college, this group of young brothers and sisters should not hurry to look for a job. Instead, they should stay in the church and receive two years of full-time training. During the training, they will spend half their time learning the truth and pursuing the growth of life and the other half of their time learning to serve in coordination in the church. After two years they will know whether the Lord is leading them to serve full time for the rest of their lives. It may be that one-tenth of them will continue and serve full time, and the rest will get a job. No matter what they do, these saints will have received sixteen years of spiritual education together with two years of full-time training. When they enter society, they will be different from other people. Such a cultivation is valuable. It is not only a great help to the Lord’s work but also beneficial to society, people, and the country.
Furthermore, the children’s work has an additional function, which is to gain the families of the children. Children like to make friends. It is particularly easy for children between the ages of six and twelve to make friends, and they listen to their friends. It is therefore easy for a child to lead another child. When the children sing hymns together, the gospel is operating and spreads from one child to another child. Our purpose, however, is not focused only on the children, but even more, through the children, we want to reach their parents and siblings.
The first thing that the Western missionaries who preached the gospel in China did was to establish schools. Since the people were ignorant and illiterate, the Western missionaries had to educate them before the gospel could be preached widely. There was no school system established in China, and many towns and villages still had the traditional private tutoring. Many people did not like to hear the gospel, but because they wanted their children to be educated, they sent their children to Christian schools. The Chinese have a saying: “He who is near vermilion becomes red, and he who is near ink becomes black.” It was impossible for the children who studied in the Christian schools not to hear the gospel, because the schools stipulated that everyone participate in the service on the Lord’s Day. On the surface this did not seem to have any effect, but no one can say for certain that there was no effect. Everything depends on the Lord’s mercy.
A brother once testified that he believed into Jesus because a person who did not believe in Jesus said, “It is very good to believe in Jesus.” This proves that our Lord is real and living. As long as God’s name is mentioned and His gospel is preached, someone will be saved. Hence, we should not despise what the Western missionaries did in China. Although not many were saved through the schools, some were saved. It is likely that some did not get saved while they were in school, but after leaving school, they recalled the gospel that they heard while they were in school and were saved. The Western missionaries put much effort into establishing schools not only to educate people but ultimately to preach the gospel to them. Our children’s meetings should have the same function; they should gain many unbelieving families.
The Catholic approach is very effective. A Catholic must obtain the approval of a priest to marry a non-Catholic. The priest then gives his approval with the condition that the couple gives their children to the Catholic Church. Hence, before the children are even born, they are members of the Catholic Church. This method is effective. Sometimes we do not care about people. We think that one or two persons do not make a difference. However, there is the saying that many buckets of water make a river. We should know this principle. If we do not care about any drop of water, eventually no river will be formed. Therefore, we should care for the children. Then as the children grow, they will learn to lead others to salvation, and they will become seeds of the gospel. From this we can see the importance of the children’s work. The children’s work is greatly related to the growth of the church. May we not take this matter lightly.
There is not a definite way to take care of the children’s work. There should not be only one aspect to the children’s work. There should be many locations for the children’s work, meetings can be held at different times, and we can use different methods to conduct the children’s meetings. There should also be many goals. The teaching material should also cover many aspects.
Having a children’s meeting only in the meeting hall will be a great hindrance to its further development. The children may not all be able to travel to the meeting hall, and the meeting hall may not have sufficient space for the meeting. In the meeting hall in Anaheim there are more than ten rooms for children’s meetings, but the space is still not enough. Furthermore, the rooms are used only for a few hours every week and have no other use. This is not cost efficient. Even if we have many rooms, it will not be easy for all the children to come to the meeting hall for a scheduled meeting. Their meetings must have many locations.
According to our study, the most effective way is similar to the way we propagate the gospel. Every saint should open his home and have a children’s meeting in his home. If a home has no children, then it is up to the individual saint to decide whether he would open his home. Nevertheless, it is best to have the burden to open one’s home for the children. Most of the older sisters are burdened for the children. If their children are abroad or married and their circumstances allow them, they should open their home for a children’s meeting. They can invite five or six children from the neighborhood to have a children’s meeting. They do not have to worry about how to have the meeting, because the church will prepare material for them.
