Do you remember this fingerplay rhyme? This is the church. This is the steeple. Open the doors. And there’s all the people. Not anymore!

When Jesus invited the disciples to ‘follow me,’ He taught in the temple AND on the shore. Where are the people on the shore today? Google Insights reports that every month, more than 30,000 people search “church online.” (p. 12) This means that 30,000 people are searching for Christian connections online. The internet is not what people do, it’s where we live. And it lives in our hand.

Social Media to Social Ministry: A Guide to Digital Discipleship, written by Nona Jones, is hot off the presses with multiple references to quarantine and church life as we now know it. Nona Jones is the head of global faith-based partnership at Facebook and lives in Gainesville, Florida where she co-leads a church with her husband. She’s in the trenches.

I’d heard her several times on various podcasts and couldn’t wait to get my hands on a printed copy of her research, her suggestions, and her knowledge. I read this book in one day and it’s already so written in that I’m almost embarrassed to send it to my daughter in Oregon. We both have a heart and hunger to share Jesus with families wherever they are.

Mrs. Jones gives all the practical tips to move social media from being a billboard and Sunday-message-only to a place where discipleship and relationship grows. Though there are other social media platforms, Facebook is the best place with tools already in place to offer Christian education, Christian fellowship, and Christian pastoral care. Really!

Before you get all ‘There’s nothing good on Facebook’, “Right now three out of four Americans are on Facebook. If 75 percent of your community were located on one side of town, in one neighborhood, would you refuse to put a location there?” (p. 16) Relationships are the basis for discipleship. Our roles are to provide intentional opportunities for ‘building relationships and facilitating connections so discipleship can happen.’ (p. 25) Discipleship happens when a more mature, disciplined person walks alongside in robust learning and conversation with a less mature, less disciplined person to help them along their way based on Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12 which begins, “Two are better than one….”

Online ministry to families is walking alongside the bigs with teaching and conversation so fully it overflows into their littles in everyday life. It overflows into their conversations, their prayers, their practices, their habits, their hopes, their dreams, and their laughter. Facebook groups offer the feedback loop that is crucial to sticky discipleship online. The author offers multiple suggestions to grow a church’s discipleship even within the livestream. Because I am ‘on’ during the livestream, I can’t do a thing about that, but I can do other things.

On a Saturday night I started a Facebook Group for grandparents to make sharing their faith a priority with their grandchildren. I have an event coming up, but decided to start the community beforehand. Tying it to our children’s ministry page, I invited a handful of folks I knew were grandparents. Following the tips provided within the book and multiple online conversations, that handful of grandparents had grown the group to 30 by Monday morning. I’ve never had a small group grow to 30 within two days of open registration. You? This is a new small group, they have begun the conversations, and the discipleship has begun. One week in and we are at a small group of an active 46.

More to think about…
“People under age thirty-four make up 63% of Facebook users.” (p. 51)
“Eight out of ten Americans actively use Facebook.” (p. 53)
“People may leave other social platforms with new information, but not necessarily with new friendships.” (p. 57)
“The Church is called to be more than a ‘house of content.’ We are called to be the light of the world.” (p. 55)
“The reason so many pastors (and staff) limit their online churches to livestreaming is because we have forgotten what church is: people.” (p. 67)
“Online church has the capacity to minister to people’s lives 168 hours per week. Every second. Every minute. Every hour. Every day. Every week. Every month. Every year. Life transformation doesn’t happen by osmoses every Sunday, so why would we think it could happen that way online?” (p. 67)
“Online church is real church because it’s filled with real people who need a real Savior.” Nona Jones, Social Media to Social Ministry, p. 33.

“Go and make disciples of all nations.” Matthew 28:19a

Distance learning has swept the world. The abrupt pivot away from in-person was required of teachers, preachers, therapists, doctors, counselors, and everyone else who serves the public en masse last March. Teachers being the creative folks they are began turning to Bitmoji Classrooms to offer community and connections to their students.

