When Betty Kicked My Butt (or why our kids need you)

[Many of y’all may have heard me share this story before. I thought I would recount it here because it applies so much to this post.]

Thirteen years ago, in a church basement, I met with Zona, Betty and Marge. We gathered on a Sunday afternoon to discuss our upcoming Vacation Bible School and our regular Sunday Morning Children’s Sunday School programming. Imagine that, we needed volunteers in each area and more than we thought we could recruit.

During our meeting I, more than once, made the point that the people helping in ministry to our children needed to know that the time commitment for working with the kids and the preparation time were minimal even though they weren’t. I continued by saying that the work, while potentially rewarding, wasn’t difficult even though it was. I summed up my troop rallying recommendation by restating that this job of children’s ministry was “no big deal”.

After saying, “it’s no big deal”, three times I received a verbal wallop from one of my helpers. Understand, I was the expert here. I had a degree in Christian education and over nine months of experience working in a church with volunteers and stuff. I knew what I was talking about in spite of the fact that I had never done anything like this before. Never mind the fact that the three women in the room with me had done this so many times that their combined years of experience surpassed the number of years I had been alive. This meeting was a mere formality. I was there to listen to them, be polite, and then explain to them what was going to be done. I had the information and they were going to listen.

“No big deal!” She shouted at me. “No bid deal?! Don’t you ever tell me that caring for children is no big deal. I don’t want to be involved in something that is no big deal. Who would? Do you?”

Betty’s forceful words, albeit gracefully delivered, hit me right between the eyes. With crystal clarity she taught me a lesson that I can’t forget. Far too many times I had assumed, and sometimes still do, that lowering expectations makes people happy and ready to volunteer for the necessary jobs within the church. What Betty said made me realize that no one wants to do something that isn’t important or only perceived as unimportant. Especially in church, for me to “dumb down” this area of ministry was offensive. Here were three women who worked faithfully every week teaching Scripture to the children of our church, who diligently labored at the enormously important task of forming the spiritual lives of our kids and I told them it was no big deal.

You won’t hear me describe ministry to children that way again. (But if I do, give Betty a call and she will straighten me out.)

Maybe you see where this is going. The Wheatland Mission needs your help in ministering to our kids. In the coming weeks you will be hearing more and more how this will happen but in the meantime we would like to hear from as many of you as possible who will be willing to commit regular time to the area of children’s ministry. Obviously, the more volunteers we have the less stress there will be on individual volunteers. At the same time, however, we want people who care about helping kids grow in their walk with Christ. We aren’t looking for help with childcare but for people who want to participate in kids becoming more and more like Christ. We want to move from kid wrangling to kid’s spiritual formation.

Let me introduce you to Pam Flesher and Nicole Niessen. Pam and Nicole have graciously volunteered to help our children’s ministry be a success. Each of these women bring with them experience in working with kids and a heart for helping children grow. Nicole will be directing our efforts with newborns through preschool age while Pam will be leading our work with kids in kindergarten through fifth grade.

If you are willing to commit some time to this ministry please let one these two know. You can reach Nicole at nicoleniessen@yahoo.com and Pam at pbflesher@cox.net. Or, you can simply put your name and info in the comment slot here on the blog and one of them will get in touch with you.

I need your help. While Calana and I can do many things for our kids we cannot, by ourselves, adequately raise them in the way of Christ. We need the help we find in the gathered body of Christ. As I pass my faith on to them I discover they need more. They need a group of believers, some who are parents and some who are not, who will pass on their faith to them as well. My children need more than just my faith…they need yours too.

Together, we can share our faith(s) with our kids and participate together in the process of seeing them grow more and more into the likeness of Christ. I need you there with me and I want to be there with you. By the way, it is no big deal…

…it is an enormous deal.