Yet many a Christian church barely has a Sunday school or children's program that reaches significant numbers of children. New churches specialize in children's ministry from Day One. While it takes a lot of work to convert a hallway into a classroom that is attractive and inviting to a child, it can and is being done in new churches. Children respond to the message of life in Christ. It is not by accident that new churches grow quickly, it is because of strategic planning to teach the children, in creative and meaningful ways, the gospel story.
New churches are able to optimize the great concern for children that is a part of today's culture.
When a congregation supports new church evangelism, it is an investment in the kingdom, an investment that will replenish, reduplicate, grow and expand the church, as well as have eternal values. Robert Szoke is director of church relations with the Chicago District Evangelistic Association, an organization planting new Christian churches and churches of Christ in the Chicago and northwestern Indiana area. This article originally published in the Christian Standard , Aug. 8, 1999.