The last several months have been like tip-toeing around a room full of sleeping toddlers. Longer for some. Shorter for others. For any mama who finally got a too-tired toddler to sleep, you know what I’m talking about.

Children’s Ministry folks plan and pray. We calendar and plan. We reserve spaces and have a plan B, C, and D. We talk of dates and numbers and spaces and places like everyone knows what we’re talking about. Everyone does. We hold everything loosely and are champion pivoters. We filter what we can navigate and stare at our shoes for the rest.

So how do we model moving onward well? We model what pleases Jesus:

• “Be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted and forgiving one another just as the Lord has forgiven me.” (Ephesians 4:32) Speak well of everyone and refrain from being led by emotions. Greet everyone. Say hello, Say goodbye. Be especially interested and touch base with your team. They are watching your words, your non-verbal communication, and your face.
• “Be slow to speak, quick to listen, slow to become angry”….or annoyed, or frustrated, or taking anything personally. (James 1:9) No one in the room knows everything. Godly people doing ungodly things has been happening since the beginning of time. Don’t fall prey to being put in the group of the ungodly.
• Go with what you know and not with how you feel. What do I know? Our great God can and will turn all things for good for those who love Him. (Romans 8:28) Our great God is compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, willing to stick with His own, abounding in steadfast love especially when His people are not. (Exodus 34:6)
• “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say REJOICE!” Find and model the joy and hope we have in trusting a great God for our salvation. His presence is my only reward and we must be good with that. Think of Paul singing praises to the Lord in the prison in chains. Tell your face. Whatever your resting face, make it smile. (Philippians 4:4) Let your work and work ethic tell your story of redemption, repair, and restoration.

“The only safe place for sheep is by the side of the shepherd, because the devil does not fear sheep; he just fears the shepherd.” A. W. Tozer

Be the safe space for your littles and their bigs wherever your walls, wherever the address, still proclaim the trust of the scriptures, still pray for forgiveness and healing for a little boy’s splinter, sing the songs thick with doctrine and hope (Deep & Wide, This Little Light of Mine, I Have Decided to Follow Jesus), and greet one another with love, grace, and mercy.

We use Pursue God Kids curriculum for Sunday mornings. A few weeks back the Sunday school lesson was about what happened to Jonah. The big idea is that God gives second chances because His mercies are new every morning. We will share that God’s grace is when God gives us what we DON’T deserve (salvation, joy, hope, community, liberty) and God’s mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we DO deserve (only one chance to get everything right.)

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:35-36

What is the will of God?
The will of God is that the Holy Spirit is directing you (Galatians 5:25, John 16:13, 1 Corinthians 2:9-1); the Word of God is filling your mind (Philippians 2:5, Romans 12:1-2, Isaiah 55:6-11), and the local church is equipping and coaching you to become Christ-like (Ephesians 4:11-12, Hebrews 10:24-25).

“Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.” Proverbs 22:24-25

On January 20, 2009 a Facebook Group was created to connect lay (non-clergy yet professional) children’s ministry leaders. We would meet each other in-person at conferences and workshops across the state for weekday and weekend ministry training and stay connected through the Facebook group. We’d share job postings at healthy churches when folks would be moving and churches searching to build their teams. We’d share our choices for Vacation Bible School curriculum to pickup resources from various churches throughout the summer. We’d connect online to troubleshoot, ideate, and find safety in collaboration within the community of those who were volunteers, on staff at various levels, and shared among this tribe of lay folks dedicated to loving littles, and sometimes their bigs, to Jesus.

We had no idea this safe, digital, online, small group would grow to be the 600+ group it is today. 

It was originally called The Children’s Ministry Network. Its purpose to support and educational development group for all who are in direct ministry with children. Yes, we know that everyone is supposed to be in ministry with children, but this was for non-clergy lay folks serving local churches of all sizes, in all locales, with various tech abilities and access. Striving to create networking groups (in-person and online) to share ideas in ministry and be a support in everyone’s efforts to create an excellent Christian learning experience for children and their families. 

