 Okay, so welcome everyone after the break to this last semester and wishing you all a very blessed new year. I'd like to even welcome our e-learning students, welcome e-learning students, and just hope that this whole semester will be a good learning experience for all of you. So I was just talking to the online students and the in-person students and just telling, asking them, you know, how many of you are excited about this course? Because some of you might be thinking, why should we be learning about children's ministry because, you know, I'm not going to be ministering to children or I'm not good, you know, relating to children or presenting the truths or sharing the Gospel with children. So why do I even have to go through this course? So before I take your inputs on that, I would like how many of you love children? So if you love children, you can, you know, in the chat section, you can just put a thumbs up or you can raise your hand. How many of you love children? How many of you love ministering to children? So I can just see Arsha Rani's, only one student. Okay, thank you, Abhini. What about the others? Okay, Abhishek, thank you. Pratik Abhinaz. Abhinaz says, yes, I do. I know Abhinaz was part of our children's church ministry team. Pratik also ministers to children in schools. What about the rest of you? Okay, Maxin says, I love children for the sake of knowledge and understanding. I have to be trained in all children and youth ministries. Okay, thank you. That's a good way of looking at it. Maxin, it's very encouraging. Thank you. Sidhan Tarun. Yes, Tarun also was part of our children's church. He taught the children's church and now he has a son. So, yeah. Okay, so even though you think that this course might not be very relevant to you or helpful, but I would just like to mention here that you might not be ministering full-time with children or you don't see yourself in the future taking on full-time ministry or even teaching children or ministering to children. But, you know, all of you are going to be moms and dads one day. Some of you are already parents. You have children. Some of you are very young and you have your knees and nephews. If you think that you don't want to get married, then, you know, you just still have your extended families with a lot of knees and nephews, children around or even if you, so you can, you know, you have to relate to them, minister to them. You know, just being in ministry or some of you also who have, you know, being trained in Bible college, done your Bible college courses, parents might look up to you to speak to their children. So the basic knowledge that you would acquire here would, you know, help you to relate to them, how to speak to them, what are the challenges they face, what are the different, you know, developmental needs of children in different age groups, how you can relate to them in their specific age groups. So it will give you a better understanding. Of course, when you have children, you have to, you know, mentor them, train them up in righteousness and holiness, teach them, guide them. So this course can obviously help you do that as well. Some of you, you know, would say that, okay, I'm going to be in a pastoral role or I'm going to be an apostle or an evangelist, but you would also have children in your audience or, you know, being a pastor, you will have to even cater to the needs of, or look into the needs of children's ministry in your church, youth ministry, worship ministry. So everything is under your purview, under your jurisdiction. You have to, you know, do things to make it grow. So, you know, this course can basically help you maybe even teach people in church who are going to take on a children's ministry or just give you a basic idea how to run a children's ministry, how to minister to them effectively. So, you know, whether you're a pastor, missionary, apostle, this course can obviously help you. So I'm just giving you a good intro to this so that you are excited, looking forward to learning and keeping your mind open and would enjoy learning through this course. Okay. So we are going to start off by looking at the biblical basis and the mandate for children's ministry. So sometimes we think that are children important to be ministered to the very early age? You know, is children's ministry important? Is ministry to children important? Is there a biblical basis to that? So we're just going to look at it in this class and maybe in the next class as well. So before we look at the biblical basis and mandate for children's ministry, we will just pause for a word of prayer. So can one of you please lead us in prayer please? Anyone? Asha, can you lead us in prayer? Yes. Thank you, Asha. Thank you so much for everything that you're doing in our life. Thank you, Laura, for this opportunity to learn about your children, the youth around the world. And as we learn that we may grow and be equipped and as we learn that we may fight them in our heart and understand that every girl's every principles that you have for us God have unique, meditated and understand God's for our benefit to learn and prosper and help the children to grow and the youth to understand the knowledge of your truth and your way God. Thank you so much God for this class. As Master Surya is teaching us, we pray your experience to lead her and help us to understand and grasp everything she's teaching God. Thank you, Laura, for everything. We really pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, dear. Okay. So before we just look at the biblical basis, I've not posted the notes. I'll do that by end of day today. And the second thing is that I will be teaching this course only through Jan and Feb and March and April, Pastor Roshan Johannes would be teaching this course on Youth Ministry. So I'll be doing the course for Children's Ministry in Jan and Feb and he'll be doing the course on the Youth Ministry in March and April. I'll have two assessments, 25-25 marks each, so that's 50 and Pastor Roshan would, you know, assess you on 50 marks for Youth Ministry. Anyone has any questions before we begin about this course? Any questions, anything you'd like to say, any suggestions? Okay. If there are no questions and suggestions, we'll move on. Can you see the screen that I have presented? Are you able to see the PowerPoints? Okay. Thank you. So we're going to look at the biblical basis and the mandate for Children's Ministry. So is ministering to children important? What do