Evangelism Handbook

In his book, The Bridger Generation, Thom Rainer reminded us that 80 percent of people who are saved come to Christ before age twenty.² From the early church to the contemporary setting, reaching the young has been a critical need for the church.

There are few resources that give sound, detailed counsel concerning the evangelization of children. Yet in many circles, about one half of those making professions of faith are under the age of 13.

Roy Fish, the dean of evangelism professors, having taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for more than 40 years, offered sage counsel on this vital subject.³ Fish notes certain assumptions from Scripture concerning children. First, infants and young children are safe within God’s care. Second, if they die, they will go to heaven. Delos Miles, my predecessor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, stated:

The child is not a “miniature adult.” Infants and young children who die before they are capable of conversion go to heaven. They are a part of God’s kingdom. Based upon what the Bible tells us about the nature of God, He will not hold a young, immature child responsible for making a decision of which he is incapable.⁴

Fish’s third assumption is that there is a time when children become accountable to God. In other words, we must confront the issue of the “age of accountability.” Miles defined this term: “Infants are safe in God’s care until they become capable of responsible decision-making.”⁵ William Hendricks defines the age of accountability as “the moment of grace when one is brought to a decision for or against Christ by the Spirit.”⁶

Of course, various traditions deal with this matter in different ways. Sacramental theology focuses on the role of sacraments such as infant baptism. However, the biblical text indicates a conversion theology, regardless of the age of the individual. I agree with Fish, Miles, Hendricks, and others that there is no set age of accountability.

Because of biblical teaching on conversion and the practice of believer’s baptism following conversion, the age of accountability is an important concept. Yet we must admit there is no singular biblical passage that clearly elaborates this concept. We get a glimpse in passages such as Rom 14:12, which perhaps implies the idea: “So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” Other passages worthy of examination include:

Deuteronomy 1:39: “Your little children who you said would be plunder, your sons who don’t know good from evil, will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it.” In this passage we see the children were not held responsible for this sin that led the people into the wilderness.

2 Samuel 12:23: “But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I’ll go to him, but he will never return to me.” David, referring to his infant son who died, stated he would go to where the baby is, implying life beyond this life.

Romans 7:9–10: “Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me.” Paul seems to say there was a time he did not stand as guilty before the law, that is, in his infancy.

Part of the reason for concern about evangelizing children is the alarming number of people who say something like this: “I didn’t know what I was doing at age nine. I joined the church, but I didn’t have the capacity for making an intelligent decision. When I was seven or eight nothing really happened, so I needed a later saving experience to be a real Christian.” The fact that increasing numbers of adults have done this has caused some people to look suspiciously at the possibility of child conversion.

Further, increasing numbers of children being baptized at earlier ages has caused some to be alarmed at the rate at which we are baptizing children. The issue raises genuine concerns. This is reflected in the extremes that exist on this subject. On the one hand are those who question the possibility of evangelizing children. An example of one who looked suspiciously at this issue is Sam Southard in his book Pastoral Evangelism.⁷ Relying heavily on the findings of both psychologists and theologians, Southard concluded that conversion requires a responsible, repentant attitude that is not possible until adolescence or the early teenage years.

On the other hand, some groups seek to evangelize children at a very early age. Fish noted that a former head of the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) wrote that children should be evangelized from three to five years of age. The idea of a three-year-old understanding even the simplest implications of the gospel is extremely problematic, and this seems to me to be very close to infant baptism. And yet, at the other pole, there is too much reliance on psychology to the neglect of the Spirit. Hear Fish at this point:

We ought not to pay a great deal of attention to secular psychologists who have no knowledge of the work of the Holy Spirit in Christian conversion. Conversion or regeneration is a miracle which defies explanation on a psychological basis. To declare that the Holy Spirit cannot convict children of sin, cannot reveal Christ savingly to them, and cannot work the miracle of regeneration in them is a prerogative no psychologist or theologian ought to assume.⁸

We must admit that the Bible says very little explicitly about the evangelization of children. The Old Testament offers examples of children serving the Lord. Samuel was quite young when he began to minister to the Lord under the tutelage of Eli. During the Old Testament era, the idea developed that Jewish children became responsible members of the worshipping community at age 12. This is why Jesus was taken to Jerusalem to worship when he was 12. This was not specified in the Old Testament; it simply evolved during the Old Testament era.

