Children learn sharing and compassion when they share with others they do not see. When children hear about people who are hurting or lost or sad, they want to do something about it. We get the chance to help them learn that ‘helping others’ is a very good thing.

In a previous preschool, children were invited to bring a canned good as an ‘offering’ to our weekly chapel time which we donated to a local food pantry. In others, children made cards for the local nursing home, brought items for hygiene kits, sponsored a Compassion International Child, and collected items for Thanksgiving boxes and Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.

Serving and helping others can be experienced when children race through the sanctuary with socks on their hands dusting the pews during S week, collecting leftover Halloween candy to be sent to our troops serving overseas and collecting socks and coats for local charities during the coldest months.

Never underestimate nor squelch the desire of a little person to reach out when he or she hears of a need. It’s a healthy way to respond to the hurts and needy of our communities. And if we can offer many opportunities to our little people to go with their hearts and respond in a tangible way, we and the world will be the better for it.

We’ve filled plastic eggs with change during the season of Lent as we want to “Make A Change In the World This Easter” and donated the money to build an indoor bathroom for a school in Africa.  What kid doesn’t understand the need for a bathroom at school?  This year, we’re using a Lenten Penny Calendar to collect $$ to donate to the Brighter Future Children Rescue Center in Liberia, Africa.  We wrap plastic silverware in napkins with scriptures and words of encouragement for the local shelter, and trail mixes to a local breakfast station for the homeless.  Little people can make a huge difference in the world, one idea at a time.

I serve on the Executive Board of the Georgia Preschool Association as the Service Project Coordinator.  For the last two Annual Conferences, we’ve invited the membership to bring to the conference new or slightly used preschool-level books to be donated to ForeverFed, Inc.  ForeverFed has been helping to break the cycle of illiteracy in specific communities in Cherokee County, Georgia, by establishing mobile reading clubs for preschoolers and their non-English-speaking/reading mothers.   We know that illiteracy is passed along from parents who can not read or write and a mother’s level of literacy directly affects the literacy of their children. Tell one child that another has no books, and that child wants to do something about it. 

I’d love to hear how you are giving your preschoolers an opportunity to respond to the needs of your community. Email me at dedereilly@comcast.net and I’ll share your ideas here as well as in the next Georgia Preschool Association newsletter.

“Train up a child in the way he (she) should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

Brandon Cox, Lead Pastor of Grace Hills Church in northwest Arkansas and editor for Rick Warren’s Pastor’s Toolbox, put out a blog last year about “How to Build Rhythm Into Your Church”. I read it twice when it first came out. Then I printed it.  I have read it over and over since then. I have gone to it at the beginning of every planning season:  January for Summer, April for Fall, August for January.  The article speaks to the whole church, but it can relate specifically to finding a rhythm in Children’s Ministry.

When I was hired full time, it was much easier to just throw myself into all that we could offer: typical Sunday and midweek programming and special events just about every month, sometimes every other week. Trying new things happened often.  But hired part-time requires a rhythm.

When church leadership sets a position as Sunday only, 1/4 time, 1/3 time, or 3/4 time, there are some expectations they have determined.  One expectation being that this person can not do everything the larger church down the street can do.  Setting priorities offers a realistic rhythm.

Pastor Cox remarks that “balance is an elusive target” because balance is based on a subjective perspective: whoever you are asking. But a rhythm, being measurable, is much more manageable when the goal is healthy Children’s Ministry.

If we use the five purposes/goals of healthy Children’s Ministry, worship-growth-belonging-service-share/testimony, and the entire calendar year as the canvas, finding a rhythm works to develop a filter.

He first suggests focusing on 5-6 peak moments in the year. That’s for a full-time KidMin Director. We know that for excellent regular programming, it takes an average of 2.5 hours for every 1 hour of programming. Any special event or peak moment requires a whole lot more. Think VBS: 4-5 months+whole lot of lay servants+$$=10 – 15 hours of programming.  That may explain why so many churches are stepping away from offering a week of VBS and looking for more bang for their buck.  Perhaps offering a summer VBS program over a summer of Sundays and promoting the daylights out of it.

Even part time (half-time = 20 hour) KidMin Directors can effectively and realistically take on weekly Sunday am, Sunday pm OR Wednesday/Midweek pm, and 4-5 peak moments through the year, if you include Christmas and Easter. Then you are working on 1 peak moment quarterly and that is much more manageable.

Each year our Children’s Council writes on individual index cards everything involving ministry with children over the course of the year.  All traditions and even new things: Trunk-or-Treat, Sunday School, CLUB345, Children’s Christmas program, etc.  As a team, they then determine what 4 items are the most important:  asking, “If we did nothing but these 4 things next year, what would they be?”  Once we haggle…er, decide which 4 (which takes a bit of time), we then choose 2 more (which takes no time, because the discussions have already taken place.)  As a Council, we have now chosen what we will throw ourselves into.  Where and when will we be ‘all in’, for the next year.  Of course, other special events take place over the course of the year, but there must be two champions for those special events where I can serve as the resource, cheerleader, and/or promoter for those things.  But me ‘taking the point’ on them has now been decided by the Children’s Council to not be a priority for me this next year.