you all think? Is ministering to children important? If you're saying yes, then you need to give me some good reasons. Good morning, Rupa. Why is ministering to children important? You all can unmute your mics and speak or you can just type it out in the chat section. It takes time to type it out so you can unmute your mics and speak. Why is ministering to children important? Can I speak now? Yeah, sure. At such a young age, the seeds sown can be of much fruit, very much fruit because as they grow from their young age in the word of God, they have a clear picture of who God is, how he works, and understanding the word, understanding the call of God. It can be really helpful. We can change the course of nations. We can change the course of society. And church is strengthened because they are the pillars who would later on take care of all the areas. And the receptivity is very high in the young age. What they learn remains with them forever because so many testimonies we've heard where people have said in the Sunday school I learned that though I went hewire, but then at a point of time God brought me back and those words of my Sunday school teacher resonated in my ears and I remembered how and what was taught and that brought me back to the Lord and that remains with them forever. We pass forever. Yes, thank you, Savani. That's very well said. Rose says, yes, definitely their minds are believing enough to introduce God and his word. The foundations are important. So when they grow, they will draw from these foundations even if they're exposed to many influences later on. Thank you, Rose. Hope says it's important because children need training to the full understanding of the knowledge of God and the Bible insists, sorry, the Bible insists us to train children. Yes, thank you, Hope. Yes, the Bible insists us to train children. Anyone else has anything to say? Maxine says, because children need to be looked after in good morals so that they can be good leaders. Okay. Thank you, Maxine. Anyone else? Okay, Asha says, just like Jesus' minister to children and bless them, we need to follow in his steps, okay? Okay, so I'd just like to present a few statistics. You know, it says that more than a statistic show us that more than half of the people that believe in Jesus do so by the age of 12. Yes, so like Prabhakar says, strong foundation builds strong buildings, the strongest buildings. Yes, so this is a good foundation year and statistics have shown us that more than half of the people who believe in Jesus do so by the age of 12. Statistics also show us that by the time a child is nine years old, their basic moral foundations have been formed and hence we see it so important to ground children in the truth of God's word. So it would be the foundation on which children can build their moral values and standards. Sometimes we think that we can teach children moral values and standards after they graduate from school, after 10th grade or when they're youth or young people, but statistics show us that by the time a child is nine years old, their basic moral foundation has already been formed. So then to kind of mold them and build up their moral foundation can be a little difficult because they've already based, have a basic moral foundation and so it's so important for us from a very early age in life, the early steps that they take to ground children in the truth of God's word, so that it would be a foundation on which they build their moral values and standards even as they grow up. The next thing is that by the age of 13, children have formed their basic beliefs about the nature of God, the trustworthiness of the Bible, the reliability of the Bible, that means the Bible is the truth, they don't question it, they just believe it, they just trust it, they receive it by faith, also the existence of an afterlife and the everlasting love of Jesus. So all of these basic foundations or beliefs of who God is, the nature of God, how he relates to them, who he is, and the Bible which is such an important thing, the Word of God, the reliability of it, the existence of afterlife that we are talking about, the everlasting life, the life that they're going to spend in eternity with Jesus and the everlasting love of Jesus, all this is basically formed by the age of 13. So from a very young age, from the age of 3, 4, 5, 6, till the age of 13, all of these basic beliefs, a child just picks up even as they are listening, learning, relating to people in school, learning science, so it's so important for us to teach children basic beliefs because by the time they come to the age of 13, they already have a basic belief system and so it's so important for us to impact their basic belief system so that they have the truth of God's Word, the nature of God, who God is, the love of Jesus, about everlasting life, eternal life, it's all just a solid foundation in their minds and they believe on that and they can build on it. It was said that D.L. Mooney, when he came back from a tent revival meeting and they asked him how did the revival meeting go and he reported that two and a half people were saved. He said that two and a half people were saved so the person who was asking him responded, do you mean it's two adults and one child and D.L. Mooney responded, no, it was two children and one adult so he says that when you save a child, you save a life, a whole life. So he said there's two children and one adult and he says when you save a child, you save a life and a whole life. So you see the importance D.L. Mooney gave. He said there were two and a half people who were saved during this revival meeting that he was ministering at and so the person thought it was two adults and one child but he said no, it is two children and one adult so when you save a child, you save a life, you save an entire life. They have a whole life to live, which they can impact people around, they can impact the people that they're studying with, students that they're studying with and impact the city and the nation for Jesus Christ and build the kingdom of God. So he says when you save a child, you save a whole life to impact and influence basically others for the kingdom of God. So when we look at all of these statistics and the views of what people have about children and about ministering to them at an early age, it's sad sometimes to see that churches focus more on adults and youth ministry and not on children's ministry. It's sad because sometimes we have a good place for