Certain passages in the New Testament are helpful on this subject. There is the implication that Timothy followed Christ from childhood (see 2 Tim 3:15). Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14).

But the most definitive passage relative to the conversion of children in the New Testament is found in Matt 18:1–4. In this passage, Jesus used two words to describe little children. One of the words is paidion (vv. 2,4,5). The other is mikros (vv. 6,10,14). The first word refers to a very young child and periodically refers to infants. It was used of Jesus as an infant. The second word, mikros—the word we use in English in such words as microscope and microcosm—also refers to children of a young age.

Roy Fish offered the following commentary on this passage.⁹

1. Conversion occurs on the level of a child. Jesus says, “Except you be converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” We typically think of salvation as something of an adult experience to which children must attain. But this passage indicates just the opposite. Not only is conversion possible for the child, but also any adult who would enter the kingdom must first become as a child. We say to children, “Wait until you’re adults; then you can become Christians.” Jesus said, “Oh, no, you’ve got it in reverse. You adults become little children, and then you can become Christians.”

2. Humility, the essential quality of greatness in the kingdom, already belongs to the child. Jesus said, “Whoever will humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” The word humility refers to a state of weakness and dependence that determines greatness. The older we grow, the more proud we become.

3. A little child can believe in Jesus. Jesus warned those who “offend one of these little ones who believe in Me.” Fish is correct when he says this is the most important statement in Scripture concerning evangelizing children. It should settle the question once and for all as to whether a child can be saved. The word Jesus uses for believe here is the same word found in John 3:16; Acts 16:31; and Rom 10:9–10.

4. Jesus says that to cause a child to stumble is an extremely serious thing. If a person should cause those who believe in him to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung about his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. How serious it becomes to reject a child who truly seeks Jesus. What a sobering word to a parent who would treat with indifference the spiritual interest of a little child.

5. We should seek a little child, for the Lord Jesus as a shepherd seeks a stray sheep. The sheep in this context refers to children, not adults. Both the preceding and following verses refer to a child. Jesus is saying that we should seek and find children for Him as straying lost sheep are sought out by the shepherd.

6. The Father’s will is that no child should perish. Although the phrase is couched in negative terms, if we turn it around, it declares that the Father desires that every child should be saved. This should cause us to double our efforts in prayer and tactful, careful evangelism that seeks to lead children to the Savior.

I want to conclude this final section by quoting Fish at length:

In summary, there is a time when children do not need conversion, a time of innocence when they are not accountable or responsible to God. But if the Bible teaches that children, along with adults, respond to God negatively, they respond to what they know about God with rejection, it might be that negative and rejection are words all together too mild. They respond by rebellion against God. And the New Testament teaches that when a man or a child responds negatively to God or what he knows about Him, he becomes accountable or responsible to God. In my thinking, this certainly is possible for children.

God does not have two ways of saving people—one way for saving adults and another for saving children. To what extent, then, should we attempt to put a child through the hoop of a dramatic adult experience of conversion? The answer is very simple. Only in the proportion as the child is an adult. The essential ingredients must be present in the salvation experience of a child, however minutely they might appear. Repentance to a child, though based on a limited awareness of sin, will involve a rejection of what in himself is displeasing to God. He should be taught some idea of the cost of following Christ, but to expect all characteristics of a dramatic adult conversion in the conversion experience of a child is being unrealistic. I would not want to soften the line of the necessity of a conversion experience for children. However, we must keep in mind that the New Testament demand is not so much for dramatic conversion as it is for repentance and faith.¹⁰

There are notable examples of childhood conversion in Christian history. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was converted at age nine, during the first century. He testified at his martyrdom in about AD 160 that he had been a believer for 85 years. He was martyred at age 95. He may have been converted through the ministry of John the Apostle.

