Untangling a Profession of Faith for Your Kids

Wondering about faith for kids? Untangle a profession of faith for your kids with this biblical look at salvation and baptism.

Untangling a Profession of Faith for Kids

I want to thank Grace and Truth Books for supplying a copy of Your Child’s Profession of Faith in return for my honest review.

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Faith for Kids: Common Questions

You love Jesus. You understand eternity and the true meaning of salvation. You’re committed to discipling your children. You love your children with all your heart.

Am I right?

When these things are all true, it is inevitable that some really tough, really important questions will arise.

Christian parents wonder about a living faith for their kids. Questions come up like:

Is our child saved?
Should our child be baptized?
Should we wait for baptism and communion?
How do we know?

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Your Child’s Profession of Faith and Baptism

Dennis Gundersen’s important book Your Child’s Profession of Faith (Grace and Truth Books, 2010) helps parents examine the biblical answers to these questions. Dennis Gundersen served as a senior pastor for 27 years before founding Grace and Truth books, a ministry commited to printing Christian children’s books from centuries past. He and his wife have four grown children.

It’s inevitable that there will be doctrinal differences when it comes to the question of baptism.

Mr. Gundersen writes with the assumption that baptism is an event that should be viewed, biblically, as a public proclamation of faith (and therefore, from the perspective of “adult” baptism–not necessarily adult in age, but mature in understanding). He also writes with the assumption that baptism is, biblically, an incredibly important act of obedience, but is not required for salvation. So if a child believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as his Master and Savior, but dies before baptism–his soul is still eternally saved. These two issues are not discussed in depth in the book, but rather, it is assumed that you have already researched these aspects of baptism on your own, or are willing to do so. There is a list of suggested resources at the back of the book to help you in your research.

Your Child’s Profession of Faith does an excellent job of walking a parent through the process of evaluating the wisdom of having a child baptized at a given point in their development.

Mr. Gundersen highlights major concerns regarding parental discipleship:

As parents, we don’t want to just presume our children will be saved because they’ve grown up in a Christian home, or with a Christian parent.
We never, ever want to ignore the mandate to raise them biblically.
We don’t want our children to need to question their salvation later.
We want to be clear about what true conversion really is.
On the flip side, we don’t want to assure our children they’re authentic followers of Christ if they’re not.
What a terrible thing–to pat our children on the head and tell them not to worry about their souls, if they really should!
We also don’t want to manipulate them into professing faith in Christ when they don’t truly believe (or maybe even understand!).
We can’t trick our children into Heaven.

See what I mean? These are some seriously weighty issues. Your Child’s Profession of Faith takes on two of the very most pressing concerns for a sincere Christian parent: ‘Is my child saved?’ and ‘Is my child truly ready for baptism?’

In fact, this is the first book I’ve read that addresses the issue of child salvation head-on.

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Children and the Christian Faith

In addition to giving reasons for caution in evaluating professions of faith for children under the age of 10, Mr. Gundersen also addresses signs of true faith, advice on determining the right time for baptism, and some clear understanding of a pastor’s position on baptizing children.

Mr. Gundersen also includes some helpful extra information at the end of the book. He has written a list of suggested questions for pastoral interviews with children about baptism, common parental questions about child baptism, and chosen three excerpts from the writing of Andrew Murray’s book Raising Your Children for Christ. Murray was a South African writer and pastor (1828-1917).

Purchase Your Child’s Confession of Faith

Written in 2012: I highly recommend Dennis Gundersen’s book Your Child’s Profession of Faith. Mr. Gundersen has written a book that will help guide parents to biblical reasoning concerning the salvation and baptism of their children. I wish I’d read it some 15 years ago! Even now, with my children either grown or baptized, the book has helped clarify my reasoning on child evangelism, salvation and baptism Scripturally. This is a book that should be read by every Christian parent.

Your Child’s Profession of Faith