The Danger of Pastoral Favoritism

Just as parents are wise to avoid making one of their children special, so pastors must love and serve every person in the congregation equally.  

In some churches, the pastor and spouse may unthinkingly single out a couple or subgroup of the congregation for greater time and attention. They may share meals in one another’s homes, or even go camping together. 

Some members left out of this elite circle may not care, but this fraternization won’t sit well with other members of the congregation, for a crucial pastoral principle is violated by such selective closeness – the principle that, while some members may be more likable or share more interests than others, all members are equally deserving of the pastor’s love and care.

The rule doesn’t mean pastors must dole out attention with precision, like a pharmacist counting out pills. A member of the congregation who comes down with a serious illness will naturally receive amplified pastoral attention to see them through their crisis.

The pastor may even focus attention for a time on newcomers to the congregation or to new converts. Mature members will understand.

Social closeness with a subgroup in the church is dangerous. One fine church I know of became divided and eventually failed due in part to the pastor’s focus on a group of younger members to the neglect of everyone else.

Still, you may say, this kind of constraint is unfair because pastors need close friendships, just like anyone else.

Here’s one response: Many years ago I heard a speaker at a ministers’ conference propose that pastoral couples develop friendship with another denomination’s pastoral couple in the community. Or with another pastoral couple in a nearby church of the same denomination. 

Even then, however, the association should be discreet, not time consuming. It is a pastor’s sacrificial gift to project love and interest toward the whole flock, and to sense and serve needs equally across the congregation.

A measuring stick any pastor can use is to ask: “Am I equally the pastor to all of the people, all of the time?” If the answer is yes, love for the Lord and wisdom in caring for the whole flock will take it from there.

Image info: Marco Verch Professional Photographer (via flickr.com)

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My new memoir, FROM KITCHEN CHAIR TO PULPIT: A Memoir of Family, Faith, and Ministry, has just been published. I hope you will click on one of the links that follow to be taken to the page on these sites that enable you to view and potentially purchase the paperback or ebook. My book shows just how extraordinary the pastoral life can be, describing how I prepared for ministry and ministered to three congregations and then, as a bishop, to pastors as a bishop, with the help of my wife, Kathleen, and the support of our children as they grew up from children to adults.

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Re-post: How Pastors Can Deal with Electronic Distractions

A number of years ago, not long after the smartphone revolution, our son Robert demonstrated for us some of the wonders of his iPhone.  

“What is the meaning of life?” he asked Siri, his phone’s “assistant.” Answer: “It’s nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach ya.” And, “Siri, What’s the capital of Bolivia?” Answer: “La Paz.”

This entertaining demonstration was only the tip of the iceberg as far as the wonders of handheld devices are concerned. Well beyond being just a phone, a smartphone can be a timepiece, an email receiver-sender, a global positioning device, a datebook, a newspaper, a YouTube portal, a hand-held video game.

If I were an active pastor today, I would ask myself, how might this tool (not to mention my tablet or computer) enhance my ministry? On the other hand, how might it steal time I should be spending in ministry to my flock? Surely pastors everywhere must be asking these questions.

Here is how I think I might deal with it. I would search regularly for Scripture that would charge me afresh with the responsibility to steward my calling. Here’s an example: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

For today’s electronic distractions that portion might be adapted to say, “… whether you text or email or whatever else you do electronically, do it all for the glory of God.”

Here’s another example from one of the Pastoral Epistles: “Do your best to present yourselves to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

This is a stunning challenge to the effective management of time and concentration on biblical study. Meeting the challenge would require careful management of distractions.

I believe I would search for an affirmative mandate from the Bible rather than setting before myself a list of “don’ts.” The reason? I doubt that my will would be strong enough to withstand the enticements of the electronic era without having a sense that the living, seeing Lord of the church was issuing the charge through his holy Scripture.

In addition to seeking a scriptural mandate to protect my time, I would also search for a fellow minister as an accountability partner. We would commit to a disciplined use of the internet and the wise use of time. We would report to each other our performance as careful workmen for the Lord’s sake.

Such a program would surely increase the blessing of the Lord on each of our churches. And to Scripture and accountability, we could count on the presence and assistance of the Holy Spirit. As is written in Romans 8:26, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”

The era of immediate access to digital information and communication is marvelous. Still, the potential of technology to steal time and concentration from ministry would be a grave offense. With the help of Scripture, human accountability, and above all the Spirit, I believe I would give myself to hard work in disciplined ministry, looking forward to that great day when I would hope to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant! … Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21).

