We recently celebrated Baptisms at LifeChurch.tv.  My passion centers around equipping parents for the long haul, so I lean toward providing ‘tools’ for them rather than just doing it myself.  I love the idea of mom/dad having a rich God-conversation on the playground… like baptism.  If I can give them the right questions to ask along with the right responses to look for, they can make a determination regarding their child’s readiness for these milestones.

The last baptism weekend was touching when a dad approached me right before his daughter’s baptism.  He said,

Three weeks ago my 8 year old asked about salvation.  I was able to go to LifeKIDS.tv, find information about salvation, have a great conversation with my little girl then lead her through a prayer to ask Jesus into her life.  Last week she wanted to know about baptism.  Again, I went to LifeKIDS.tv and found information about baptism.  Today I’m baptizing my daughter because she wants everyone to know what God has done.  I want you to know what you have done.  You empowered me to have conversations with my daughter I never thought I could have.  Thank you

That was amazing.  And he has no idea how much that meant to hear.

I need to learn more…

As a parent, what additional tools can your kids ministry leaders put in your hands?

As a ministry leader, what tools do you offer your parents?

Whenever we celebrate baptisms at LifeChurch.tv it’s an exciting event.  We draw a lot of attention to it and intentionally create a celebratory moment for what God is doing.  It’s a great experience.

The most common conversations I have with parents center around this question, “Is my child ready for baptism?”.

A great question that is not easily answered.  My goal as a kids pastor is to equip mom and dad for those little, off-the-cuff conversations they find themselves in on the way home from school one day.  “Mom, when will I be baptized?”

There are a handful of questions I ask a child to determine their readiness for baptism.  For the purpose of equipping, I put these questions on paper and give them to mom and dad so they can be the one leading this conversation with their child… not me.   You can read them here.  Though these questions are helpful in determining a child’s understanding of baptism, I confess this is not a full-proof ‘tool’ for determining readiness.

Why?  Because we can know the right answers to questions and yet not display evidence that it is true in our lives.  I may have all the right responses to the question, but if my actions do not reflect life-change then my words are hollow.

So, how do we equip parents to view these questions through the lens of life-change rather than right responses?