Confessions of an Ex-Church Children's Director

Early in college I started volunteering at a number of different churches working with predominately teens and teaching an occasional middle-school class. A few years later I eventually became a children's director for a new church. Now I have been serving as a volunteer with children & various other rolls at our church for nearly 3 years. A common thing I see is a lack of interest in serving with children and teens.

What's going on?

Honestly, it's fun. It's a blast. Those young-one's are hilarious! It's a joy to get to see them learn, to see them show their parents what they created and re-hash what they learned in class. It's a short 1.5 hours of fun!

Those who do serve have predominately been in that role for years and serve, for the most part, every week.

Every.

Week.

Then when they take a vacation or are sick, they feel guilty because they know there's a huge hole and somebody's going to be really stressed (usually the Children's Director or leader) without them.

Not only do these volunteers work every week with our kids but they also are the same volunteers that serve in a variety of other ways (making coffee, taking out the trash, setting-up, etc). Yes, for the most part they love to serve and find joy in doing it!!!

What they don't tell you....

is that they sometimes feel like they are suffocating and that occasionally their heart is out of place when serving because they are burnt out. They keep on keeping on out of love but we shouldn't let it get to that point.

What's most frustrating is that church staff/leaders feel like they need to tiptoe around the fact that they feel like they are going to suffocate each week due to lack of volunteers and won't come on out and say it. They make great videos and word everything like, "Here's a great opportunity for you..." (which is certainly true) but they don't say that the ball is being dropped everywhere and people are stressed to-the-max because of people not being willing to take an extra few minutes out of their day. As a volunteer and ex-director... all of your churches are DESPERATE for good people to serve in a variety of ways. There it is... the honesty that needs to be proclaimed.

Trust me, I know all of the reasons not to give the Children's Director your # or email. I know every one of them. You don't want to do it every week! Deep down, you know that's what's going to happen and you don't want to be bogged down... trust me... I'm with you. The thing is, that wouldn't be the case if more people stepped up to serve every once in a while or at least be willing to be a fill-in.

Be willing. Love. Give up a brief moment of time in your week, month or year. Serve in some way.
Not everyone is able or should work with children but know that it is a great place to invest your time. This isn't just applicable in a church setting but is true for most non-profits. Find a place. Serve. Love.

Those Boring Names

If you've ever read some of the first half (+) of the Bible, called the Old Testament, then chances are that you hit some sections where it's just name after name, family after family, or child after child. If you are like me, after reading about 4 lines you think, "I can't do this; it's pointless anyway." Next thing, you find where the end of the listing is and pick it up from there.

When serving overseas I plan on telling Bible stories which are crafted in a way that can be easily remembered and re-told Right now I'm working on "crafting" my first story, The Tower of Babel, which is located in Genesis 11. I started backtracking and reading a little before to make sure I know what I'm talking about and to tell anything that may be important to the story. What do ya know, I hit a few lists of names from Noah's children and the descendants. Right away I was like, "Whoop, fast forward!" Then it hit me. While training in Dallas someone told a story about how they were teaching & quickly going through a list of names thinking that it it really wasn't important and was going to bore the people. Later, the listeners came by and all of their questions were revolved around the lists of names and the genealogy.

Those lists of people's names aren't just insignificant names, they are people who really lived and which boil down to Jesus' blood line as well as ours. Each person played an important part in certain key events in history which boil down to us and to Christ sacrificing His life for you and I so that we can spend eternity in God's presence. In our culture here in the states, sometimes blood-line family stuff isn't very important to us because, well, we're all mixed and for the most part only care about those folks in our families in which we have some personal contact. In other cultures, though, there is a greater importance and focus on the family and its history so these lists aren't just random names, but they lead up to Christ and to you and I. Not to mention, it's fulfilled prophesy that was told early on, which was fulfilled later in the Bible, making it not just some book.

So next time, maybe read and reflect on those boring lists of names. : )

Continued from Yesterday- God's Will

In continuation from yesterday's blog on knowing God's will/desires for us:

*God's will is revisable. If the plan/idea changes and you end up somewhere else, for whatever reason, you are there because that's where God wants you to be, in that moment. He has a perfect will for you no matter where you are at in life. There isn't a "second best" either, you are where you are at now. Don't worry about His plan for your life, but more-so HIs plan for you today.

