LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 103

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4. Telling the Good News about Jesus
in the Year of the Child
Mother’s or Father’s Day won’t pass in our household
without the same question posed by one of our five children
every year: “Why isn’t there ever a kid’s day?” They cannot
help but notice the special attention doled out to mom and
dad on that Sunday set aside in May or June—maybe
breakfast in bed, out to eat after church, cards, gifts. It is
almost like an extra birthday party. “Why is there never a
Sunday for kid’s day?” they wonder. We have the standard
reply ready. Have you used it yourself? When they ask,
“Why isn’t there ever a kid’s day?” we respond, “Every day
is kid’s day.”
Indeed, the entire year 2001 is declared “The Year of the
Child” in our church. Every day really is kid’s day—the
whole year devoted especially to children. This essay centers on young people as we connect “The Year of the Child”
to our convention theme, “Tell the Good News about Jesus.”
Youth should have special attention. Let’s dole it out. Not
breakfast in bed or out to eat after church, but rather the
nurture that the church extends to its children through
Word and Sacrament. A precious gift like no other—the
Good News about Jesus. Tell it in the year of the child. Tell
the Good News of Jesus to children, and celebrate as they
share the love of Christ with others.
Every day is kid’s day, and that includes Sundays in
May and June and every other month. Martin Luther
shares a word with preachers reminding them that this
pertains also to the Sunday sermon. With one or two
preachers here today, I share his advice and admonition
with you:
Cursed be every preacher who aims at lofty topics in
the church. …When I preach here I adapt myself to the
circumstances of the common people. I don’t look at the
doctors and masters, of whom scarcely forty are present, but at the hundred or the thousand young people or
children. It is to them that I preach, to them that I devote myself, for they too need to understand. If others
don’t want to listen, they can leave … we preach in public for the sake of plain people. Christ could have taught
in a profound way, but He wished to deliver His message with the utmost simplicity in order that common
people might understand. Good God, there are sixteenyear old(s) … in the church, and they don’t understand
lofty matters.

Luther recognized that young people are not the church
of the future. They are the church of right now. In his description of the church in Article XII of the Smalcald Articles, Luther thanked God because “a seven-year old child
knows what the Church is, namely holy believers and sheep
who hear the voice of their Shepherd.” Young people,
whether seven years old or sixteen, whether newly baptized, recently confirmed, just graduated from high school
or college, need to hear the simple yet significant Good
News about Jesus, need to hear the caring and compassionate voice of their Shepherd. Many messages draw
them—competing voices lure them away. The church,
specifically this church, cannot become so preoccupied with
the lofty affairs of masters and doctors that its attention is
diverted from the hundreds, the thousands who need to

hear and understand. Like Luther, let’s devote ourselves
first to the children, to the young people. Let every day be
kid’s day and every year be the year of the child in Christ’s
church. Tell the Good News about Jesus, who says, “Let the
little children come to me, for the Kingdom of God belongs
to such as these!”
Our churches are faith incubators. With Baptism’s renewing splash we welcome a child into the Lord’s family.
We receive that child as a fellow member of the body of
Christ, a child of the same heavenly Father, to work with
us in His Kingdom. Later, with confirmation’s sacred
promise, we praise God for bringing His sons and daughters to the knowledge of their Savior, Jesus Christ, and for
enabling them both with the heart to believe and with the
mouth to confess His saving name. We further pray that
they would continue steadfast and victorious to the day
when all who have fought the good fight of faith shall receive the crown of righteousness. Those are our solemn
pledges and earnest prayers in Baptism and confirmation
liturgies. We want the children to be brought to Jesus. We
don’t want to segregate them into “youth groups” away
from the rest of the congregation or force them to resort to
games or gimmicks to prevent boredom or inactivity. We
want to engage them in meaningful youth ministry—ministry to them and through them to others. We want our
older members to mentor, our parents and grandparents to
model. We want to introduce our children to Jesus and to
help them become well acquainted with Him and His Good
News.
For the introduction to Jesus to be complete, however,
it is necessary not only for us to be acquainted with the
Savior, but also to know well the young people who we in103

200l Convention Proceedings