At a certain church years ago, a new associate minister’s wife visited the 5-year-olds’ Sunday school class. She was shocked to learn that for the past couple of years, the children had been receiving no Bible teaching at all. Rather, they were just being babysat with Sesame Street material. Wonder why church leaders had not been overseeing the spiritual growth of their own congregation? And—perhaps even more unbelievable—why had parents themselves not noticed that the kids’ coloring pages weren’t, say, pictures about Joshua and Daniel but were about Big Bird and Cookie Monster?
More recent info that I would also categorize under the topic of “What on Earth Are We Teaching Our Church Kids?” is about kids at a certain church who were being “attuned” or “activated” to discern messages supposedly from God. (These are New Age/occult terms for New Age/occult practices.) One report said that leaders weren’t concerned if a kid received a “word of knowledge” that turned out to be incorrect. Hold up. How would a message from God be incorrect? Of course, it wouldn’t be. The leaders seemed to think this trial-and-error constituted some sort of training.
Isn’t it bad enough to have adult false prophets—now we want to create kiddie false prophets?
Naturally, the poor kids aren’t to blame. They’re just being put in the very dangerous position of practicing to get cosmic messages—a recipe for opening occult doors. The write-up said that these kids are asked how they felt during their experience. If the child felt peace and love, then whatever happened was determined to be from God. Clearly these leaders know absolutely nothing of Satan’s deception and the occult world. Satan, “who masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), can tell us things that “feel” good! And sometimes God’s truth can cause us to “feel” bad—such as when he exposes sin or nudges us to do the right thing when it’s unpopular. We mustn’t be so naïve!
Those defending such practices tend to toss in bits of Scripture as validation, but without really connecting the dots. Where does Scripture say that anyone (kid or adult) needs to be attuned or activated . . . and where does Scripture explain that this method is how it’s done?
No doubt there are many sincere people associated with what’s being mentioned here. Please don’t misunderstand. But even if a certain practice gives us a spiritual buzz—which we interpret as feeling closer to God—that doesn’t make it biblical. We need to help each other stay on track. Because someone who begins dabbling in unscriptural practices can be completely thrown into a dark place. That’s the intention of the seductive dark side.
Parents and church leaders must make sure kids are in the Word and that teachers know what’s what in the spiritual realm. The last thing we need is a generation of church kids whose Sunday schools have equipped them with spiritual “weapons” of cookies and conjuring.
