Churches Can Be Advocates for Children
by Mary Alice Gran and Myrtle Felkner

"What is a family?" A grandmother asked her grandson.

"Someone you love," he replied, not to be deterred from his trucks and cars with a silly question like that.

"But you love Jennifer, your babysitter, and she is not family."

The little boy spread his arms and explained with infinite patience, "Grandma, when you make a good friend, your family just gets bigger."

In a world that is increasingly interrelated, the well-being of the young demands our best attention. Family concerns are not just political issues.

The Annie F. Casey Foundation of Baltimore annually ranks the condition of children in the United States. Child poverty, infant mortality, child deaths, drop-out rates, and juvenile arrests are just a few of the conditions examined by the foundation. The rate of juvenile crime, for instance, has jumped sharply nationwide in the past ten years.

As think tanks, foundations, community groups, bishops, and child advocates search for ways to raise children out of poverty, integrate them into a caring community, and provide stability and purpose to their lives, we in the church carry a special responsibility to "make our family get bigger." Here are ways some churches can be advocates for children:

• Provide mentors. Screen mentors and match them with children or youth. Mentors are the people who will listen, provide affirmation and encouragement, and advocate for the needs of children and youth.
• Plant "Sprouts." The Sprouts program (covenant discipleship for children) teams one adult with five or six children who meet together regularly, establish a covenant, and share with one another as they grow in discipleship.
• Offer Christian Education at a variety of times. Even small churches can be flexible with times and settings. Families often cannot adjust their work and school schedules to one fixed opportunity.
• Take responsibility for all children. Expand your concern to all children by working to improve the health, safety, education, self-image, and spiritual well-being of all children and youth.
• Begin or expand midweek ministries. Child care is a vital need today for children of all ages -- infants through teenagers. Churches located near a school can provide a midweek time for children and their families to grow in discipleship.
• Become partners with schools and other community agencies. Working with other community groups, the church can play an integral part in caring for the whole child and the whole family.

As we work with law enforcement, schools, and community groups, the "invisible children" of every community will no longer be someone else's problem. The children will become "someone we love" because "when we make a good friend, our family just gets bigger." And that must make God smile.

Mary Alice Gran (mgran@gbod.org) is a director of children's ministries for the General Board of Discipleship. Myrtle Felkner is retired from the staff of the General Board of Discipleship Their article first appeared as an Idea Mart column in magazine (published by United Methodist Communications). It is used with permission.

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