So where will you throw your resources, your servants, your finances, your space, your over-the-top-best?

“Everything is permissible” – but not everything is beneficial.  Everything is permissible – but not everything is constructive.” – 1 Corinthians 10:23

In preparation for an upcoming workshop, I had to read through some documents and files that were painful. Emails from one organization, letters from another (before emails). In the mix were also letters of apology, notes of encouragement, and timelines. The stroll down those memory lanes stirred up some grief.

The cuts from stained glass go deep and wide. They typically come out of nowhere.

Those years of reading Beth Moore’s “Why Godly People Do Ungodly Things” and Francis Frangipane’s, “The Three Battlegrounds” gave me vocabulary for my experiences. It did not make the hurt any less deep nor less memorable.

I relied on God every single day, every single night, every single conversation, every single relationship, and knew He was with me every step of the way. But the hurt still came.

So this is what I did….

1. I read….ALOT. Books like Ronald Richardson’s “Creating A Healthier Church,” Andy Stanley’s “It Came From Within,” and Namie & Namie’s “The Bully at Work.”

2. I did lunch…ALOT.  I stayed in contact with my networking groups, Emmaus reunion group, Christian Educators Fellowship (now Christians Engaged in Faith Formation) and my personal board of directors (thanks, Jim Collins’ “Good To Great.”) I joined them for lunch, tea, and any continuing education I could include, even when all I really wanted to do was stay in bed.  I do admit, I prayed that no one would ask me anything.  Most knew.  They honored my space.

3. I read Psalm 119 outloud three times a day.

4. I worshiped…ALOT.  I found a local church which had services either early in the wee hours of Sunday morning before I had to report in, or services after my responsibilities were over, or on Saturday evening.  I lifted my hands and I sang through the tears that seemed to flow and flow and flow. 

5.  I cried…ALOT.  I cried out to the LORD.  The first months were “why?”  The following months were “Show me Your glory in this.”

6.  I prayed…ALOT.  I prayed, “Lord, please don’t let me sin in this.” I prayed that I would not feel the need to spend whatever energies I had left defending false allegations and blame that were not mine to take.  It was overwhelming to think how many people I’d have to go to to say, “That’s not right…That’s not the truth…That’s not the whole story.”  Instead, I carried it…straight to Jesus.  In my prayers, I asked Him to help me clarify what battles were His and which battles were mine.  He kept reminding me that Jesus spoke the truth and did not argue.

7.  I took bible study at another local church…I looked on websites and registered for a bible study that offered no childcare to ensure I’d be with saints.  Saints with floppy bibles from years of use.  Women of faith who didn’t know who I was, yet gave me visual examples of God’s overcomers to this overwhelmed and broken woman.  Saints who were ok with silence in a classroom and laughter through tears.  This is why it’s important to communicate bible studies online.  You never know when your organization might be the hope of someone else.

8. I left…both times.  I submitted to my authority at the first place, yet it threatened the current staff, so I was hung out to dry.  I feared for my physical and emotional harm in the second place.  After hitting ‘SEND’ on an email to one on my personal board of directors at 3am asking, “Is God being quiet for me to continue to stay in this?  Is serving in the local church supposed to be this hard? Or has He been speaking and I’m just stupid?”, it was healthier for me to accept the latter.  I worked on becoming ‘whole’ again, so the next organization wouldn’t be hiring a broken, fearful servant, but one with a great history of redemption.

9.  I persevered!  Through a long season of hurt and constant wounding.  I questioned my call to professional ministry.  I questioned any value I could bring to the table.  But I was surrounded by God’s Word and His people who spoke truth into my life, my mind, and my heart.  I practiced the spiritual disciplines of old with fervor.

And God sifted the “people pleaser” out of me in the process.  My only fear now is that I will disappoint my Lord.  There is such a sense of urgency in my soul now that burns hot every minute of every day. If I’m awake, I’m counting on Him, and He’s counting on me.  If I get it wrong, I want to be quick to apologize.  He honors my efforts and loves me anyway.

In the process, He has placed me in positions of influence to be the voice of others who were called into professional ministry, but maybe not seminary.  I speak for their hopes, dreams, plans, fears and insecurities.  I get to be the advocate for the bi-vocational children’s director, the Sunday-only lay-staff member, the 1/4 time, 1/2 time, 3/4 time, full time and the super volunteer that has no idea God has called him/her into professional ministry with children.  And I pour out that hurt like a drink offering unto my Lord.

“You shine brighter when I’m broken.” – McClurg Brothers’ ‘Shine On’

“Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.” Psalm 119:132