The Child Audience

“Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but 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 to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

We all come to God as children and we will always be like children to Him if we really experience a relationship with Him.  The child audience is not made up of literal children or of all "the children of God" but of those who, in learning and discernment, are young.  This  audience is made up of young people, old people and middle-aged people who have either not yet had the ability to "grow up and mature in Christ" or have refused to do so.  They cannot teach, stand on their own, struggle to hear from God, are often blown by every "wind" that comes.  Nonetheless, we stand directly under the hand of God if we mess them up, so we need to understand this audience.

It is a sad story but the same story that we all see and hear again and again.  Whether it is the TV type preacher making promises that he could never keep or the youth camp leader who after a week of no sleep and isolation from the real world has a long, drawn out emotional "come to Jesus" meeting, we see it again and again.  Like foolish, selfish parents, many teachers manipulate love, acceptance and conformity instead of allowing God and His Spirit to sanctify the student with Truth.  It is nauseating and perverse when, for the sake of decisions, numbers, "success" and money, leaders abuse the innocence of spiritually young and immature audiences.

This audience needs and deserves objective, God based, proven, Biblical Truth.  Children cannot resist becoming conformed to opinion and fads - that is why they are children.  The same is true with this audience and, if they are not given solid truth, they will wander emotionally and spiritually following what "feels right", never maturing.  Opinion, play time and topics are like candy to this crowd - much desired but the very thing which, in the long run, will rot their teeth and ruin the body.  Children will grow up even if they do not mature well and one day they will have to "do it on their own."  If they have been simply taken advantage of to make numbers, to make success, to make the teachers feel well, to get good grades, to be friends, to be conformed, to be wooed by opinion, they will have no solid basis for life decisions and they will stumble over our inadequate teaching.

One needs to avoid drama with this crowd and intentionally engineer teaching to minimize emotions and fads.  One needs to avoid opinion so that God's truth will not be tainted as it becomes the foundation.  One needs to avoid adult conflicts or sharing with the child audience things that they are not spiritually able to process.  One needs to prepare well to stand on God sized truth when crisis comes so that the trust of the child audience will not be lost.  One needs to have a strategy to move the child audience to maturity. It is easy to teach a child but we need to help our children grow up and mature.  Can you imagine a 10 year old breastfeeding or drinking from a bottle?  Can you imagine a Christian who has been left so unchallenged and trained that he can't lead a devotion at spiritual age 5?

When you teach this audience:

• Be prepared to say "No" to the constant topic change, desire to only teach on topics and to fads.
• Be prepared to answer thousands of questions without getting impatient or saying, "Because - just because."
  
• Avoid melodrama, gut wrenching stories and emotional teaching.  What you win them on is what you have to keep them on.  Instead, give them truth and independent life.
• Have a plan to get them from childhood to teenage learning.
• Do not measure success by their acceptance of you or what you teach.
• Do not strive to be their friend.
• Use common language and word pictures.
• Do not ask endless questions.  Remember, they are young and need to be taught.  Be careful of using the Socratic method of teaching as it can demotivate the child audience.
• Avoid long classes and sessions without breaks.
• Take nothing and give everything.
• Remember that they are "spiritual children" and that learning for them should be fun, productive, conclusive and positive.  They are not "spriritual adults."

The teacher needs to make sure not only that he does not manipulate, take advantage of or keep the child audience in fads so that they are happy BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY he needs to provide what is right, good, objective and solid truth so that the audience will grow, walk and feed itself.