Photo credit: Gonzalo Baeza (via flickr.com)

Re-post: What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do

Solving perplexing situations in family, workplace, church, and society prompts fundamental questions: Should I remain silent? If I speak up, what should I say?

When involved with a complicated circumstance, I’ve learned the wisdom of weighing my response in light of the day on which we will come before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Of course, our performance is not what saves us at the Final Judgment. The Scriptures teach that we are saved by grace alone, through faith in Christ. But the Scriptures also say, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

That is, it is at the same time true that, in the words of Romans 8:1, “… there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” and that the believer’s performance will also come into account, which will include the quality of the life we have lived for him (2 Corinthians 5:9,10).

If I consider a problem in the light of the Final Judgment I often, though of course not always, gain clarity about what I should do. Such an exercise helps me keep distracting emotions, selfishness, and short-sightedness at bay.  

I recall a time when I was leading a committee in dealing with a complex and contentious church matter. I was thinking my way toward what I saw as a resolution. But not everyone agreed with my plan.

After one meeting with the committee, I went with two of its members for coffee before we started for home. At the table the situation again bubbled to the surface. As the one who was ultimately responsible for the decision, I gestured upward and said “We will have to answer to God for how this matter is resolved.”

The initial response was a surprised silence, as if I had introduced a new idea to my companions. The discussion to this point had seemed to have moved on a purely human level: Which of the groups involved will we favor? How can we close up this matter quickly? Which way would require the least damage control? A sense of accountability to God for a wise judgment hadn’t factored into our deliberations.

Thinking about a thorny problem in the light of the Final Judgment takes the problem out of the moment and into the context of eternity. It keeps the focus on God and his wisdom.

Christians, by remembering the Final Judgment, can practice the mental and spiritual discipline of making all of life’s decisions in the awareness that God is present at every moment and in every circumstance. This obedience enriches faith.

Photo credit: barnimages.com (via flickr.com)

Re-post: Qualifications for the Pastoral Task: Godliness and Competence

After serving 21 years as a pastor, I spent 19 years as a general administrator of the Free Methodist Church. During those latter years I was regularly involved with annual conference committees that evaluated and developed persons who wished to become pastors.  

In the Free Methodist church it is the annual conference that ordains pastors and to whom they are accountable. An annual conference’s selection process leading to ordination is long, prayerful, and complex. It involves interviews, supervised summer assignments, questionnaires, recommendations, a check on educational achievement, psychological tests, and more.

What are the qualifications an ordination committee should look for? Here’s a simple list:

1. Does the candidate manifest a clear sense of God’s call? That is primary. 
2. Is the person’s life marked by impeccable character and suitable personality? That is, is he or she honest, intelligent, personable, hard-working, with a good sense of humor? The expectations are high.
3. Does he or she have a good grasp of the Scriptures?
4. Is there evidence of a solid work ethic? Does motivation come from within?  
5. Can he or she speak / communicate well?

Three decades ago, while preparing the Staley Lectures which I gave at Roberts Wesleyan College, I was able to simplify these diverse criteria to my own satisfaction under two headings: godliness and competence. This insight came from a careful reading of Paul’s first letter to the young pastor Timothy.

Godliness is a personal attitude of respect for and devotion to God. A godly person lives in moment-to-moment accountability to God, whether alone or with others. We might say that the godly person is marked by “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). Godliness shows in a piety that is genuine, not affected.

Godliness is not, however, a once-and-forever gift. That’s why the Apostle Paul exhorts the young Timothy to “train yourself to be godly” (4:7b) and “pursue godliness” (6:11). Godliness is a dominant word in the pastoral epistles, representing a never-ending goal.

But godliness alone is not enough. To it must be added competence. Competence begins with a broad and deep understanding of the pastoral task. And skill in carrying out this diverse task must be developed continually.  

A godly pastor without competence might be ineffective and clumsy with his or her people. On the other hand, a pastor who is competent but lacks godliness might be efficient but lacking in authentic piety.

I saw while I was pondering I Timothy in preparation for the lectures that the core of competence is sound doctrine. In fact, Paul’s first issue in his letter is competence in countering those who teach false doctrine (1:3b).

Paul reminds Timothy that he himself had been appointed by God to be a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles (2:7). He exhorts Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (4:13). The proclamation of and accountability to truth and sound doctrine are at the core of competent pastoral ministry.