With the uncertainty of what the new school year would bring, many professional educators continued to jump on the Bitmoji Classroom bandwagon. It has became a game-changer for therapists, specialists, leaders, bloggers, educators, and especially many of us in ministry with children.

A Bitmoji Classroom is essentially a secure landing page which can hold all other elements you wish to teach as well as some next steps. Embedding and attaching links into the images built into the virtual classroom, students and families can take the learning as far as they wish with carefully and specifically curated content. Saving it as a downloaded pdf lets you share an uneditable page and the fun begins.

With a Gmail account the virtual classroom is built on a Google slide (or powerpoint slide) with transparent images curated from online image searches or your computer. Links can be inserted from YouTube, Google notes, Google docs, and more, all on one landing page/slide. You set the security and sharing capabilities for each virtual classroom/slide. Because it’s Google, the last change made stays and offers an updated link to share. If you have a Gmail account, you automatically have a YouTube account and can build a library of private videos to give your virtual classroom a personal touch directly from your church/organization. My hair is a mess in the first one I uploaded, so I can only go up from there!

The possibilities are endless, but we’ve begun to look at it for curating and preparing content as a starter page for all types of Christian education. We’ve set up a classroom for Sunday school (pictured above, but without links due to copyrighted material in the videos, but you get the idea,) a Hometown Family Mission Adventure for October to partner with the church-wide Stewardship campaign, and Advent.

Your teacher friends are already all over this and can offer a private tutoring lesson. An amazing servant leader discovered the possibilities and shared it with me. I tossed it out on Facebook asking if anyone knew about the bitmoji classroom and would be willing to chat. A fabulous girlfriend-in-the-Lord who is an elementary school target teacher tutored me virtually through a couple of hours. Our amazing IT Lead updated my church laptop with a recording camera and microphone. In less than a week, the online Treehouse was ready to start for Sunday school. I can gather participation metrics by the number of clicks onto the YouTube personal message.

Listening to a Church Communications webinar mid-summer reminded me that doing anything is better than doing nothing. A weekly email or social media post with links for content was fine, but I wanted more interaction and kid-friendly engagement. Want to learn more? These are the two tutorials that helped me the most. There is also a robust educators Facebook group which offers even more. We’re just getting started! 
Building a Bitmoji Classroom Tutorial
Hello Teacher Lady: How to Create a Bitmoji Classroom 

“You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.” Psalm 86:5

Family Ministry: A Holistic Approach was a breakout session led by Kathleen Jaoudi at the 2023 Children’s Pastors Conference. Wearing 3D glasses, she invited us to look at ministry with families through a different lens. Not the silo-ed lens of post-Young Life to the present, but generational discipleship for today.

Using a pie chart, she shared a model for intentional focus in six key areas. In these six key areas, you probably are already doing a good bit. Grouping what you are already doing might offer some insight for what to edit and what to shore-up.

First, she said that all ministry is Family Ministry. Agreed. Family Ministry is a process rather than a program with the goal of operating as a full Body of Christ in your local church. Agreed even more. Here are the six key areas:

Milestones: Milestones we make are the developmentally appropriate teachings of our faith symbols, rituals, and holy habits; Milestones we mark are the remarkable moments of life to commemorate the work of God in our family’s life in ways that we did not see coming.

Educational: The intentional building of educational experiences for some and for all. Ex: CLUB345, K2Club, Sunday school, Missions lunches, bringing in a special speaker, etc.

Caring: This is the congregational care of sharing life in grief and celebration; food ministry; new babies; hospital stays, etc.

Parent Equipping: Helping along the way in bite-sized pieces for resources, special events, emails, social media, etc. Ex: My son told me that a website is too much info and no one has time to get lost down a hole of too much information. But providing weekly resources in bite-sized pieces by email or social media posts make for a much easier application.

Family of Families: This is what we do to fill the holes of families, Jesus Loves You Boxes, prayer, moving, car care, Lent Dine-outs, mentoring, coaching, etc.  

