Imagine putting in a full Sunday, two of us traveling three hours to meet two more, a Buccee’s stop, rescuing four more off the Florida turnpike when Auto Zone tells us an alternator is going out, another one helps pick up three, while four wait an hour later for AAA to arrive in a min-van, then meeting five more at an AirBnB. It was CPC week and we were ready for anything.

CPC is Children’s Pastors Conference sponsored by INCM (International Network of Children Ministers). Each January kidmin friends from all over North Georgia and one from Ohio gather to celebrate God’s goodness in worship, learn of His equipping saints in breakouts, participate in coaching, spend hours in the resource center, debrief over tables and in the hallways, along with hundreds of others around the globe who love littles and their bigs to Jesus. Several of us have been discipling and sharing life for decades.

What comes from the stage is for us as disciples. What comes from breakouts is for us as disciple-makers. What comes from the prayer stations is between us and our great God. What comes from waiting in line and a character breakfast on Monday before registration is the sharing of faith formation experiences we’ve all done in the last year: what worked, what didn’t, what happened, what’s the fruit, what can we share with one another, the goals, and if we would do it again. What comes from joining focus groups for new resources is new friends and time to explore upcoming resources for our families. What comes from being in the company of these amazing disciple-makers is the desire to stay.

As Beth Guckenberger shared this language from the stage, these kidmin warriors are my favorite stayers. We gather to set upright our spines of steel. We gather to remind one another of the rock from which we were hewn. We glean from one another to fill one another’s tank of hudzpah: extreme self-confidence and audacity for Jesus.

Hudzpah in the trenches of the local church He’s called each of us to serve. Telling littles and their bigs that God made them, Jesus loves them, and the Holy Spirit is their constant, present, helper when they say YES to Jesus.

As a fellow trainer, I so appreciate the breakout presenters who have prayed and gathered and prepared their very best to pour into us as if their words are a drink offering unto the Lord. The breakouts I attended focused on spiritual warfare, unique family ministry events that are true ‘all-skates’, relationship-driven large group tips, the guest experience for all, ministry with less than thirty kids, and setting the stage for families to celebrate Jesus through family rituals and traditions. All were fantastic and exactly what they said they’d be, but the ‘ministry with less than thirty kids’ brought me to tears and still chokes me up when I talk about it.

In the resource center, this year we were on the lookout for apologetic curricula resources for both elementary and preschool. For the next three months we’ll be test driving a different one each month until we decide which is best for our theology and developmentally appropriateness.

I had conversations with my housemates, one who just graduated from seminary, about the differences between a program and a ministry debriefing a breakout she attended. Another table discussion was about transitioning the goals of traditional VBS to multiple more effective models of programming to better suit the current trend of limited volunteers and the rhythm of a family’s seasonal schedule. Yet another was a conversation with kidmin around the country navigating the tension between content (the immediate; the basis on which we’re evaluated) and relationships (over time; what we may not see until we arrive in Glory).

The theme was UNCOMMON. The Lord continues drawing me to the word PECULIAR. CPC24 proved again to be the catalyst for more effective training, authentic relationships, shared vocabulary, creative inspiration, and beginning a year of peculiar and uncommon faith formation experiences for littles and bigs so they learn and choose to follow Jesus with their whole heart for their whole lives. I’m here for it. All day. Every day. I’ve already gotten my ticket for next year. Have you?

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17