There’s a small book of Haggai nestled almost at the end of the Old Testament. Two chapters, 38 verses, giving relief, a break from the constant rebuke of the prophets and just before God’s silence for 400 years.

The prophet Haggai is speaking to God’s people who have returned home from exile. They return home to Jerusalem to a hot mess of 70 years of neglect, burned homes, their temple in ruins, and a burning desire for all that used to be.

They grieve what ‘used to be.’ They start their sentences with, “I remember…” then it trails off with sadness and lament. When they first returned home they started to rebuild the temple. They got the foundation done, then they got distracted. Distracted for 18 years. Distracted by probably very good things, but distracted nonetheless and the work of their temple stopped.

God calls Haggai to speak correction and encouragement to the discouraged and distracted exiles. Through Haggai’s words, GOD breathes life into His people. He says,

“Give careful thought to your ways.”

“Be strong….and work.”

“Do not fear.”

“From this day on, I will bless you.”

The response of God’s people? They got to work! They built the temple from the foundation already laid. They built together. They remembered that God was still in control. And they remembered that God sees and blesses and lives in the middle of obedience in the right now. The temple would not resemble the temple they remembered, but they don’t wallow in the distraction of comparison. They did what God directed them to do: they rebuilt their spiritual house together as they heard these words and God stirred the Spirit:

“Give careful thought to your ways.”

“Be strong….and work.”

“Do not fear.”

“From this day on I will bless you.”

This speaks to me as we live out our faith in Jesus in rebuilding our faith-filled lives at home and in our local churches in this post-pandemic world.

The book of Haggai tells me, “Don’t be distracted by the health crisis, politics, the unknown future, our finances. Don’t be discouraged by the global or denominational church, social media, all the feels and all the fears.” Don’t compare and don’t despair.

These words of correction and encouragement are for us today!

First, in the words of Jesus, REMEMBER ME:
Remember Jesus, God’s own son, who came from heaven to earth,
Remember Jesus, who died for our sins to restore our relationship with a holy God.
Remember Jesus, who walked and talked for 40 days to more than 500 people after he rose from the dead on the 3rd day, including his brother James, (can you imagine that conversation?)
Remember Jesus, who returned to heaven so that we’d be given a comforter, a guide, a coach in the Holy Spirit
So that we would tell all in our world that Jesus came to take away the sins of the world…..

So what do we do? I look at Romans 13. In the most horrendous culture imaginable for Christians, the apostle Paul gives us some practical guidance, but essentially…..

We go close and go long.

Go close: with our family. Those with whom you have the greatest influence, over time. Your spouse, your parents, your kids, your grands. Be intentional about building and teaching the faith in Jesus in your own house. The research tells us that the 3 practices/holy habits which repeated OVER TIME propel us to make STRIDES in our faith in Jesus is Bible Reading, Prayer, and living generously with our hands open. Go close brothers and sisters.

Go long: Our great God is still working within us, among us, and beyond us. I settle with Romans 8:28
“AND we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love Him.” Go long brothers and sisters.

When I get discouraged or distracted, we have some amazing examples of what going close and going long look like:

Esther: Y’all! We WERE created for such a time as this!

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: They stood together and told the king: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is ABLE TO DELIVER us, BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT DELIVER US, we want you to know your Majesty, THAT WE WILL NOT serve your gods or worship anything but our great God.”

Daniel: There is one statement made by the meaners in Daniel 6 which stopped me in my tracks. When the meaners wanted to oppress and bring harm to Daniel, these were THEIR words: “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel, UNLESS it has something to do with the law of His God.”

Lord, let us be found faithful to go close and go long.

Give careful thought to our ways.

Be strong….and work.

Do not fear.

We know our great God is with us because He keeps His promises to His people.

Listen and subscribe to the In The Trenches podcast.

“‘Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,’ says the Lord.” Haggai 1:8

Dallas Willard once said, “Every church ought to ask two questions. What is our plan for making disciples, and is that plan working?”

A plan for making disciples of Jesus is a discipleship plan. As I’m responsible in the local church for students kindergarten through fifth grade, and at home as a parent and grandparent to be a disciple-maker, there are certain skills which must be at the core. These skills should be taught and caught by teaching, practice, and multiple developmentally appropriate experiences over time, in moments, and as milestones.

We call these skills ‘holy habits’ because they are not one-and-dones, but rather repeated as habits. We introduce each one specifically as a Faith Milestone.

Prayer – talking and listening to our great God both by ourselves and in Christian community. This holy habit is practiced individually and in community.

Bible reading/study – God speaks to His people with language to know His heart, His expectations, His love, and His plan for all people whom He created in His own image in The Bible. This holy habit is practiced individually and in community.

