What Should Come Next After a Child's Baptism?

It is a wonderful experience to see a child come to Jesus as their Savior and then follow Him in baptism.

It is vital for your children's ministry to have a clear strategy to share the Gospel with children and then to help them take the next step of baptism. 

I created two resources for this which hundreds of churches across the country use. 

Starting Point Salvation Class and Baptism for Kids Class. These two classes help children understand what it means to invite Jesus into their life and then follow Him in baptism.

I have been sharing the Gospel with kids for over 35 years and have seen thousands of kids come to Jesus and then follow Him in baptism.

But for many of these years, I have been thinking about this question.

After a child comes to Jesus, how can I help them grow in their faith and get a solid foundation of discipleship? 

This lead me to create a new resource called "A Great Start."  A "Great Start" is a 30 day devotional for kids that will ground them in the faith and set them up for a lifetime of following Jesus.  It covers key topics of doctrine, spiritual disciplines, Biblical history, and much more.  You can order it here.

It is crucial that we take kids on a deeper faith journey.  I have shared in recent articles, how kids are growing up and walking away from the faith.  Over 75% of non-believers grew up in the church. I believe a big reason is because we don't have a strategy to help kids grow in their faith after they are baptized.

What ends up happening is kids grow up with a shallow faith that evaporates when they are questioned about why they believe what they believe.  They are faced with the hard questions and have no answer. We must teach them apologetics and help them get the right answers to the hard questions before they get the wrong answers from the world.

I talk about this in my book "Fertile Soil...See Kids' Faith Grow and Flourish for a Lifetime."  

If we are going to see kids have a faith that will last a lifetime, then we must give them a solid foundation to build upon. We must be ready to equip kids and give them a blue print that they can use to be grounded in the faith.

We also know if kids are going to follow Jesus for a lifetime, they must have a growing relationship with Him. I was very intentional in this resource about doing this. A big emphasis is placed on how to grow closer to Jesus by spending time with Him. The more time you spend with someone, the better you will know them.  In this resource, kids are taught how to read their Bible and spend personal time with Jesus. This is the key that will help them follow Jesus long after the 30 days of devotions are finished.

So...what should come after a child's baptism?  An intentional strategy to ground them in the faith and take them to deeper level of growth.  If that's what you are looking for, then I want to encourage you to connect them with this resource. 

Time is short.  The kids you are ministering to will be graduating from high school before you can blink. Make every week count as you invest in them and disciple them.