Hallelujah Night is a special worship event hosted by our daughter’s church about every other month. We’ve had the opportunity to attend several of these nights and have been impressed by many aspects that I’d like to share.

Following a sermon series on the Psalms of Praise, the church’s worship team started Hallelujah Nights, which begin with a family meal followed by a worship service on a Sunday evening. During this informal service, individuals of all ages, including children, youth, and adults, are encouraged to express their praise to the Lord in various creative ways.

For instance, our 10-year-old granddaughter recently sang a duet of “I Raise A Hallelujah” with her sweet friend. The worship team invites anyone with a creative expression of praise and glory to the Lord to ‘audition’ a couple of weeks beforehand. The audition is mostly about the worship team coaching those auditioning about using microphones, music stands, timing, stage presence, and coordinating musical ‘support’. Those microphones can be pretty heavy for a little girl. The worship team sets the order of worship with those who have auditioned and makes all the accommodations necessary for an evening of family worship.

“I Raise A Hallelujah” is a lengthy song, so adjustments were made to shorten it effectively, including timing adjustments and fading. The worship team takes care of that. Other presentations during Hallelujah Night have included poetry readings, singing in multiple languages, instrumental performances, and personal testimonies, creating a diverse and heartfelt worship experience.

This worship team actively fosters opportunities for others, particularly children and youth, to engage in worship. Hallelujah Night serves as a platform for multigenerational teaching and helps identify and nurture talents within the church for future special services.

As my husband and I arrived in the parking lot for Hallelujah Night, we encountered another grandparent who had traveled from another state to attend the event with her family. These nights bring together folks from near and far to celebrate God’s praise and receive His word.

My granddaughter’s experience of praising the Lord on stage with her friend for the very first time with a music tract will not be forgotten. It’ll be a core memory; a sticky faith memory. She introduced themselves not by their names, but rather, “We decided to sing this song because I wanted to praise the Lord with my friend.” With words on the music stand and on the monitor the worship team uses along the back wall of their sanctuary, she and her friend belted out their love for the Lord with confidence, yet as nervous as you’d expect.

Watching her joyful and confident worship of the Lord reminded me of my own first solo experience singing “The Old Rugged Cross” during the offering, accompanied by a pianist, at ten years old. No microphone.

I love everything about Hallelujah Night! I am particularly thankful for her church and the dedicated team that intentionally equips God’s people, offering help, coaching, guidance, teaching, and joyfully facilitating numerous opportunities for worshipping our great God.

Thinking back on it, no one I’ve seen praise the Lord at Hallelujah Night has shared their name. Only His. This underscores the essence of true worship—placing the spotlight entirely on Him. 

“I’m gonna sing, in the middle of the storm, louder and louder, you’re gonna hear my praises roar.” I Raise A Hallelujah, Bethel Music

Each June and July, I’ve always offered a summer jubilee to our regular, weekend, and weekday servant volunteers in the areas I’m responsible for. Moving from a Director of Children’s Ministry to Family Ministry this is new for some of the leaders I serve alongside. As I share this with my own folks in my local church, I thought it’d be helpful to put on paper to share the purpose.

Jubilee = a season of emancipation, celebration, and restoration. The KJV often uses the word SABBATH for the NIV’s use of JUBILEE.

Why it’s important for our team? 

(1) Everyone needs a Sabbath season.

Taking a break, like a Sabbath, is important for mental and physical well-being. It’s a time to remember that God is good and we are His. God set the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments to remind His people that they were no longer slaves. In Leviticus 25, God tells His people even the land should have a Sabbath.

(2) A summer jubilee invites our regular, fully-committed leaders to connect with an adult Sunday small group, make new friends-in-the-Lord, and offer good testimony to serving in the areas of the local church they love.

Some may even push back saying, “I don’t have a small group.” This encourages them to give a small group a chance. There’s no better way to attract new volunteers for working with kids and youth in ministry than having others who are already passionate about it sitting at the table next to you. For my family it was the season permitting us to serve together as a family or be that family that lingers in June & July at the end of the service to welcome new families instead of rushing off to serve.

One of our core values is Community-Based Discipleship. We are committed to watching over one another in love. We are transformed through accountable small group discipleship (shaped by historic Methodist Class Meetings) and offer groups for all ages and stages of life; church-wide spiritual formation formed in community not isolation. As a disciple-maker and staff member, I am called to set the table for this.

(3) Invites new servant leaders to test the waters in ministry with littles and bigs. With a slower schedule I’m able to spend time in communication and community with new volunteers sharing vision, humor, processes, and systems so they serve for a short season with great intentionality in ministry with families. Many people have ideas about what it’s like to work in ministry with kids, but do they really know how WE do it? My new leaders are always surprised by our approach.