the adults to meet. We also accommodate the youth in a good hall or a good environment but for children, usually in the open where we just have some people just monitoring them, kind of telling them a story which they don't have a curriculum. We just present to them some stories which is basically how David killed Goliath, how God created Adam and Eve, creation or Zacchaeus' story or blind Bartimius, things that are very, very common narratives in the Bible. We just keep just sharing those narratives but don't draw out any biblical truths, theological truths from that or some ways children can apply that in their own personal life and we think children's ministry is done, it's over, we've engaged the children or just let them play around or give them some coloring and it's sad because, you know, and we don't even have a proper, some churches don't even have a proper hall or place where children can gather, they're just out in the open, maybe in the potico or in the garden area or wherever but we see that it's so important to watch, to look into children's ministry because of all the statistics that I've mentioned because once they become a youth and an adult, their value systems, their beliefs, everything is just so already formed and it's so difficult to challenge that, to break through that. Of course the Holy Spirit can minister to them but it's difficult for a child at that age to come when they are past the age of 13 to learn new value systems or learn new belief systems that challenges what they have been thinking through the early years of their life up to the age of 13. So also, these statistics prove to us that children are not just to be told narratives or stories from the Bible or just engage them with some playtime or storytime or colouring time but then engage them into a good curriculum, a good learning experience where they're learning about the nature of God. They're also learning scripture verses, scripture passages when the early years of our life we learn so much we can just receive, we can just record things in our memory, we can memorise things and most of the scripture passages, Bible passages, the books of the Bible, everything that I've learned, the narratives in the Bible everything that is what I learned during my very early ages and now I still remember those memory verses and rattle off the books of the Bible everything is because we were made to learn this when we were in Sunday school, in vacation Bible school Bible matches. So it's good for us to even present theological truths talk about the nature of God, who God is teach children about the word of God ground them in the word of God with the solid truths in God's word, doctrines in God's word because they can learn, children in age in grade one and two learn science they're learning photosynthesis and everything in the very early age, so good to teach them all of the doctrines of God's word so that they are built up in God's truth so not just focusing on adults and children's ministry but so important for us to focus on children's ministry and to help children's ministry grow and to also bring about a curriculum which is apt for today's children with the challenges they're facing with the technology so much that they learn online so important for us to teach them about all of those things as well so we can ask this question why does the church focus more on adults in youth ministry and not on children's ministry and it's so important for us to focus also on children and did Jesus ask us to focus only on adults or was the biblical mandate only for adults and not for children but if you look at God's word we will see how the importance God gave and even Jesus gave to minister to children before we look at that, hope says pastor there's a big problem on this issue of ministering to children a lot of churches do not set plans for helping children as they do to adults even in the crusades we see some of the ushers chasing away children who decide to follow Jesus some adults do not believe children at all especially some adults do not believe children at all especially Christians Muslims have succeeded in training their children Muslims have succeeded in training their children that is just so amazing what you're saying hope is very true is very right I've seen people from this faith for their children it's not even if they don't study their school stuff it's important for them to learn the language in which their holy book is written and they send them for classes they learn Arabic and at a very early age they're learning everything and they're learning to read their holy book but sometimes even our children don't even know where Matthew is or Luke is or ask them to turn to the book of Exodus or Psalms they're struggling ask them to read from the Bible it's in English but yet they find it difficult to read because they basically aren't reading the Bible hence it's difficult but if you look at children from other faiths their holy books are not in their own language in English language they have to learn the language in which the books are written but they learn it, they read it and that is given top priority and importance and yes it's very it's very difficult to evangelize such people break through their mindsets, their philosophies and their love for their God the passion that they have for their God yes it's very difficult to break through so Christopher says to Hope's point Jesus said let the children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these yes very true but it's sad that churches don't see that see children as an important age group to minister to they think they're very small naive they won't understand but they do, they catch up things very fast nowadays children are growing faster than I was in school you know here children in kindergarten speak of some things is blows your mind it just shocks you actually because of the influence of media that they have that they learn so much so Maxon says a question when we say children what age group are we targeting in our studies yes it's a good good question Maxon basically we're talking about children from age say we've been one year right up to 13 or 14 so we can talk about children who are preschoolers right up to grade 10 because those in 11th and 12th you know they consider themselves as teens so they are more like youth yes but we would we would look even at children who are right up to age 15 grade 10 that will start help Maxon thank you for good question okay so we