The Most Powerful Part of the Plan
OPENING PRAYER:
Father, forgive me for the times I've treated faith as something to know rather than something to live. Show me how to mobilize the children in my life into Your mission, trusting that faith becomes real when it's put into action.
"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
Paul reminds the Ephesian church that salvation isn't just about being rescued from something, it's about being created for something. God has specific good works already mapped out for each person, including the children and young people in our lives. They're not just believers, in, training; they're God's handiwork with a purpose right now.
REFLECT:
Pastor Todd Carter called this "the most neglected but really the most powerful part of the plan", getting children in the game. He used the soccer analogy again: "There comes a moment when you have to make a decision to put a player out on the field. I mean, you've drilled them, you practice them, you walk them through every scenario, and now it's game time, and you've got to get them in the game." Then he said something that should shake us awake: "I think this is one of the most overlooked parts of raising young people to follow Jesus. We focus so much attention on what they know in terms of scriptural content. And certainly that matters a lot. But what we forget is that faith gets cemented and it gets actualized when our kids get mobilized for God's mission."
This is the gap in so much of our spiritual formation, we've over-focused on knowing right answers and under-focused on actually doing and living out God's mission. We quiz children on Bible facts, we teach them theology, we make sure they can articulate what they believe. All of that has value. But if those same young people never actually serve, never use their gifts, never experience what it feels like to be used by God to bless someone else, their faith remains theoretical. Todd put it bluntly: "I wholeheartedly believe if your children are not mobilized in living out God's mission in some meaningful way while they're still at home, they are very unlikely to own their faith and live it out when they grow up." That's not about perfection, it's about participation. When a child serves in children's ministry, helps clean someone's yard, participates in a micro campus, or volunteers at a summer camp, something shifts. They stop being consumers of religious content and become contributors to God's mission. They discover that God can actually use them. And that discovery changes everything. Whether you're a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, mentor, teacher, coach, or neighbor, you have the opportunity and the responsibility to help mobilize the young people in your life into God's mission.
APPLY:
This is the week's central challenge, and it's time to act on it. Identify a specific child or young person in your life, your son, daughter, grandchild, niece, nephew, a young person you mentor, a neighbor's child, or a student you teach. Then identify a specific way you will serve together this week. It could be:
- * Bringing them with you to serve at church
- * Helping a neighbor together with yard work or a meal
- * Volunteering together in our kids’ or student ministry
- * Visiting someone who's lonely and bringing them encouragement
- * Sign up to participate in a micro campus
- * Serving at a food bank, shelter, or community organization
The key is meaningful involvement, not token participation. Give them real responsibility. Let them contribute. Debrief afterward, ask them what they noticed, how they felt, what they think God was doing. Help them see that they're not just learning about faith; they're living it. And if you don't currently have a young person in your sphere of influence, ask God to bring one into your life. Volunteer in a ministry where you'll interact with children or teens. Become a mentor. Reach out to a family in your neighborhood or church and offer to include their child in something you're doing. The mission is too important for any of us to sit on the sidelines.
I WILL STATEMENT:
I will invite a child to serve along with me this week.
CLOSING PRAYER:
Lord, forgive me for the times I've kept faith in the classroom when You meant for it to be lived on the streets, in homes, and in the messiness of real life. Give me courage to invite the children in my life into Your mission, not someday, but right now. Help me trust that You will meet them there, that You will use them, and that their faith will become real as they step into what You've prepared for them to do. Make us all, young and old, active participants in Your great story. Use every person reading this to pass the baton of faith to the next generation, not through words alone, but through lives lived on mission together. Amen.
PRAYER REQUEST:
Share your prayer request and pray for others.