Children as Members

This past Sunday the elders of HPC interviewed people for membership. What we look for in those wishing to join is simply a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ. To discern this can be one of the hardest things we do. But not today.

Today it was a delight. We were able to interview three adults and seven children, including my son Colin, no longer sporting his Rayhawk (which, by his mother’s orders, lasted no longer than about fifteen minutes). The children’s ages ranged from 7 to 12.

Can a child understand this process? We’ve wrestled with that and have concluded that at times a child can understand it better than some adults.

Each of these children gave evidence of understanding what it means to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. But, you ask, will they still be committed at age 17? or 21? or 25? We can’t say that. But do we prevent access to membership and to the Lord’s table because we fear that one whose profession of faith today is tender and precious may prove to be spurious? Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” I’d hate to be on the other side of him on any issue, but especially that one.

If any come to us and demonstrate a love for Jesus, we receive them. If in time they reject the faith which they now profess, then their profession will be shown to have been false, regardless of the age they made that profession.

But this is the joy: I don’t expect that from these children. Yes, they may struggle. They may go through a period where they ‘experiment with unbelief’, a time where they look upon the Christianity of their upbringing from the ‘other side’, so to speak. It may be a scary time for their parents. But the faith they possess now, nurtured as it will be by faithful parents, by the church, by the preaching, by the sacraments, I expect to grow and deepen and to be preserved by the gospel. I believe this because I’ve been assured and have seen God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises.

The work of the parents, and the work of the covenant community of the church, has not changed. We are still charged with discipling these children to love and trust Jesus. We are still to be about guiding them to be faithful to the vows they take and will slowly come to understand as the years go on. But the God who claimed them as his from the womb will be the the God who preserves them through his faithfulness.

I am grateful to Him for his work among these young ones.

Soli Deo Gloria.