Theological Approach
“They will be like a tree planted by the water…”
What is the goal of Christian parents and faith communities, as we seek to raise up children to know and follow Jesus in each new generation?
Of course, our goal is not mere survival, as if we could ‘circle the wagons’ and protect everyone from the surrounding culture, or else demand a certain level of moral obedience and worldview alignment, and just do whatever it takes to keep kids Christian!
Instead, our hope, our prayer, and our deepest desire is that the faith commitments and the faithful actions of our children, our families, and our wider communities would not only survive, but also thrive and flourish!
If you are a parent, a caregiver, or a pastor who seeks to cultivate this kind of flourishing faithfulness among the young people that you care for and serve, we invite you to consider three crucial elements of pursuing that goal:
A distinctively Christian orientation to the raising of children will need to take seriously the strange and counter-intuitive reality that Jesus calls all of his followers – not only children – to become like a child in order to follow him and participate in God’s kingdom. This means that every effort to raise young people in the Christian faith must pay attention not only to what mature adult believers have to offer children in terms of guidance, development, and instruction, but also what children and childhood have to teach the rest of us about vulnerability, dependence, and trust.
This recognition brings with it an acknowledgement that discipleship and spiritual formation – that is, the call to follow Jesus and be conformed more and more to the image of Christ – is like an apprenticeship. Parents, caregivers, pastors and leaders are not those who have mastered the goal and now simply show younger people the way; rather, every follower of Jesus who guides and instructs a younger disciple is also continually on the same journey – and that journey embraces the upside-down, last-shall-be-first, self-emptying childlikeness of the kingdom of God.
The goal of flourishing faithfulness is captured well by the biblical image of a tree, planted by flowing streams, bearing healthy fruit. Two similar expressions of this picture are found in Jeremiah 17 and in Psalms 1, and both envisage a vibrant and healthy tree with well-established roots, placed within a life-giving environment, with verdant leaves that stretch out from its branches and a thriving capacity for producing fruit both as a sign of abundant life and as a manifestation of its very purpose.
In fact, we glimpse similar imagery at the very beginning and at the very end of the biblical story, and central to the teaching of Jesus. From the tree of life in God’s original creation (see Genesis 2:8) to its reappearance in the new creation (see Revelation 22:2), as well as Jesus’s use of a vine and its branches as a metaphor for following him (see John 15:1–8), the image of a vibrant, flourishing, fruit bearing tree offers a biblical picture of what it is we are seeking as we pursue and facilitate Christian spiritual formation.
If the goal of spiritual formation in a Christian context is thriving faithfulness within a covenant community, this shared calling can be viewed through 4 distinct lenses, captured by the following basic questions: Who? What? How? and Why?
Human beings, created in the image of God. Whether one has been raised in a Christian family or has come to know Jesus through later conversion, being formed in the Christian faith involves learning what it means to be fully and truly human, as faithful image-bearers of God.
Belonging to a family of faith. Individuals and families are embedded within wider networks of Christian community, so that being formed as a Christian involves not only faith in Jesus but also belonging and faithfulness to the community of God’s covenant partners. We can learn about covenant faithfulness through the story of Israel, as followers of Jesus are grafted into their story.
Trusting and following Jesus. Being a Christian involves belief and also action, faith in Christ animated by and expressed through concrete practices and patterns of faithfulness. Our formation as followers of Jesus must be attentive to the rhythms and practices that are shaping our lives, as individuals and families called to respond to the Gospel in faith and faithfulness.
Faithful witness to Gospel/Kingdom. Everyone worships something; every human being will be shaped and formed in one way or another. The calling of Christians and of Christian families is to be wise and intentional in cultivating patterns of formation that are faithful to our identity as the body of Christ, proclaiming and embodying the good news of the kingdom of God, for the sake of the world.
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