Isaac Watts, the father of English hymnody, came to Christ at age nine. Some of Jonathan Edward’s biographers contend his salvation came at age seven. Commentator Matthew Henry was ten; Baker James Cauthen, for many years head of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, was six. W. A. Criswell of the great First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, was under ten when he met Christ.¹¹

1. Deal with each child individually. This principle is true of adults as well but is so critical with children. Perhaps the reason many children make spurious decisions, or are unsure of genuine commitments, is because of the poor way they were counseled. Some children may in fact be ready, but others simply want to please others around them. Utilizing trained workers to deal at length with each child is essential. If children come forward as part of a group, some would do so because of peer group pressure. A large number of children are not coming because they are ready to make their commitment to Jesus Christ. But some are coming who are willing to make that commitment if only someone would counsel with them and show them the way.

3. Consider the child’s religious background. My son Joshua at age six and one half understood more about the gospel than many unchurched teenagers I have met. He had been nurtured in a Christian home where the Bible is read daily, where spiritual matters are discussed regularly, and where church involvement is a central part of our family life. In fact, by the time he was eight, he beat me in Bible Trivia (OK, I did ask him the children’s level questions)!

If a child has no religious background, the first time he expresses interest in becoming a Christian, there’s a high probability he or she is not ready to make that commitment. Very few children are truly converted the first time they hear the gospel (or adults, for that matter).

4. Do not use fear as a primary motivation. I believe fear is a viable part of the gospel for a person of any age. Many people come to Christ because they are afraid of the consequences if they reject Him. But extreme methods should not be deliberately used to produce this fear. We must refrain from severe efforts to produce fear in the lives of boys and girls as a motive to get them to Jesus.

5. Explain the gospel on a child’s level. A few times each year, I will have a small child shake my hand following a sermon delivered in his or her church. The child will say something like, “I really liked your sermon,” or “I understood that.” These compliments mean more to me than anything anyone else could say. If I speak in such a way that a child cannot understand me, it is not a sign that I am deep or profound; it means I’m a poor communicator!

When you talk to boys and girls about becoming Christians, also talk to them in terms of Christian responsibility. Talk in terms of the lordship of Christ. If they’re old enough to accept Him as Savior, they’re old enough to understand something of the responsibilities of the Christian life. The obligation to obey Jesus belongs as much to the young child as to the aging adult. Those who are old enough to trust are old enough to obey. The claims of the gospel, the law of God, and our need for Him must be clearly stated to any person regardless of age.

6. Affirm the child regardless of his or her level of understanding. You should never present a child as having received Christ if you have doubts about the genuineness of his or her confession. But we can affirm the child at some level. W. A. Criswell affirmed children who come forward as taking a “step toward God.”¹² When a child comes forward in a service, regardless of age, he or she ought to be greeted with these words: “I’m so glad you’ve come forward today.” If an adult refuses to do this and ignores a child’s interest, this can be devastating to a child’s growing faith as well as to his trust in adults.

Expression of interest on the part of a child does not mean he or she is ready for an experience of conversion. We must remember that the Holy Spirit can lead a person a step or two nearer to Christ without bringing him or her to new life. Preparatory work is sometimes long, but it’s just as much the work of the Holy Spirit as regeneration.

7. Distinguish between the internal experience of conversion and external expressions associated with it. Children easily confuse the symbol for the real thing. The real thing happens when they trust the Lord Jesus as their Savior. But the symbol, the external expression, happens when they walk down an aisle and present themselves for church membership and baptism. Some boys and girls are prone to equate salvation with baptism and joining the church.

This is how it is when most children make a public decision: Little Johnny comes down the aisle. We’re glad. He’s age 10, but we haven’t had a chance to talk with him about this matter. We ask him why he’s coming, and he says, “I want to join the church.” We quickly explain that he must trust in Jesus to be his Savior, and then we begin asking him questions before the congregation. “Johnny, you know you’re a sinner, don’t you? You know that Jesus died for you, don’t you?” And we begin to nod our heads in an affirmative fashion. “And Johnny today you are trusting Him as your Savior, aren’t you?” By then our head is bobbing like a fishing cork when the fish are biting.

