#WhyIDoWhatIDo: Confessions of a Children's Pastor

Music is amazing & powerful. I've been playing along with a "share 10 favorite albums in 10 days" thing on Facebook. I almost never do these kinds of things, but I'm down for sharing album covers and reminiscing about dubbing my dad's Simon & Garfunkel albums onto cassette tape, or where I was when I heard about Kurt Cobain's death, or how important Jars of Clay's self-titled album was to my very new faith in Jesus. Music is one of those things that allows us to express thoughts & feelings that we would never be able to say with words. There's a reason that couples have "their song". My wife & I's is  Follow You, Follow Me by Genesis, for the record. Music helps us remember. Advertising agencies spend piles of cash to help us remember that Nationwide is on our side. Music connects us to big events. Fee's All Because of Jesus was the first song I heard when I attended a church service after being in a major ca...

"Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.   I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings." - 1 Cor 9:22b-23 (NLT) One of the more familiar verses in the Bible. If you've been a Jesus-follower for a while, there's a good chance that you've heard it, and can even kind-of quote it. ("Kind-of" quoting things is my specialty!) And what Paul is saying doesn't make us comfortable. The implications, if we're honest, stink.  My personal preferences. The style I'm comfortable with. How we've always done it. That stuff is incongruent with the phrase "common ground with everyone" (or, "all things to all people", if you prefer).  As my team began talking about what this fall's relaunch of Kids' Church is going to look like, we all agreed that " unchurched " kids are who we're going to build our Sunday experiences for. And so we were force...

We don't spend our time & energy creating a Kids' Church experience for "churched" kids. Let me say that again. My team doesn't spend all the time & energy & sweat & prayer that it takes to create a Kids' Church experience with "churched" kids as our primary target. You praying for me yet? 😊 Let me explain. As we began to think about a relaunch of our Kids' Church, one of the first questions that my team grappled with was this: "Who do we do this for?". Sure, the Sunday School answer is "Jesus". I get that.  But, if we begin with the end in mind, what kids do we do this for? Which kids are our target audience? We've got to ask these important questions, because what our Sunday experiences look like hinges on how we answer. Here's what I know about the community my church is a part of. And the community your church is a part of. It is increasingly less Jesus-y. George Barna's polling ...