It would be easy to be overwhelmed by a counsel of despair from the massed choirs of advisers, experts and media commentators, who reflect on society, our children and their future.
There is, it seems, a creeping inevitability about the decline of children attending church, growing crime rates among juveniles, the disruptions of the disrupted child, alienated by his or her broken home, the hyper-competitive nature of the playground clique and the relentless pressure of media dispensed visions of what it is to be fashionable.
Do we dare to say that a nation of children can be called back to the knowledge of a loving Father, the earthy human realities found in the life and work of His Son and the present day empowerment of the Holy Spirit?
Would we allow a mustard seed of faith to grow in our hearts that would grow into a belief that a nation can be transformed? It will, if we will have the patience to invest relentlessly, persistently and lovingly into the lives of a generation quite literally lost, with no map to guide them back to belief, hope and a relationship with God.
If our hope is to be more than a heroic yearning fading painfully into disappointment, we must have our own map or guidebook to the future of ministry to children.
As a parent, church leader and someone who works with children and children's workers, I need reference points, an underlying framework that will shape my thinking, visions and the plan that flow from them.
This book is built on one such framework, a seven-point declaration of intent. It's not a closed set of principles. We may have more to discover as the wisdom gained from everyday experiences accrues. But it's a place to start.
ISBN: 9781842911228
Catalogue code: N/A
Publisher: KINGSWAY - published 25/02/2003
Format: Paperback