Theology is not an area intended
only for big brains. It is entirely the study or understanding about God and
his relationship with us. General believers might wonder why it is important.
But the time when they came to Christ by hearing, believing and accepting the
Gospel, they have already begun their unexpected journey of theology.
I do admit and humbly accept that
theology also brings chaos. I am too aware of it. But this doesn't mean we need
to weight theology in totality of a destructive premise. We just need to be
careful about extremes and dogmatism. The bottom line is that understanding the
scripture itself is theology and understanding the scripture is understanding
God and our relationship with him. This is practical and vital to our serious Christian
living.
The theological study should begin
from the children's fellowship at church as they are the pillars. The theology
is indeed the soul of every other ministries like worship, devotion, ethics,
apologetics, motivation, counseling, leadership, mission, evangelism and so on.
Wrong theology brings chaos to every other fields. When I said theology should
be started from the children's fellowship, I am not talking about heavy feeding
of theology. Just because the term sounds heavy, it isn't necessarily heavy in
implementation. Isn't basic understanding of Christian faith a part of
beginning theology? The idea of sin, redemption, need of Savior, salvation,
atonement, grace, provision, and so on are part of theological understanding.
We need to know what ingredients our faith. We need to know why we believe
something rather than nothing. Our belief shapes and drives our daily living.
And this should be taught right from children's fellowship. Heavy doctrines
aren't even necessary!
The church must be concerned about
it and give a helping hand to design enough course, curriculum, platform and
strategy to help children grow. Here the children mean those who have reached
mature level of understanding. I am not talking about those who has childlike
faith. But if they learn from their own fellowship then there is no way they
will have to suffer in future. They can learn more in their teens and youth
phase.
The current age is not a stone age
but a digital age. The resources are widespread. Children should be encouraged
to explore their faith, ask questions and investigate what they believe and
why. Sunday school/ children's fellowship teachers should never be afraid
concerning their questions. It’s not necessary that we should have answers to
all questions but it is necessary that we should guide them with resources and
counseling. They can enroll in various activities to enhance their capability
to have conversation about faith and challenges. A church should better manage
a library for growing children so that they can self-study. There is great
platform such as CBS, CGS and so on which can be used to enhance participation.
They should be enrolled in interactive activities. They should be made aware
about fundamental doctrines and fringe doctrines. The way Bible college is
serious about equipping its students, the church should be also concerned about
the growing children and new believers.
I remember one of the friends when
I was in senior level at Sunday school. He had some questions like why the
Bible depicts the Moon as light when science tells us it is not luminous by
nature. When I was in a VBS camp, there was a video about abortion and it
uttered the word "Allah" at end. A child asked my friend why the name
Allah appeared in the video. My friend simply said she doesn't know at all. Other
time, when there was preaching from Kingdom of heaven is for people like kids,
a child or a teenager shared his astonishing remark with his friend that
whether they would go straight to heaven just because they are kids. Similarly,
during camp sessions, there used to be discussion on subjects like science vs
scripture, creation timeline, interaction with other religion and so on. It’s
obvious that we do have potential teens and youths at our church. The church
should recognize their thirst. Again, it’s not necessary that one should be
able to answer everything. But we should be ready to guide appropriately.
We do have many resources such as
you tube channels, online bible courses, books, podcasts, websites, sessions
and so on. There has been massive exploration on various topics. There are
trainings and short courses we can encourage our teens and youths to enroll. It
can help them to comprehend Bible even more deeply. The church can think of
managing special training, sessions and enrollment to address their query
alongside teaching them varieties of topics. Our churches have usually gone
through devotional teaching which is good but not enough. Devotion lies at core
only when we have a sustaining faith. Spiritual enrollment impacts only when we
have no doubt against it. Salvation itself is dependent on our faith on the
right teaching. We don't get salvation offered if we believe in heretic
teaching. So, this is very serious issue the church must address.
Debate of evolution vs creation or
predestination vs free will etc. aren't major concerns in a Nepali context so
far. They may eat up the churches in near future but for present scenario,
false teachings are at hype. I have seen many teens and youths trembling when
they face cults. The other premise is inter-religion conversation which is a
great challenge in our context. Often times, preachers use syncretism method
mistakenly to show Jesus is Savior. This includes preaching Jesus from Hindu
scriptures. These are few premises in Nepali context every believers struggle.
Hence, everyone needs guidance.
The church and its leaders have a
great deal of responsibility. There are believers who leave their faith. Isn't that
horrible? The church is ought to shepherd its believers. Otherwise, they can
fall away. Children, teens and youths need adequate education, training and
activities. We aren't late but should never think of right timing. Start from
the beginning!
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