Authentic pushback:

1. “I already don’t have enough volunteers.” – Our current leaders are way better recruiters for future team volunteers than any social media post or bulletin announcement I could ever come up with. Do I trust the Lord to provide or not? Summer also lends itself to trying some alternative, creative programming requiring less manpower to pull off.
2. “I don’t have a small group to go to.” – If I’ve done my due diligence to know the culture of the various small groups offered, I can make a suggestion for a month or two to best fit where my team members can be encouraged, challenged, and delighted with new friends-in-the-Lord. A heads-up to the small group leader benefits everyone.
3. “I don’t want to take time off. You need me.” – We need our servant leaders whole, rested, and very excited to start the new season with fresh eyes. Sometimes just offering the opportunity take a jubilee should let folks know they are cared for and loved. If your leader doesn’t take a month or two off from serving regularly in the summer, make their continued service a relaxed delight by loving on them with time, acts of service, gifts, with all the love languages and work appreciation tools.

When I took a trip to the Holy Lands I better understood God’s use of the jubilee season. I saw how even the land taking a jubilee made it more productive and useful to God’s people. I saw a head of lettuce as big as the torso of the man carrying it. I want that kind of fruitfulness for our team members and the ministry.

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15

Preschoolers are the most enthusiastic people on the planet and learn best through active play. There’s some great research about the stages of brain development and faith formation. You can read more about that here.

If helping families teach their kids about faith is super important for your church, it’s good to start when kids are young. One great way to do this is by building relationships with preschool families early on.

We recently threw a dinosaur-themed party for families with preschoolers. We got help from a local art teacher who loves Jesus and loves kids, and we were invited by a family with preschoolers to ‘come on over.’

This was the plan: Sunday afternoon, 5-6pm, outdoors only. 

Invites included any and all families with a preschooler; the whole family.

Decorations
Jumbo dinosaurs placed around as hide & seek by the host family’s child(ren).

Dinosaur stops
* Dinosaur Dig – Kiddy Pool (DeDe) on the ground with potting soil digging tools & plastic dinosaurs and dinosaurs; sticks, leaves from the yard, trees
* Dinosaur Pool – Kiddy Pool on the ground with water to wash hands and dinosaurs
* Dinosaur soup (on small table) – Dinosaur oatmeal with hot water
* Paper plate dinosaur craft; dinosaur masks, dinosaur stick puppet w/Mrs. Glover (longest table)
* Dinosaur Snack mix with red cups, scoop – Dino bones – white yogurt pretzels; TRex claws – Bugles; Dino eggs – yogurt covered raisins or Dino poop – plain raisins

Schedule
5:05pm Welcome, Stated boundaries (fences), Introduced the host family, 
What does the Bible say about dinosaurs? Dinosaurs would have been created by God on the sixth day of creation. Genesis 1:24 says, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”
Introduce the host family; Mrs. Glover; Macland Community Church family
5:15-5:35pm Dinosaur stops 5:10-5:35
5:40pm Take home bags for each family
Dinosaur Hide & Seek (children collect all dinosaurs they see/find; then when all have been returned, they each choose one to keep) while I chat with the parents and grandparents about what’s in their take-home dinosaur kit.
Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp read aloud
Dance Party – Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp
Bluetooth speaker & songs from Spotify Dino Song list
Closing prayer & thank you

Take home dinosaur kit included a copy of Discipleship Begins at Home Blueprint from www.thenextgenerationministries.org, dinosaur bath bomb eggs for each child in the family (a preschooler and bath time, yay!), and a Squishy Jesus.

Some things we got to, some things we didn’t, because, well, they’re preschoolers. The preschool parents and grandparents now know one another and shared an hour making some new friends-in-the-Lord with others in the same stage of life. And I got some sweet pictures.

Matt Markins, President and CEO of AWANA, wrote “The single most catalytic factor to influence the formation of lasting faith in children is relationships – the currency of the Kingdom of Heaven. (The Faith of Our Children: 8 Timely Research Insights For Discipling The Next Generation, p. 28)

We offer Faith Milestones for littles with their bigs-who-love-him/her to make for a sticky faith memory with some accountability as a platform to teach the holy habits of growing a robust and resilient faith in Jesus. Faith Milestones are key elements of the discipleship pathway we’ve developed for families with children from infants through youth. Connecting in community is a holy habit to start early when parents/grandparents make new-friends-in-the-Lord easily.

“In a world where content is plentiful, and community is scarce, community is a new superpower.” Carey Nieuhoff, from 7 Critical Skills for Church Leadership: Building a Future-Ready Ministry

This event, along with a Preschool Family Truck event in the fall (preschoolers love trucks, too) is a Faith Milestone for our preschoolers with the goal of (1) beginning and/or strengthening connections among our Preschool Families offsite (‘cuz community is in our name), (2) talking about our good and great God with others, and (3) start building trust by introducing preschool families to the leaders who will be discipling their children in the years to come.

“Child discipleship is a process designed to form lasting faith by helping kids BELONG to God and His Kingdom, BELIEVE in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and to BECOME like Jesus and walk in His ways through the power of the Holy Spirit.” The Faith of Our Children: 8 Timely Research Insights For Discipling The Next Generation, p. 14

On Easter Sunday our new church plant enjoyed the typical lilies, Up From The Grave He Arose, and beautiful weather. We also enjoyed the atypical: a baptism of a 14-year-old who came to know the Lord by picking up a children’s Bible, an outdoor Walk Thru Easter Story with the children (we’ve got 15 acres and we’re using every inch of it), and one service in English, one service in Spanish, and another service in Swahili all happening at the same time on campus.

