Child Problem or Parent Problem?

February 1, 2026
 
Reflections from the Heart of Allan Redenius
There are things that grieve my heart.  One of which is that all too often we see the children of the church regularly attend Sunday School, complete confirmation, and along the way we hear them confess Jesus as Lord, then suddenly, it is as if the world yanks them away.  What remains, the only memory of them in the church is their confirmation picture.  From time to time, I peruse those confirmation pictures hanging on the wall and my heart hurts knowing that many, whose pictures I see, I confirmed, no longer attend church.  
 
If you are confirmed in the church, it is not at all like graduation.  You graduate from high school and that part of your life is done.  Confirmation is just the beginning of a lifelong journey of study and fellowship with Jesus.  The disciples didn't follow Jesus for three years and then after the crucifixion say to themselves, “Well, that's finally over.  I'll go back to being a fisherman and forget about the Lord.”  No!  They stayed in the Word and followed Jesus to their last breath.
 
I wish I knew what causes a child to walk away from church.  However, parental apathy toward Jesus is a heritage that is often passed down from parent to child.  If the parent doesn't attend church, how do any of us expect a child to come to know Jesus?  Deuteronomy 6 tells us that we must teach the word of the Lord diligently to our children.  If a parent fails to do that, teach the word of the Lord to his child, is not the parent leading the child astray?  Now if you, as a parent, don't think it's a big deal to teach your child about Jesus, hear what the Lord says to you in Matthew 18:6.  “… whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
 
In churches where there is in Sunday School a lack of children, there is not a “kid problem.”  Instead, what you have is a “parent problem.”  Parents who are unwilling to bring their child to Sunday School and church. 
 
Several years ago, on the church playground, a little girl about eight years old asked this question.  “Who is Jesus?”  She had never heard of the Lord.  Shame on that parent for not teaching this beautiful little girl about He Who can give her salvation.    
 
Come to Sunday School.  Come to church.
 
Pastor Allan
 
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