For the last six months or so I’ve been tinkering away at constructing a theology of children. One of the many practical implications of such a study bears down on ordinary shepherding. I’ve come to realize that a fair amount of my eldering over the past few years has been more truncated than it ought to be.

Simply put: it’s easy to focus on the adults of a family and neglect the kids. Part of this is because many parents don’t bring their kids into gathered worship, so I don’t have that supernaturally precious time to shepherd them from the sacred desk. But even in pastoral visitation, I realize how much time I spend speaking with adults and how little time I spend with the children.

I think the Savior would say, “Dear brother, this should not be so.”

I know for sure that the revered Samuel Miller would say so.

Letters to a Young Pastor

In 1827, Samuel Miller published Letters on Clerical Manners, a collection of fourteen different letters he wrote to a student recently graduated from seminary and about to enter gospel ministry. The book is a fascinating glimpse into antebellum Presbyterian ministry and all the idiosyncrasies of the time (for instance, Miller regularly admonishes the student not to spit in public or when in the pulpit). The contextual hilarity, however, belies an astonishing amount of convicting wisdom.

Pay Particular Attention to Children

Miller’s sixth letter is all about pastoral visitation and the third point exhorts pastors to “be particularly attentive to children and young people.” Miller writes, “I have often wondered that a duty so obvious, and recommended by so many considerations, should be so much overlooked by discerning members.”

Here are a few statements that stand out on the subject I would invite you to prayerfully consider how to apply in your pastoral context:

• Can any thinking man fail to remember, that children are the hope of the church?
• Impressions made in the morning of life, are generally among the most permanent and ultimately beneficial?
• Instructions given, and sentiments then imbibed, though they may long lie dormant in the mind, often rise into life and fruitfulness, when he who gave them has gone to his eternal rest?
• Can it be forgotten, also, that all experience testifies the importance to a minister himself, of paying particular attention to the youth of his charge? It forms a bond of union between him and them which time, instead of severing, will rather strengthen.
• O, if ministers could fully anticipate the sweetness of children growing up to honor you as a father in Christ, a regard to their own happiness would unite with the purest benevolence, in impelling them to unwearied care in watching over the children of their charge, and in embracing every opportunity to enlighten their minds, and to win their hearts in favor of all that is good.
• Assiduous attention to children, are among the most direct and sure avenues to the hearts of parents. It often happens, indeed, that parents are more deeply gratified, by kind efforts to promote the welfare of their children, and are more lastingly thankful for them, than for the same kindness bestowed on themselves.

Endeavor in Every Place

What then, my dear ordinary pastor friend, are you doing to shepherd the little lambs in your fold? Never forget that Christ called for the little children to come to Him. Let us do the same. May you take Miller’s exhortation to “endeavor to gain their attention, to win their hearts [for Christ]” to your heart this coming Lord’s Day.