So today was the first day of Childrens Church. And with it came alot of challenges that I never thought to expect. Being brought up ministry wise in an outreach fueled church, I learned how to present God and the lessons to kids who've never heard the stories or those who dont get to have alot of spiritual reinforcement at home. And you're also conditioned to expect to have to discipline a bunch of "bad" kids. But here in Caronport, Its a very different culture. They've all heard every single story pretty much. Everything from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed is centered on God. Christian schooling, sunday school, Childrens church, you name it, most of these kids will have heard it. They've been through this "spiritual babysitting service" of childrens church. Alot of the kids seemed bored when i first met them, but yet, when they saw our music leader, they were all a-chatter with him. The challange with this group of kids is to build relationships, and THEN teach. It seems that some guy teaching the most amazing lesson, wont reach these kids. They'll end up thinking, I've heard this story before, *SNOOOORREE* But I have this feeling that if they see that their best friend and Cool leader is excited about the story and the lesson, they may be more responsive.
Its definatly going to be a challenge for me. But I believe that through God, these kids can be impacted and learn about who Jesus wants them to be.
Pray for me and this group of kids. I dream to see these kids completely change the look of this church.
2 comments:
Hmm - reminds me of us KCS kids, churched and Christian-schooled from a tender age, we sure thought we'd heard it all. I think you are on to something. It's about the heart and about relationships, growing together rather than having a cool puppet show. Although I do like puppets and think they should be used whenever appropriate.
Certainly when I remember the best and strongest lessons from my KCS years, they mainly came from friends, from those who had earned my trust.
I guess one thing has remained the same though...that if you truly want to impact a child (or anyone for that matter)it is all about a relationship. The deeper it is, the deeper the trust.
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