HOW TO

IT TAKES

CHURCH
A WHOLE
LIFE
NAVIGATE

WITH THE
BIBLE
TO RAISE A
CHILD
?
IT TAKES
HOW MANY YOUNG

CHURCH
A WHOLE
PEOPLE FROM THE
CHURCH FAMILY
CAN YOU NAME
AROUND THE
TABLES?
TO RAISE A
CHILD
What IT TAKES
does

CHURCH
A WHOLE
our
church
look
like
from
a child’s
point TO RAISE A
of view? CHILD
 1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God IT TAKES
directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the

CHURCH
A WHOLE
Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after
them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his
decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long
life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you
and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey,
just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.[a] 5 Love the
LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on
your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you
sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and
when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on TO RAISE A
your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on
your gates.
CHILD
DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9
 IT TAKES

CHURCH
A WHOLE
Spiritual development
1. a parental responsibility 
2. not restricted to gatherings or classes
3. developing a love for God that affects head, heart and hands

DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9

TO RAISE A
CHILD
Robert Raikes was concerned with the IT TAKES
plight of the poor. He recognised

CHURCH
A WHOLE
education as the means to escape so, he
began ‘a school for the poor’ with a focus
primarily on ‘teaching reading, writing and
… manners; but catechetical instruction,
reading the Bible and attendance at
church were regarded as central from the
outset.’ These ‘Sunday’ schools were
established ‘more for the benefit of those
children of parents who did not attend
church or chapel than for the benefit of
those children
who were brought up in
practising families.’ Raikes started his first
school in 1780; by 1831 one and a
quarter million children in the UK were TO RAISE A
being educated in this
way. CHILD
 1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God IT TAKES
directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the

CHURCH
A WHOLE
Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after
them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his
decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long
life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you
and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey,
just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.[a] 5 Love the
LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on
your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you
sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and
when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on TO RAISE A
your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on
your gates.
CHILD
DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9
 IT TAKES

CHURCH
A WHOLE
 4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave
him at Horeb for all Israel.
 5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful
day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their
children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come
and strike the land with total destruction.”
MALACHI 4:4-6

TO RAISE A
CHILD
 IT TAKES
Spiritual development

CHURCH
A WHOLE
1. a parental responsibility 
2. not restricted to gatherings or classes
3. developing a love for God that affects head, heart and hands
4. is intergenerational and on this hangs true repentance

DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9

TO RAISE A
CHILD
 1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the IT TAKES
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

TO RAISE
A CHILD
 2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he
said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you
will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the
lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And
whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Causing to Stumble
    6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—
to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung
around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to
the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things
must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
A CHURCH
MATTHEW 18:1-7
 100000 IT TAKES

CHURCH
A WHOLE
75000

Stats
from
50000
Baptist
union
Uk
25000

0 TO RAISE A
2000 2009
CHILD
under 12s 13s-19s 19s-25s
 IT TAKES

CHURCH
A WHOLE
•
The total number of 10-19s attending church on a Sunday has
declined from 863,500 in 1985 to 394,300 in 2005, a drop of
65%.
•
The total number of 20-29s attending church on a Sunday has
declined from 520,900 in 1985 to 230,600 in 2005, a drop of
62%.

TO RAISE A
CHILD
 ‘The churches ministry to children is broken. A cursory look doesn’t IT TAKES
reveal its brokenness. From the outside children’s ministry looks healthier

CHURCH
A WHOLE
than ever, but it is broken. It’s broken when church leaders and senior
pastors see children’s ministry as primarily a marketing tool. The church
with the most outwardly attractive program wins the children and the
parents. It’s broken when we teach children the Bible as if it were just
another book of moral fables or stories of great heroes. Something’s
broken when we trivialise God to our children. It’s broken when we
exclude children from perhaps the most important of our community
activities: worship. It’s broken because we’ve become dependent on an
18th century schooling model, forgetting that much of a child’s spiritual
formation is affective, active and intuitive. It’s broken when we depend on
our programs and our curriculum to introduce our children to God – not TO RAISE A
our families and communities.
Beckwith, I. Post Modern Children’s Ministry (2004, Zondervan) p13,14
CHILD
cited in the BU report encouraging young missionary disciples
?
WHICH ADULTS IT TAKES
WERE THE BIGGEST

CHURCH
A WHOLE
INFLUENCES
(PARENTS
EXCLUDED) IN
YOUR
DEVELOPMENT AS A
YOUNG PERSON / TO RAISE A
CHRISTIAN? CHILD
Metaphors for the church: IT TAKES

CHURCH
A WHOLE
Body of Christ
Bride of Christ
Temple
Priesthood
Army
Colony
Household of God - 1 Timothy 3:14-15 TO RAISE A
Family - 1 Timothy 5:1-2, CHILD
CATCH YOUR
NEPHEWS
AND NEICES
DOING
SOMETHING
GOOD AND
ENCOURAGE
THEM IN IT
 3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear
conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. IT TAKES
4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.

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A WHOLE
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your
grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now
lives in you also. 2 TIMOTHY 1:3-5

1 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And
the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses
entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.
2 TIMOTHY 2:1-2
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become
convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15
and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are TO RAISE A
able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. CHILD
2 TIMOTHY 3:14-15
Spiritual development IT TAKES

CHURCH
A WHOLE
1. a parental responsibility 
2. not restricted to gatherings or classes
3. developing a love for God that affects head, heart and hands
4. is intergenerational and on this hangs true repentance
5. includes other trusted adults working in co-operation
6. is “caught” as much as taught

TO RAISE A

DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9 MALACHI 4:4-6 2 TIMOTHY

CHILD