How will the "children of the millennium" be formed as Christian disciples in a world where loving God and neighbor is not valued? As we celebrate the past achievements of Covenant Discipleship, this is a good time to examine its current and future value as a way to nurture children on their Christian journey.

In a world obsessed with self-gratification, Sprouts is a way to help children learn spiritual disciplines. Meeting regularly with other children who provide support and encouragement provides a peer group that helps older children experience the value of regularly practiced disciplines and how that leads to spiritual formation.

In a materialistic world, Sprouts teaches children about loving kindness (compassion) and doing justice. Sprouts is a place where children learn that people who are different, excluded, and hard to love are their neighbors whom they are called to love in the name of Jesus Christ.

In a world obsessed with placing blame and protecting ourselves, Sprouts forms children into Christians who are accountable to God, to each other, to their neighbors, and to all of God's creation. In this group of growing Christians, children experience the trustworthiness and grace of God and their peers. They confess their shortcomings and are supported in a new resolve to be better disciples.

In a world obsessed with self-help and self-fulfillment, Sprouts teaches children that God provides what we need, especially when we practice the spiritual disciplines that open us to experience God's grace and presence. Children learn the "how and why" of devotion and worship, and their group makes sure they do these Works of Piety. What they learn in Sunday school comes alive as they practice their discipleship.

In a church obsessed with numbers and success, Sprouts provides adults with an example and a vision of how to truly make disciples. Within a framework that is grace-filled, challenging, loving, fun, and healthy, children learn HOW to be disciples and support one another as they DO it. In the new millennium, through Covenant Discipleship, we can indeed sprout new generations of children being formed into disciples of Christ.

Edie Harris is the Volunteer/Casework Coordinator for St. Laurence Chapel: Caring Center for Homeless People, Pompano Beach, FL, where she also serves on the Methodist Federation for Social Action Board of Directors. With Shirley Ramsey, she co-authored Sprouts: Nurturing Children through Covenant Discipleship.

Source: Spring 2001 Covenant Discipleship Quarterly

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