Church Recap

Yesterday I got to share about the Children's Ministry at ASF during the "ministry minute" time slot.  I used to be a regular up in front of churches during that whole missionary thing.  However, it's been a couple of years since I've been doing that regularly so I was a little more anxious than usual (which leads to a fun story at the end).  Here's a little recap

These are the top 3 reasons to participate in the Children's Ministry at All Souls.

1.  The KIDS!  The kids at our church are so awesome.  I love when we worship and they're singing and dancing with their whole bodies, playing air guitar or even leg guitar.  I love when I get a drive-by hugging from a kindergartner in between services.  I love when you see them wrestle with truth or deeper meaning. I love when every time we ask what they're grateful for, they say their X-box.  I love that when we talked about thinking good thoughts the boys drew dripping brains and the girls drew flowers.  I love when they need a hug because they miss their mom and when I ask where she is they point across the hall to the 2s & 3s classroom.

2.  The ADULTS!  It's such a joy to get to work with so many other great teachers.  I love that one of our candidates for elder teaches in the classroom next to me.  I'm so thankful for the other teachers I've gotten to know, to be involved in their lives and share burdens and prayers even in little ways, as we wait for the kiddos to arrive.  And it's also fun to get to know the families of the kids better, even when those parents might not know how well the Sunday school teacher is getting to know them.  Take, for instance, this conversation from last month.

Scene: Sunday school classroom, kids working on ornaments to give away to someone since we're learning about Generosity.
Me: Wow!!  That's such a great ornament!!  Who are you going to give it to?
Kid: My dad.
Me: Really?  I bet he'll love it.  Why are you going to give it to your dad?
Kid (with great enthusiasm): He's so COOL!!  He sleeps without any clothes on!!  Not even underwear!!!
Me: Oh. Well, um. Wow. He's gonna love it!  (Inside my head - "I'll let Mr Reid do parent pick-up today").  :)

3. Faithfulness.  In our church whenever a child is baptized we (the members) promise to assist in bringing that child up in the truth of the faith.  Our pastor always says "You just signed up to teach Sunday school."  It's a joke, but it's also not.  We did make a commitment to help in the lives of these little ones and teaching Sunday school is a simple (notice I didn't say easy) way to accomplish that.  All the kiddos are gathered in one place.  There are other teachers, and lesson plans and resources and even a short little movie that the kids are really excited to watch (although, I feel like the teachers usually get a lot more of the jokes).  Mostly it just takes a little time.  And let's face it, it's way less skeevy than chasing  around random kids at Community Group to make sure they grasp the Gospel.

That's about it.  I did have one totally embarrassing moment in the first service.  I was talking about the baptism bit and listed each pastor by name "Shane or Kellet or...uh...oh my gosh...(glancing frantically at back of sanctuary where pastors are standing, including the one who's name I can't remember, who I was talking to FIVE minutes before I came up here)..."  Awfully thankful for the folks who shouted out "Seth".  What's particularly embarrassing (I mean, like forgetting your pastor's name in front of the whole congregation isn't bad enough) is that I think he's the pastor most likely to actually know who I am (although now they probably all know me as "ha ha, that girl who forgot your name in front of everybody, Seth, that was so funny).  Sorry, Seth!! I did apologize in person after the service as well. So my advice is that if you're going to name pastors in front of the whole congregation, write them down (I have so much more compassion for those Oscar winner people now) or at least bring the bulletin up with you.