Generosity – everything belongs to God and He invites us to accept His gift of salvation through His son Jesus. In response to God’s generosity, we generously bring His goodness into the world through service, giving, and thinking of others before ourselves. This holy habit is practiced individually and in community.

We don’t list worship as a skill because we teach that everything we do which tells Jesus, “I love you!” is worship. Everything! … practiced individually and in community. 

Just this last week we offered the faith milestone entitled, I Can Pray. It’s a faith milestone specifically for 1st and 2nd graders. Each little person attends with a big person. We believe what they experience with someone they love and is involved in their everyday life is much more sticky than just attending an event as an individual. Again, we are better disciples in community.

We set up various prayer stations outside using various prayer tools which each student collects to take home. Each little and their big learn together. They practice together. They take the tool home now knowing what to do with it to help them pray to our great God who hears the prayers of His people, especially little people.

Outdoor stations this year included anointing oil, sidewalk chalk, fidget spinners, a yoga mat, dissolving paper, a picture of Jesus, praying with crayons, playdoh, and a journal.

We teach that prayer is both talking and listening to God. When we pray ‘in Jesus’ name’ we claim “Yes! I believe this is true because of Jesus.” The words we use to pray are special to God. AMEN means “truly”, “indeed”, and “so be it.” The prophet  Isaiah refers to God as “God of the Amen” or truth (Isaiah 65:16) AMEN might be the most widely known word in the world, because even disciples of Jesus in other parts of the world like China, Japan, Brazil, Nigeria, and Spain, who speak various languages, also close their prayers with AMEN. 

Jesus used AMEN at the beginning of His teachings more than 70 times in the New Testament. Each time Jesus started with ‘truly’ or “verily”, He was going to speak truth and He wanted all of His disciples to know it. We say AMEN at the end of a prayer. Jesus said it at the beginning of His teachings because Jesus is the way, the TRUTH, and the life and no one comes to Father except through Him.

There are many other holy habits and we teach those, as well. These are the three we spend a lot of time on because these are foundations of a growing faith in Jesus and these are the holy habits which Jesus did, both individually and in community. The research also reports that these three practices are the most influential in a Christian making strides in their faith and belief in Christ. 

“Churches that have a clear path into discipleship…that get people engaging their faith or at least experiencing it, will see greater success than churches that invite you to merely attend.” Carey Nieuwhof, 5 Post Pandemic Church Grow Accelerators

May we be found faithful to equip our littles with the skills to grow in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man on an intentional pathway to following Jesus so that they know what it looks like to love the Lord our God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and love their neighbor as themselves for their whole lives.

“This is what the Lord Almighty says, ‘Give careful thought to your ways.'” Haggai 1:7

Parenting With A Purpose classes offer tribe-building among our families with shared values and intentionality. The 90-minute classes include a parenting hot-topic, some dessert, discussion time, and no judgment. We started in 2018 with Sharing Your Faith With Your Family. As our families are navigating COVID-world, there is an even greater need to equip parents to be disciple-making-disciples. 

• Promotion Information: Parents, grandparents, and caregivers of children are invited to a discussion of practical ideas to navigate holy habits at home as we lead our children to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength AND love our neighbors as ourselves on Tuesday, 6-7:30pm. Dessert will be served.
  
• Take Away: Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian
• A McEachern saint’s famous homemade fudge. (Thank you, Rebecca McCoy!)
  
  Primary Resources:
• Resilient: Child Disciples and The Fearless Future of the Church by Valerie Bell
• Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a new Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon by David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock (Barna Group)
• Settle For Nothing Less: Engaging Kids in a Lifetime of Faith by Jana Magruder (Lifeway)
• Stride: Creating A Discipleship Pathway for Life by Mike Schreiner and Ken Willard
• Biblical exiles who ‘won’ at following God (Joseph, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Ezra, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, Esther, Peter, John)
• Plenty of personal stories

The goal of the evening was to give research and personal testimonies to the resilient disciples who continued to remain in Christian community and a growing relationship with Jesus through the remarkable moments of life at all stages and in all ages. There is more than enough information about children who left the faith or left the church once they aged into their teens or twenties. I wanted to share the remarkable stories of those who remained faithful to grow in their relationships with God and in Christian community. These exiles are the resilient disciples who lived, are living, in the tension of culture and have continued to love Jesus and His people through it all.

