Discipling Kids

I looooove Rev. Dr. Voddie Baucham. I've been fortunate to lead worship under his preaching, and I consider his friendship a blessing.

Today I was listening to the podcast of a wonderful sermon he gave to a group of Southern Baptists in Texas. It was, shall we say, a little edgy. In it, Rev. Baucham challenged the prevailing paradigm of youth ministry as unbiblical, actually antithetical to the Biblical model, and ineffective, citing the woeful rates of success in youth evangelism and the growth of the Church in our society. He rightfully emphasized again and again that discipling children is the God-given task of the parents, solely, and that ministries exist only to equip and assist them in that calling. He called for a return to that paradigm beginning with the Pastors of the Churches leading by example.

In all of this, I'm pumpin' my fist in the air going "Heck, yeah!" Voddie always fires me up and I love to hear a Pastor with his prominence saying the things that need saying to a large audience.

But there's a problem with the audience, one upon which the audience itself probably hasn't picked up: they're Baptists. They don't believe their kids are Christians. Why would you try to disciple a miniature pagan living in your home? You don't do it for the Hindu down the street. Unless and until those kids are evangelized, "walk the aisle" and get dunked, all of Voddie's good preaching is merely hypothetical. Only upon a Covenantal basis can that solemn responsibility of bringing a child up in the paideia of God be taken seriously and implemented from day one. And I more than half-believe that my friend might follow that where it leads...

Heh.