" We're putting our chips on kids"

I’m not much of a gambling man.  We all know there are no guarantees at any card table in Vegas.  The skill in gambling comes down to the ability to calculate probabilities … and that’s about it.  Any fool knows that anything is possible.  But there is a tipping point where the factors lend to the higher odds of something being probable.

BridgePointe is just like any other church.  It has limited resources, volunteers, promotion time, and money.  So we as a church have to decide where to put our “chips.”  The leader in me wants to maximize all of our resources and desires the greatest return on our investment.  I want to minimize the gamble by identifying the most probable payoff spiritually.  Research shows that Children's Ministry is the best investment for our return. It is far more probable that people will respond to spiritual truth before the age of 18 than at any other season in their life.

In regard to spiritual decisions made about God, The Barna Institute research puts the probability at 32% for children between 5 and 13 years old, 4% for children between 14 and 18, and 6% for people 19 years and older.  In other words, attracting younger children to a church to learn about the Love of God will have 5 to 8 times the impact of attracting the same number of older children or adults.  Barna's research on faith development and discipleship also found that the moral development of children is complete by age 9. Research affirms that the foundation for lifelong values and morals are formed at the earliest years.

Barna's research also showed that church attendance by children has a lifelong impact.  The majority (61%) of adults who attended church as children still attend regularly, while only 22% of those who were not churchgoers as children attend church today.  Early churchgoing also has an impact on whether parents bring their children to church.  For parents who were churched as children, 63% take their own children to church.  That's double the proportion among adults who were not churched and now have children of their own (33%).

 This is the ancient insight the Bible gave us: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old he will not depart from it." 
(Proverbs 22:6)

So at BridgePointe, we’re putting on chips where there is the greatest spiritual return:  our kids.  The greatest outreach and ministry window today is among young children.  Look soon for a re-branding of our pre-school.  A new look, new name, new logo, new toys, new matts, new check in lap tops, and new t-shirts for our volunteers.

We’re not gambling at BrigdePointe.  No need to second guess what is possible.  We have probability working for us.  With the odds on our side, we’re investing, not spending.