From Tears to Laughter
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 | Tags: Minister's Blog
We started our Easter Holiday Club yesterday morning (Monday 2nd April) with nearly 90 children in attendance.
That’s what you call a busy church hall.
Anyway, there was one wee girl, just six years old, who was quite upset to begin with. She was feeling alone and somewhat overwhelmed by the noise and the business of it all. Tears started to fall and immediately I began to think of calling her mum and asking her to come and get her.
But one of our leaders had other ideas.
She gave the girl a big hug and took her over to the side to console her. Then, she discovered that there was another girl who was in the same class at school sitting at the next table. She took the now not-so-upset girl to that table and that seemed to do the trick. Anyway, I moved on to other things, knowing that that was in hand.
It was two hours later, at the end of the club, that I became aware of her again. Now, she had a huge smile on her face and couldn’t wait to see her mum – not to escape but to tell her how much fun she’d had! What a great turnaround!
I guess it’s just a small example but it’s what the Church is in the business of doing – making people feel welcome and putting smiles on their faces.
8 Responses to “From Tears to Laughter”
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This is actually seomthing we have been addressing at our church in the past few months. We have been incorporating more activities for our youth, such as– on a specific Sunday night, the youth conducts our entire service; our music director has incorporated some of the new Contemporary Christian music into our services, which the youth absolutely love. We have also brought a young youth minister in which has been such a blessing!Honestly, I think one of the main reasons the statistics are what they are is because a lot of churches are too set in older ways– not so much catering to the older members, but pacifying them by not incorporating newer ideas and technology into the service, etc. It is absolutely critical that we do all we can to make our young people feel a part of the church because they are the future of the church, and they need all the guidance they can get in this harsh and cruel world!!
Me and this artclie, sitting in a tree, L-E-A-R-N-I-N-G!
Well if we are talking about lost kids that don’t have godly pratnes… as a missionary (now SAHM and wife to a missionary) with Child Evangelism Fellowship I must say you (the church) must go to the kids. It’s not good enough to teach sunday school classes of kids “About” Jesus. You MUST share the Gospel with them! Most of our churches teach Bible stories to children… which obviously I have no issues with… but I bet the reason these kids end up leaving is because they never became Christians! As someone who taught kids sunday school for a long time I can tell you most of the curriculum DOES NOT share the gospel… or it does once every 5 weeks or something like that. That isn’t good enough! You can’t expect kids to stay in church if they never accepted Christ as their personal Savior. For kids outside of the church? Go to where they are. Schools (yes you can do it, visit cefonline.com) community centers, parks, wherever kids are and tell them why Jesus came.Kids should know Bible Stories but if they don’t know the Gospel then they can’t be saved and won’t stay in church.
Okay, next to my family and my kids, this is my Passion topic! It’s what gets my juecis flowing.First and foremost, I believe that those statistics are proof that the church has fallen asleep. The church has narrowed itself into a corner and unless willing to adapt to some change, this statistic I fear will grow. Churches have been doing what they do because that’s the way it’s always been done. Some churches hold tight to Tradition. The church can never compete with culture. They will never win. Its just the way it is. But the church can certainly change from “doing” to having a strategy.If You read my “About” section on my blog, you’ll see a line where I wrote, “I bleed Orange.” I encourage you to check out http://www.whatisorange.com to learn more about that and to see where my firm stance on what the church should be doing.We (as in Us, Moms, Parents, etc) put So much responsibility on the Church for those poor statistics. I see it as a 50/50 deal. Parents need to wake up and realize that they are the primary spiritual leaders in their kids lives. The church is a “Partner” to you as a Parent. Or at least it should be. There in lies the problem. Churches are failing to see that they need to come along side of us as parents and support us and understand that what happens at home is far more important than what happens at church. I am a product of Christian parents, christian private schools and church all my life. I saw friends come and go within the church. From my experience, The leadership within the church are all on different pages. Nursery, elementary, youth and “big” church are all doing their own thing. There is no strategy. They are silo’d. I beg of the church to align themselves together with parents and have a strategy for how to get a child from birth through college not ever wanting to leave the church! It is possible. It just means people are going to have to adapt to change and let some things go. Sorry for the rant. I warned you that it was a Passion area for me. I could say so much more…. : )
I was basically curious about if you ever thought of replacing the layout of your site? Its very well written; I really like what youve got to say. But maybe you could create a a bit more in the way of content so people could connect to it better. You have got a great deal of wording for only having one or two photographs. Maybe you could space it out better?
Hi,
Thanks for your comments and suggestions re: our site layout, content etc. We have a communications group in the congregation and we regularly review what we’re saying and how we’re presenting it. I will pass on your helpful thoughts.
Thanks again.
Baptism is a public reospnse to the salvation we have received from Jesus. Communion is an outpouring of thanks and worship for what God, through Jesus, has already done on our behalf. We explained to our girls that once they have asked Jesus to be their savior and once they have publicly professed that faith through baptism, they may joyfully join us in partaking in communion. I truly believe that if we look at Scripture, a public profession of faith comes first, then partaking in communion.All three of our daughters understood this, and baptism became an even more significant event because of it. Each one chose to be baptized at different stages in their life one in high school, one in 6th grade, and one in 3rd grade. We didn’t push. We just made it clear what baptism and communion meant, and it became a marker for them. If my children had been baptized as infants (our church does both adult and infant baptism!) we would have had them wait until they had gone through some sort of confirmation class before they took part in communion.Shelly @ Life on the Wild Side recently posted..
As a pastor’s wife- this topic is near to my heart!First of all, I have to say that I do not beielve that the “Church” is at fault!! The Bible is very clear, that it is to be us PARENTS that are to be training our children in righteousness!!! Sunday School & Youth Group were started many, many years later & really were started for the “non-churched” kids! Those statistics are sad, but I think they are a lot due to the fact that parents have been relying on the church to teach their children about Christ- instead of taking an active role themselves (& actually living what they beielve)!A couple things our church does that I LOVE are… when children turn 4, they join their parents in “big” church- children younger than that are certainly welcome, but there is nursery & children’s church provided for children under 4. Although I do understand how difficult it can be for some kids to sit so long (we are all about wiggles at our house), we beielve that having children in the service, plants seeds in their little hearts! :)We also have just started a curriculum (our pastors & elders & teachers have created) that lasts 7 years & walks everyone through the Bible… all Sunday School classes of various ages as well as the sermon are focused on the SAME topic… are memorizing the same verse, etc. In this way, children (along with their parents) will go through an in depth study of the whole Bible twice.Sorry, this is getting way too long! ;)Great question!Jessica