Unregenerate Little Punk...

un·re·gen·er·ate [uhn-ri-jen-er-it] –adjective 

1.

not regenerate;  not renewed in heart and mind or reborn inspirit; unrepentant: an unregenerate sinner.

2.

refusing to believe in the existence of god: an unregenerateatheist; an unregenerate skeptic.

3.

unconvinced by or unconverted to a particular religion, sect,or movement; unreconstructed.

Here is my oldest minion doing what he does best in church:

 Doodling.

So...

At our church we take communion every week.

He has asked occasionally if he can participate in communion too. 

Our answer to this has always been no. 

Before you take communion we believe the child should believe at least a couple things.

Number one - that Jesus is the Son of God

and

Number two - that Jesus is their savior.

Now, if you asked my eight year if he believed those things he would probably say yes but...

If you asked pretty much any kid that had attended one session of Vacation Bible School they would probably say yes.

Plus, when asked why he wants to take communion he usually responds with:


"I'm hungry and those crackers look good."


or 


"I'm thirsty and that juice looks good."


See why we hesitate?

We read the Bible, we pray, and ever so often he'll ask a question about God and then move on. 

A few days ago we were on a long car ride and he was listening to a Mark Driscoll sermon with me entitled:

Jesus and the Children.

During the sermon the preacher addressed when children should start taking communion...

I paused my iPhone and asked my son if he was listening. 

He said yes and I turned the sermon back on the preacher then said this:

Additionally, people ask, “Well, what about Communion? When can kids take Communion?” When the parents believe they've met Jesus as God and Savior. So we let the parents decide that, and Communion's where we remember the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. And you know what? Parents, we're going to leave that up to you. We're not legalistic, we don't say, “Oh, at age ten,” whatever. If your kid knows and loves Jesus and they want to take Communion, we don't restrict that. We say all Christians who repent of sin are welcome to take of Communion, even the little guys. That's why we even have juice and wine. They get bread and juice. It's okay. My kids started taking Communion pretty young.

So, what did my child choose to say after hearing that?

"Yeah, I can see why you don't want me to take it yet."

Sigh.

Unregenerate little punk.