Families in Service: Multi-generational opportunities to serve others and one another, family mission trips, hospitality, family VBS, cleaning and/or building spaces, Great Day of Service, delivering, collecting, donating, etc.

Christina Embree is the founder and creator of ReFocus Ministry. She presented at the most recent Bible Creatives Online Conference about the pillars of creating a plan for generational discipleship: Institutional, Spatial, Technological, and Relational. 

As I’m still processing how to incorporate these pillars within this family ministry pie, I really like her vocabulary: Generational Discipleship. I’ve spent some time with her and I really like her plan for intentionally setting the table for folks in at least three generations and sharing the life of the gospel through everyday discipleship in ways that all can engage in a life of faith in Jesus.

Whatever we call it, we know that the purpose of the church is to equip the saints for ministry. Equipping Christians is the one thing we are called to do. Everything else is good, but equipping Christians to live as Christians in the world is what we are to do no matter what. Let’s have a plan for it, let’s set the table for it, let’s push beyond the awkward, and quit protecting turf that we imagine is there because we can’t imagine anything else. I’m putting on my imagination hat!

“But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations.” Psalm 102:12

Last week I posted ideas to consider to make an event an intentional next step in a discipleship journey BEFORE the event. You can find that blog post here. This week we’ll chat a bit about extending your event into something more AFTER the event.

Discipleship AFTER an event might look like….

• Being prepared to share ‘next steps’ for those in attendance by announcement at the end AND a followup email a day or so after the event with links and a few more details to all those in attendance. This is one of the most important reasons to have online registration. Online registration offers tools to communicate next steps to those who attended the event with curated opportunities already prepared ready to receive inquiries, details, and a commitment to participate. Ex: Easter Sunday is a big deal in the church world. But as we prepare for Easter Sunday, what will be offered to help people along their discipleship journey afterwards? Easter Sunday can NOT be a one-and-done event. As much thought needs to go into after-Easter as Easter Sunday. Jesus showed himself to more than 500 people AFTER Easter Sunday. Are you as prepared for AFTER as you are ON Easter Sunday?
• Story: There were four activities about to take place in our community (not just our church) in the next month which were perfect next steps for the ladies who attended the Ladies & Mother-Daughter Heart & Cookie Exchange (think a Christmas ornament exchange but in February because December is WAY too busy). I made the announcements at the end of the event. The next day I sent an email to those who registered and attended with follow-up well-wishes and links to the four activities mentioned in the announcements. A few hours later a Sunday school class forwarded one of the events as a shared experience for the ladies in that class and tickets are now being purchased and plans made to gather to take that next step together. This also affirms that most folks today want to participate in social events ‘with a friend’ or ‘as a group’. Making it easy to do so is a way to help disciples of Jesus know what’s coming up AND who else wants to share the journey. Laying it out there what the next step is makes for an intentional discipleship pathway and helps navigate the mega-communication of options. 
• Taking and posting pictures before, during and after the event extends the event up to several days later. Ex: Campfire Christmas with its sub-zero weather and 30-40 mph winds didn’t keep 100 people from coming out to worship the Lord together as families. As pictures I took and posted AND the pictures posted by families who attended continued to roll in my social media feed, memories and smiles abounded. As they rolled into my feed, I was able to comment with ‘glad you were able to come’, ‘we hope to see you again when it’s warmer’, ‘this was one of my favorite moments, too’. In the algorithm world, those conversations continued and kept rolling in my (and a whole lot of other folks’) social media feed for up to 6 days after the event. 
• Personal thankful texts within the first hour or two after the event to those who served on the make-it-happen team lets the team of folks you lead know their efforts were important to you and to their family of faith. A text with a picture of them with their family or of a special moment makes it easier for them to post in their own social media feed. Every time they search an image in their devices that photo will be there in the gallery for a sticky faith formation memory in their own list of remarkable faith moments. 
• Preparing a response for the next week around tables or hallway chats to remind the WHY for the event in conversations when the event is talked about gives a ‘bow on the package’ opportunity to show your intentional purpose for the event. Everyone has their own reasoning for why an event took place, this keeps it within the navigational beacons of the planned WHY and the basis for how it’ll be measured. Be prepared to bring it up in conversation at every opportunity the following week whether your audience attended or not. 
• Story: Our Finance Ninja is actively involved in another church in our community. With energy and joy I share with her the ‘family stories’ of the previous Sunday and every event as soon as I’m back on campus. She pays the bills and makes us all look good. She’s on my team even if she isn’t there ‘in the moment’. When comments are made or meetings take place, she has some reference and can add to the conversations, extending the narrative beyond the event.