A person is described as resilient who is able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. A resilient disciple is a follower of Jesus who remains active in Christian community and Christian service when culture and geography would encourage them otherwise. The biblical prophets write throughout the scriptures of the remnant of God’s people who sought to live faithfully loving God for the rest of their lives no matter what their circumstances. We tell the stories of these brave few with wonder and admiration. There is not a Christian parent or grandparent who doesn’t want that for their own children, but what does it take for us to grow those muscles in our kids? What really matters, over time?

Major info to share:

Three practices of soul training which equip disciples to make the greatest strides in their faith in Jesus:
– Bible Reading
– Generosity
– Service

The #1, by far, best predictor of spiritual health for young adults is regularly reading the Bible as a child.

Screens disciple.

That which dictates our schedules, finances, and conversations is a family liturgy. The local church can provide the resources to equip families so that whatever they do, they can do all of life to the glory of God.

What does a resilient disciple look like?
(1) Meaningful relationship with Jesus: through community and holy habits they find JOY in Jesus. Bible Reading & Prayer
(2) Cultural discernment: they participate in a robust learning community where they can think and talk of the scriptures.
Share testimony and stories of God’s faithfulness
(3) Meaningful intergenerational relationships with Jesus-loving people: the best way for kids to learn to love Jesus is to spend time with people who love Jesus.
Active in community
(4) Vocational Disciples: a theology of work, activity, leisure, time, learning/education
Calling to honor and please the Lord
(5) Countercultural Mission: a resolve to live differently than culture though a full-on participant in culture as the light of Christ.

In this season where children are part of the Body of Christ, though not together or included in many local churches, they are indeed exiles. This research is a perfect starting point to determine priorities in the local church’s partnership with parents/grandparents to disciple their disciples. Lord, let me be found faithful to equip my families to have a robust, vibrant, joyful faith that will fuel how they nurture their children into resilient disciples: to love Jesus their whole lives for the rest of their lives.

“We want to welcome you to the resilient church of 2050…the church that has been loving Jesus for all of their lives.” Valerie Bell, from Resilient: Child Discipleship and the Fearless Future of the Church, pg 205

Christian educators are everywhere and it thrills me to spend time face-to-face and across the table with folks from other parts of the country. I was invited to Minnesota to share ideas to get some creative conversations to take place. Totally in my element and among friends, I walked through our discipleship plan for K5-5th graders of Meat, Milestones, Mountaintop, and Marvelous Moments. Each of these four Ms are laced with Bible reading, generosity, and serving elements. Why? Because of all the spiritual disciplines we practice as followers of Jesus, research tells us that these are the three that cause us to make strides in spiritual maturity. (Ken Willard, “STRIDE”) I want to be about making strides and moving beyond baby steps in building the faith of little people. Oh we include other spiritual disciplines in our teachings, but these three take priority in our filter for what makes a true partnership with families.

Partnering with families means we only offer what is excellent, not filling up the calendar, offering low-hanging fruit and easy wins for parents in the eyes of their kids, and Jesus in everything we do.

Meat elements – That which happens on Sundays. It’s our bread and butter. It’s what we’re known for. Sunday school, Childrens’ Church, CLUB345, Ambassadors, Parenting with a Purpose, and I’m currently working on Grandparenting with a Purpose. The average age of a new grandparent in the USA is 47 years old. This is a whole area and season of ministry that I’m deep-diving into right now.

Milestones – Those intentional teaching moments that are developmentally appropriate for specific ages/grades which are foundational to building a relationship with Jesus in the local church and at home. Holy Communion (Bread and Juice), Prayer (I Can Pray), Church language (I Love My Church), Wonderfully Made (faith and sexuality education), Moving On Up to Middle School, transitioning from nursery to children’s ministry.

Mountaintop – These are those full-on-sharing-the-gospel-experiences like VBS, retreats, and Ambassadors.

Marvelous Moments – These are the one-offs, the once-a-year or once-every-two-years specials which are invitational for next steps in discipleship including shared events like Faith Field Trips, Winter Ball Invitational, Splish Splash, Messy Church, Bible Ninja Warrior, etc.

Each local church has a culture and sustains a community, so how do you choose what might be a successful marvelous moment? (1) Dashboard research, and (2) lots of personal conversations.

Dashboard research requires a drive around the community at different hours of the day to find out what businesses are plentiful, what are the traffic patterns, how far will people drive to remain in the community, and find out what other ministries are already available by checking out online the closest churches to your church.

Engage in personal conversations asking questions of the connector folks in your church, but also the locals: grocery story clerk, the deli clerk, the coffee shop barista, the UPS store, the dry cleaners, librarian. Ask questions about what evening nothing is happening (when), when do the school buses run (start time), when do your kids have to go to bed on a school night (end time), what tv shows do you like (themes), where do you go out to eat (favorite foods), where do they go to church (tell me about your church), extracurricular activities (over scheduling is not partnering with parents, but rather burdening families), where does the local school need volunteers (outside service), and the possibility of fee-based ministry outside of Sundays and Wednesdays (recreation, fine arts, music, tutoring, relationship-building).

