The Wesleyan Holiness movement started in the 1800’s by John Wesley provided a guide for men and women of the time on how to be good Christians. This movement guided people into a Christian lifestyle. It also aided in promoting missionaries. This teaching to be a bearer of Christ is just as essential today as it was in the 1800’s.
We are called to share our testimony and the good news of Christ with fellow believers and non-believers alike. However, how often is this attitude of sharing the good news of Christ brought up with your children? Are your children prepared to tell their friends about Jesus? Matthew 21:15-16 says, “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosannah to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, And said unto them, Yea, have ye never read, Out of the babies and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” Acts, 2:17-18 reads, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, (saith God,) I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams : and on my servants and on my hand-maidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit: and they shall prophesy.”[1] These passages describe the Christian church. They show that God uses even the young to spread his word.
Children are known to speak whatever is on their hearts and minds, which is why they are perfect messengers to speak praise about God, shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David” within the temple of God.[2] These passages speak of the children singing “perfect praise” to God. How do children learn to sing this praise to and about God the father? They have some portion of inherent knowledge about God, but it is not enough to rely on this. As Christian parents, we have so much influence on our children. Who is at fault if our children never know what it is to be a missionary? Who is at fault if children have not been taught to tell others about Christ? As parents it is on us. We as Christian parents should be bringing our children to church and giving them the knowledge and materials they need to tell others about Christ. Jesus has commissioned us to make disciples, and this starts in our homes. This does not mean that we are bound to send our children all over the world professing the word of the Lord to the ends of the earth. However, we are not to withhold this information from our children or to prevent them from knowing this information either. In doing so, we may actually be holding them back from God’s call on their life.[3]
As the early American churches taught, it is not only the parents’ responsibility to teach our children. We, as a church, are also to bring children up in the ways of Christ and Christian discipleship. We, as grandparents, parents, teachers, and religious teachers, are to bring up our children as the Lord’s. It is important for them to learn how to be productive members of the church as well, and eventually to become members. As Christian parents we start by teaching our children to pray for missionaries that are working in every vineyard. We teach them about our financial responsibility to help support missionaries as we lead by example. We teach them that these funds go to supplying printed material, bibles, soccer balls, to explain the story of Jesus, and the more modern Jesus Film Project. These things allow these missionaries to go into remote places in the world and not worry about how they are going to pay for what they need. These missionaries are doing as Jesus did, sometimes giving up and selling everything to follow the Lord in their calling. Children at younger ages are better at learning to deny themselves so that they may be more Christ like.[4]
As in the early American church, we, as men and women in Christ, are charged with teaching the next generation to have the character of Christ. It is our job to raise missionaries for Christ’s message no matter if that is local or on foreign soil. We never know if we are the only bible someone will ever read. In this shifting environment, our children might also be the only bible that their friends read. It is our job, as parents, to equip them with the wisdom and knowledge to take on this task confidently and in a manor that glorifies God.
[1] Smyth, Thomas.1846. “The duty of interesting children in the missionary cause, and how this is to be done.” Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926, Charleston, S.C, n.d. January 30, 2025. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0101651599/SABN?u=vic_liberty&sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=e26193fb&pg=1.
[2] (Smyth n.d.)
[3] (Smyth n.d.)
[4] (Smyth n.d.)
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