Family Dedication (May 2022)
Last weekend, we praised God for the good gift of children that He has so generously blessed us with. We covenanted with God and one another to steward these young lives, pointing them to Christ and reflecting to them the grace that has changed our lives.
We praise God for families and children, they are God's good gifts to the church and we are stewards of His treasures. God has blessed us generously with many new births the last year, and last weekend, we had the joy to commit to join the parents of these young families to reflect to these children the greatness of God and pass on to them the grace that has changed our lives.
God's word clearly states the stewardship responsibility that parents and the church have in raising a child. During Sunday's service, Pastor Mark referred us to Deuteronomy 6:4-8 on God's word to the parents, Psalm 145:1-4 on God's word to the congregation, and Ephesians 6:4 on God's word to the fathers, all emphasising the need to teach the children in the ways of the Lord and commending God's work from one generation to the next.
Unlike baptism and the Lord's Supper, family dedication is not an ordinance. We are not baptising these children. Rather, family dedication is an opportunity for parents to dedicate these children to the Lord and commit to instruct these children in God's ways. At the same time, as a church, we are committing ourselves to encourage these families in Christ and covenant with one another to endeavour to raise the children and youth under our care in the training and instruction of the Lord, praying that we will seek to be faithful examples, reflecting back to them the grace that has changed our lives.
We thank God for these families: (L-R from top row) Kelvin and Rebecca with baby James, Kwang Yew and Christabel with their three sons Alexander, Athelstan and Arthur, Yanadi and Fellisia with baby Jairus and his brother Lazarus, Lison and Grace with baby Seo Ho, Hewlett and Melanie with baby Chloe, Takeshi and Stephanie with baby Hiroki and his sister Hana.
These are the commitments the parents made:
We commit to wholeheartedly glorify God, to trust in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His finished work on our behalf, and to depend on the power of His Holy Spirit.
We commit to sacrificially love each other, so that our marriages faithfully reflect the love of Christ for His Bride, the church.
We commit to love God’s church: to invest ourselves in building Christ-centred relationships in this community, so that our children can also be discipled by others in this family of faith.
We commit to raise our children with godly affection, instruction and discipline. As God has entrusted to us the responsibility for discipling them, we will endeavour, with God’s help, to teach our children about the Good News of Jesus Christ and what it means to live by faith in Him.
The GBC family made the following commitments to these families and the Lord:
We, as fellow members of Grace Baptist Church, commit to sacrificially love your family, and reflect the grace of Jesus Christ by sharing our lives with you.
We commit to encourage you in Christ, and to love these children that God has given you. We will endeavour to partner with you to raise these children in the faith and ways of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We pray that God will bless these parents and provide them with all that they need, giving them a calm sense of assurance that He will never leave them or forsake them in their parenting no matter how difficult it is. We pray that they will model for the children the repentance and faith that marks out a believer, that they will be seen not as perfect parents but repentant parents. We pray that we will be quick to apologise to these children, be constant in prayer for them realising that we cannot save them. We pray that the Spirit will quicken the hearts of these children and impart spiritual life to them. We pray that as a church, we will rejoice in having the opportunity to teach and disciple them, and seeing all these children walk with God for a lifetime. We thank God for all these good gifts to us!