23rd November, 2006

DAVID ADAMS

Too Small To Ignore: Why Children Are The Next Big Thing
Dr Wess Staffard with Dean Merrill
Published by WaterBrook Press, Colorado, 2005

ISBN 1 4000 7043 0

"Dr Stafford’s book calls for a reappraisal in the way children are positioned not only in the world as a whole but in our daily lives."

There is an image from a trip I made to Kenya in the late Eighties that burns indelibly in my mind. It’s that of a small boy standing in the dust outside a feeding station wearing an oversize T-shirt and shorts.

A boy who lived in a notorious slum in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi known as the Mathare Valley. A boy who had no family. A boy who ate once a day. A boy who slept alone at night on the street and who, if he was lucky, might get invited into someone’s home on the odd occasion. Did I mention this boy was three-years-old?

It’s that image that springs to mind when I read a book like Too Small To Ignore: Why Children Are The Next Big Thing. Written by Dr Wess Stafford, the chief executive and president of global children’s ministry, Compassion International, this book is a passionate cry from the heart. And just as the image that burns in my mind, it commands our attention. More than that, it commands our response.

In a narrative which weaves together the fascinating story of his own childhood - spent partly living in a poor West African village with his missionary parents and partly at a boarding school where he endured all manner of abuses - with his ongoing passion for children, Dr Stafford’s book calls for a reappraisal in the way children are positioned not only in the world as a whole but in our daily lives.

For too long, says Dr Stafford, children have been treated as if they were somehow less important in God’s Kingdom, second-rate citizens if you will. Jesus, in contrast, was clear in his teachings that they were anything but and Dr Stafford eloquently explains many of the key relevant passages as well as passages from the Old Testament showing the key role children have played in advancing the Kingdom of God.

Dr Stafford challenges the status quo when it comes to children. How serious are we about the place of children in our church community? What are we doing to encourage those children who are closest to us everyday? What about what we are doing to alleviate the crippling poverty and abuse - physical, sexual and mental - which befalls far too many children everywhere?

Dr Stafford provides plenty of food for thought and even suggests some ways people can get involved in helping to empower children, both those in front of us everyday and those who live on the other side of the globe - a list which includes everything from ensuring every child is immunised against all known childhood diseases through to every pastor spending a couple of Sunday mornings a year in the "church nursery". There's some controversial suggestions on the list and, while you may not agree with all Dr Stafford suggests, they will provide you plenty to wrestle with.

In Dr Stafford’s words, our children are not the church of the future. Our children are the church of today. The sooner we realise that, the better. As he puts it, it's all about changing the world "one child at a time".