With the knowledge that people are always interested in new things and meeting new people, shoot some bullets before you shoot cannonballs. (Jim Collins from “Good to Great”) Try something based on your dashboard research AND your personal conversations with a specific goal in mind and JUST DO IT! Give yourself lots of grace and an understanding that you are in it for the long haul. Gather a partner or two to share in the labor because as we labor and serve together, there’s a lot of laughter. And we all need more laughter in ministry.

I woke on presentation day in Minnesota with the temperature of -11 degrees. Yeah…11 degrees below zero! But inside the home of my hostess and the church where I met these amazing Christian Educators, was the warmth of the Holy Spirit on fire for sharing Jesus with little people. Thank you Minnesota CEF for the lovely invite and your amazing hospitality.

“Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.” Proverbs 9:9

Graduate Sunday: A morning filled with caps, gowns, testimonies, and great joy as families celebrate the major milestone of graduation. Last Sunday was Graduate Sunday. One high school graduate stood to give her testimony which started like this: I grew up in this church. I have known God before I even knew what that was. Isn’t that the way it should be? But it wasn’t until I was in middle school, I began to understand….

There are tensions between children’s ministry and youth ministry. This is one of them. Setting aside the natural differences in leadership, age, gender, t-shirt messages, and organization, I hope you find encouragement in that we are OK to offer the foundations in the faith of our little people. What is developmentally appropriate for children is not the same as what is developmentally appropriate for middle/high school students. “In Children’s Ministry we are trained for foundation, not exploration (which begins in middle school.)”– Rethinking Youth Ministry: What Every Children’s Pastor Wishes Their Youth Pastor Knew

Children are concrete thinkers and learn best through story. Stories of Jesus and family are the stickiest. For example: the story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors…his daddy gave him a coat because he loves him; your parents give you a coat because they love you. God made you and Jesus loves you. Be like Jesus. Robert J. Keely in Helping Our Children In Faith writes “We need to take advantage of this developmental readiness to share these stories with them in a way that allows children to live inside of the stories.” Children are greatly influenced by the stories of the faith of people around him/her, his/her own stories of faith, and biblical accounts of faith. Kids begin to connect these stories together, but don’t yet see them as one large story that starts with “In the beginning God” and ends with “Amen” which truly begins in the middle school years (meta-cognition). There is more on why Bible stories are important here.

Ken Blanchard in The Stride speaks of the three spiritual practices which move people to become more like Jesus in strides rather than baby steps: Bible Reading, Financial Generosity, and Serving. We teach this in foundational and concrete ways in children’s ministry when we dedicate intentional time to Bible skills & Giving (loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength) and Serving (loving our neighbors as ourselves.)

I hope my church was pleased to hear this graduate speak of growing up here and they were successful in partnering with her parents so that she’d know the Lord before she knew what that was. I wasn’t there when she was growing up, but I know some of the men and women who were. This is a legacy we get to share and I couldn’t be more thrilled for them and others who faithfully offer developmentally appropriate teaching and experiences for children. I love the tradition in some churches when a graduate is introduced by name, the people in attendance who were part of his/her journey stand as the great cloud of witnesses who have and will continue to surround them as each graduate runs with perseverance the race marked out for them…so they will not grow weary nor lose heart as shared in Hebrews 12:1-3.

A Rethinking Youth Ministry podcast 069 speaks to this tension and is worth the 40 minutes for those who serve in ministry with youth AND children. If you choose to listen to the podcast, I’d be very interested in hearing your thoughts on some best practices to ease the tension between youth and children’s ministries.

“We are laying a foundation, especially the early years of children’s ministry, that hopefully when it starts to be kicked against at some point in the future, that it won’t completely fall apart, but will be a renovation and not a rebuild.” 30:20 RYM069 podcast, What Every Children’s Pastor Wishes Their Youth Pastor Knew I love 

“Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” Deuteronomy 4:9

Done In A Day is an annual training event for those who serve children and their families in ministry offered by the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. This is one training held simultaneously, at multiple locations, across the conference offering nurture, and support for those in ministry with children; either as pastors, staff or volunteers. There is about 1.5 hours for the training material which includes places for conversation and group sharing.

We’ve offered training for connecting children in worship, in mission, and in Sunday school. Last year we offered training in using Holy Listening Stones to engage in sacred and every-day conversations with children in multiple settings by Leanne Hadley.