There are Facebook Groups for clergy and Facebook Groups for all kinds of good causes. This particular Facebook Group stayed within the navigational beacons of lay folk telling the story of Jesus in the local church. At the time it started, it was the only one out there.

There are daily postings of music, resources, encouragement, guidance, research, dreams, books, workshops, conferences, blogposts, files and so many resources. There are also postings asking questions of how-to, what-to-do, and who-do-I-call to get the best information about the best practices for sharing Jesus with families with children. 

Many of us are still in the trenches of ministry with families. Most have retired or moved on to other organizations for various reasons. I wrote a bit about that here and here. The average professional life of children’s ministry lead is still 3.5 years.

The Children’s Ministry Network Facebook group became a rock star digital group before online groups were a thing, especially with traffic issues, busy schedules, and oh, the pandemic. 

When sanctuaries shut down for months, we were on the Facebook group rolling out the ideation from the Facebook group from Friday the 13th to the first Sunday, 3/15/2020. Everything from online VBS and drive-thru services to drive-in services for little people with big people in the vehicle and cul-de-sac pop-ins were chatted about and logistics shared. We were throwing spaghetti at the online wall of this Facebook group for how and when so that our littles and their bigs did not grow accustomed to doing life without the local church. Wherever we danced before the Lord with joy became our sanctuary. We succeeded and these kidmin warriors never missed a beat. 

The Facebook group was renamed to facilitate the implementation of trainings specific to the North Georgia United Methodist Church audience, to grow the connections more local to North Georgia, and where new hires to local churches could better navigate their transition into a connected community. Where we could get to one another.

This little Facebook Group will now be facilitated and moderated by The North Georgia Conference of the UMC at the direction of the Office for Congregational Excellence.

It’s been my pleasure to share and moderate the Children’s Ministry Network aka NGUMC Children’s Ministry Network Facebook group. The connections of names and experiences have challenged me, sharpened me, and delighted me. I have loved sharing the journey with so many. It’s given me a place to put down my thoughts and curate resources so kidmin leads can go back and share with others to ‘equip the saints for good work.’

If you’d like to remain connected to me and my musings, hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss a Tuesday post. You can also join me and some of my family ministry friends from around the country at another Facebook group. To protect the identity of those who have joined, send me an email at dedereilly@comcast.net and I’ll make it happen.

I’m a connector, an extrovert, a collaborator, and a Jesus gal drawn to other Jesus guys and gals. I’ve loved the opportunities to remain connected and share life with Jesus guys and gals all over the planet. Facebook groups have fit that need and I’m grateful for it. On-demand sharing of best practices in a safe asking space offer inspiration and courage. Thank you, Lord, for the gifts You continue to offer so Your people can remain in community and tell the greatest story every told: Jesus and how He alone can save.

I’ll be asking Santa for a new pair of combat boots. The soles of the ones I’m wearing have a lot of holes in them.

“I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.” 1 Corinthians 1:4-6

We moved to New England the first week of November 30 years ago. I had never lived north of I-10 and was truly a southern fish out of warm water. Family staples like grits, Jimmy Dean pork sausage with sage, Rotel tomatoes, and Duke’s mayonnaise were not to be found. This young mama was just trying to feed her babies!

Three weeks in and it was Thanksgiving.

My mother had her hands full when we were younger and I don’t recall a Thanksgiving meal being prepared. Most of our holiday family traditions came from my amazing and generous step-mother, Ms. Bobi. She could set a feast on a table like nobody I’d ever known and use every pan in the house to do it. Sweet memories of all the women folk cleaning up and belting out Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” 

So, breakfast with cheese-eggs, bacon, and blueberry muffins I could pull off without a problem. But it was my mother-in-law who taught me the most important part of Thanksgiving: How to have everything ready and hot on the table at the same time. 

A quick phone call on our first New England Thanksgiving morning, I wrote it down as she dictated to me Kay’s Thanksgiving Routine.

