|
|
(Editor's Note: Connie Adams has been preaching the Gospel since 1950. In an autobiography titled, Echoes From The Nine Foot Road, he covered a vast number of topics. We wrote about his earlier years and performing in a band with his brother, Wiley Adams, and Weldon Warnock. About preaching during the division over institutionalism, going to foreign lands to spread the Gospel, some humorous stories, and losing his first wife. One section that I want to bring to your attention concerns parenting and worship services. -- D.T.) Observations By Connie Adams Over the last two decades, I have noticed that we see fewer and fewer young people obeying the Gospel. Other preachers and I have agonized over this, have wondered why this was so, and what could be done to change it. Parents who truly care about the souls of their children have many things working against them. In some instances, the public schools are purveyors of secularism and work to undermine the values of godly parents. Some are blissfully ignorant of this and are puzzled at the lack of interest in spiritual things, at defiant behavior, and at being excluded from the world into which their own children have locked themselves. One thing which becomes more apparent all the time is the fact that many of our young people have grown up without hearing the gospel. You may wonder how that can be when they have been taken to every service since infancy. But young parents have gone to services with large bags full of things to amuse their small children -- books, toys, and food. Listen, they don't need to eat, unless they are infants and nursing. And you don't have to take anything to amuse them. Start at home and teach them reverence during prayers and when the Bible is being read. Impress on them, at home, that when they go to worship, they are to sit quietly and listen. When they are old enough to write, show them how to take notes and to copy what is on the board or the PowerPoint charts. Have them to write down each Scripture reference. I have had many children to come to me to show me their notes. Often they attempt to draw my picture and some of them think I have a very long nose and huge ears! But they are listening and learning. When you take distractions with them when they are small, as they grow older they will discover other ways not to listen. I have seen some who are allowed to do their homework, to read a book, or even to play with a game boy. Do you suppose that helps to explain why they don't obey the gospel when they get to be teenagers? Could it be that they have been taught how not to listen? Paul said, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10.17). We have a crop of young parents who do not know what to do with a disruptive child during services. The older generation had no such problem. They did know what to do. Take a child out before he/she completely destroys a prayer, meditations during the Lord's Supper, or some critical point during a sermon that might even affect the eternal destiny of some lost soul who is trying to hear what is being said. If the child is sick, then comfort it. It is needs changing, then take care of that. If the child is just being ornery and challenging your authority, then establish that beyond all doubt. In such cases, you take them out, wear them out, and then bring them back in the assembly. If they persist in unruly conduct, then take them out again, wear them out again, and bring them back into the assembly. Repeat that treatment until the child understands that it is far more pleasant to stay in than to go out! If you can't establish who is in control with a two, three, or four year old, then when they get to be teenagers, you will have grief such as you never knew existed. Echoes From The Nine Foot Road, pages 137-138. |