January 20, 1999

Child conversions raise adult issues
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___FORT WORTH--When Jesus said, "Let the children come unto me," he didn't leave detailed instructions on how to bring them into the fold. That's the challenge facing pastors and parents, according to two veteran church workers.
___"There is no issue more important--and none more troubling--to me than this matter of children and conversion," Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, told participants in a breakout session during the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference.
___Denison and Helen Waldrop, minister to children at First Baptist Church of Arlington, jointly led a seminar on the subject of children and conversion. The seminar was sponsored by the Baptist distinctives committee of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___The issue is critically important at a time when six out of 10 Southern Baptist baptisms are re-baptisms, Denison said, citing a statistic published a few years ago by the Home Mission Board.
___The same study indicated that 89 percent of pastors believe children are joining their churches without a definite salvation experience, but they are not sure what to do about it.
___Frankly, Denison said, part of the problem is pressure to produce numbers. Some churches require pastors to meet baptism quotas, he said, and some pastors are just eager to produce tangible signs of their success.
___But rushing children into the baptismal waters does them a grave disservice, he said.
___Allowing people to trust their salvation to premature childhood decisions may give them a false sense of security and deprive them of a meaningful conversion experience later in life, he said. It is like "inoculating" them against a real encounter with Christ.
___"To inoculate someone is to give them just enough of something that they don't get the real thing," he said.
___By the same token, churches should not bar children from making meaningful commitments to Christ, Denison said. If a child is flatly told he cannot come to God yet, he may think it is because he is not good enough or smart enough, and God will not accept him.
___Only 14 percent of those who come to faith in Christ do so after age 15, he noted. Most people who will be reached with the gospel will become Christians in their early years.
___Often, children are rushed into making public expressions of faith by parents who believe a child is "ready" before the child is developmentally or spiritually capable of making a life-changing decision, Waldrop explained.
___"Sometimes parents have conviction before the child does," she said, adding that only the Holy Spirit can bring a true sense of conviction for sin.
___"The definition I use for sin is 'choosing to do what you want to do instead of what God wants you to do,'" she said. "The child needs to understand what sin is and feel bad about it."
___Other times, children are influenced by peers, Denison noted. If everyone else in a Sunday school class is getting baptized, a child may "come forward" so he can do what all his friends have done.
___"There are a lot of reasons why a child may want to be baptized," Denison said, pointing to the desire to please parents, peer pressure and simple curiosity. "When you think about it from the child's perspective, what's the down side?"
___Because baptism is a symbolic act signifying death, burial and resurrection, it is difficult for a child to grasp, Denison said. "Some children can understand becoming a Christian more easily than they can understand baptism."
___Rather than rushing a child into baptism or holding a child back from making a meaningful profession of faith, Denison and Waldrop both said churches need to look to "a third option." They suggested offering classes, no more than four to six weeks long, for children who have expressed some interest in salvation, baptism and church membership.
___Denison pointed out that a growing number of churches are returning to the practice of "watch care."
___Requiring new converts to wait some period between their profession of faith and their baptism allows time to determine whether the commitment is genuine. It also allows the new believer an opportunity to grow in understanding about the significance of his or her new identity in Christ.
___This is "not a new idea," Denison said. "The apostolic church did the same thing."

Tips for parents
___In dealing with any child who expresses interest in salvation, it is imperative to get a clear picture of his or her level of understanding, according to Helen Waldrop, minister to children at First Baptist Church of Arlington. She offered these suggestions:
___ Avoid "yes" or "no" questions when talking to a child about salvation.
___ Ask the child to explain basic Christian concepts in his or her own words.
___ Use common language rather than "churchy" jargon such as "come forward" and "give your heart to Jesus."
___ Translate theological terms into simple words the child can understand.
___ Satisfy curiosity. Waldrop said she often lets children tour the baptistry and sometimes allows them to taste the elements of communion outside the context of the Lord's Supper.

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