Depending on what time everything needed to be finished and ready for the table, the day begins with the pie. Really!  The pumpkin pie sets the day in motion. All the details of rubbing oil and sage all over the Butterball to the gravy from the pan drippings are written down. Kay’s Whittlesey family of independent women also had a dressing they prepared with white bread, Jimmy Dean sausage with sage, apples, and sage. It’s lethal, but oh, so delicious.  It took me about three years to perfect it. My hand-written notes get pulled out each year and I still hear her voice. Oh, how I miss her. Our lovely daughter-in-law is a fan of this dressing, so it’s happening.

Yesterday I was texting with a friend and I shared that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Food and family are the only expectations around a table that is set with my mother-in-law’s china that just so happens to match mine. Interestingly, she was with me when I picked out my pattern. As the day goes on and the number around our table increases, I tell the stories of china, those cold days in New England, and the silver pieces. Family history around the table. Many recipes pulled out for this day written in the handwriting of so many who have gone on to Glory. It’s a day for stories and stretchy pants.

Sally Clarkson writes in The Life Giving Table Experience, “The story of our family has been written at tables. Not with pen and paper, but with words and people, food and fellowship, talk and time. When we sit at our tables, we’re not just an aggregate of individual family members eating and drinking to stay alive; we’re a congregation of communing souls hungering and thirsting to experience the goodness and beauty of the life God has designed just for us. It’s not just about the physical act of eating, but about sharing and enjoying life as God designed and gave it to us. That is the essence of the lifegiving table.”

This year our daughter will be hosting Thanksgiving. We got our assignments via text two weeks ago. She and her family bought a home last spring only an hour away. I’ll be traveling with a Door Dash warmer I ordered from Amazon. The older grands are 9 and 11. These are the tables they will remember so there will be lots of laughter and stories.

May your table give life this Thanksgiving and the Lord find us faithful to give thanks for those who set the tables before us. What is one of your family recipes with a story?

“She has set her table.” Proverbs 9:2b International Children’s Bible

The Lord offered amazing weather and lots of lovely opportunities to bump elbows with our neighbors at last week’s Fall Gathering. The leftover candy’s been stored for the Christmas Parade because our church is SO generous when it comes to donating treats to replenish after each trunk’s first 400 pieces are gone. Trunk decorations are packed away, the gaga ball pit is stored until next April, and the leaves have been blown away from the entrances.

We turn the calendar page and it’s November. Everywhere I turn it feels like November has turned into the first month of Christmas. So what to do?

Music – I Wanna Be Thankful; sharing a Spotify playlist of thanksgiving songs.

Thankful Pumpkins – Keep the pumpkins out to write the names and places we are thankful for on a craft pumpkin with a sharpie throughout the month or leave it sitting in the Welcome Center with sharpies available.

Pumpkin Palooza – The Sunday before Thanksgiving we enjoy our typical large group with songs, games, and Bible study followed by roaring rounds of Thanksgiving Bingo with pumpkin prizes: pumpkin story books, pumpkin notepads, pumpkin cereals, anything pumpkin which we’ve been collecting all fall.

Stuffed Animal Sleepover – The Sunday before Thanksgiving, littles bring a stuffed animal friend to church to stay the night. Ambassadors stay a little later to take pictures of the stuffed critters all over campus in various stages of mischief. I then post every hour or so all night long and all morning long for parents to ‘discover’ on their social media feed until the littles return for their stuffed animals on Monday morning for breakfast and some early Thanksgiving game fun and a blessing. Added benefit: Each time parents check the photos on the McEachern Kids FB group, the FB algorithms adjust so that everything I post for the next month will automatically roll into family feeds.

Thankful scratch-off turkeys, headbands, masks, and popcorn with thankful cootie catchers and airplanes for church to home.

We wish to serve and celebrate the goodness and faithfulness of God. We are called to be thankful people, giving thanks in ALL circumstances, showering others with gratefulness, and modeling an attitude of gratitude. Yeah, I’m doing that in November. Christmas can wait. Bring on the turkey and some really good college football.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for  you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

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