This week I’ll celebrate my two-year anniversary at Calvary Baptist Church. This has been a very intensive period of learning. As I’ve shared before, I was called to this ministry with very little ‘formal’ training in children’s ministry. My focus in Bible College was theology and scripture. This background has been incredibly helpful. But I didn’t have the practical skills to direct a children’s ministry. Only one of my undergraduate courses was in Christian Education. Needless to say – I had a lot to learn.
But God led me to an abundance of resources. The audio from Bethlehem’s Children’s Ministry Leadership Conference was formative. My courses at Southern Seminary have been very helpful. The dozens of children’s ministry books I’ve consumed have a great encouragement. Not to mention all I’ve learned from children’s ministry magazines, peer networking and websites like Kidology. This mountain of information has been explored carefully via trial and error. Along the way my church has been 100% supportive – even when my ideas were not so great. Above all I’ve learned to trust God. I need to trust him to use my imperfect lesson plans. I need to trust him to use my imperfect skills at teaching. I need to trust him to grow this ministry in his own time.
Looking forward I feel like I’ve only just started. Every week is a new adventure. Right now I am learning what to do with 160+ kids registered for Upward Soccer. I’m learning how to fit 100+ kids into our Wednesday night program. I’m learning that God answers prayer even before I’m ready. Above all I keep re-learning how to trust Him to do his work through our church.
What has God been teaching you?
How have your grown as a teacher, parent or minister this year?
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Thanks so much for the link, Tony.
The Lord has been teaching me how utterly dependant on him I must be. As a corollary, and in keeping with the example of Christian community in Acts 2, I must be interdependant with the community in which I live and serve. This causes me to live in multi-dimensional authentic relationship with fellow believers. I cannot say I have arrived in this regard, but I am highly motivated to pursue depth of relationship in my local community. Because they know me and each other, I am more apt to conduct my life in a way that is consistent, rather than presenting to individuals specific characteristics of myself based on what I want them to see. Living in community forces me to be real. It can be painful, but it is liberating. Also, it builds trust as I communicate with others with regard to our kids and our neighborhood.
Hi Tony!
Hey I just wanted to share an idea and a concern. I am a youth and children’s minister and while taking classes in youth ministry, I had an idea. Youth are plauged by relativism, pluralism, and many other ism’s. It’s always a struggle to show the light of Christ to a new youth based on the life filters this child has developed from our culture. It’s not just the unchurched kids either. With this in mind I would like to encourage childrens ministers to brush up on some of the latest youth ministry information and attempt to perpare our kids guard thier hearts against the problems of adolecense.
God bless!
Steve