We had a Reilly family tradition which called everyone (kids and adults) to decide by Memorial Day what we’d commit to for the next school year as a family. Negotiations took place to be sure we were best able to balance our calendars, our finances, and our heads. This resulted in a gift of regularly reminding everyone in the family of our mutual commitment to our discipleship and relationship with Jesus and the local church as our priority. This was long before I became a local church staff member. This was far from a formal meeting and more like multiple  mini-conversations in the car, around the dinner table, and while doing laundry. There was plenty of time for PTA, marching band, drama plays, school, soccer, and vacation time, but only as it worked around our priority of discipleship. 

Wouldn’t I want to provide the same healthy habit for the families I serve in the local church?

This last Sunday, we passed out an ‘Intention Postcard’ to our current team and to our families. I’ll begin passing them out as other regular programming takes place in the next two weeks, as well.

Thank you for serving on the McEachern Kids Dream Team this school year with your presence, your preparation, your faithfulness, your smile, your joy and so much more. It is with great appreciation that we wish for you to take a jubilee…a time of rest and refreshment…this summer for June and July.

You were an answer to prayer when you said, “Yes!” to serve this year and I can’t thank you enough. 

As we begin to pray and prepare for the next school year, we humbly ask you to prayerfully consider how and where you wish to continue serving on the McEachern Kids Dream Team come August.

Please return this card to me by Mother’s Day.

o   I want to stay with this grade level in Sunday school.
o   I want to stay in my role in Sunday school, but with another grade level. __________
o   I want to loop-up with my current class to the next grade level.
o   I want to begin to lead a Sunday school class (one month on, one month off)
o   I want to stay in my role on Tuesday Bible Study
o   I want to learn more about Tuesday night Bible Study 6-7:30pm
o   I want to stay in my role in monthly CLUB345
o   I want to learn more about monthly CLUB345
o   I want to begin serving in the new, monthly K2 Club
o   I want to learn more about the new, monthly K2 Club
o   I want to serve on Special Projects
o   I want to serve on summer Sundays
o   I want to serve on summer Thursdays (VBS drive-ins)
o   I want to serve on the tech team
o   I want to serve on the Sunday Hospitality team
o   I want to serve on the Hospitality team (other than Sundays)
o   I want to serve on the McEachern Kids missions team
o   I want to serve on the McEachern Kids Apologetics team
o   I want to serve __________________________
o   I want to take a year off
o   I want to serve and I’ve got an idea!

How will you invite your team to return, invite your team to take a time of rest, invite your team to share their ideas and needs, AND trust our great God to provide for the harvest? This is HIS holy work. We are invited to play in His sandbox and have the faith He will show up and show off among His people. This I know: The laborers will always seem few. The harvest will always be great. Our great God can multiply fire and enthusiasm among His own to draw people close to know His love and His Son.

It’s been my experience that ‘staffing’ for the giftedness and passions of our leaders is better than placing people in places/positions I need. Knowing who has offered their best YES this far in advance, and where, will give me the margin to prayerfully consider what the fall and next season could look like. Recruiting never stops. It only looks different in different seasons. I prefer not doing things the way they’ve always been done, so this is a best practice for me and the families we serve to innovatively consider ‘what’s in my hand?’ for the next school year in 60-90 day blocks.

Anyone else have the prayer prompt “Lord, who?” written in sharpie on the car windshield? What is your process?

“Your ministry will always be better if you have volunteers/servant leaders who are recruited early, who are well trained, and who give you their best YES.” The Sustainable Ministry Show podcast, episode 084

I’m always on the move. My brain is going, my feet are going, and my calendar includes 2024. I’ve been praying for clarity for several ‘forward paths’. 

Lord, which path do I take? What do you want me to be focused on? Where do I push? Where do I sit? What should I be learning now to be prepared? Lord, I trust You to make clear the next path You’ve chosen for me for such a time as this. In the meantime, I will be obedient to what you’ve called me to and the tables you’ve invited me to today.

He’s made several paths incredibly clear over the last month. In full transparency, I’m disappointed in some.

I will sit in that disappointment for a bit. I’ll rock in my prayer chair. I’ll take the commute without music. I’ll write in my journal. I’ll be quiet in meetings. I’ll intentionally practice my listening skills. 