Community is in our name!

For the Children’s Moment I read from 1 Corinthians 15, “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that He appeared to Cephas (Peter), and then to the Twelve (His closest buddies). After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living (they are telling the world ‘cuz they were there)….” The Christian faith is based on an historical fact. This really happened!

I followed it up with, “Knowing Jesus appeared to more than 500, an historical fact, what if we left more than 500 little Jesuses wherever we are going to be over the next 50 days?” We do not serve a little Jesus, but as Christians we should be leaving a little Jesus everywhere we go.”

I challenged the littles and bigs to take a few to leave at school, at restaurants, at the ball field, at the gymnastics gym, at the scout hut, etc. Wherever they were, I asked if they would be up for leaving a little Jesus everywhere they went? They were enthusiastically up for the challenge.

Using more than 500 mini Jesuses, our Ambassadors (4th & 5th grade leadership team) were at the exit to ‘share a little Jesus’ with everyone who wanted one, or a handful, at the end of the service.

With folks traveling for Spring Break the following week, these little guys were left all over the place. Social media has been filled with pictures of food servers, grandchildren, neighbor’s mailboxes, frisbee golf locations, laundromats, grocery stores, and the Rocky Mountains. Setting it up in a public space we’re given the opportunity to share the many miracles on Macland that have happened by God’s grace and leading. We’ve got stories and this little guy can get the conversations started.

Some have set him up at home or the office. Sometimes we all need a visual reminder to prompt us to pray, “You are with me and I am so grateful, Lord!”. 

Some ‘brothers and sisters’ have started conversations and shared these little Jesuses leaving the Holy Spirit to follow to do the work of bringing the lost to Him by starting conversations. 

We’ll be leaving a little Jesus everywhere we go. The 525 went so fast, I’ve ordered another 200.

John Wesley claimed the world as his parish. True to our Wesleyan roots, community is in our name.

“He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 2:14

This week is hard. The memories come fast. The tears come even faster.

Eight  years ago, on March 31st, we found my mother-in-law ‘asleep’ at the table where we shared many a salad, scrambled eggs, and the stories about her amazing grandchildren.  Her birthday was the day before on March 30th. This woman knew me before I knew myself. We grew up together.

On an April 1st my Daddy was escorted to his Heavenly home before my very eyes. The best and worst of day for this Daddy’s girl. From 1am-3am I sat in the presence of our sweet Jesus as He took two entire hours to gather the spirit of this larger-than-life man 20 years ago.  I have his laugh and his booming voice. He told me first about Jesus. His head was always full of ideas and nothing seemed impossible. I like to think that my voice and Jesus’ voice overlapped as Dad moved from here to there.

My father-in-law’s birthday is April 3rd. It’s also #1 Son’s spiritual birthday, accepting Jesus as his Savior at 5 years old. Frank went to his Heavenly home on April 4, 1994, the day after Ben decided to follow Jesus.

This week is hard. The memories come fast. The tears come even faster.

Yet the Lord can redeem a season of loss.

Mr. Yummy, our first grandchild, turns 12 on April 6th. Amazon delivered to Oregon a rebounding soccer ball, the board game Sorry, and a box of foam swords when he turned 7. A box of crazy socks for his Crocs and an Amazon gift card will make this year’s birthday basket with a trip to the Atlanta History Museum.

#1 Son and our most amazing Daughter-in-Love & Law will celebrate their 8th wedding anniversary on April 23rd, the same wedding date as my in-laws.

Miss Precious, second grandchild, delivered by her super-hero Dad on the side of a south Florida highway during rush hour traffic, turns 10 on April 24th. I was surrounded by 70 of my best-girl-friends-in-Lord that evening as she made international news. We also mailed our Son-in-Love & Law a cape the very next day. Miss Precious is getting her ears pierced this year and she’s waited forever.

As I dust the frames of our family pictures on the wall this week, the memories come fast. The tears come even faster.

A dear friend gave to me a copy of Rockstar Grandparent written by Chrys Howard for my birthday a while back.  Chrys Howard is Korie Robertson’s mom of Duck Dynasty fame. They live in Louisiana. She shares, “Your life is like a one-million-piece puzzle. The good – no, great – news about this stage of life is that your corners are probably pretty secure. You’ve raised your family, worked forever, and established yourself in your church and community. Gone are the days of wondering what you’ll be when you grow up or how you’ll handle the death of a loved one or the loss of a job or the betrayal of a friend. Chances are you’ve experienced similar scenarios in life and conquered them. But there are still a few pieces missing from your puzzle.”

Lord, I pray that the few pieces still missing from our puzzles will be filled with stories retold, new celebrations to experience, and that we are smack dab in the middle of Your will and Your purposes for our lives. May our legacy be Christ-centered, lived out in the local church and in our homes, in joyful obedience to Your Word.  And may we welcome the tears and memories as a direct result of the depth of our love for one another.

“We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3