look at the biblical basis and the mandate for children's ministry let me just so we see that God in the Bible has a plan for children and this plan includes a family as well so God has a plan for children and his plan includes the family so we see that the concept of family was in God's mind from the very beginning God created families in the very beginning in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 we read that God blessed them God blessed Adam and Eve and said to them be fruitful and increase in number okay so he says be fruitful and increase in number so you know God had a plan for family God had a plan for children from the very beginning right there in the Garden of Eden Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 he says you know he blesses Adam and Eve he says be fruitful and increase in number okay hope says in our church we consider children are from 1 year to 12 13 13 to 21 considered as teenagers yes we could grade 10 I think is 15 years old so they still consider themselves being part of a school and so you know we go right up to 15 but yeah nowadays you know children from grade 7 8 they already think of themselves as teenagers and we have to relate to them in their level of thinking and ministering to them at you know what they are comfortable with and where they are in the present world thank you hope just a minute so God even chooses chose to establish Abraham's family as a family of promise okay hope sorry okay we also see that when God called Abraham and you know he made a covenant with him you know he establishes Abraham's family of promise and through he says through he establishes covenant with Abraham and with his seed and the generations his descendants and his generations to come so we see that God's plan was just for Abraham but it was for Abraham's family so the Abraham's family the generations to come you know where in covenant with God and would receive his promises and you know God promises that he would be with them and he would be their God and you know he makes everlasting covenant with Abraham and with his descendants with his generations to come we read this in Genesis chapter 17 verses 6 to 7 and there is another reference Genesis chapter 17 verses 9 to 14 it's on your screen so can somebody please one of you read Genesis chapter 17 verses 6 to 7 and someone else can read Genesis 17 9 to 14 please shall I read man yes sure Genesis 17 verse 6 and 7 says amen amen we see in verse 7 you know God is promising Abraham that he will establish his covenant and it's going to be an everlasting covenant between God and Abraham and he says this covenant is going to be everlasting because it's going to you know just not discover his immediate family but it's going to be you know be an everlasting covenant in terms of extending this covenant to his descendants to the generations that are to come and God says I will be their God and they will be my people you know and I will establish this everlasting covenant with them so we see that you know God's plan that the covenant that he makes is not just for that present generation but is for the generations to come children's children look at Genesis chapter 17 verses 9 to 14 can somebody read that please yes go ahead Asha and God said to Abraham as for you you shall keep my covenant you and your offspring after you throughout their generation this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you every male among you shall be circumcised you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you as eight days old among you shall be circumcised every male throughout your generation whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring but he who is born in your house he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised so shall my covenant be in your flesh and everlasting covenant any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people and he has broken my covenant thank you so here we see God establishing his covenant with Abraham and he's asking him to fulfill the circumcision which is a sign of the covenant the ritual of circumcision which is a sign of the covenant between Abraham and the generations to come and he says you have to do it when the male child is eight days old so the importance God gave to children and making that sign of the covenant starting with a very early age early days of a person's life which is the childhood days and he's saying this is going to be the sign of my covenant and the sign is circumcision that you need to do so here we see that God is not just looking at adults he's not looking at them when they're youth but at a very young age they need to know this God who is in covenant relationship with them and basically why God makes a covenant with his people his purpose is so that they can have intimate personal love relationship with them and through the covenant that God makes with his people he's extending all of himself and he's inviting them to be through the covenant he's inviting them to be his sons his daughters his and co-heirs with Jesus Christ and all of this is at a very young age where the very young age God wants them to know that they are part of this covenant with this God who's inviting them into this intimate love relationship of fellowship, communion with him and it's also so that they would know that they are spiritual sons and daughters of God and they are his of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ so that whole relationship is not just with the world that they live in but it's also with it has a spiritual aspect their relationship with God and hence God is saying do this at a very young age when a child is just 8 days old so the sign of circumcision is a sign of the covenant between God and the generations to come and we see that God had a plan for children and this plan includes family as well it also includes training children in the word of God so we know in 2 Timothy chapter 3 was 16 a very familiar scripture passage that says all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching for rebuking for correcting and for training in righteousness and holiness so it says all of scripture is useful and it gives us what is the uses for training for teaching for rebuking for correcting in righteousness and holiness but it's not giving any specific age groups that means it's all of scripture is God breathed and is profitable for teaching useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training for children teenagers, youth adults and