Taking a little time to consider the AFTER can extend your event into the discipleship pathway for the folks who attend, the folks who serve, and the folks who will hear the stories of the event. In the words of the 1991 song by Bonnie Raitt, “Let’s give ‘em something to talk about.”

“The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.” Mark 8:8

Attending a conference with friends is the best way I’ve found to learn and sharpen my skills as a professional Christian educator. I’m a verbal processor so asking questions and hearing the take-aways from those I trust will fill my creative bucket quickly. Last week at Children’s Pastors Conference sponsored by INCM (International Network of Children’s Ministry) proved even more fruitful when I shared a house with twelve other kidmin leaders from twelve local churches attending the same conference for the entire week.

CPC does a fabulous job of intentionally adding to my resource shelves and providing content to do my job better through various breakout sessions. CPC especially pours into us as disciples in the general sessions with incredibly effective communicators.

One of the most impactful for me was the general session with Bo Barredo, an attorney and native missionary to the Philippines. He and his attorney wife co-founded Advancing Native Missions. He shared, “Hope is anticipating the best of what’s good.”
“Mamas are a child’s first Children’s Pastor.”
“Those in Christ share in His story therefore we will share in His suffering.”
“Until Christ returns or we return to Him, we must work and suffer.”
“How do I stay in my hope in the middle of my journey and remain alive and vibrant until the first moment of eternity? JOY!”
“Do not have a poor joy.”
Brother Bo offered four places where I can find joy in the waiting and even the suffering. He is spot on.

Regarding content, I thoroughly enjoyed and got my sword sharpened by the following:

Gender-Specific Ministry Matters led by Cindy Bultema (GEMS for girls) and Adam Sculnick (CIA for boys). Backed by research, we explored…
86% of teen girls say they would feel more confident if they had a mentor
The average church offers 3-6 ministries for women and girls, but only 1-2 ministries for men and boys.
Church has become A place to go rather than THE place to go to learn to follow Jesus.

Family Ministry: A Holistic Approach led by Kathleen Jaoudi sharing, “Don’t re-invent the wheel; just add the layer.” I’ll save greater details about this breakout in a separate blogpost.

Equipping Parents to Navigate Technology and Their Kids led by Ela Hammond. She shared all her resources of books, links, a musical game, QR codes, takeaways, through a parent workshop model. Ela offered breakout information for (1) Screen Time for Littles, (2) Should I give my kid a phone?, (3) Pornography Prevention, (4) Social Media Strategies, and (5) Video gaming/YouTube.
“Today’s families have food boundaries, why not technology boundaries?”
“Our kids will be discipled by something.”
“In West Virginia, the majority of kids’ caregivers are not parents, but grandparents.”

Reaching the Families in Your Community led by Jennifer Edwards gave multiple, easy ideas for being a good neighbor in Jerusalem (inside the church) and in Judea (outside the church) in the community where we live. She’s presenting at the She Leads Church Online Conference and I can’t wait! In the mean time, I’ll be implementing several of her ideas within the next six weeks.

Holidays and Holy Days: Hands-On Celebration Ideas led by Emily Snider walked us through the seven festivals God called His people to celebrate in the scriptures. The four spring festivals celebrate Jesus’ first coming. The three fall festivals remind us of what will be fulfilled upon Jesus’ second coming. For this gal who has no trouble celebrating Jesus, this breakout just added more confetti to this amazing walk with Jesus. Watch out February!

