CHILDREN & “CRISIS CONVERSION”

“If you can’t tell me when & where you were converted, you’re not saved.” I’ve heard statements like this quite a few times over the years. Evangelicals & Pentecostals believe in a clear-cut conversion experience, where individuals experience being born again thru the working of the Holy Spirit. So, for most believers who came to the Lord (or came back to the Lord) as an older child, teenager, or adult, it is reasonable to expect them to be able to describe their experience.

But, what about those who came to Christ at a very young age & stayed true to their commitment over the years? What if they can’t give you a specific time & circumstance when Jesus came into their lives?

At the children’s ministry seminar, we’ve talked about this. Although such followers of Christ seem to be relatively rare, there may be more than we realize. And, their lives demonstrate the grace of God in just as precious a way as those who have come to Christ from a very dark & sinful background.

I have a theory. One of the many reasons that we fail to minister to children is that we don’t really believe that they are capable of making the same kind of commitment to the Lord as teenagers or adults are able to make. We believe that, because they don’t have the ability to express in terms that are satisfactory or sufficiently clear to us, they can’t have the same experience with God as older persons have.

One friend at the seminar noted that if we reach people at an early age, they won’t have nearly as much of the “junk” in their lives, & will thus tend to be more spiritually stable & mature than if we had not reached them when they were youngsters. I believe that’s valid.

God has a lot of ways of manifesting His grace. Can we also be more expectant about the work of the Spirit & the spiritual potential of young children? Can we embrace God’s consuming desire to reach every human being with the Gospel?

After all, the devil doesn’t have age restrictions on those he wants to destroy.