For about a day.

Then I will remember that disappointment is part of the journey. I’m not entitled nor permitted to be bitter. Though my personal prayer is to a personal God, the answer is from a faithful God who is about a picture and a future so much bigger than me. He alone is trustworthy in disappointment and on the rocky road!

I choose to replace my disappointment with the joys that come with the paths made clear and the doors which remain open, all confirmed by His word.

Reading biographies and the writings of Christian women who have treaded the hard and rocky roads of following Jesus offer perspective. These women have told the Jesus story in huts, orphanages, on chalkboards, in story time, prisons, and foreign lands. These women have lived faithful lives as singles, wives, mothers, and widows. Their stories are the stories that build trust and faith.

Leslie Ludy offered a podcast recently with several reasons why we should be reading Christian biographies:
* We need to hear stories of God answering prayer. (Corrie Ten Boom)
* History is filled with stories of mighty men and women who overcame and endured impossible obstacles of faith through the power of God. (Darlene Deibler)
* It builds my faith to see how these regular people leaned on God and how God came through for them. (Prudence Crandall)
* Faith is not going to be built through modern messages that encourage disillusionment with God or lackluster worship songs that talk about our woes and disappointment with God. (Emma Gatewood)
* We can build our faith muscles by flooding our hearts, minds, and souls with reminders of the power and faithfulness of God. (Elisabeth Elliot)

“Christian discipline means placing oneself under orders. Any ‘solder,’ any candidate for Christian discipline, ought daily to report to his commanding officer for duty. At your service, Lord. What the soldier does for the officer is not in the category of a favor. The officer may ask anything. He disposes of the soldier as he chooses.” Elisabeth Eliott, from Discipline: The Glad Surrender, pg 26. 

At your service, Lord!

“No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.” 2 Timothy 2:4

Moving On Up To Middle School is a Faith Milestone with dessert and a panel discussion for 5th graders AND their parent(s). The panel is made up of a dad and his daughter, a son and his mom who are living in a 6th grade spring. Though many of our 7th graders just started this year in a typical middle school setting, we focused on the students and faces of those who aged out of children’s ministry most recently. Our 5th graders remember them and they have shared experiences with those who just aged up.

Initial communication: 5th graders and their parents are invited to join us for dessert and a panel discussion about Middle School on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, 6-7:30pm in the Children’s Welcome Center.

Secondary communication: Your home church wants to help your family navigate this big move to middle school with confidence, information, and tools for success. 5th grade students AND parents are invited for dessert to a panel discussion and Q&A on Wednesday, March 30, 6-7:30pm in the Children’s Welcome Center of the Christian Life Center/Gym building. Park and enter at the McEachern Kids entrance. 

Promotion: Social media, bulletin, mailed full-page invites to all 5th graders, emails from church database.

Arrival activity: Student chooses a combination lock; parent chooses a Prayer Book. Students attempt to open the combination lock with NO help from their parents. No help. No words. Nothing. Just smile.

6-6:30pm: Panel discussion with surprises and wins of going to Middle school. Instruct the students to hand their combination locks to their parents for opening, which they do quickly much to the surprise of their students.

6:30-7pm: Youth Group take over with golf pencils and People Bingo game
In order to familiarize our 5th graders/parents with the youth space, we made arrangements with the youth leadership to ‘take over’ with a game to get to know one another. After the chaos of getting each space filled with a name with all ages and all stages participating, we invited each person to stand who met the criteria of the space. So much fun getting to know others who shared in those attributes/experience criteria. I then shared what to expect for them all working together this summer at the summer drive-in services (our family VBS weekly Thursday night in June experience). The youth group gave the 5th graders a silicone verse bracelet as they left.

7-7:30pm: Offered dessert with water. We took questions and some encouragement from the parents who’d navigated middle school with older siblings; offered confetti tubes to the students to save for a future day of celebration and wooden palm crosses for the students to use in prayer.
I shared that just like their parents knew how to work a combination lock, their parents know WAY MORE than a middle schooler thinks they do. Their parents love them best and will help them navigate a life lived for Jesus in combination with their home church. This is where they belong!
The Stormie Omartian book has 30 short chapters ending with prayers which I used each day of the month when my kids were in middle/high school. It’s the best book with scripture prayers for their children and their children’s friends I’ve ever used. The chapter on praying through a child’s room is gold and the book is our gift to our parents.