you know older men and women as well so let's look at the mandate that's found throughout scripture the importance got placed in teaching children some of the scriptures passages I've put on the presented to you on the PowerPoint slide so you know one of you can open up to the scripture passages and then quickly read we'll take turns so can one of you please read Genesis 18 verses 17 to 19 please Genesis 18 verses 17 to 19 I'm reading Genesis chapter 18 Genesis 17 to 19 reading from the English standard version the Lord said so I heard from Abraham what I am about to do seeking that Abraham's have surely become a great and a mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him for I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised to him. Amen Even thank you so here we see you know God saying he's just revealing his mind his will he's saying you know why he has chosen Abraham he's chosen Abraham so that you know Abraham will direct his children and his household to keep the way of the Lord by doing himself what is right and just so God knew that Abraham was a man of faith distrusted in him believed in him did what was right but he knows he's not just not going to end with Abraham but it's just going to pass on you know he's going to teach his children his household to keep the way of the Lord so you see the importance God is giving here to teaching the younger generation to teaching the children the way of the Lord so that when they grow up you know as we read in scripture we look at it you know that they will not depart from the way of the Lord and they will do what is right and just Exodus chapter 12 verse 24 to 27 can somebody read that please you should observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever it will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you just as he promised that you should keep this service and it shall be when your children say to you what do you mean by this service that you shall say it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and delivered our households so the people bowed their heads and worshiped thank you Christopher so here in Exodus chapter 12 verses 24 to 27 we see God is giving instructions regarding the Passover to Moses and Aaron and they called the elders of the community of the Israelite community the Hebrew people living in in Goshen in Egypt and they're telling them giving them these instructions and so you know God is telling them you know that you know they're going to celebrate this Passover God knew that you know when he gives something to them to do on a continual basis it can just become a tradition it can become a ritual I think God knows human mindset a way of thinking a way of behaviors but here he's basically giving them this whole ceremony that they have to kind of perform every year at the same time even after they have left Egypt so that this ceremony is kind of an enacting of what the people went through what they did and how God delivered them out of Egypt and they're supposed to do this whole enacting this whole thing that they did in the first Passover so that you know the children will see it and obviously the children will ask the question you know why are we doing all of this what is the significance of all of this and then you know the parents have the opportunity to teach them and also to reveal to the younger generation who this God is because you know in the Old Testament not everyone had access to the law the Torah like we have access to the Bible our children can read there are so many videos stories on YouTube that our children can watch that they can learn the narratives from the Bible but all of this was not prevalent in the early days in the Old Testament days and also everyone did not have an access to the law the Torah and there was no way that children were going to schools as well to learn all of this there was nothing called like children's churches Sunday school so this whole acting of this Passover was a means of the children to a means or a way in which children can know who their God is who this God is whom they're serving or they're worshipping their following or they're hearing his voice what is he done to them what he's done for them and you know how they can put their faith and trust in God we'll just look at the last in Deuteronomy chapter 31 verses 12 to 13 can somebody read that please Deuteronomy chapter 31 12 to 13 Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 12 to 13 gather the people together men and women and children and the stranger that is within their gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and deserve to do all the words of this law and that their children which have not known anything may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land with the ego over Jordan to possess it amen amen thank you so here we see that Moses is 120 years old and is no longer able to lead the people of Israel God chooses Joshua as the next leader and here Moses is instructing the people and in these verses he's telling the people that when Israel appears before the Lord their God in the place where he chooses you know they shall read the law before all of Israel and all of their learning and he says you know it's not just men and women but also children the aliens foreigners all those living in with them you know they are to hear the word of God and they are to follow carefully all the words of the law and he says that their children who do not know this law must hear it and learn to fear the Lord their God as long as they live in this land the land that they are crossing the Jordan to possess so here we see how you know here we see how God gives importance for not just men and women and you hear the word of God but also children so that you know they listen to the law and they learn to fear the Lord their God in a very early age and they can grow up to fear the Lord, honour him and walk in his ways okay we'll stop here we'll continue on Wednesday anyone has any questions any questions okay there are no questions then we'll sorry we had a question yes yes please yes Elisha thank you very much and good morning I don't lead to I would like to know if the class documents that the handouts will be shared with us yes in the beginning of the class I said that I have not posted the content I'll do so by the end of today okay madam thank you very much okay thank you okay we'll end class here and thank you all for joining class I'll see you in by 10 or 2 for first Timothy okay