Some of my fondest memories growing up are memories of service.
To be honest, it helped that I had a really cool Youth Pastor, whom we called Pastor Dave. He made my teenage years a blast. We visited Lutheran camps in the mountains of NC and in a cute beach town on the Atlantic Ocean. Pastor Dave was amazing! He empowered our younger church members to grow in their religious community and learn what it means to truly be a church member. It’s also where and how I learned to be a better Child of God! I have such wonderful memories from those years in my life, but my fondest? My fondest memories derive from a single ministry that we started in our local area — it was a clown ministry.
Nope, you did not misread that - we created a CLOWN ministry. We would dress up as clowns and tell stories without speaking. It was a great brain workout and a very unique and interesting way to share Christ’s teachings. We had lots of favorable feedback and I truly felt that I was giving back to our church community because I was actively sharing the Word of God with others.
These past experiences have made me realize that children are vital to any Ministry. Why? Because they can come up with amazingly rich and diverse concepts that we as adults may not see as easily as they do.
Personally, I think these insightful concepts from our children are gentle reminders from God of how important children are to a ministry. Jesus spoke many times about the importance of children, and He did so during a time when children had little to no rights. Jesus made it quite clear that children are vital to any community of God.
For those that do not know, our Sunday School children do service projects on certain Sundays thanks to wonderful knowledge shared by Keven Blaker (Thank you, Keven, you are a Blessing to our St. John children!)
Did you know that our children have done projects for the Michigan Humane Society, Meals on Wheels, our local police and firefighters, and so many more?
My Conclusion: Our children are learning to serve God in many ways and that is a spectacular thing, indeed.
And it also leads us to this really exciting announcement - our younger members would like to share these service projects with you! On Friday, November 8 from 6-8 pm, our Sunday School children will be working on service projects and we would love for you to join us - both in making the projects, AND in getting to know our youth better! Invite your friends, do some good, and relish in God’s Community.
We hope to see you there, Sonja
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