When children come forward, why not say something like this: “Johnny, I’m so glad you’ve come forward this morning. As best you can, tell me why you’ve come.” Let him express to you his feeling about the matter. Don’t rush in to counsel him or her at the altar. Schedule some time for this after the service. The salvation of a child is too important to rush. Use questions like these: “Tell me what you’ve been thinking about in regard to becoming a Christian. Why do you want to become a Christian? What made you start thinking about it? What do you think a person has to do to become a Christian?”

Keep in mind that children need only to receive Christ. They don’t have to explain the gospel in detail. Children may not be able to explain why they have this need, but they must sense a need for Jesus. They must understand that God’s provision for meeting the need they feel is Jesus. They don’t have to have all the theological answers, but they must understand that it is through Jesus that God meets the need they are experiencing. They also must know how to appropriate or to claim God’s provision—through faith by trusting Him as they commit their lives to Christ.

As you will read below, I believe the best people to evangelize children are their parents. For those who do not have believing parents we should take advantage of appropriate opportunities to share the gospel.

We have a tendency in the Western church to focus excessively on protecting our children and far too little on preparing them and challenging them to live valiant lives for Christ. While it is vital for parents to protect their children, especially when they are small, do we really protect them if we shield them from biblical teaching on such subjects as persecution for the sake of the gospel? Do we help our children by rearing them in a Christian subculture that elevates the institution and minimizes the gospel?

Churches are so busy getting people involved at the church that they’ve neglected this fundamental agenda of spiritual formation. The typical church family leaves spiritual stuff to what happens at the church, thereby delegating spiritual formation to the institution. And the institution encourages it! What if churches cut down on church activities so people could have some conversations within their own families? What if we facilitated this even at church as a beginning point? What if parents spent as much time with the children’s minister as the children do? What if student ministers spent as much time with students’ parents as they did with the students? This would be a shift from most church expectations of staff.¹³

For a little dose of perspective, consider for a moment the ministry of Adoniram Judson. One of the earliest in the modern era to leave the comfort of the West for the international mission field, Judson understood to some extent the hardships ahead of him. He met Ann Hasseltine and sought to marry her. He wrote a letter to her father to ask for her hand in marriage but did not minimize the cost of marriage to a man compelled to go overseas. “I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world!” he wrote, adding, “Whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life?” He concluded with a question: “Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Saviour from heathens saved, from her means, from eternal woe and despair?”¹⁴

Ann did in fact die on the mission field. Most of us will not face such a decision about one of our children. But it breaks my heart to see students of mine sitting in my office, called to the mission field, weeping because their Christian parents are unhappy that God is taking their child overseas. But even that does not affect personally every believer. The most pressing question is, are we raising our children in our churches to love and proclaim the gospel?

I ask in churches regularly how many in the congregation were raised in Christian homes. I ask the same of my students. Normally the response is around 90 percent. Then I ask all those raised in Christian homes how many of them recalled their parents ever discussing the need to reach their neighbors, or any attempt to share Christ with neighbors? Typically the response is less than 3 percent. We raise our children in neighborhoods acting as if we were atheists. We expect the local institution to do the work. Further, recent studies show that only 12 percent of Christian families pray together regularly. We can complain about prayer being taken out of public schools legally, but we have taken prayer from our homes willfully!

I believe for the gospel to become effectively shared once again in our day, it will take families living and sharing Christ missionally in neighborhoods. It will take children being raised to be more committed to making an impact for the kingdom of God than getting a good job and paying the bills. It will take a renewed passion by Christian parents to leave a legacy of the gospel for their children.

The family has been rightfully one of the most common points of emphasis in the modern church. Seminars, parenting training videos, books, sermon series, and a litany of parachurch ministries have at various levels focused on the family. This is right and good. But I believe a vital element has been missing from most of these. Over the past few years I have asked my students how many remember their church hosting any of the above—marriage retreat, and so forth, or a sermon series on the home. Virtually all recall such a focus. Then I asked, “How many of you recall an emphasis in these events or resources which specifically dealt either with evangelizing your children or with raising children in the Christian home to be evangelistic?” Very few. I think we would agree that nothing matters more to Christian parents than their children becoming passionate followers of Christ. Yet we hardly ever talk about that in the church. I believe part of the reason for this stems from the institutionalism in our churches, as if evangelizing children were the job of the church rather than of parents. Perhaps it is also because we assume parents will do this.