We have considered using videotaped material, which some localities use. In Texas some of the children’s meetings watch videotapes prepared for the children. We want to produce a video that shows children from various countries wearing their traditional dress and singing the hymns. There would be Japanese children wearing the kimono, Korean children wearing the hanbok, Chinese children wearing Chinese quilted jackets, and Indonesian children wearing the sarong. The children would enjoy watching such a video. After watching the video, we can help the children identify the different nationalities and then say something concerning God’s creation.
We can open our homes once or twice a week, even on Saturday afternoons and during vacation time, to invite children to our homes to have a children’s meeting. We can also contact the children’s parents and preach the gospel to them and to their relatives. This is the principle of our gospel work. The more people we contact, the better. In this way, over a period of time there will spontaneously be an effect. We believe that out of every ten children we care for, three or four will be saved. They might not get saved at this time, but at a later time in their life they will remember something and return to the church. It will be easier for these ones to be saved.
The households with children can take the initiative to open their homes and ask their children to invite other children in the neighborhood. The children can watch the children’s videotapes, sing children’s songs, or listen to a story. This is the way to have a children’s meeting once a week.
We have about five hundred fifty children among us. The children between the ages of six and twelve come from roughly four hundred families. If each of the four hundred families opened their home for a children’s meeting with ten children, there would be four thousand children meeting in four hundred homes. If we include the homes of the saints who do not have children but are willing to open their homes, it will be easy to reach a total of ten thousand children. This is one of the many ways we can use to preach the gospel. This is also the way to gain something long-term. We hope that the whole church will hear this fellowship and take action.
The meeting hall also has its use, but that might mainly be to babysit children. We will not be able to separate the children into smaller groups, because of a lack of rooms and teachers. When the saints come to a meeting, their children can watch a videotape, sing, and be spiritually cultivated.
Furthermore, it is best to have different meeting times for the children’s meetings. The schedule should be flexible. The meetings do not have to be on the Lord’s Day. Saturday afternoon is also a good time. We need to utilize the time when the children are out of school to have children’s meetings.
The way to carry out the children’s work depends on the brothers taking the lead in the children’s work. They should determine how to contact the opened homes and how to lead the saints to receive a burden and be faithful. If every home can open to invite children, we will have enough meeting places and manpower. Furthermore, if some saints are designated to prepare teaching material, the saints will not need to labor that much. We can give only some principles related to the children’s work. It is up to the saints to carry them out. We also need the elders to promote this matter. If we are diligent, we will gain many people year after year. The children’s work will become one source of increase. It is worthwhile for the elders to promote the children’s work.
We should not make any special arrangements to get teachers for the children’s meetings in the meeting halls. Rather, we should find a number of younger brothers and sisters who meet regularly to be the teachers. Children of various ages can be gathered into one room, and two or three younger saints can tell them stories, sing songs with them, or let them watch a video. This kind of service does not require much manpower. The saints who are between the ages of twenty and thirty can take care of the children. In order to reach the goal of having a large number of children, we need to mobilize the entire church. All the saints need to function for this to prosper.
We need to prepare material for the children’s meeting. We should not have children’s meetings without preparation. The brothers taking the lead in the children’s work need to write and compile material. They need much prayer and fellowship to know the content and write lesson plans. We need to prepare material, but the saints can decide the best way to use it. The meetings should not be monotonous; they can be conducted in many ways.
The children’s meetings should be in many locations, at different times, and use different methods. Moreover, the teachers must have a goal. We should be open. We are taking this way to nourish our children and gain many more children so that the gospel can be preached to their unbelieving families. There are many benefits. We hope that all the saints will pray concerning this matter and not take it lightly. We especially hope that the older sisters can open their homes and gather some children to have children’s meetings once a week. It should not be too difficult. There will be results. This requires everyone’s cooperation.
The saints who serve either full time or part time and are under thirty years old should not excuse themselves from teaching in the children’s meeting. As long as there is no conflict in their schedule, they have an obligation to serve as teachers. This is in addition to their gospel work in the schools. The serving saints who are over thirty years of age need to strengthen the small groups. There are saints who are assigned to work with the small groups, but also everyone should participate and become pillars in the small groups to strengthen the meetings.
