The Missiological Presuppositions, Motives,

Structures, and Methods Specific

to the 4/14 Window

By Dr. Siga Arles (India, Team Leader), John Baxter-Brown (United

Kingdom), Genevieve James (South Africa), Augustin Sokolovski (Europe)
Samuel Dong-Jae Cha (South Korea); and Nativity Petallar (Philippines)
The Missiological Presuppositions,
Motives, Structures, and Methods
Specific to the 4/14 Window
 Our Objectives

1. Establish a missiological framework for

the 4/14 Window global movement.
2. Equip church and ministry leaders in a
mission-oriented and holistic
approach.
3. Challenge modern missionary
methods, concepts and practices
concerning the missiological roles of
children and youth.
4. Inspire passion and commitment to
raise up a generation of Christ
followers and leaders.
 Presuppositions : In creating a Missiology for the 4/14
Movement
1. Focus upon the Missio Dei
2. Focus upon Christological content
3. Focus upon the Contextualized nature of the task.
 Mission Motives

• Relationships with God and others

• Love- A still more excellent way?
• Mission is a life of prayer
• A command to be obeyed?
• Power and ethics
• Variety of motivations
• God’s action – Human agents
• Honourable dimensions – Human deficiency
• Biblical criteria / Repentance
• Teachings of Jesus / Gratitude
• Personal level motivations / Service of the church
 Relationships with God and others
• A missionary God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit
• Mutual relationship in God – Relationship to the
entire created order
• Theological truth of mission – Its relational
character
• God’s relationship with Creation – Our
relationship with God and with woman and men
and children
• God’s internal and external relationships – Mirror
of God’s image in us
• Relationship with God – To invite others to
personal relationship with God
• Depth of our missionary commitment - Depth of
our Christian commitment
• Weak relationship with God - Weak commitment
to evangelisation.
• Nature of God’s love – God’s nature is love
• We love God – We have a deep love for others in
mission
• Mission – Criteria of our relationship with God and
others
 The way of love: “A still more excellent way”

Mission – Love for God and love for others

1. Making a noise without love – Making music for God with love
2. Overflowing of love – Desire to share the gifts
3. ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good!’ (Ps.)
4. The experience of Lord’s goodness – Exhortation of others to taste
5. The taste of God’s goodness – Concern with the mission and a part to
act in.
 A work of prayer

• Live in Mission - Live in prayer

• Human effort – Fruitfulness from Prayer
• Love for God and others –Expression in Mission
• Prayer for Mission – Corresponding of its motives to the Gospel
• Live in Mission – Freedom of mothers, brothers and sisters of the Son
• Prayer – Freedom not to be slaves of the world
• Freely submission to God the Father – The power in Spirit
• as taught and shown in Jesus
• Reflections on Mission – The basis of a developing Missiology for the
4/14 movement.
 A command to be obeyed?
1. The “Great Commission” of Matthew 28:18-20: ‘make disciples’ - go, teach,
baptize
2. The other post-resurrection re-commissioning texts:
Mark 16:15: “And He said to them, " Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to all creation.”
Luke 25:45-49: “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
and He said to them, " Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and
rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness
of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from
Jerusalem."You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending
forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city
until you are clothed with power from on high."
John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, " Peace be with you; as the Father
has sent Me, I also send you."
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

(All those texts lack any sense of command)

 Some bibliographical references:

William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use

Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792).
1. The emphasis on the sense of command as “an expression of the
inner law of their lives … an essential result of Pentecost”.
2. A “debt of gratitude not duty.”
David Bosch, “The Structure of Mission: An Exposition of Matthew
28:16-20” in Paul W Chilcote&Laceye C Warner (eds.), The Study
of Evangelism: Exploring a Missional Practice of the Church,
GrandRapids:Eerdmans 2008.
1. “ ‘You shall be my witnesses,’ is not a command to be obeyed, but a
promise to be trusted.”
2. The sense of obedience is not wrong, it is not the most noble or the
highest motivation.
 Power and ethics

• The promise of Jesus: “power when the Holy Spirit

• has come upon you” (Acts 1:8).

• The power of grace of the Holy Spirit - Christian life and mission.

• But: people ‘proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition’ (Phil. 1:17)

• Mission - reasons of gaining power for one’s-self or over other people.

• The history of ‘Christian’ mission – examples of:1.) the abuse of power, 2.)
forced conversions, 3.) linking life-giving emergency aid to conversion, 4.)
the subjugation of peoples in the name of Christ.

• For the 4-14 movement the risk is that children can be instrumentalised
and manipulated to serve the interests of the movement rather than to
grow in their faith and become God’s agents in growing His Kingdom.
 A Critique of Motives
Mission and church growth - “Attract the children and
parents will come”.
• The church - cultural manifestations of society same
propensity to empire, to grow and internationalize.
• The mission of God -unfortunately seen as the
mission to increase church numbers rather than
make disciples of Jesus Christ.
• The fixation on the statistical gains - compared with
corporate marketing strategy
• the battle for the religious market share rages on.
 Entertainment Church
• Some churches - state of the art children’s
entertainment with a spiritual twist.
• Risk - while noble motives for mission to children
include salvation and spiritual formation, ministry to
children can still fall short of an effective and authentic
witness to Christ. Children seem to learn more about
belonging to the fellowship of Christians than about
fellowship with Christ –copious amounts of
programmes.
• This form of mission = club membership.
 Reflection
• Lines between mission and church growth start to blur - children bear
witness to the power struggles, splits, divisions and the super egos of
church leadership.
• In the light of this situation a possible task of missiology is to explore the
following questions:
1. How we can avoid a toxic approach to church growth where children
become mere statistics in the race to win the market share?
2. Is church growth the ultimate aim of our mission?
3. If the church is God’s alternative community how is it being counter cultural
in a world where the desires of the individual, customer or consumer take
precedence over all?
4. So, if children can be lured into the church through Disney styled
entertainment salted with a bible verse or two then how is the perceived
desires of middle class children shape the mission to children in the 21st
century?
Mission to children - Adults as the custodians of the knowledge of God

