As a children’s ministry leader there are days when you get tired. I am not sure a lot of people really understand what all goes into leading the children’s department at their church. Granted all churches have their own way of doing it and that often depends on the amount of kids you have.
I serve at an average size church. We are actually considered to be a “big church” by other churches in our area, but really compared to others in our county… we ain’t that big at all. Right now we run around an average of 50 kids in Bed Babies through 5th Grade for Sunday School (yes we are attempting to transition that into “small groups”, but please… everyone knows it’s still Sunday School).
Most Sunday’s I come home exhausted… completely spent. Then there are weeks when things just seem to be more than I can handle and I feel like I am doing no one justice and that I am letting all these kids down and that I just really don’t know what I am doing here. I will fight with my inner me and cry to my husband and pray to my Jesus. You know here lately He has been kind of quiet and not as touchy feely as He once was with me… and I thought it meant that I was doing something wrong.
Sometimes I forget that as He grows us in faith and in our knowledge and in our purpose… He often times has to back away from us for the sole purpose that we will once again chase after Him, running deeper into His divine will.
I had been wrestling with what I was doing here at my church… was God calling me into children’s ministry or calling me into service for such a time as this, just in this place, for this season? Should I go back to school, to seminary and get a theology degree? If I did how would this affect my Devotions From the Torah series… I am still only at the beginning stages of Exodus Part Two and I hoped to be ready for publication by the end of this year, but opportunities for writing have been slim… and then what about my speaking engagements (but I don’t have anything booked for this year yet… so if you need a speaker for an event I just might be free 😉
Anyways… I digress. The point being I had been doubting myself and my abilities… and my purpose and my patience… many times having my head buried in my hands as I asked God am I where You want me?
You know sometimes I forget how sneaky and slippery that serpent is… I am so thankful for the sovereignty of our God.
Not long ago I shared a post about my heart as a children’s ministry leader, Where I Want My Kids To Be When. This morning I was having a mini training session with a new teacher in my preschool Toddlers room… unfortunately it happened that on her first day both of the regular teachers were out sick and I had a room full of K – 5th Graders waiting on me. So I had to quickly give her the main run down and I shared with her that as I pray and seek guidance for teachers I pray for teachers that will teach not babysit.
I shared how I believe they can digest and understand much more than many times we give them credit for. I believe if we begin teaching them in Toddlers by the time they hit Pre-K they have a firm grasp of the gospel and by the time they pass through the children’s department, the Lord willing they will have received Christ as their Savior and have the conviction and vocabulary to explain and defend their faith… so that by the time they enter the youth they are ready to serve.
I believe this with all my heart.
Tonight I was blessed to be reminded that what I believe in my heart to be true is being lived out…
Tonight one mother, of a 1st grader shared with me how thankful she was for the way we taught her child. She said that he came home from school this past week sharing with her how a boy in his class told him that we all came from monkey’s… because of what he had been taught and seen for himself in God’s Word, he was not only able to tell this boy that he did not come from a monkey, but he was able to boldly share the truth of God’s Word with him… because he knew it and had studied it. Tonight he learned about Carbon-12 and Carbon-14 and isotopes… at church 🙂
Then after we had finished setting up for our co-op school I went back to my office and checked my phone and read a message from a wonderful family that attended our church but got moved a little further north. Every once in a while they get to come back here and visit… last week was one of those visits. There little girl just turned four years old.
The message read: “Days I miss you: ? came home from ss last week telling me about Habakkuk. Today I asked what her lesson was about. She said God loves everybody. I appreciate the sentiment but I miss the teaching she got at Shiloh.”
Why do we teach them about Habakkuk and Nahum and Micah and apologetics as toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, 1st Graders, etc?
Because they can learn it. That’s why.
What did your child learn at church today?
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:14-17