• Young people are important for the Lord’s work to change the age
• We need to have long-term view that consistently labors on the children to provide them with an accumulation of the spiritual deposit
• The benefit of this labor is that the next generation will have a rich deposit, they will be gospel seeds as young people and college students, the families of the children will be gained and the Lord will gain His age-turners.

The Importance of The Children’s Work

Nearly every work that the young people were called by God to do was a work that turned the age. God called Moses to turn one age, and He called Joshua to turn another age. Obviously, His calling of Samuel turned another age. The prophethood, priesthood, and kingship all hung on this young man Samuel. He was truly one who turned the age. David was also one who turned the age. Furthermore, we can see that Daniel and his three friends were young ones among the people in captivity. Through them God turned that age of captivity. Then in the New Testament, the first to emerge was John the Baptist. We know that he was a young man called by the Lord. God used him to turn the age at his time. We can go on to look at Paul, who was an apostle especially used by God. The Bible says that he was a young man when he was visited by the Lord (Acts 7:58). We all admit that Paul was a man who turned the age. For the carrying out of all these works of great consequences, God always called young men.

I would like to tell you, brothers and sisters, that because we saw this, we have been paying much attention to the young people’s work for nearly twenty years. This is not to say that one young person’s soul is worth two older persons’ souls. This is not what I mean. What I am saying is that a person has to be gained by the Lord at a young age if he will have some usefulness in God’s hands or a future in God’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. Due to 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. 

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!

Our work for the Lord should have a long-term view. Six years go by very quickly; soon the children in first grade will be young brothers and sisters. When they enter junior high school, we can preach the gospel to their classmates in junior high. When they enter high school, we can lead many of their classmates to be saved. When they enter college, they will be gospel seeds. In this way the young people will multiply year after year. The benefit from this will be very great.

If the Lord delays His coming back for five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years and He wants to accomplish something, the commission will have to be entrusted to the young people. Unless there is a group of young people who are saved to receive proper spiritual help today, how can they gain the experience and be used by the Lord in the future? If there are no young people gained by the Lord today, after our departure there will be no one to succeed us. Then there will be a gap.

In summary, we need to gain the young people in the church and in the Lord’s work. Anyone who works for the Lord with insight needs to pay attention to this matter. If you see this, your heart will be burdened to love the young people regardless of whether they are good or bad. Having a young one who is not very desirable is better than having none at all. May the brothers and sisters as the Lord’s lovers all love the young people for the future of the church and for the Lord’s work.

Families Being Brought In through the Children

Every children’s home meeting should frequently preach the gospel and invite their relatives and the children of their neighbors. Even though some parents will not come, they will allow their children to come. We believe that many people will be brought in through the children’s gospel work. I hope that we will have two thousand children by next spring, three thousand by the summer, and four thousand by next fall. There is a great future in this work. If we take this way, there will be ten thousand children in the church in Taipei within two to three years. At least two to three thousand children out of the ten thousand will not be the children of the saints. The children’s meetings will open up a way to gain people, especially the parents of the other children.

We must realize that the children’s work is a crucial burden. Every locality must be aggressive in the children’s work, because there is a greater future in the children’s work than in the campus work. Generally speaking, it is easier to bring in children, and once they come in, they usually remain. Our history confirms this fact. The church in Manila is an example. Most of the saints in the church in Manila were gained by the children’s work. Ninety percent of the churches in the Philippines are maintained by saints in their thirties, and most of these saints grew up in the church and attended the children’s meeting.

Even in our neighborhood there must be a children’s meeting that should not be considered as the children’s meeting of the church. This is a children’s meeting work in the saints’ neighborhood. It is easy for us to set up two children’s meetings. Every week one sister can take care of two children’s meetings with four helpers. On one day, two sisters can assist this one to take care of twenty children. Maybe on another afternoon two more sisters may help to take care of another children’s meeting of fifteen to twenty children. We can collect a number of children out of our neighborhood into our home. We can ask the children to sit down on the carpet. We do not even need a piano. There is no need for materials or textbooks, but one living person. She can even sing a song to the children. Within two months we can build up two children’s meetings. Then after six months we will have six children’s meetings. One sister will not need to take care of all the meetings directly because other sisters will follow her example and have their own meetings. There may be ten children’s meetings under the direction of one sister. This would expand to over a thousand children. All of these children are linked to their parents. So through the children many homes will be opened for the church to evangelize. This is the community work. These are the warm doors and the parents will welcome us. Although people today are occupied by many things and it seems as if they are not open to the gospel, the best way to overcome this is to have a children’s meeting in our own home. The responsibility for this community work lies with the elders.

Excerpted from: Raising Up the Next Generation for the Church Life, Chapters 4, 10, and 11

Fellowship Questions:  

1. Why is the children’s work important?
2. What kind of spiritual deposit might a child from ages 1-18 years old receive if they are cared for in the family life and church life? Some answers may be a realization that God is real, shaping of proper human character, receiving God’s salvation, that they are cared for and loved in the church, and the knowledge of God’s word. 
3. What specific children and young people are you, your family or the members of your group burdened for? This may include children and young people whose parents do not meet with your group.
4. How can your group support this burden through prayer and shepherding?