Last week I did a guest blogging spot over at www.samluce.com.  Here is an excerpt from his site of my content (weird, huh?)

Dear New Children’s Pastor,

Welcome to the ministry.  I know that if you’ve taken this job, then you are probably comfortable NOT being in the spotlight.  And that’s a great thing, because you will NOT be in the spotlight.  (Unless of course your volunteers don’t show up, but then that’s another letter.)  You’ve taken this job because on some level you love working with children and serving families.  You are probably a person that is comfortable leading children to the feet of Jesus week after week after week after week.  For that you will get the limelight in heaven for eternity, so just wait.

I do have a few things to say to you, so sit down and take a listen.  And by sitting down, I mean put your tush in a chair and hold on tight.  There are three things that need to be said to you, and I don’t want you getting so offended that you step backwards and hurt yourself.  Are you sitting down?  Are you ready?  I’m going share three goals for your new endeavor.

In order of importance let’s start with possibly the most important goal I will give you in the history of forever.

Go Read the Three Things HERE.

For the entirety of my Children’s Ministry career (can you call it that?)  I’ve been a part of a few different child dedication events.  You’re probably familiar with the idea.  This will sound very nonspiritual, but it’s basically the evangelical alternative to infant baptism.  There, I said it.  It’s not a holy sacrament, like communion or baptism; but it’s important nonetheless to many parents.

So what is it exactly?  It’s an event where parents sign up their children to be prayed over in front of the church.  I know that many churches do it differently, with many churches adding more meaning than others.  Some churches do it only once a year, some do it every few months, and even some others do it every month.  It’s a cute event, where babies and young children are dressed up in flowing dresses and toddler suits.  I think it’s wonderful that parents want to “dedicate” their kids to the Lord, and want support from their local congregations to parent them accordingly.  There are however some inherent problems with a Child Dedication.

At our church we’ve done the cattle-call method for years.  Line ‘em up and pass them through.  In fact, we’ve done it this way for 40+ years.  It’s slightly memorable, and slightly forgettable all at the same time.  It’s quite the conundrum for someone in my position.  I love the idea of child dedication, but was disturbed by the lack of meaning and substance for the family.

Here’s where I’ve taken action.  If you identify the moments in a parents life that they are open to opinions, help, and assistance; the weeks and months after having a baby is prime time to have an influence.  There are other times as well (kids starting school, child baptism, etc..)  In my case, I had the open door of Child Dedications already in place at Trinity, I just needed to add somethings to make it more meaningful.

Then about 2 years ago I met and corresponded with some friends that helped change my way thinking.  (Thanks Kenny and Gina!)  I listened to their spiels, read their teaching notes, bounced ideas off of them, and eventually formed something for where I’m ministering at.  As a group they really challenged me to rethink the way we dedicate kids at Trinity.  I then began to plant in the hearts and minds of my leaders what could happen if we changed our process.  I mentioned it to people in and around our children’s ministry, and eventually I had some bites on the line.  Change was going to happen.

Over the next three posts, I’ll be laying out what we’ve done at Trinity to add meaning and substance to our Child Dedication process.  It isn’t a perfect plan, but I like to think of all that we’ve done as step #1 in a bigger plan to see parents awakened to their spiritual responsibility in the home.  Remember, baby steps are still steps.

I’ve been speaking this week at the Trinity Christian Upper School chapel services.  Wow, what a change.  When your primary audience is grade school students, and you move to High School students it gets scary fast!

What’s so different?

1. The kids don’t laugh as easily.  It is so much easier to get 500 grade school students laughing, than to get 500 high school students to laugh.  I was rusty with my teenage jokes, but I’m getting better.  They’re a much bigger fan of self-deprecating jokes, and I’m a pro at pointing out my dorkiness publicly.  It’s really a gift.
2. It’s not like I’m used to using puppets on stage, but I often have something to work with when teaching kids.  When talking for 12 minutes a day with a room full of upper school students, it gets much more tricky to use props.  I’ve elected to go without, and it makes me feel naked to not have something in my hands.
3. I’ve been using a microphone connected to a cord.  That is strange, when you’re used to headsets.  I’m the ultimate hand talker, always swinging them around and pointing.  Using a corded microphone has forced me to stay in one place and keep my hands down.  (I know, I’m spoiled…)
4. High school kids are supremely more serious than 3rd grade girls.  Go figure…
5. I can’t remember the last time I talked to much of any group before 8:30 in the morning.  My brain hasn’t fully woken up, and I’m trying to wake up a room full of equally tired students.  Wonder if I could pass out some 5 hour energy to everyone?
6. These kids are so much closer to “real life” than most of the students I talk to.  I’ve been forcing myself to remember that many of these kids will be having kids, getting married, finishing college, and setting patterns for the rest of their lives in the next 5 years of living.  That’s scary!

So kudo’s to the Jr. High and Sr. High pastors out there.  Keep up the great work and thanks for being cooler than me, and not rubbing it in!

There is change coming at the church in 2008. And really, who could use more change than the church in general? Specifically at my church, there has been some shakeup on the Executive Board, and some re shifting of ministry departments. The change is all good, and nobody has been fired or released. The leadership is simply trying to put some leaders back into their ministry specialties and out of their current business administration positions. The change affects my areas significantly, as my leader/authority/boss is taking over another area of the church. We are now in the hiring process for a new director of Family Life Ministries, to whom I would report. There will always be fear where there is an unknown; but I’m really excited about the change. Change excites me, because I know that it can be the ignition for great things.

Speaking of change; I just had to see what Demotivation poster was available for such a topic.