This past Sunday, Pastor Travis preached a terrific sermon on Hebrews 6:13-20. Since I had the week off from preaching, I was able to take advantage of the opportunity to serve in our children's ministry at both services. In fact, most times that I'm not preaching, I will help lead the music for our kids. I always enjoy getting to spend time with our youngest disciples!
Jesus Loves Children
At Sound City Bible Church, children's ministry is important to us for one simple reason: children are important to Jesus! In Matthew 19:13-15, for example, we see clearly that Jesus didn't view children as distractions but as disciples. While we certainly want our kids to have a fun experience, our goal is to use the time we have together for much more than babysitting. Our goal is to teach our youngest disciples the bible and see them have the opportunity to encounter Jesus each and every week. Our greatest joy would be to see these children meet Jesus at a young age, and then love, follow, and serve him for their whole lives!
Much Encouragement
This past Sunday, as I served in children's ministry, I found myself feeling very excited and encouraged. I was excited because the kids are really getting it! Thanks in part to the Gospel Project curriculum, these children are getting to learn about the story of the bible, about God's plan throughout history to redeem people through Jesus. And I was deeply encouraged because of the love, dedication, and care that I saw our volunteers exercise as they taught the kids. I have an instruction for you parents whose kids participate in this vibrant ministry: thank and encourage your teachers! These men and women are doing much more than babysitting, they are impacting your children with the message of the gospel, a message that has eternal effects.
Much Opportunity
This past Sunday was also something new for us. Since we re-planted as Sound City, this was the highest attendance that we have ever had in our children's ministry — over 130 children! Think about that...over 130 lives being touched by the message of Jesus' love! I am so proud of the many faithful men and women who serve in our children's ministry. But, as I'm sure you can guess, there is always room for more people to get involved. If attendance continues to grow as it has, we are definitely going to need more people to step into a place of loving, serving, and teaching the children.
I would like to challenge all of you who call Sound City your home church to consider how you could get involved with our kid's ministry. Maybe you have a flexible schedule and you can serve each week...you know, serve one service and attend another service. Maybe you can only commit to once per month. Whatever your situation may be, I think that you will find great joy in investing in these young people.
My hope and prayer is that many more people would get excited about the opportunity to be like Jesus in teaching our youngest disciples. May God get a lot of glory from these lives being impacted with the gospel at such an early age!