[Kid Inspiration]

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

Y… young, yearn, yesterday…

Y is for Yahweh - So there it is. I didn’t choose J for Jesus, but put Y for Yahweh. The bottom line is that God came into His creation to reveal His plan to humanity and you and I and the children we lead all have a place in the grand story.

Jesus told His disciples “Let the little children come to me”. You and I are called to do just that.

Amen.

*Hey, I am at Kidshaper conference this week. Welcome any new readers, make sure you suscribe in the top right.

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

H… hope, happiness, Harry, highjinks…

H is for House – There are two ‘houses’ in our lives, the ‘house’ of God and our own family. In a NT theology the house of God is the gathering of the Church, and there is always a tension between promoting a works based religion and a relationship with our saviour. Church attendance does not equal salvation, just like living in a garage doesn’t make you a car, just like eating a hamburger doesn’t make you Ronald MacDonald.

But then I began to see how little time we get with our kids as the Church and all the competing activities there are in the life of a family.

Faith without works is dead (James 2:20).

All of the examples I want to follow when it comes to family life just have so much in common, they are passionate about passing faith on to their kids AND live a life of service to their local Church.

If a family would simply model a life of dedicated service, our calling as pastors to children would be infinitely easier and far more powerful, impacting, fruitful and significant!

Just watch this very recent video of Benny Hinn talking about how he neglected his family. The home and the family NEED to work together.

If I lose my family in my pursuit of ‘ministry’, I have lost everything!

A Special Message from Pastor Benny Hinn

So you want to work for Hillsong Church, perhaps serve with Hillsong Kids at a high level?

I got this idea while reading Beat the Clock by Jim Wideman who filtered out speaking invitations to get rid of tyre kickers.

What kind of person am I looking for to be part of the team?

1. You better bleed/love/fight for the local church – Sure there are plenty of worthy causes out there, but our focus is Church, the one thing Jesus said he would build!
2. Your second mile better be well travelled – Above and beyond should be your local cafe, over-delivery should be your courier company.
3. I love great ideas, I hate great ideas poorly executed! – That is all.
4. You need to understand the devil is in the details – the comma in 1,000 is important! My first question might be “how did the event go?”, my second will be one of the following; “did the church van get returned clean?”, “did our volunteers feel appreciated?”, “how many kids exactly were there?”, “did it grow from last year?”, “what can we improve next time?” etc.
5. Are you committed to the vision of this house? – What’s in your hand right now at this moment in time is as important than what is in your heart for the future.
6. Sure you work hard, but can you holiday hard? – When you take a break… take a break… 8 months of leave owing is not a good sign.
7. I hope you believe that you are more important than the role you perform – Your well being matters, no workaholics/martyrs need apply.
8. Tell me HOW you manage your time – If you can’t clearly explain/define it we gotta problem.
9. The only way you can hope to survive and thrive is with God – Your job/role/task/mission will be more than you can handle, don’t come on expecting your talent/gifting is enough. Forget it, you will need God! (Although you will be a person who wouldn’t have it any other way).
10. Everyday will require you being creative – Everyone is creative, just because your 3rd grade teacher didn’t give you a gold star on your painting of your dog Pedro, and gives it to Tommy Wilkinson instead — doesn’t define your life. You are creative.
11. Expect to be inspected – Hey, if you’re not growing your volunteers probably aren’t.
12. You will have to pay the price – I’m not sure exactly what that will be, but on regular occasions there will come something that will touch your treasure (that’s where your heart is).
13. God will give you the desire of your heart – Tommy Barnett says hold on to a dream for five years, whatever you do — please dream big.
14. Please have a sense of humour diovan no prescription – At some point I will make fun of your name or Funny Man Dan will live up to his name. The team that laughs together… will probably laugh at your expense.

I could go on… really I could.

Setting the bar high is very important in ministry. Don’t just accept warm bodies both on Church staff and volunteer teams – sell a vision, one that will require work, the kind of vision YOU would want to be part of.

Sure some of these will seem contradictory – that’s the point. Welcome to life (and life abundant)!

WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?

No seriously, you’re reading the blog of a Children’s Pastor… and seemingly remaining interested… unless you just searched for the term ‘Don’t Do Normal’ and this page came up, which raises two very important points… 1 Thanks Google, and 2 Why can’t people who are searching for ‘How to give away one million dollars’ come here?

(Hmm… just writing that down has increased my chances)

So what are you doing here?

You are set apart not just as a believer in Jesus Christ, but a person who may be called to minister to children! You are like a statistic within a statistic, a piece of a piece of a pie.

• You are unusual
• You are counter-cultural
• You are different
• You are standing out
• You are separate, distinct and set apart
• You are peculiar, unconventional and too some, strange
• You are contrary not to the Word of God, but to the world
• You are an visiting alien here for a specific purpose and goal
• You are opposed, not to the world but to anything that exalts itself against the Kingdom of God
• You are anything but average

YOU’RE A DEVIATION FROM THE NORM

Once you become a follower of Jesus normal just isn’t good enough anymore. You are part of the world that is to come… The Kingdom of God is here… and yet to come. The Jews were not expecting Jesus. They expected a conquering king, a strong soldier. He would free them from all their enemies. He would change the way that they lived. There would be freedom from the rule of their enemies.

This is what the religious leaders got in Matt 5… the beatitudes

• The way up is down
• The way in is out
• The way first is last
• The way of success is service
• The way of strength is weakness
• The way of security is vulnerability
• The way of protection is forgiveness
• God’s power is made perfect… in our weakness
• Want to become great? Become least.
• Want to discover crestor generics yourself? Forget your self.
• Want to ‘get even’? Bless and love them.
• Jesus didn’t just tell us to turn the other cheek we have to turn our hands and heart toward the other and do good.

You’re not normal, so don’t pretend to be.

Anyway, different is far more interesting.

And you thought Western Countries were litigious (is that a word?)

A Romanian prisoner sues God:

“The plaintiff said that when he had been baptized in childhood, he concluded a contract with God that had legal effect – God was supposed to protect him from evil.”
http://en.rian.ru/world/20051018/41809986.html