{"id":14198,"date":"2025-11-26T15:41:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=14198"},"modified":"2025-11-26T15:41:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:41:36","slug":"out-of-the-mouths-of-babes-children-are-stepping-up-to-preach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/11\/out-of-the-mouths-of-babes-children-are-stepping-up-to-preach.html","title":{"rendered":"Out of the Mouths of Babes: Children Are Stepping Up to Preach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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@official_estersouza \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recent Washington Post<\/em><\/a> article is highlighting the growing trend of young children stepping up to preach. Eight-year-old Ester Souza from Votuporanga, Brazil steps up to preach at her father\u2019s small, rural church. In 2020, this would have seemed like a dream. Souza was suffering from a kidney infection, receiving hemodialysis nearly every day, and waiting for a transplant. Since it was during the height of the pandemic, Souza\u2019s parents couldn\u2019t even stay with her. \u201c\u201cI cried when they left. I was afraid without my mom. One night, I saw a man in a shining white robe, and he said he would take care of me. Then I felt calm again,\u201d said Souza. \u201cI think it was God.\u201d She received her transplant in 2021 and began preaching\u00a0 at her father\u2019s church. In 2024, she went viral telling the story of David and Goliath. Her social media gets thousands of views, and she has nearly 1 million followers. She preaches at her father\u2019s church nearly every week.<\/p>\n

According to The Washington Post<\/em>, \u201c@oficial_estersouza_\u00a0is part of a new surge of child preachers helping to spread evangelicalism to the country, which is currently 26 percent of the country\u2019s religious population. Experts estimate that by 2050, evangelical Christianity will become the majority religion in Brazil.\u201d According to researcher Vania Morales Sierra, the internet has been a huge factor in helping young children like Souza spread their message. \u201c\u201cAt first, these children would preach and only later record their sermons to share the message,\u201d Sierra said. \u201cThe goal wasn\u2019t to go viral. It was to evangelize. Today, the internet is both the means and the end. Children now produce content directly for social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

The internet is filled with videos of young children preachers, many raising their hands to the cheers of onlookers. Some children are as young as 6. It\u2019s a fine line, though. Her parents have received criticism. Her father, however, pointed at the fruit of Ester\u2019s ministry, namely people coming to Christ. \u201cIf I wanted to push Ester to gain millions and millions of followers using these practices of casting demons and healing, I could have. But it wouldn\u2019t be in a positive way. And when you don\u2019t do things positively, the fruits don\u2019t come,\u201d he insisted. Sierra noted, with Souza\u2019s tender age a source of concern for just how much she understands. \u201cBy the age of 14, a child has the discernment to know right from wrong. But the key question is whether they have the guidance necessary to reflect on the consequences of their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent Washington Post article is highlighting the growing trend of young children stepping up to preach. Eight-year-old Ester Souza from Votuporanga, Brazil steps up to preach at her father\u2019s small, rural church. In 2020, this would have seemed like a dream. Souza was suffering from a kidney infection, receiving hemodialysis nearly every day, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":14201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOut of the Mouths of Babes: Children Are Stepping Up to Preach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"8-year-old Brazilian preacher Ester Souza, once gravely ill, now shares her faith online\u2014part of a growing wave of child evangelists.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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