• Koyama - “teacher complex” inherent in Christianity

and cautioned of “one way street Christianity”. Same
can be said of our ministry to children.
• The knowledge of God is seen as the exclusive
accomplishment of adults.
• Mission with children is contingent on the generosity
of adults who claim to be the custodians of the whole
gospel.
• Child - is not a spiritual tabula rasa – can have personal
relationship with God
• There are children who are in communication with
God and God is in communication with children with
or without the continued influence of adults.
• The 4/14 movement -recognise children as active, fully
capable, agents of mission not only passive recipients
of mission.
• Adults are necessary to guide, and mentor but it
should never be considered that a child can not have
the direct leading of the Holy Spirit.
 Mission and social transformation
• The desperate and appalling state of children not only indicator of
government failure - also reveals critical weakness in practice and
presence of the church in the world.
• Church focused on its mission to adults -Evidenced in the
theological enterprise
• Women and children have been conveniently heaped together in
one group called “the marginalised”. Thorne calls for the
conceptual autonomy of children.
• International community -social justice agenda relating to the
children of the world.
• In the 2012 State of the World’s Children report locates the
experience of childhood in a world that is increasingly urban.
What is the
meaning of
the Good
News in
this
context?
 Isa. 65: 17-25
• Long before both the 4/14 Movement and the advent of UNICEF
Isaiah had a vision for the new Jerusalem.
• This vision can provide a biblical basis for developing our
missiological praxis in context. Deals with
• Discovering the city's joys,
• Health care and longevity
• Housing
• Just Economic Development
• Advocacy
• Relationship with God
• Relationship with the earth
• Shalom
 STRUCTURES AND METHODS
• Any Missiology and strategy for the 4/14
movement must be grounded in the
social and cultural reality of the children
• We cannot grandstand but must be
deeply contextual
Methods Specific to the 4/14 Window
Nativity A. Petallar and Rev. Samuel, Dong-Jae, Cha,
 4 CASE STUDIES
4 case studies all drawn from the Asian context in honour
of the location of this conference:

1. Victory Christian Fell. (VCF)

2. Christ’s Commission Fell. (CCF)
3. Greenhills Christian Fell. (GCF)
4. KIDS EE
 CASE STUDY ONE:
VICTORY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Ministers with 650-700 children (infants to 13 years of age) on Sundays
Methods used:
a. Curriculum (First Look)
b. Integrates special kids with the rest of the classes
c. Youth lead the large group worship services with children
d. Camps (among others):
1. “Me and My Dad Camp”-invite nonbelievers
2. “Boot Camp”-spiritual training/discipleship
 CASE STUDY TWO:
CHRIST’S COMMISSION FELLOWSHIP:

Ministers with 1,700 children (infants to 13 years of age) on Sundays.

Methods used:
a. Uses Metro Ministries Curriculum
b. “Back Street Kids’ (BSK)
c. Small groups and then large groups
d. Volunteers engage in home visits
e. Conduct “International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church”
f. VBS – church kids invite nonbelievers
 CASE STUDY THREE: GREENHILLS
CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP:
Ministers with 300 children who come to children’s classes on Sunday
Methods used:
a. Curriculum (Gospel Light)
b. Focus on the family
c. Children invite friends to SS and VBS
d. Children spend time to pray for pastors and elders in their Sunday
schools.
 CASE STUDY FOUR: KIDS EE
(Rev. Samuel, Dong-Jae, Cha)

1. Kids' EE empowered kids to share the Gospel. It gave them real

experiences that deepened their faith in Jesus Christ. It gave them tools
using kids’ learning styles they can use for a lifetime to win others to
saving faith in Jesus.
2. The curriculum included fun-filled, interactive learning experiences for
kids.
3. Vision Night (1st Friday of the month) - three generations gather to
worship: Children, their parents and grandparents
 Summary :Common characteristics :
1. All churches are intentional about reaching and empowering the 4/14
generation.
2. They all have a clear, articulated vision and place a high priority on work with
this age group.
3. The churches ensure adequate human and material resources are invested
in such work.
4. They use a variety of strategies and methodologies and make efforts to gear
their work to the felt and identified needs of the children and young people.
Extensive use is made of volunteers.
5. They are given training including, at times, teaching on specific issues.
6. The children are empowered to reach out to their peers. The suggestion is
that they are stretched but within reasonable bounds: they are given
responsibilities but are supported in fulfilling them and the tasks given to
them are age appropriate.
 CONCLUSIONS
1. We are bound by the values of the Kingdom of God and our
motives must reflect this
2. We must call the church to work among children & young
people but not to the exclusion of other equally valid groups
3. Our ministries to and with children must be wholesome and
for their benefit
4. We must develop 'bottom up' approaches to working with
children and theologising about such work
5. Building up case study data set to inform best practice will
facilitate this theological reflection
 Suggested Questions for Discussion
Groups:
1. How effective had we been in our mission to
the children thus far? Evaluate the status of
children ministry around the world.
2. What new measures / infrastructures /
methods are we to undertake “to cover the
earth with the knowledge of the glory of our
God”?
3. What ways of solidarity and synergy should
be planned by our 4/14 Global Initiative?