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What Makes Jesus Mad

Reflections on 15 (an occasional series during our 15th year of ministry)

 

There's a place in the gospel of Mark, Chapter 10, where Jesus gets mad. I think anytime he gets mad about something we should listen up. Here's the passage:

 

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

 

Children were a priority to Jesus. He told people in another passage that it would be better to have a “millstone around your neck and thrown in the deepest ocean than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” Sobering words that push us to love them, care for them, point them to Jesus, and make sure they are part of our life because life without children is an impoverished and skewed one. We have always believed that a church without children is also impoverished and skewed.

 

When City Church got started San Francisco was the most childless city in North America. Nothing has changed that statistic in 15 years. But from day one, we made room for kids. At our first worship service in February of 1997 we had around 5 children, 3 of them with the last name “Harrell”. One of the early heroes of City Church was our lovely children's ministry director at that time, Terely Harrell. She showed up early each Sunday to set up a nursery and a Sunday School in the foyer of the Presidio Chapel. All the while corralling our 3 little ones (6, 4, 2). I don't know how she did it. (I still don't know how she gets done what she gets done on a daily basis!) What I do know is that even as a small church start up, kids were there, and welcomed.

 

Today, our family ministry has grown significantly. I hear parents telling me that their children love City Church. They tell me that when the moved here they heard City Church was a great place for children. I hear singles at City Church tell me that what they thought they needed was a group of people just like themselves, but what really changed their lives was volunteering to teach children or hang with the YUTES (our youth group). I've had my own children tell me what an impact volunteering in Vacation Bible School has been for them. Speaking of YUTES, this past weekend they had a retreat with 25 kids and average around 30 or more each week! God is at work in our family ministries... and we are all enriched by their presence.

 

I'm reminded of this quote from Dan Doriani, a pastor friend of mine:

 

Martin Luther, recalling that he never awoke with pigtails in his face and his blanket gone in the monastery, observed that family life is a school of character. That is, parenting blesses us by teaching us to love sacrificially, to bend our will to another’s. Parents learn to subordinate their plans, their goals, their happiness and fulfillment, to spend themselves for little ones who can give very little in return.…Babies cry more than they smile. Little children are a bundle of need, and teenagers bring more worries than celebrations. They teach us to expand the circle of passionate concern beyond ourselves to our children, our community, and even the good of distant generations.…

 

…if we relinquish the hope of gain, if we rouse ourselves from the dream that children will “pay off,” they can enrich our lives. When little ones gasp at their first Christmas tree, when their first snowflake dances in their eyes, they restore our sense of wonder, our love of life. Their belly-laughs, their stumbling acrobatics, and their earnest lisping of family names are more entertaining than season’s tickets to the theater. A little older, they restore play to our stodgy routines. (Besides soccer, tennis, and hide-and-seek, we play “monkey baby,” “washing machine,” and “speedo wheelbarrow” at our house; would you care to join us?) Older still, they become our friends, even our guides, and they often love and care for aging parents.

 

In these ways, and more, children are a blessing.

— Daniel Doriani

in The Journal of Biblical Counseling

 

A blessing indeed, and one that Jesus does not want us to miss. He says we must become like them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Pray for our family ministries staff: Dan Gannon, David Starfas, Florence Nault, and Wendi Digerness, and the host of volunteers and teachers that make it all happen each Sunday. Let the little children come to City Church! They will find a loving Savior there who will welcome them through you and others.

Rev. Fred Harrell

Founding Pastor
The Rev. Fred O. Harrell is a native of Central Florida and is a graduate of the University of...

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