Competence also includes skill in relating to parishioners. ”Do not rebuke an older man harshly … Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity” (5:1, 2).

And it includes caring for administrative matters such as seeing to it that God’s people function well in community, and that believers’ special needs in the family of God are met (5:9-17).

Those who select and develop pastors who are godly and competent — in preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and skillful administration — understand that the essence of the pastoral task is to bless God’s people for all time.

Photo credit: Chris Miuccio (via flickr.com)

Re-post: Reading Scripture in Church

The best advice I know for those called upon to read Scripture in public worship is this: Read the Bible as though you are listening to it, not as though you wrote it.

I would also say: Read clearly, with confidence and conviction. Read so the people will want to listen.

Too often, only a few verses are read as the text for the minister’s sermon. That is commendable, but historically, Christian Scriptures have also been read as a separate, stand-alone act of worship.

That’s also how it was in the ancient Jewish synagogue. The scrolls were kept in a sacred chest and removed reverently to be read to the gathered worshipers.

Early Christian assemblies continued this practice. The Apostle Paul, who was well trained as a rabbi when Christ called him, wrote to the young pastor Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of the Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). Notice that the reading of the Scripture is spoken of here as separate from preaching and teaching.

It is ironic that public worship in so-called “liberal” congregations include in their order of worship a Bible reading from both Old and New Testaments and from the Psalms, while many congregations we call “evangelical” include no scripture other than the aforementioned sermon text.  

I was teaching a seminary class of fifteen or so who came from many church traditions. I asked: “How many of you attend or lead a congregation that includes Bible reading as a separate act of worship?” Fewer than half raised their hands.

In the early decades of my denomination — and indeed of many evangelical denominations — it was different. On the first page of the Free Methodist Church’s 1910 hymn book I find an “order of worship” printed on the first page. It includes Scripture lessons from both the Old and New Testaments. Our forebears apparently wanted to be sure that Scripture would be central in worship and also that worship would be uniform from congregation to congregation.

To recover this practice, here are suggested “rules” to consider.

1. Well in advance of Sunday let the pastor choose a portion from each Testament, usually between 10 and 25 verses in length, giving special attention to the Psalms and the Gospels.

2. Choose lay readers carefully. Reading the Scriptures in worship is an assignment for those who are good readers, who articulate clearly and project their voices so as to be heard by all.

3. Give readers the passages before the Lord’s Day and encourage them to acquaint themselves well with them so that there will be no stumbling over words during public reading.

4. If young people are chosen, explain to them the importance of the assignment. I have noted at times that young people tend to read too fast, not being aware that many worshipers need a slower pace. I suggest you model for them the pace, or have them read for you and coach them. Also, advise readers to dress modestly for the assignment and with respect for a holy God and a worshiping congregation. If this advice is properly given it will win a response.

5. Ask readers to sit near the microphone at least until they have carried out their assignment. They share leadership for that service and the congregation should not need to wait while readers come from a distant place in the sanctuary.

Many years ago in a class with Carl Bangs, an outstanding scholar and seminary professor, we students discussed the drift of some churches from historical beliefs. He noted, however, that such congregations often continue to give a place to the public reading of the Scriptures. Then he added these words: “So long as the Scriptures continue to be read there is hope.”

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The Power of a Special “Good Word”

How should ordained pastors close a service of worship? Dismiss the people with a hand signal? Announce a hymn? Offer a closing prayer? Exhort them to go out and be good witnesses for the Lord?

All four means have been used, but there is one better. It is to pronounce over them a benediction. In other words, bless them in the name of the Lord, and send them away with the assurance that the Lord will go with them.

That’s what a benediction is. It is a “good word” pronounced over the Lord’s people in the Lord’s name. Numbers 6:22-27 introduces us to the great priestly benediction. God ordered Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons to use this blessing to dismiss a gathering of his people. The priest was to raise his hands and say:

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

In this Old Testament blessing there is, by the way, a preview of the mystery of the Trinity. Note the threefold reference to “the Lord.” That is, as you go out from here, the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — will be with you.

God’s instructions to Moses for the priestly blessing make it clear that this benediction is not a collection of empty words. The Lord tells Moses that when it is pronounced, “So will I put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” It is a promise of God’s favor.

