Last week, I traveled to Atlanta to attend a conference. It was a little out of the ordinary for me in that I joined Children's and Youth workers for this conference. Gray hair was at a premium.
I went because our Children's Minister wants to introduce an event to our church that will change alot of what we do. He recognized that it would be a different approach and wanted me to see it in action. I won't go into it right now, except to say that it is exciting, innovative and I think has great potential.
But there are some observations that I made beyond just the programming itself.
One, the future of the church is incredibly bright. I believe that leadership is a key to the further expansion of the church in the world. It is not the only thing, but it is very important. Throughout the ages, from the beginning to this day, leadership has been important to God. He uses people. Most of this conference was led by people younger than me. Some were alot younger...young enough to be my sons or daughters. I loved it. I loved their passion. I loved their focus on Christ. And I was especially excited about the desire of so many to learn from the Word and share the Word of God with a future generation.
History proves that different methods are needed to reach future generations. Some think the things we are doing now are things they did in the first century. ( Sunday School, Hymns, church buildings, ministry teams, Bible colleges etc.) All of that looked different then than it does now.
I think I got a glimpse into what the future will hold(to some degree.) It is not neccesarily what I would have designed. But then again, when I was a children's minister we would sit the kids down, sing "Deep and Wide", and then have a sermon. They don't do that any more...and I am glad. Things have changed.
So music styles, leadership styles, dress, and haircuts are different now. But through and through, the messages that came through were focused on Christ and Word based. That is very encouraging.
Two, the creativity of this new generation of leaders is amazing. They are learning to harness technology in order to relate to kids and families. They are bold. They use their imaginations. They are willing to learn from their mistakes, and not go back, but try again.
This is especially encouraging to me, because in just a few weeks our first grandaughter will be born. Baby Grace will be born into a world that is pretty scary. But there are churches out there that are committed to helping families speak into their children's lives in creative and true ways. At one point this week, I just stopped listening for a moment and thanked God for these people who serve each week in nurseries, children's church, as small group leaders, and sponsors.
Pam and I prayed that our kids would have other people who would be in influence in their lives. Each of them did... each of them had godly people who modeled Christ, held them accountable, and encouraged them, often saying the same things we were. But if you are a parent, you know how it is... sometimes it has to come from someone else.
We pray the same thing for our grandchildren as well.
Third, I was encouraged by one speaker who challenged the entire group ( 4,000 strong) to not buy into the current christian fad of cultural relevance and instead just be about Jesus. His message was powerful. It was a call to the Word of God, to the things that Jesus was about, and a challenge to not become part of the "Golden Calf movement of relevance and social justice." He said that Jesus was relevant, but that he called the culture to change... not the the church to change to the culture. He said that Jesus was all about feeding the poor, helping and healing the sick...but he never made that the final goal. This was about transformation and being part of a transcendent kingdom...One that spans the decades and centuries. One that takes the eternal truth of God and reminds people that when Jesus came, John said, "He came full of GRACE and TRUTH." ( John 1)
That message was it for me. There were lots of things, but to hear this group embrace this thought and still want to go back to their churches of all sizes, demoninations and conditions and teach people, young and old about Jesus was so uplifting and encouraging.
The last observation is this. We have a great staff of men and women who give so much of themselves. Our Children's minister is passionate about kids. His willingness to take a risk inspires me. What he is doing is risky. He will get some push back. But I will be right there with Him, because I have seen where he believes that God is taking Children's ministry. His team ( several of whom went with us),are so wonderful, committed and creative. Add to that our Youth Minister, the Assistant Youth minister and their love for FCC and the youth of our community, you have an awesome team.
What's even better is that these "departments" want to work together with families. They want to be more systematic in their approach to teaching the kids and working with parents. They want to see a child come through 12 years plus in the church and not walk away from Christ when they go off to college. These are their concerns.
God is up to something...it looks different. But then it again what God was up to 20 years ago looked really different... the only thing that happened is that we all got older.
Thank God for His creativity and his desire to reach people across the world with the message of Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment