Nazarene Safe

I haven't posted in a long time.  The reason.....there are many....but mainly because I've been trying to think through what I want to say in this post and I'm still not sure.  Over a month and a half ago we instituted some policies within our church based on recommendations made by the denomination for the safety of our children.  Our Sunday School board had been discussing it for quite some time.  The recommendations come from a program called Nazarene Safe (please correct me if I mess up any information here in regards to this.  I am not an expert).

Our new policies have created quite a stir and some mild disagreement.  You see, we aren't a big church.  We don't have a ton of children walking through our doors each Sunday.  We don't even have enough young, able bodied people to work with the kids we have and these new policies ask that we have more people and more eyes on our kids.  This has been stressful.  The kids are complaining that they have to be watched all the time.  Parents are complaining that they have to watch their kids and sign their kids in and out.  We still don't have enough workers.

I've been struggling a lot with this and why safety is important from a Christian standpoint.  I know, personally, why I feel it is important here.  I have been caught in the middle of watching children who are not my own (while watching my own) before church and had accidents/issues/arguments/inappropriate behavior, and I have been the only one around to deal with these situations.  I will not dive into any details but I have observed that allowing kids to just go where ever they want before and after church has not been beneficial and is not exactly safe for the kids, let alone embodying the nature of Christ.

On the other side of the argument, I remember as a kid, we would arrive at church and my friends and I would go all over the building playing all sorts of games and doing all sorts of stuff.  We were never destructive, that I can remember, and we knew to walk (around adults anyway ;)).  It was a huge part of my growing up in church.  I knew that building like I knew my own home.  So there is a part of me that understands the distress that comes with saying this will no longer be allowed.

However, I have seen how unhealthy this practice has been for our kids.  I remember how often we talked in the school I taught at about the culture of kids today and how it is different from when we were kids and we need to grow and adapt our teaching style and even behavior management to what is effective to today's kids.  I feel the same applies to church.  The things taking  place before church were not Christ-like behaviors.  Children were tearing each other down, they were yelling, running, not paying attention to their surroundings or others creating an unsafe environment.  I'm not saying this because I think the kids are bad.  They are good kids but they need guidance on how to solve problems in a mature and Christ-like way.

I believe that more eyes on our kids will actually create a better atmosphere for them.  There will be more opportunities to influence their lives in such a way.  Think about it, we only see them for 2 hours tops A WEEK.  Everything else is outside influence.  Why shouldn't we be more intentional about making sure our kids have our undivided attention at church and that they are safe and cared for?  Why shouldn't we be available to help them in real life problem solving situations with one another so they can go out into the world and do the same?

We have some AWESOME kids!  So what if we don't have dozens upon dozens?  The few we have are really seeking to know Jesus and I'll take a few seriously seeking Christ over dozens just coming because they have to or want a special prize or just because it is "fun and exciting" any day!  And I will do anything I can to make sure they are safe and loved!

I am open to conversation about this.  It is something we are struggling to implement and would like to hear how others are working toward this as well.  

http://www.nazarenesafe.org/

What Are You Excited About?

This past week we have had an amazing time with kids from our church and our community during VBS and we had some wonderful volunteers helping out.   As we were preparing for this week I kept getting this flutter of excitement and anticipation.  At one point, while ironing heat transfers onto t-shirts for VBS volunteers, I mentioned to my husband how excited I was but that I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.  I didn't want to be all excited and then be let down.  His response, "Well, it depends upon what your excited about."

I knew what he meant and it got me to thinking.  Yes, I was excited about how much work and planning we had put into this.  Yes, I was excited about the outreach we had done to get kids to come.  Yes, I was excited about the effort the teens were putting into their skits.  Yes, I was excited about the music and decorations. And yes, I was even excited about the t-shirts I was working so hard on.  I was excited (and a little nervous) because we had put so much into those tangible things.  But as I thought about it, and REALLY prayed about it,  I was excited because I felt God was in it all and that He was going to be there all this week, present for these kids who needed to see Him.  There truly was/is a God thing going on and that is something to be excited about!
 God was there this week.  Not because we were well prepared, not because the music was great, and not because we got a ton of kids in through our door.  God was there because He is what this is all about and He wants us to know Him and the children we ministered to and will continue to minister to.  I am so thankful!  I am so excited!  I can't wait to see what God will do with these kids next!

What Do These Stones Mean?

My daughter has reached a very inquisitive stage in her development.  "Mommy, do spiders have bottoms?  Do they go pee pee out of their bottoms?", "Why is there grass on the sidewalk?", "Why did the car move like that?", "What do plants eat?", "Why do you have a sandwich?", "Can a bug eat a duck?".  I'm starting to think I need to get a smartphone just so I can have Wikipedia at my fingertips for all the random questions she asks that I have no idea how to answer.  But I'm really loving every moment of it.  I explain things as best I can for her little 3 year old mind and take pride in the fact that she is soaking up information and desiring to know.  I pray that she continues to ask questions and seek answers and know that there will be many more times where I'm just as befuddled by her question as she is.

God is a pretty smart God.  He knows kids.  I know that sounds like a pretty obvious thing to say but as I read Joshua chapter 4, I realize God understands how kids work.  In Joshua chapter 4 the Israelites have just crossed the Jordan River and the Lord commands Joshua to have 12 men take 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan and set them up saying, "In the future, when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over." (Joshua 4:21-23).   I can just hear a little 3 year old Israelite voice, "Mommy, why are those stones over there?"  And then the child would be told a story....their own story...about how God took care of them.  And there would be no Wikipedia there.  The parents would know the story because they would have asked their parents and heard the story from them.  Pretty nifty teaching method there, God.  

 I started this blog because I've been working with the children at Clinton First Church for a little while now and I'm learning so much about what it means to be in children's ministry.  There are times when I don't know what I'm doing working with the kids.  Lessons go wrong, I get frustrated, things don't go as planned and I wonder what I have gotten myself into.  But I read this passage and I am inspired by so many things about it.  I have found over the past year or so that the most impact I can make with these kids doesn't always come in the form of a well planned lesson.  A lot of the changes and growth I have seen have resulted from just being a part of their lives.  There are no literal piles of stones in our church.  But we, as a church, as people in the church, tell a story with our lives.  We are living piles of stone.  Our lives should evoke the question, "What does this mean?  Why are these people here?"

Now, just because being part of their lives makes an impact doesn't exclude the fact that, when the kids ask, "What does this mean?" we are to tell the story.  Therefore, we need to know the story (God's word) which is ultimately essential to us living the story and being the stones that evoke the question.  (Hey, did we just come full circle there?  Yes, we did.)  So, I believe, children's ministry is most effective when you are learning the story and living the story.  

I am not a children's pastor.  I have no theological education or ministerial licence.  I am a lay person involved in Children's ministry and this blog is where I plan to document my thoughts, ideas, struggles, successes, questions, and anything else related to my journey as I learn how to be more effective in ministry to children.