The theme this year is “Creating a Discipleship Pathway (Plan) for Children.” The video presenter will be Rev. Kathryn Pittenger. She serves as the Children’s Initiatives Coordinator in the Michigan Conference and author of Developing an Intentional Discipleship System for Children offered through Discipleship Ministries. She will be presenting the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ to prepare a plan for discipleship for children in your context. Ken Willard offered training for a Pathway for Discipleship last October here in North Georgia sharing we must propel disciples of Jesus to make strides to become more like Jesus through intentionally offering next steps in resources and experiences. As he reminded us, the goal and mission of the local church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. It is not church growth. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit. I recall him speaking about offering a certain amount of high chairs in a church nursery. We can’t keep adding high chairs for Baby Christians without a plan to move disciples in their relationship with Jesus through the spiritual disciplines of the saints of the yesterday and today. There’s more about my take-aways from that training here.

When we speak about children’s discipleship, are we event coordinators or disciple-makers? Disciple-making doesn’t just happen. We must have an intentional plan if our job is make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Even the little disciples.  BUT….. What is developmentally appropriate for children? What is helpful for parents? What is realistic, measurable, and intentional? When we bring our kids to soccer, baseball, and dance on a weekly basis, our children have coaches. Those coaches guide their practice so their skills at the end of a season are better than they were at the beginning. Can we offer anything less for our kids when it comes to their ‘soul training”? We are those coaches!

The question I hear all the time is, “Who’s got time to lay out a plan for discipleship that is developmentally appropriate when Sunday keeps coming, VBS is in a few months, and don’t even ask me about the Christmas play?” I know you want more than just to survive a calendar of events, get through a season, or decorate another bulletin board. Let’s get together and help each other come up with a plan. I’ll be at the McEachern Memorial UMC location and our facilitator with be the fabulous Kate Morris of Acworth United Methodist Church. Will you join us this year for Done in a Day at night? Register here today.

“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8

October has been a season for learning. Part 1 gives insight on the Catalyst Leader Conference and the Wonderfully Made Trainer Training. On the third week of October the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church Center for Congregational Excellence presented a one-day event led by Ken Willard entitled, “Creating a Discipleship Pathway for Your Church.” Ken Willard is an outstanding presenter who points us to become coaches helping people take strides forward in their personal and individual spiritual growth.

Though we were once called the ‘Methodist Movement’, we probably aren’t moving from unbelief to belief in every aspect of our lives. Our job as church leaders is to grow disciples for the transformation of the world by equipping individuals to take next steps, or strides, on their spiritual journey through an intentional process of introducing spiritual practices….soul training!

Ken Willard shared eight particular spiritual practices: Prayer & Fasting, Sabbath, Witness, Sunday School/Small Group, Financial Generosity (Tithing/Giving), Serving, Worship, Scripture Reading. He then shared the three which he believes have the greatest tendency to catapult people forward in their faith formation: Scripture Reading, Serving, Financial Generosity. It’s been my experience these are the three we can be very intentional in teaching our littles.

My favorite take-away was the above image we can use as a tool to engage in conversation with individuals for where they are and what next steps in particular spiritual practices they can intentionally begin or move into. Several groups of people came to mind immediately where I can begin to have these spiritual coaching conversations. I left the training with a plan to engage in these ‘next steps’ conversations with my students aging out of Children’s Ministry with ‘next steps’ in the summer, as well as those finishing any study I’m leading. As people complete a

season of engagement, I can intentionally share with them ‘next steps’ to keep these amazing people moving and making strides in their faith.

Discipleship is not a class. Discipleship Coaching is the secret sauce for continuing to move people through their journey. Today, I and another Kidmin Champion are taking two buses of 3rd-5th grade students to a local Monastery for a Faith Field Trip. We will be teaching and practicing several of the spiritual disciplines which will guide each one to continue to take next steps in their faith formation. I so look forward to the coaching conversations to come.

Highlight: Being in the company of a cloud of witnesses who want to make disciples of Jesus Christ so bad they can taste it.

My next steps:
1. Make an appointment to coach a leader in my local church I already have a Kidmin relationship with.
2. Prepare intentional next steps for 5th graders next summer aging out of Children’s Ministry.
3. Prepare and email next steps for the ladies who shared the Bible study we just completed.

When are you setting aside a season for learning? My next season comes after the New Year: A church-bus full of local church leaders in ministry with children will be heading to Orlando for the Children’s Pastor’s Conference in January.

“Teach the wise, and they will become wiser; inform the righteous, and their learning will increase.” Proverbs 9:9