Kid Kove

I am reading a great book right now on fathering called "King Me". It deals with the father-son relationship and it is very insightful. For those who know me this is one of my passions. Christians today stand on the precipe of irrelevancy in American culture. In my opinion if we loose another generation to the world the church will become an insignificant remnant. Not that it will remain that way forever, but might for the foreseeable future. Sort of like Europe where huge cathedrals stand empty as tourist destinations. Why is this coming. For three generations the church has been in decline in America in terms of attendance. A lesser percentage of people claim Christ as their Savior with each generation. Part of this reason is because we ignore our own children. We sacrifice them on the altars of money, social life, ministry and

sports. Its sad that so many parents honestly do not like being with their kids. Christian parents. I'm not thinking of a particular person here but so many in general. This is a little radical here, but maybe fewer people should have children. To give them nice clothes, sign them up for ballet and soccer and karate, to limit their fat intake and make sure they do their homework is not enough. We have to passionately pursue their heart. Much like we have to passionately keep our hearts aflame for Jesus and our spouse. It tears me up to see so many parents miss the boat on this. How do we inspire them and equip them? There are so many resources out there. This book is just one example. In one excerpt author Steve Farrar talks about a railroad built over Panama before the canal was built. It is an engineering marvel, especially for it's day. Many bridges had to be built which drove the costs up and caused many delays. The author talks about how this parallels parenting. We always have to be building bridges to our sons (and daughters). Just because we built one when they were three doesn't mean we don't have to build another one at age five. And so on. I am far from a perfect father. But I will tell you this - I not only love my sons, I love to be with them. I don't like leaving them for more than a couple of days and then I get real homesick for them. I am also more passionate about seeing them find their place in God's kingdom than I am in my retirement account or my next series in Kid Kove or the Bears football team or going to see a movie with "the guys" (whoever they are!) or who is going to win the upcoming Congressional elections or how well my boys perform on the soccer team. I do like and pay attention to all these things. Sometimes I have to refocus my priorities. But after 15 years in Children's Ministry I see what's at stake. The Barna poll in the graph says it all.