*We can't intentionally be disobedient to God's will when we clearly know what it is. You can't do something and think, "God will fix this and put me back on track."

Some great questions that I came across , which you should ask yourself, were:

1. Is it scriptural? What does the Bible have to say?

2. Is it advisable? What do your advisors (counselor, minister, elders, parents, wise friend, etc.) say?

3. Is it providential? What do the circumstances indicate?

4. Is it reasonable? What is your sense telling you? (God's reasonable. He's given you the Holy Spirit to help.)

If His will isn't clear:

1. Wait

2. Wiggle some doorknobs. Go an adventure to feel it out.

3. Look for "blocks." Ask if the door is closing/opening for a reason. What reason? What's happening here?

4. Continue to pray and ask.

A couple of verses on God's will:

*Eph 5:13- "awake o' sleeper"

*Col. 4:12- be a servant

*Col. 1:9-12- bearing fruit; this comes from reading scripture, prayer, encouragement, etc.

*Rom. 8:27-31- Love Him. Ask Him.

*Rom. 12:1-21- Sacrifice. Be transformed. Be humble. Use your gifts. Love and hate what you should. Serve. Joy. Hope. Pray. Do good.

*Matt. 18:12-14- It's God's will that no one goes without Him. Everyone's valuable. No one should be lost or left behind.

*Eph. 5:15-17 Be wise. Make the most of every opportunity.

Those are just a few but The Bible is full of other verses that are straight forward on what His will is. Heck, that's what The Bible is, it's our guide. Be in it; such good stuff! I'm not saying that I know anything, but what I do know is that, for now, for today, I'm where I should be and the future isn't something I need to stress about. After all, life is like a scroll.

What do the folks do if they don't have access to a Bible, or one that speaks in their language? How will they know what God's will is for them?

Knowing God's Will

Recently I had this conversation about knowing God's will and whether or not we come up with stuff on our own or if God is specifically leading us in a particular direction. I did some Bible studying and some internet searching just to see what other people had to say on the subject, although I already had my thoughts on it. This is a two-part blog. Here's what I've got:

*You can't "find" God's will. You just live and his will kind of finds you. Be concerned about serving God today than finding God's will for tomorrow.

*Some things aren't clear and there isn't necessarily a "will" for everything but God's given us principles & guidelines that we use for practical daily life. Living using/following those is his "will."

*God's plan isn't hidden or elaborate, it's all right there in The Bible for us. His will is:

-Be saved

-Pray

-Trust in Christ alone

-Read His Word

-Worship

-Give

-Sacrifice

-Disciple (yourself & others)

-Put off sin and put on righteousness

-Put away things that hold you down spiritually

-Fruits of the Spirit

-Grow, change & mold towards holiness like Christ

-This list could go on and on. See The Bible.

Being a visual learner I quickly came up with this tree idea of how God leads and/or doesn't lead us. It helped me but may confuse you.

Branch #1: We make a decision to do or not do something and God gives us the freewill to do so. He takes that decision and uses it to do great things and glorify himself and clearly you can see that His hand is all in it.

Branch #2: We make a decision to do or not do something, again, God has given us that freewill. Things just don't go well and they continue to not go well. This can be 2 different things; either, clearly that is not a path that God wants you to go down and you need to make some serious changes OR you should continue to go down it because that's Satan attacking a good thing that will/is glorifying God. No matter what here, God can use these trials/temptations for his glory in the long run.

Branch #3: God is clearly taking you down a path and you know so because the Spirit has shown you certain hints or spoken to you in a way that is so clear (through reading scripture, other people, dreams, visions, maybe even audible). You follow this path. Typically Satan jumps on this leading and of course it can either go down the tubes or God's totally all over it and Satan doesn't show his face (yeah, that doesn't happen). In all things, God wins.

Branch #4: For some reason (okay, well because of Satan), sometimes we go down the wrong path on purpose. We know something's wrong but we still make the decision to do it. From the get-go this is not God's intentions for you. Here you can go two ways again, either you allow God to enter and change things around or you continue down this path which leads death.

*Whatever God's will is, it is good.

