In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends:
If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF!
This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk. In theory, this is easy to accept. As a Christian, we have to empty ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We have to turn our hopes and desires and aspirations over to God to follow after His will. We need to rely on Him in the big stuff and in the small stuff. I get it! I really do…except…it isn’t that easy! Instead, I fall all to frequently to the lies I tell myself. I’ve gotten myself into this mess…I need to get myself out. If I work hard enough, I can do anything. I don’t want to “burden” God so I’ll just take care of this myself. That is my daily walk and my daily struggle. God has been gracious enough to show it to me, and if I’m being honest, my biggest struggle is still in not trying to fix that problem myself.
But, that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to chat for a second about children’s ministry. Are you a do it yourself kind of person? Does that show in your ministry? Do you have kids involved in all phases of your weekend service.
- Are they involved in large group?
- Do you let them lead worship?
- Do you trust them to keep a small group moving along, or is it all leader driven?
- Are they, wait for it, in the tech booth where all that expensive equipment hangs out?
- Do they lead games?
- Do older kids disciple younger kids or are they all shuffled off to their age specific groups never to mix again?
I was listening to our “big church” service on podcast on the way in this morning. It was put on entirely by the young adult ministry in our church, and they did an awesome job. It got me thinking though, “…if the high school ministry takes over the main stage from time to time. I wonder if our kids could that?” They would need adult input to be sure…as they do in all things. But, the question really is, have we enable them and discipled them in such a way that they could do it? Or, are we too busy trying to make everything “perfect” by doing it ourselves. Instead of doing it all ourselves, let’s quit underestimating the kids in our ministries. Whenever I talk about volunteers and children’s ministry, someone mentions that we have to give the volunteers ownership of the ministry so they will buy in completely. Don’t we owe the same to our kids?
