As parents, our greatest goal and joy for our children should be that they come to faith in Christ and live as His faithful disciples. Clearly presenting and explaining the essential truths of the gospel and demonstrating what it means to follow Jesus in daily life is our greatest duty and privilege as we teach and train our children. But trying to discern whether or not a child has truly understood and embraced the gospel and its call to daily discipleship is sometimes harder to assess. Furthermore, how do parents and the church discern whether or not a young person is ready for the ordinance of baptism?
Truth78 is pleased to announce a new resource by Pastor David Michael:
Established In the Faith: A Discipleship Guide for Discerning and Affirming a Young Person’s Faith
This interactive guide has been developed for parents and others in the church to help young people ages 11 and older who profess faith in Christ to examine themselves to see whether they are truly “in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). It also has been designed to guide a young person through a six-step process to prepare for baptism.
How is Established In the Faith different from the Preparing Young People for Baptism booklet, which it will replace? Pastor Michael explains:
I prepared the first edition of this booklet for use by the church and parents as a baptism preparation tool. More importantly, I designed it as a tool that might be used to better discern a young person’s understanding of the gospel and where he might be in his spiritual development. Part of my aim in providing this tool is to assist the church in its efforts to faithfully oversee the ordinance of baptism, while preserving and reinforcing the responsibility, privilege, and blessing that belongs to parents to prepare their children to take this important step of obedience and faith.
I have further revised the original material in the hope that it will continue to be useful for baptism preparation, but I also hope it can benefit young people who have already been baptized. I grew up in a church that saw no need for a guide to prepare young people for baptism because, in their view, I had already been baptized when I was three months old. Still, if given the opportunity, I am sure my dad would have welcomed a guide like this and the encouragement to meet with his children to explore their understanding of the truth of the gospel and the state of their souls. I, in turn, would have welcomed the opportunity to discuss these things with my dad. I would have been blessed by those discussions, and I probably would have been spared a lot of confusion and spiritual insecurity.
Find more information on the Established in the Faith booklet and a sample of its table of contents and introduction.