Some pastors may feel that this is all too Old Testament and priestly. It might help them to be reminded that, when rightly understood, the pastor’s ministry is both prophetic and priestly. Think of such priestly ministries as the pastoral prayer, the wedding ritual, the serving of the sacraments, or the graveside sentences. In these, pastors are carrying out the priestly aspect of their calling.

The blessing of God’s people at the close of a service of worship is one more wonderful privilege contained in a pastor’s ordination.

A benediction is important because a local congregation does not cease to exist when it disperses. A local church can be considered both a gathered and a scattered community. When together for worship, it is gathered. When its people disperse to their many locations, it is scattered. In both cases it is still a church. St. Peter, for example, wrote an epistle to the church “scattered” abroad.

How appropriate it is, then, that before believers leave their place of assembly they are sent forth to take up their varied stations with a promise that God will also be with them in their many and sometimes isolated locations.

During the week ahead of you, here’s my benediction for you, my dear reader, from Hebrews 13:20-21:

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Photo credit: Grace Lutheran Church (via flickr.com)

Re-post: An Exchange of Smiles at Walmart

It was mid-afternoon and I was pushing my grocery cart toward the exit of Walmart when a middle-aged woman entering the store flashed me a big smile. I suddenly realized that I had been smiling at some pleasant thought and she must have thought I was smiling at her. Or perhaps she was just saying she was happy, too.

My observation is that not much smiling goes on in grocery stores. After all, there’s a lot to think about while shopping, like comparing the costs of two brands of paper towels or two different grades of eggs, or checking the calorie count of whole-grain Cheerios. And while you are doing all this, you have to make sure your grocery cart doesn’t get in the way of other shoppers.

(Someone should do a study about smiles in a grocery store. What percentage of shoppers smile at fellow shoppers in any one afternoon? What is most likely to prompt smiles? Do people who smile spend more or less money on average? Some pollster could figure out how to frame the questions. Anyhow, news reports citing such statistics would be a welcome relief from the poll results for presidential hopefuls we are treated to daily.)

Maybe an additional reason I don’t smile enough when I work my way down a shopping list in the grocery store is that grocery shopping is a relatively new experience for me. I’m still awkward at it. I’ve taken it up only since retiring and I’m not as patient and discriminating about it as Kathleen is. I sometimes bring the wrong thing home (like apple juice instead of apple cider vinegar).

Back when I was an assigned pastor I had a self-imposed rule that I would not run errands like grocery shopping during working hours. Some of my pastor friends thought this was too rigorous but I had a reason. During working hours I was on duty. I knew that the high-school principal couldn’t take time off during the day to slip away to a grocery store for a couple of items she forgot the night before. And the vice-president of the bank couldn’t slip out for half an hour to get a dozen eggs. These people were on duty. Why shouldn’t working pastors consider themselves on duty also?

It is true that a pastor’s work sometimes beckons during hours when others are finished for the day. Even so, it may not appear professional to parishioners that their pastor is pushing a shopping cart at 10 a.m.

The context of my self-imposed regulation during pastoral days was my strong work ethic — not a slavish one, not a compulsive one, but one exercised with a robust joy in making time count and in letting my people know that I took my assignment seriously.

That same thought brings me joy in setting myself a working schedule during retirement years — though one not so rigorous — and that may well be why I was smiling as I headed out of Walmart.

Photo credit: Rupert Taylor-Price (via flickr.com)

Re-post: Thoughts About Serving Holy Communion

Young pastors sometimes struggle to see the value of liturgy, especially the service of Holy Communion. It may seem “unspiritual” to them because the words spoken are prescribed in advance. Consequently, they may feel the need to “reformat” this ancient rite of the Church.

I once heard of a young pastor’s novel come-and-go Communion service. The elements were laid out on the Communion table and people were invited to come anytime Sunday afternoon and serve themselves, without benefit of explanation, pastor, or possibly even fellow believers.

Or there was the pastor so opposed to rituals of any kind that he simply “announced” Communion and passed the elements around without invitation, consecration, explanation, or prayer. Any unchurched person would be sure to go away asking, “What was that about?”

Whatever the cause for disinterest or aversion, here are some simple suggestions to help pastors conducting a Communion service. They may also be useful for laypersons who feel the need for fuller engagement with this sacrament.

1. During the week prior to the service, live in the four brief New Testament passages that report the first Lord’s Supper, attended and hosted by Jesus Himself:

Matthew 26:17-30
Mark 14:22-26
Luke 22:19-23
1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Let the scene set itself in your imagination and let the words sink in. If the truths expressed in “this is my body … this is my blood (broken/shed for you)” seem wrapped in mystery, remember that in the early days of the Christian era the Greek branch of the church often referred to the Lord’s Supper as just that — “the Mystery.”