Engaging the Grandparents in Your Ministry was led by Jill Vogel, a representative of the amazing folks at Legacy Coalition. The resources abound there and are fantastic. Their blog is great, their resources are great, their books are great, and their people are great. I found Legacy Coalition at my last in-person CPC2020. It gave me everything I needed to start a new ministry with grandparents during the shut-down which grew by leaps and bounds. I came back this time with lots of resources to gift to those involved in our Grandparenting With A Purpose team, to add to our Faith Grandparenting Facebook group, and share with churches where I lead workshops on this very thing.

The greatest content? The chats around tables, pizzas, Walmart & Publix & Bucc-ee’s runs, hallways, benches, beignets, walking trails, and Animal Kingdom ride lines (2.5 hours for the Avatar ride!) with my housemates who share the trenches in ministry from Georgia to Ohio. The discounted rate for CPC24 is good until January 20th and worth every penny. We’ve rented an even bigger AirBnB and we have four extra spots because sharing together is the best way to go.

My Spirit is full, my mission is clear, my joy can’t be contained, and I’m coming in hot to share the unending hope I have with whomever will listen or not. 2023, I’m coming for ya with my hands raised high!

“Surely you have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.” Psalm 21:6

The local church I serve is going through a discernment process for how the congregation will move forward into the future. I affectionately call them ‘Family Meetings’.

#1 Son and Baby Girl never liked family meetings when they were growing up, but they were absolutely necessary for the health of our family. Family meetings meant we would be walking into a difficult season or resetting from a difficult season. We could expect the first ten minutes of the Reilly Family Meetings to be awful as we faced some elephant in the room, but afterwards we’d always be okay, even better over time. Nobody liked Family Meetings, but they were necessary to share information, offer space to process the information, then respond and move forward as one family in the healthiest way. 

In many local United Methodist Churches, this Family Meeting process is covered in prayer and lots of information. Lots of information. Lots. Of. Information. Study and prayer.

My church leadership has sought to make a way so that everyone can BE heard, BE informed, and BE loved through the Family Meeting process. A task force composed of amazing Jesus guys and gals has led the way. I’ve covered them daily in the armor of God through prayer.

As a staff member of the local church we’ve been asked to continue to plan for and prepare in a neutral position to engage in our community in ministry and mission. As a peculiar people (see last week’s post) I’ve seen the fruit of that with new families participating in women’s Bible studies, children’s Bible studies, religious badge clinics, recreational soccer, special events, local and international missions, and a sermon series diving deeply into 1 John. We have Jesus work to do and have no time to be distracted, sloppy, nor halt everything until.

Take Courage: The Book of Haggai is a wonderful small group study authored by Jennifer Rothschild. She uses Jeremiah 29:4-9 to lay out three practices of a woman in exile (in a foreign land) which speaks to how to navigate through a place we did not ask for, yet here we are: (1) Participate with it by planting, building, increasing, multiplying, (2) Pursue God in it through daily study, model with my whole heart and mind, and (3) be Patient with the exile, patient with myself, patient with the process. Rothschild finishes with the promise of faithfully participating, pursuing, and being patient: “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:12.

Though chatter is thick, the navigational beacons to share the goodness and faithfulness of our Triune God have remained clear because I’ve worked through my own three BEs.

Be in prayer.
Lord, let me not be distracted from doing the work of growing in Christian community through sharing the gospel of Jesus. Let me not sin in any of it through word or deed. You alone are trustworthy and I trust You to make a way for the littles and bigs to love You with their whole hearts for their whole lives. Let me faithfully drip, drip, drip into the faith buckets of the families I serve. For those who are serving on my local church’s task force, I pray Your full Armor upon them, as shared in Ephesians 6. Amen. 

