That being said, I do feel it's important to include family members when possible… and that it would be wrong to keep parents from being involved.

What I think you have on your hands is a moron who didn't realize that sending his daughter to a Christian church to be indoctrinated in the Christian Faith would lead to Faith in Jesus Christ. If he's a Christian father mad that he didn't lead the child himself… he's still a moron who needs to realize that some plant and other reap. That coming to Christ is more than a family tradition.

Don't you change a thing.

My only suggestion is that with outside kids… I feel it's going to be mandatory soon to have parents sign a permission slip where they give us permission to indoctrinate their kids. With our bus ministry we always had language to that effect included… since there were so many agencies already reaching out… it would be easy for a parent to allow us to have access without realizing our true purpose otherwise.

One large church I know only lets children pray the prayer of salvation when they've taken a one-time discipleship class with their parents, and when their parents are there to pray with them. This is to make sure the parents are a part of the process every step of the way, and it is also a way for parents to be ministered to as well.

I ask this because our church recently did a VBS, and ended on the last night (which was Parent Night- we invited all the parents to join us), and one little girl who was visiting with a friend had attended each night of our VBS, and on the last night her father was there with her as well. This little girl responded to our altar call and accepted Christ, and then the week after, I received a horrible letter from an IRATE and OUTRAGED father who was threatening to sue our church for leading his daughter to Christ! He said that we did not value parents' authority and were trying to usurp parents by leading the children to Christ without their parents' permission.

Now, obviously this is not the norm, and this man has some issues beyond this- as we did not do anything wrong or illegal- simply presented the gospel and gave children a chance to respond. The moral of the story is- should the church have to get parents' permission before giving their children an opportunity to receive Christ and make an eternal commitment? Do you think it should be the parents' decision as to when their children fully understand and are ready to accept Christ and make that commitment? Or should the decision be the child's personal decision? Do you feel it is wrong to leave the parents out of the altar call?