Children's Ministry 101

I'm really excited about our next service at JLM! On Wednesday night we'll have the first course in our new Ministry Development training series. CHM 101 will kick off our training series with three Professors who will share some insight into The Power of Sunday School, Reaching Out to Kids, and The Ingredients of Children's Ministry.

I plan to turn our usual Wednesday night schedule on its head: participants will each take part in the course topics in a few unique ways, requiring them to return to their childhood for an evening as we prepare to reach kids for the Kingdom. Imaginations will be reignited. Silly hats will be worn. And no students will receive their official Certificate of Completion for the course until they have successfully sculpted a balloon animal dog!

Rick McGee, Pastor
Joyful Life Ministries

Kids Say the Most Memorable Things

We're about a week away from our Kids Krusade service at JLM and the preparation has caused me to think back to other opportunities Becki and I have had in children's ministry. Anytime we talk about Sunday School and Children's Church we have to mention Nathan. If there was real-life version of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, it was Nathan. He was in our Sunday School class when we worked as youth ministers and Sunday School teachers at a home missions church in Indianapolis. It was Nathan who tied his own shoe laces to the table; just for kicks and just to make our lives more interesting.

It was also Nathan who provided one of the funniest moments in that church's history:
One of the usher/deacons was the keeper of the peace at the church. Nathan never made that easy. One particular service, while all the Sunday School classes were in the sanctuary with the adults, Nathan caused enough commotion to catch the usher's eye. The church sheriff headed for the seven-year old lawbreaker. He got Nathan out of the pew and into the center aisle. As he marched him down the middle of the sanctuary, Nathan looked up at him, and with complete sincerity said, "What are you gonna' do? Kill me?"

It took great will power to not laugh out loud in that moment. I will always believe that the usher cracked a smile, just for a second, before putting on his tough face again. I'll always remember Nathan's words in that moment. I hope he remembers some of ours.

Detour

We just finished our latest series at JLM. Detour was one of our longer series and I really enjoyed taking a closer, and sometimes humorous, look at the paths we take in our lives. The series tag line: Get off the Wrong Road...Stay on the Right Road...in Your Life summed up our goal to make sure we take the good detours and ignore the bad detours. I'm so thankful that God offered me a detour off the road that I was traveling when He found me. And I appreciate that He has kept me from taking the detours that the enemy has tempted me with since then.

How about you? Are you traveling the path that God first called you to travel? There's still time to recognize that you took a detour into bumpy territory. There's time to follow the sign that God holds up; the Detour sign that will point you back to the right road.

I appreciate the comments and feedback from the members of JLM that helped us dig deeper into this series and helped us make it relevant to our situations.

Bro. Rick McGee

Pastor

Joyful Life Ministries