2. The day before the Lord’s Supper is served, spend time with the ritual itself. Read it aloud. Personalize its opening invitation for yourself. Think afresh what the sacrificial death of Jesus meant and turn that understanding into prayer. It is sometimes the savoring of words — “putting them under your tongue and sucking them like a sweetie,” as one Scottish divine advised — that releases their power.

3. Practice reading the service out loud slowly and thoughtfully. In doing so you may hear fresh truth for your own need. One teacher of pastors offered this advice to those called upon to read the Bible in public services: “Read it as if you are listening to it yourself, not as though you wrote it.” The same advice fits reading the ritual of Holy Communion.

4. If you have any impulse in your mind to diminish or neglect the serving of the Lord’s Supper, remember that, throughout history, it has often been called the central act of Christian worship. Let that understanding refashion your thinking.

5. Finally, whether you are a pastor or layperson, resist the tendency to seek innovation. Sometimes in our youth we are inclined to diminish the value of repetition in favor of new ways of saying or doing things. Innovation certainly has its place, but not with a fundamental practice of our faith such as the Lord’s Supper. Repetition is intended to fix its truths in believers’ minds.

After one communion service at which I had served believers of all ages, an elderly woman, the widow of a minister, spoke to me. She had heard the ritual all her life. She said to me with feeling, “The longer I live, the more meaningful the Lord’s Supper becomes to me.”

Photo credit: Kathy (via flickr.com)

A Day in the Life of Pastor John Doe

This is the story of a day in the life of a pastor of medium-sized but busy church. Call it a snapshot of key aspects of a pastor’s daily routines.

Meet Pastor John Doe. You may understand his title as meaning he only has something to do with the church. You may have even heard with amusement the quip that pastors have a one-hour-a-week job — the Sunday-morning hour between 11 and noon. But the following, based on my experience as a pastor, is a glimpse of the other 50 or more hours.

This story may as readily be Pastor Jane Doe’s. In increasing numbers, women are responding to the pastoral task, taking the appropriate training and experiencing the same joys and sorrows in their work as male pastors do, though perhaps in somewhat different ways. But in this case, the story is about Pastor John Doe.

Pastor Doe is settling into his study, to read, meditate, and pray, with his Bible and laptop in front of him. He is laying out pulpit plans for the following Sunday. It’s eight o’clock Tuesday morning.

At that morning service he’ll preach the last of a year-long series from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The title: “The Bedrock of Obedience” (Matthew 7:24-27). In the evening it will be a Bible study on The Christian and Gambling, based on Matthew 27:35-36.

By nine o’clock he hears his administrative assistant/Christian education director arrive in the room next door, and the phone begins to ring. Each day, the AA thoughtfully protects Pastor Doe’s study and preparation time from calls that can wait.

Also on his schedule, at 11:45 he breaks his solitude for the AA’s morning report: the conference superintendent called and wants a call back; the new Smeaton baby has arrived (a boy); and Jane Hewlett of the Mother’s Morning Out Circle phoned to ask if he would lunch with them this coming Thursday noon and bring a brief devotional.

Also, Mrs. Grundy had phoned again to complain that the sound system had not been loud enough Sunday and if this problem isn’t corrected she’ll just stay home and listen to television preachers.

At noon, he usually exercises at a health center nearby, or just takes his lunch alone. By 1:15 he’s on his way to the hospital, first to offer thanks to God with the Smeatons on the safe arrival of their son, then to visit a high-school student who had to have unexpected surgery. On the way back to the church he visits briefly with a member whose husband abruptly left her only two weeks earlier.

By 3:15 Pastor Doe is back at the church for an appointment with a troubled single mother. Behind her tears, he learns, is the fear that her 15-year-old daughter, Alene, is getting into drugs. The symptoms are ominous — secretive conduct, falling grades, money missing from a drawer, and what appear to be exaggerated mood swings.

Pastor Doe has had a good relationship with Alene so he assures her mother that he will make contact with the daughter, but he’ll also put the mother in touch with a support group. They pray together, but both know that, if her fears are true, there may be hard days ahead.

In the few spare minutes before a 4:30 appointment with a young college student, he chooses the music for next Sunday morning’s service and makes note of two bulletin announcements that he must not lose track of. And he reviews the sermon ideas he had recorded during his morning study.

