As we come to the close of the holiday season and the start of the school year it will also be back to Children’s Church and Church Ed groups.   It’s easy to kick that off with the assumption that the church will look after the instruction of your children in things Christian – aided of course by the Christian School.

Wrong!   That task begins with you, the Dad and Mum.   Not only does that task begin with you – there is a sense in which you are never absolved from your responsibility in that task.   You once made a promise at the baptism of your child that you would instruct your child and have it instructed in the teachings of the Christian faith – especially in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church runs Children Church and Church Ed programs to help you do that – but at the end of the day the responsibility is yours.   Let me take a little space in this week’s bulletin to draw out some implications of that.

First of all it means that at the very least we need your support and encouragement.   I’m thankful that over the years, by the grace of God, I’ve had relatively little trouble with disciple in my Church Ed classes.   If I recall correctly I have only once had to send a young man out of the room for being disruptive.   However I have on a number of occasions visited parents to point out to them that their son or daughter was less than cooperative and that I felt that they should know that and help me to deal with it.   When I told one Dad that his son was always pushing the boundaries, he remarked (in his son’s presence) that he wasn’t too fussed because when he was a kid he used to mess up in ‘Catechism’ as well, but that in the end he thought he’d turned out okay.   Well, thank you!   That was just the kind of support I needed from this parent.   Not...!

I have a more common problem than disruptive students and that is parents who do not understand that this important part of their children’s upbringing is their responsibility and that the church is merely helping them to fulfil that responsibility.   With week-night or after school classes that so often translates into parents letting me know that their child won’t be coming because they have a concert or ball-game or a ‘whatever’ which prevents them from attending.   So the Church Ed class is pushed way down the priority list.   In fact today that has become such a problem that we now have all our Church Ed classes after morning worship – just so that we don’t clash with sport, concerts and other extra-curricular week-day activities.   But that hasn’t solved the problem.   When the family does not attend church on a Sunday morning it also means that their child does not attend the Church Ed class.   A youth can have an abysmal record of attendance at classes yet the family will expect that this young person will be allowed to make her Public Profession of Faith at sixteen or seventeen.   That’s hardly fair.   As this year’s program kicks off in a few weeks’ time I want to appeal to parents to ensure – as much as is humanly possible – to make sure that their children attend these classes.   Remember: we are doing this to help you fulfil your baptismal promises.

Secondly, I want to add the rider that of course you don’t have to send your children out to Children’s Church during morning worship and you don’t have to send the older ones to a Church Ed group during morning-tea time.   Over the years I have known many people who wanted to train their children to remain in the worship service rather than leave for Children’s Church at the allocated time.   And some have asked me for Catechism material so that they could teach their children at home instead of having them attend a Church Ed group.   That’s your right as a parent even though it’s harder work in the long run.

The point is that either way, you as the Mum and Dad must make sure that it happens – and that you support those who help you to make it happen.

John Westendorp