As a young pastor I taught the parents of older children (grades 4–6) how to share Christ with their children. As a result, over the next few months several children were led to Christ by their own parents. As parents, Michelle and I have sought both to teach and model a love for the gospel whether in our home, the neighborhood, or a local restaurant. We have been blessed with a son and a daughter who get this, both of whom have led people to Christ and who love Jesus and His gospel. We have seen a love for the gospel affect every aspect of their lives from how they relate to friends to how they treat strangers. You can raise your children to do more than survive in a wicked culture. You can raise children who love God’s truth and share it, and who pass that legacy to their children as well.

I believe the Scripture gives clear guidelines to Christian parents regarding the importance of raising children not only to love and follow God, but also to share the gospel with others. We see the heart of this in Deut 6:4–9; this passage is the most quoted in the New Testament. While ceremonial laws and certain customs passed away from the Old Testament to the New, this passage endures. In fact, Jesus called the truth in this passage “the Great Commandment.” We would do well to teach this truth and to follow the pattern in our homes we see described in these verses.

Being a parent must be the most exciting . . . and frightening . . . and inspiring . . . and upsetting . . . and amazing . . . and routine . . . and joyful . . . and at times sorrowful . . . experience in life. I spend much time with youth. Many of them do not have a close relationship with parents. Many have hardly ever seen a family who loves one another. So many long for nothing more than a family that stays together and loves God and one another. I have yet to meet a young lady who longs to look back at age 45 and describe her life like this: three divorces, two kids by two different men, neither of whom will pay child support. So many would rather break the cycle. A gospel-centered home is the cure!

If you are a parent, how will you leave a legacy to your children that will lead the generations following to love God?

Demonstrate Godliness—Moses is addressing the parents and adults when he gives this message. “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” This, the Greatest Commandment as Jesus deemed it, should be central in any Christian home. In your decisions as a family, do you seek first to listen to God? Does your family put following what God says above all else? If so, does a passion for the lost have a central part in your home? Do we sometimes miss the centrality of loving God above all when we tell our children to get a good education, good job, but fail to place as much emphasis on hearing and loving God? Do we affirm in our teaching and our living that there is only one God, and only one way to have a right relationship with that God?

Educate in Godliness. Verses 6–9 tell us the responsibility of parents:

These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We have developed an institutional mind-set in the church that has compartmentalized our lives. So, many parents see spiritual training as primarily the job of the church. In particular with teens that job goes to the youth pastor. Unfortunately that is exactly what the Scripture does not teach. Think about the marriage seminars, sermon series on families, or parenting classes you have had at your church. Most of them never talk about sharing Christ with your children. Yet nothing is more important than that to a believing parent. Why the omission? Because we have given the serious spiritual matters to the “professionals” at the church.

This passage puts the spiritual training of a child squarely on the shoulders of parents. We are to instruct them, literally “sharpen the knife,” and live truth before them. How does this look practically? It certainly involves active participation in a gospel-centered local church. It includes imparting a vision for the salvation of both the neighbors and the nations. I like to think about this passage in this way:

These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart—my children should see me spending time in God’s Word, actively sharing my faith, and demonstrating Christlike character daily.

Repeat them to your children—I should be instructing my children, particularly when young, about the things of God. I should help them see how to live out a biblical worldview, making decisions in all arenas of life from a biblical perspective.

Talk about them when you sit in your house—Family mealtime provides a great avenue for teaching everything from civility to life lessons. Shared activities with children provide further opportunities for instruction.

When you walk along the road—The church and the home are not the only places to learn how to live and share Christ. Our activities, from talking to the waitress at the restaurant to being courteous at the mall, help to show how to live out our faith rather than compartmentalizing it in the confines of our house and the church house.

When you lie down and when you get up—Bedtime, especially for younger children, provides a great time for prayer and instruction in spiritual things.

Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates—I suppose this could include Christian symbols and expressions at our homes, but more than that it is vital that we incorporate the gospel into the fabric of our lives. Our interaction with our neighbors should bring glory to God and communicate Christ to those who need Him.