The student arrives. She’s home from college for spring break. She chokes back tears as she unfolds her perplexity. She’s in love with a neat guy, she says, and they are talking marriage. But she’s troubled that sometimes in playful moments he hurts her physically. She shows Pastor Doe a bruise on her arm. After hearing her out (with some internal alarm), the pastor asks permission to double check with a counselor at a distance, one trained in such issues. He prays with her and makes a follow-up appointment.

At 5:50 Pastor Doe arrives at his home. After a pleasant meal he has time to play a computer game with his ten-year-old son, Thomas, and read a Bible story to his five-year-old daughter, Cheryl. At 7:50 he slips away to make contact with a newly formed building committee at the church.

Back to his home by nine, he and his wife sit in the quiet of the family room discussing home and family issues: a different medicine for their son’s bronchitis; their van’s unexpected need for new tires (where the best deals appear to be, and where they would find the money for them); and about conflict issues between staff members of the preschool where his wife works.

As they prepare for sleep after a taxing day, they raise their sights and give thanks for the blessings the pastoral life brings, and in the face of the stresses, to recommit to obedience to the call on their lives.

As Pastor Doe lays out his clothes for the next day his mind drifts again, as it had several times in the afternoon, to the text he will preach from. He feels a touch of eagerness to be alone with the text in his study the next morning.

Before settling to sleep, Pastor Doe recalls the words of the Apostle Paul to Pastor Timothy: Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching, and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift… (1 Timothy 4:13).

Image info: Lyncconf Games (via flickr.com)

Why Pay Attention to the Children?

I was seven years old when my first nephew, Barry, was born. Perhaps I was a bit giddy about my new status in life. After all, at such a young age I was Uncle Don.

As other children came along to enlarge my parents’ family – nephews, nieces, my own children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren – God put a love for them into my heart, a love that has never left me.

Our most recent addition is Baby Isabel, eight months old, the daughter of Zach and Lisa. Our love for her is nourished by means of pictures sent electronically to update us on her development through her first year of life. We will see her at Christmas.

And we have the promise that, come spring, by the mercy of God new love will come yet again, this time for the child of Ben and Charis.

My love never made me an expert in bathing or changing diapers or otherwise caring for the little ones’ intricate and earthy needs. In that category my best grade would be “awkward.”

But I loved to talk to them and rock them, and to get down on the floor with them and “communicate” with special sounds. Insofar as possible, I have followed closely the development of each of my children and grandchildren right into their adulthood.

This love for children seems to have been part of my calling in life. Back when I myself was approaching young manhood and my mother could see I was preparing seriously for the Christian ministry she offered me one word of advice.

In less than one minute she said, and never repeated it a second time: “Don, when you are a pastor do be sure to pay attention to the children.”

Even now her words remind me of Our Lord’s parting assignment to Simon Peter after the resurrection; Simon’s first task was to feed my lambs (John 21:15b).

Earlier, when his disciples thought Jesus too busy to pay attention to children, he rebuked them. He saw in the little ones what the disciples at the moment did not see: eternal worth and the need for love given wisely.

He said to his disciples, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). He then took time to gather the little ones in his arms and bless them.

Not long ago I had a conversation with a public school teacher with advanced training in early childhood development. She was recognized in the public system for her skill as a teacher and had exercised her gift with children in the church as well.

Speaking in the context of the church we noted the need of children to be recognized among the congregation – to be greeted and assured of a place – and their need to be protected. In today’s church, especially, well-planned systems of oversight must be put in place and followed.

But the comment that registered most deeply was that people who work in children’s ministries should be aware of the capacity of children under five years of age to learn.

Two-year-olds, she said, can be taught to sing a simple chorus. And three- and four-year-olds can take in well-told Bible stories. They can memorize short pieces of Scripture too.

Sunday school for the little ones can be much more than a nursery or a place for them to be entertained. To teach them Christian things at that age sets a good base for spiritual development later on and lays the groundwork for their personal response to the Gospel.

It is nearly 90 years since I was taken to my first Sunday school class. The few of us little ones were gathered around a dark oak sand table in the corner near the pulpit of the little church. The mirror facing upward in the sand became the Sea of Galilee. The teacher’s name was Elva Tisdale. She was loving and feeding Christ’s lambs.

Photo credit: Roger Davies (via flickr.com)