We Go to Church for the Children

Northpark Community Church, Fresno, California
You just can’t stop some pastors from preaching. Northpark Community Church, along with other Fresno and Clovis churches, is participating in 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Each evening of those three weeks, different churches are hosting evening worship. Bob Willis, pastor of Northpark, said he’d already planned his sermon for the evening when he received a request to host His Little Feet, a children’s choir.

Willis wasn’t about to say “no” to orphans -- he knows James 1 says that true religion is about caring for orphans (and widows -- but hosting the choir didn’t stop him from getting his sermon points in.

Before he introduced the choir, he delivered his three points about three aspects of fasting: first, that, as Jesus taught, there is a private aspect of fasting (Matthew 6); second, there is a corporate aspect to fasting (I Samuel 7); and third, fasting should always go along with doing good works. (He cited Isaiah 58 as his text for this point, using a wonderful translation for verse 7: “Give clothes to those who need them and don’t hide from relatives that need your help.”) He gave a decent sermon in under ten minutes, though I’m sure he would have taken more time without the choir. I wouldn’t mind if more pastors knew the short sermon can be done.

But then the choir came forward. There were seventeen children in the choir, orphans or near orphans representing three continents: Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Though, perhaps you could say there were eighteen (36? Should we count one foot for each child or two?) “Little Feet” there; a graduated member of the choir was in the audience, and somebody said, “Once you’re His Little Feet, you’ll always be.” The foot reference comes from Isaiah 52:7, “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of them who bring good news”.

The children are aged 7 to 13 and come from India, Kenya, and Haiti but sing primarily in English -- Amharic, Kiswahili, Spanish, and Mizo are also part of their music. The children gain confidence and skills to equip them for vocations and leadership positions in the future. Members of the choir attend His Little Feet Training Academy while they’re on tour. They didn’t perform many songs, but their voices were clear and sweet, and they performed with cheer and energy.

The choir partners with the ministry of Compassion International, which sponsors needy children throughout the world, as well as several other global ministries. After the choir’s performance, a video showed the work of the ministry along with four ways people could contribute to children’s lives: a simple one time financial gift, mission trips, monthly child sponsorship (since I don’t drink coffee, I was glad they didn’t use the “for less than the cost of your daily cup of coffee” cliche that always seems to be used in such presentations). Finally, as a major commitment, adoption of needy children was mentioned.

I appreciated that the service was kept at about an hour, since a number of small children were in attendance. Older children, perhaps middle-school aged, were called forward to offer the closing prayers, one praying for orphans and children in need, another for widows, and a third for families. I appreciated that children from the church were given an important part of the service.

After those prayers, there were announcements about upcoming worship services during the remainder of the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. We were glad to know that people were praying and fasting alone, together, and that they were doing good works as well (see, Pastor Willis, I got your points!).