Prodigal, Pharisee, or Passionate Believer?
Kurt Gebhards, pastor of Childrens Ministries at Grace Community Church, just posted a great article titled Raising Pharisees. I think this should be read by every children’s and youth worker as well as every Christian parent.
He very adequately covers one of two great dangers facing the children of believers. The one danger is being swept up by the world and becoming a modern day Prodigal. The other danger that Kurt covers so well is the danger of becoming a young Pharisee.
I have seen it so often. In the fear that their children will become prodigals, sometimes parents and youth workers focus too much on outward behavior. Christian children catch the fortress mentality of their parents and become isolated and “above” those around them. We have had a few situations where parents didn’t want kids from the community in Sunday School or youth group because such kids would pollute their kids.
Vibrant believers, young and old, will be passionate about introducing others to Christ.
October 28th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Brian:
I got an eyeopener to this phenomenon recently when I was reading the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from Luke 18 with my 7 year old, Trevor, from an illustrated Bible. The picture shows the Pharisee standing tall and proud, and the tax collector cowering, barely entering the door. When we came to the end, I asked Trevor, “who went home justified before God?” He pointed to the picture of the Pharisee. I’m guess he got that idea from observing the religious ritual in our household. I didn’t think we were raising Pharisees.
That gave us a good chance to talk about the point of the parable - that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
We think about the external culture and its’ effects quite a bit. We don’t often give the inside culture the same cautious appraisal.