*God's will is for everyone. It's about the body (The Church). It's The Church's responsibility to help one another find their place.

*His will isn't given in a map form (I'm quite guilty of this). It's given like a scroll, where one thing at a time is shown at a time that He thinks is best. Once in a while he'll show us a little peak into the future but for the most part it's a day-by-day thing.

To Be Continued...

Moved

I was just rocked by this:

"If you don't have something in your life that can make your heart pound, that can move you either to tears of joy or tears of sorrow in about thirty seconds, then my friend, you are no fully alive. Life is too precious to go on in such a half-awake condition. You can do better. You deserve better."

This comes from Dr.Wess Stafford's book, Too Small to Ignore: Why the Least of These Matters Most. This is by far one of the best books I've ever read. This needs to be added to my small collection.

So what is it that makes your heart pound and bring you to tears in 30 seconds?

Exposed

Lights are a key item in every home, store, factory, room, and crevice here in America.

I don't know about your mom but as soon as I enter Walmart with mine, she always says in this Jersey accent, "I HATE this place! I HATE these lights! They hurt my eyes! Never again! You know I don't like this place!" It's true, we know! We know this will be quoted almost word for word EVERY time we step into Walmart.

My current roommate here in Te-haus typically comes in sometime in the middle of the night and for the first week she had moved in, I would keep the outside light on, as well as a living room light, and then the bathroom light in our room. When I would get up the next morning, she was in bed but then all of the lights I left on for here were still on.

I may be the extreme but I'm semi-OCD with turning off the lights after I exit a room. Also, I'm not all about paying the electric bill! So I started leaving it pitch black in the house except for one light, the bathroom.

"Then Jesus told them, 'You are going to have light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.'" ~John12:35-36

Then a few verses/some time later, Jesus says, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness."

The light is Christ. In the first verse he's talking to this crowd who was asking a bunch of questions but was talking about himself being the light but not being physically with them very long and the darkness would come then. As you can see though, this also applies to us right now!

A few years ago I was watching this movie (which I recently saw again but already forget which one it was) and I head this quote that was like "my quote" for the year and it was, "To be a small light in a dark room."

It's easy for us sometimes to want to back out of life and just chill in the darkness. Let's admit, there are a ton of things out there that look appealing but we know are dark, and yet we think, "Oh, just this once" or "If I do it one time... it won't become a habit" and then shortly down the road we find ourselves with the match having be struck, burning down to our fingers, blown out and at the smoking stage and being completely in the dark...not to mention the stick behind.

About matches. If you poo and light a match, it totally takes over whatever smell's in the room. Same with sin, that junk takes over and snuff's out anything good in your life... and then lingers on for a while.

With light though, you light one match and the whole room lights up! Check out this couch some friends and I burnt a few weeks ago. It only took one match to start this thing and within less than 5 minutes it was fully ablaze.

*** As the photo was uploading Hillsong United's song "Light Will Shine" came on!*** Yeah God, you are fun!

With one light, Christ, He lights up everything. Exposes the darkness. It's your guide. You don't have to be scared or afraid.

When I was in college somehow I became a RA (resident assistant) and I spent hours cutting out these stars to hang on the ceiling and walls and it was all brought on by this verse that rocked my world.

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life-- in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." ~Philippians 2:14-16

Death of A Kernel

I don't know about you but there are certain parts of the Bible that really catch my attention, specifically the verses that pertain to light and darkness and then those that pertain to crops, fields, food, etc. Naturally!

Today I was reading and these verses got my stomach turning.

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." ~Jesus in John 12:24

In context, Jesus us talking about himself dying so that many would come to him and have eternal life.

Then I started thinking, what am I dying to? What am I giving up so that many more seeds can be produced? If we are supposed to be like Christ then we should be dying to something. Yes, we can chill out and be a kernel living our "normal" everyday lives... just like everyone else... following the same routine. OR you can allow yourself to die, to give up something major, or to live a different lifestyle so that more seeds can be produced.

This probably looks different for everyone but what you need to figure out is: What are you doing that may cause you to, in a sense, die, or give up something major so that more may know Christ?

Jesus continues to say,

"The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me." ~Jesus (John 12:25-26)