Sunday, July 19, 2009

Biblical roles

I believe that God has a different plan for each of us at the different steps of life that we are in. God has made distinct roles for each time in a person’s life. Here is a very summarized and brief explanation of the MAIN roles god has given individuals at each level of age. Again I emphasize that these are the main roles not the only roles

Children:
In short the biblical role for children is to obey their parents (Eph 6:1) and grow in their love and knowledge of the savior. It is at this stage that an individual is trained in character and habits of abstaining from evil that will stick with them the rest of their lives. This is the section of life when statistically most people come to salvation (Mat 19:14).

Single people: aka teens and young adults
While it is still extremely important for individuals at this stage in life to continue learning more about God, their focus shifts to include the importance of ministry (1 Cor. 7:32, 34). A lot of Christians and churches today (including SBCC to some extent) I believe focus to much on teaching youth to abstain from evil and not enough on the importance of service. However scripture makes it clear that the christian life has two aspects; abstaining from evil and service (James 1:27).

Adults:
While the roles of learning and serving continue, the role of an adult expands to take on the new aspect of teaching. This is divided into two sections; parenting (Prov. 22:6), and teaching in the church (1 Cor. 12:28).


In case anyone was wondering were in the world this completely random post came from it was inspired by 1) working with children in CEF and 2) thinking about what I think the roles of the youth and children’s ministries should (in my ever so humble opinion) be at the new church.