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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (296
notes).

Note 292 by UMNS on Sept. 2, 1997 at 16:19 Eastern (2711 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Ralph E. Baker
   480(10-71B){292}          Nashville, Tenn.  (615) 742-5470
Sept. 2, 1997 
What if church said, ~we will 
help you raise your children~?

A UMNS Commentary
by Ezra Earl Jones*

      What if the church simply and without fanfare said to the
people of the world ~We will help you raise your children.
      Who would not be included in that invitation?  Who would not 
want to be?~
      Couldn~t everything that the church does be aligned with that
invitation ~ including the church~s efforts in worship, education,
evangelism, stewardship, social justice and mission?
      The disciplines of prayer, Bible study, and living lovingly
and justly also could be aligned with that invitation.  If the
church were about the task of raising children, would faith
development among adults be changed?
      Margaret Novak, an active United Methodist laywoman, says in 
the video ~Listening to the Customer~ (Discipleship Resources)
that ~you should not advertise until you have the goods on the
shelf.~ If you tell people, ~we will help you raise your
children,~ could you produce?
      Lyle Schaller recently said that such an invitation, coupled 
with a church~s willingness and ability to support it, is the way 
to keep the church from declining with aging memberships.
      The bishops of the United Methodist Church have issued an
initiative on children and poverty. The emphasis was a major theme
in most annual conferences in 1997, but will it continue to hold
our interest? Will it mold us and change the way we work as the
church and live in the world? Or will it be a banner for
programming for a season ~ a theme to be replaced with something
else in 1998?
      But isn~t there something else about children, faith,
salvation and discipleship that touches us so deeply that we ~ as 
individuals and as communities ~ are changed and are empowered to 
change the world?
      When the people of the world had sinned and needed a savior
in an earlier day, God came as a child. Is it possible that God is
doing that again?

      Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the
      kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name
      welcomes me.
--Matthew 18:4-5 NRSV
      
      Jesus said, ~Let the little children come to me, and do not
      stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of
      heaven belongs.~
Matthew 19:14 NRSV
# # #

      * Jones is general secretary of the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn.

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