This is the first step in offering a fun and engaging bridge from children’s ministry to student ministry. Next stop: Summer drive-in service training together for neighborhood pop-ins coming in May. 

How do you begin to bridge your students from children’s ministry to student ministry?

“For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” Hebrews 3:4

This summer’s month of Thursdays in our parking lot will be a blended model of Fresh Expressions’ Dinner Church and family Vacation Bible School. How did we get here? It all started with learning last fall that Vanessa Myers was publishing a children’s devotional entitled The Bible Food Truck: Serving Up 75 Devotions for Kids About Food in the Bible.

Vanessa Myers is the creative Director of Children’s Ministry serving the families and community of the Dahlonega United Methodist Church located in Dahlonega, Georgia. She’s authored both Rise Up: Choosing Faith Over Fear in Christian Ministry which equips a ministry leader navigating the trenches of effective ministry through the Bible accounts we know and love, and Breakfast With Jesus: 100 Devotions For Kids About the Life of Jesus. Vanessa writes clearly for the middle to upper elementary reading level which is perfect for a Jesus gal like me who serves that demographic. 

Vanessa has a passion for bringing the Word of God to life for little people and their big people to know the Jesus of the Bible. She is a wife, mom, and a blogger offering printable tools to resource families (and local churches) to grow in their relationships with Jesus wherever they go and as they go through the rhythms and hectic schedules of life. 

When I discovered The Bible Food Truck would be in my hands this spring, our kidmin team knew it would be the perfect resource to help us take the last two summer’s drive-in services to the next level. Her book did not disappoint. The bonus is the book invites a child/family to exercise their entrepreneurial spirit by walking them through the development of their own food truck ministry and business. About every eight devotions, Vanessa walks through next steps for a food truck ministry with guidance for a menu, a truck name & logo, a mission statement, workers, a grocery list, and even a food truck prayer. This is not your typical kid’s devotional book!

Vanessa’s book has prompted my team to consider adding an entrepreneurial class this fall with a product fair for our students just before Advent. Think of a blend of Junior Achievement and a way for us to include our business leaders and owners on the Titus 2 leadership team for our students for the next school year for the community.

This is where we are in ideation for this summer’s Soul Food Summer: 

• each of the five Thursdays in June
• a scheduled food truck 5-7pm in the parking lot
• music
• trained intergenerational conversationalists for each table
• a VBS program for littles with bigs in the car beginning at 6pm
• ice cream truck arriving at 6:45pm
• we load up our Ambassadors and youth team at 7pm to escort the ice cream truck to pop into a nearby neighborhood offering free ice cream and chat with our neighbors
• return to church parking lot by 7:45pm to discuss two needs we heard that we could creatively meet (do for two what we wish we could do for everybody) before the next week’s Thursday’s VBS. 

Vanessa will be at the first Thursday’s event of the summer to sign books we’re giving to each family in attendance and take pictures-with-the-author. She made it super easy to order books in bulk directly from her!

We’re using five of her devotions specific to Jesus and the tables He set: (there are five Thursdays this June)

• Breaking Bread Together – Acts 2 (word of the day: Together)
• Zacchaeus – A Wee Little Man (miniature games; word of the day: Welcome)
• Feeding the 5,000 (word of the day: Multiply)
• Breakfast on the Beach (word of the day: Invite)
• Last Supper with Friends (word of the day: Remember)

Stay tuned for how the summer will roll out. In the meantime, pick up a copy (or two or more) of The Bible Food Truck and see how you could use it at home or at church to add a little surprise and delight to your summer programming. Grandparents, this would be a great ‘summer read’ to share and read alongside your grand!

Vanessa is generously offering a free copy of The Bible Food Truck to one of my blog families. Simply comment on this post on Facebook or Instagram with how you share Jesus with your family around your table, whatever that table may look like or wherever that table may be. I’ll announce the winner on my Facebook page before next Tuesday. The Bible Food Truck blog tour continues on April 11 with Mindy Jones who has some great Easter printables.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31