LIGHTBRINGERS: Freedom in Christ for Kids – prevention is better than cure
If you have been on the Freedom in Christ course you will know just how powerful and life-changing it can be. As Christians, we can all struggle to take hold of basic Biblical truth and live it out. Sometimes we seem stuck to the negative effect of the past or simply go around in cycles of habitual sin and spiritual confusion! The FinC course helps us resolve these personal and spiritual conflicts and is a resource that exists to make fruitful disciples (not just converts). The course has a proven track record of helping churches to help Christians become mature followers of Jesus. In the UK alone it’s been used by well over 200,000 people and has been run at Kerith for many years. It is an effective and powerful resource and now it’s available for children!
Most Christians alive today made the decision to become a follower of Jesus before their 14th birthday. This should always be the target - Prevention is always better than cure. Let me share a story with you to help illustrate this.
Amy Carmichael was a missionary in the 19th century. One night she had a dream. In her dream, she found herself on the edge of a cliff. Far below she could see the waves hammering onto the rocks. And as she stood there she saw people rushing towards the edge of the cliff. She ran back and forth trying to stop them from falling off the cliff. She managed to rescue many but she couldn’t get to them all. Then she noticed that not far from the edge of the cliff there were people sitting on picnic blankets making daisy chains. In her dream, Amy shouted to them to try and get some help, but they didn’t move, they continued making daisy chains. Amy continued running back and forth and then she woke up.
She asked God what it meant and then she understood: The people were walking and toppling over the cliff towards hell and she was rescuing them. Those who sat and made daisy chains represented the church of her day, apathetic and ineffective, content in their own pastimes and having no interest in the lost world outside. Amy committed her life to patrolling the edge of that cliff and rescuing as many as she could. She opened many orphanages in India and rescued literally hundreds of children from idolatry.
But the church today is not the same as the church in Amy’s day. We have, for the most part, conquered apathy and complacency. Our biggest enemy today is not indifference; our biggest enemy today is activity! We are all busy doing something. It would appear that we are no longer making daisy chains, but we also didn’t take the step of standing on the cliff face. Instead, we set up rescue shelters at the bottom of the cliff. When people fall off the cliffs we then try and help them. There is nothing wrong in helping people in this way but isn’t prevention always better than cure? The Freedom in Christ approach is to help individuals stand as disciples who know who they are in Christ so that they are far less likely to ‘fall apart’ when tough times come. The Freedom in Christ Discipleship course is highly effective in doing this. The Lightbringers will do the same for children. It surely remains better to help boys and girls know their true identity in Christ and live in freedom than repair men and women later on in their lives.
Freedom in Christ for Children is a resource that enables and empowers us to stand at the top of the cliff with arms wide. It is about building strong children who recognise who they are in Christ and know the truth that they have a destiny that God set apart for them even before He began to put the universe together.
Most church leaders and many parents will tell you of the sadness of a child who seemingly followed Jesus for many years only to drop out as they enter their teenage years. Why? The reasons are numerous and complex, but at the top of the list is that same identifiable reason, we have taught them to act like Christians rather than actually developing that personal walk and relationship with the resurrected Jesus. They develop a superficial spirituality and learn to become one thing to the church and another to their school and friends. The Freedom in Christ course for children works at creating opportunities for genuine encounters and building into the life of the child the spiritual understanding that means we are not having to work in years to come to repair men and women because we have worked hard now to build up boys and girls, to give them the spiritual understanding that having done all else they can stand – bold, courageous and resolute against every fiery dart. I firmly believe that Freedom in Christ for kids will help train and equip children to know their identity and therefore be strong followers of Jesus and as a result will stem the exodus of children from our churches as they enter their teenage years.
So, In September I would love to bring the Freedom in Christ course for kids (Lightbringers) to Kerith Bracknell! This will be run as a small group after school for 10 weeks for those in school years 4-6. If you hold a Kerith Kids DBS and would like to get involved then please do reach out to me (jo.foster@kerith.church) as I will need adults to assist me!
AW Tozer told us:
“Between the person who knows about God and the person who has encountered God, there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with people who know about God, they have read about God, they have an opinion about God. Their voices grate through our churches, our synods, our world. But where are those who have encountered? Where is the voice of the one who has gazed on the wonder of God? The church waits for that voice. The church is desperate for that voice. Yet, to gaze there, is a privilege open to every believer”.
Every believer. No exceptions. That means children can gaze there too. An army of children who have gazed on the wonder of God, who have truly encountered Jesus, will be the generation that changes the world.
