A Recap of the Child Discipleship Forum: Spreading the Message of Resilient Child Discipleship
More than 2,500 attendees – pastors, ministry leaders and parents – joined us for the Child Discipleship Forum, in Franklin, Tennessee, Sept. 16 and 17. As billed, it was a day to learn, pray and dialogue about the factors that affect lifelong discipleship and the future of the Church. The attendees were from all over the country, and even Sweden and Ghana joined more than 2,000 attendees online.
Over two days, attendees heard from 16 thought leaders, including Matt Markins and Valerie Bell, of Awana; Ed Stetzer of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College; David Kinnaman, from Barna Group; Dr. Wess Stafford, Compassion International; and Dr. Denise Muir Kjesbo, Bethel Seminary. The interactive sessions, which included video components, live polls and round-table discussions brought new insight to the attendees.
“The pull that the culture has waters down our message and weakens it,” said Elizabeth Niell. “After the first couple of speakers I thought, ‘I’m not crazy!’ It’s so important to hear people reiterate what you’re thinking.”
Said attendee Mary Lopez, “There hasn’t been one speaker who hasn’t said or done something that reaches you. We’re learning how to make it better to reach ‘the all.’ Everybody gets it! It’s so encouraging to see so many people trying to reach the all.”
Together the speakers covered why child discipleship is vitally important and how discipleship can’t take place without children having the presence of loving, caring adults in their lives. Specific topics related to how to mentor younger generations to be the leaders of the future, partnering with parents, the importance of belonging, focusing on engagement rather than entertainment, the statistics of Christianity in a post-Christian world, and the growing struggles kids are having with issues relating to sexuality and gender identity.
Josh Navey found CDF speaker Sam Luce’s talk about engaging with kids rather than entertaining them, and the importance of relationships to be impactful. “It was really convicting when Sam said that the youth director didn’t remember anything Sam had said [while Sam was his leader]. But he remembered when Sam visited him in the hospital and the personal relationship that they were able to have together.”
“The presentation of Dr. Denise was the pudding,” said Jacky Gilles. “God gave families the responsibility to disciple children, as it says in Deuteronomy 6. This is the time we need to stand up for the generation, and would we not want to do all we can to disciple the children for this generation?”
Jacky explained that in his country of Haiti, it’s a challenge to engage parents in the role of discipling their children, but that he feels encouraged by what he heard at the Forum. He expressed an urgency “to raise up a generation of disciples who can make disciples of other children and who can make change in [my] country and the world.”
With so much rich content to think about, the Forum provided opportunities for groups of people – either at tables in Franklin, Tennessee; in their own watch parties offsite, or online through Zoom – to process the information and their thoughts with others. In addition, there was time for worship and reflection, led by Christy Nockels, a Dove Award nominee, worship leader and former member of the duo Watermark.
Online attendees also had the experience of exclusive content, chat functionality, and conversations and daily recaps with Ross Cochran, host of the Resilient Disciples Podcast, and Kellie Bartley, senior director of curriculum at Awana.
“This is one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to that addresses the big elephant in the room,” said John Hailes. “We have these big issues in our culture and no one wants to talk about them. Here, you did.”
Said Steve Neill, “Not any [speaker] was preachy. Now that I’ve got a taste of it, I’m going to show it to my team.”
If you weren’t able to attend this year’s CDF, or you were an attendee and would like to take what you heard to your team, you can purchase access to the sessions, valid until the end of 2021. Plans are already being made for next year’s Child Discipleship Forum, Sept. 22 and 23. Sign up to learn more by going to the Child Discipleship Forum website, following Awana on Facebook and reading future Awana blogs.
Carla’s work at Awana has been on the communications and marketing teams. It is important to her that Awana leaders and volunteers have the information they need to best disciple the kids in their care, and that these kids grow to become disciplemakers, themselves. When Carla is not at work, she enjoys walking with friends, taking pictures of birds and sunsets, or exploring new places with her husband and daughter.