Be clearly informed.
The chatter is about many issues. I’ve discerned the good, the beautiful, and the true as best I can. For the rest I have to stay out of the weeds and trust the Lord to work out the details. As a pilgrim on the Walk to Emmaus in 2000 we were challenged to study church history. Outright craziness! How in the world can the church still be around?!? Yet here are. A holy remnant I hope to be. Even now I’m enrolled in a great online class about the church and leaders of the era around King Henry VIII and Martin Luther entitled, “Off With Their Heads”  led by Brandi Diamond who served a season as a children’s ministry leader. 

Be ready for the change that is coming.
Change is coming. It’s unreasonable to think anything will remain the same regardless of what happens. We have been actively (or reactively) engaged in change for quite some time now. We’ve gone through a shift in family rhythms, routines, culturally, and can truthfully report that everything is still changing. So the gospel of Jesus my focus must be. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and oh, how I love Him. This is where being clearly informed will be helpful to navigate the flux in the flex. I’ve become a student of my families to know seasons, holidays, work rhythms, and am involved in their lives even if only online through social media with an attaboy for riding a bike without training wheels, losing a tooth, winning a contest, and so much more. So I’ll move forward with my plans to expand Faith Milestones beyond the local church to home in 2023 and beyond. Stay tuned because we have Jesus work to do and have no time to wait. 

In the words of the MasterChief voice on my Waze app, “Stay the course.” 

“‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you’ declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:13-14b

Christians are supposed to be peculiar (odd, strange, unusual). We wear the name of Jesus Christ when we call ourselves Christians no differently than we carry our last names signifying what family we belong to. I would never be a sloppy Reilly, how can I settle for being a sloppy (careless, unsystematic, excessively casual) Christian living out a sloppy discipleship?

The word peculiar shows up seven times in the King James scriptures, in 1 Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;” and my personal favorite, “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14

In KJV days, peculiar meant “belongs exclusively to some person, group, or thing” or to refer to “a property or privilege belonging exclusively or characteristically to a person.”

Our choice to be peculiar goes along with ‘being holy (set apart) because God is holy.’ Set apart should look peculiar (odd, strange, unusual) and easily identified as belonging exclusively to Jesus, not sloppy (careless, unsystematic, excessively casual).  I am not my own with my own agenda or driven by my own cause. I’m to be peculiar and not sloppy in what I do, how I think, in my drives and motivations, and how I respond to the world around me.

In a world where everything caters and is programmed around me and my preferences (cell phone, Netflix choices, radio channels, spotify playlists, Amazon wish lists, etc.) I’m so grateful that the local church is not. It’s not supposed to be.

I need the local church to sharpen my peculiarity and not permit me to be sloppy in my discipleship. The local church is a critical means of growth for healthy, peculiar Christians and healthy, peculiar Christians are needed in the local church to guard against straying outside the navigational beacons of teaching to make disciples of the Jesus-of-the-Bible in the face of competing and contradictory agendas.

Peculiar Christians are generous, percentage givers, they set aside regular time in God’s Word, spend regular time teaching littles about Jesus (Jesus calls them the ‘kingdom of God’- Matthew 18:1-6), don’t hold a grudge, teach others with a sense of urgency, let others go first, don’t forsake gathering together in some place, work hard as unto the Lord, are involved in a local church to serve others, and guard their hearts and minds from competing and contradictory agendas. These peculiar actions are not out of duty, far from it. I do these things out of love for the One and Only who left Heaven to make a way for me to be made right with the perfect, holy God of the universe.

Here are some guardrails I’ve put in place to help me choose peculiarity over sloppiness.

Stop following influencers and be the model of peculiarity in my own world. Following Jesus is the only way to grow in peculiarity for Him. Spending more daily time following influencers online will make me poor in my pocketbook and my spirit. Getting the guidance for how I should live in this world through a platform outside the Bible is sloppy. “He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.” Proverbs 12:11

Stop doing only that which is in my comfort zone. Only when I serve outside my comfort zone will I truly be inviting the Lord to do His work in me. Satisfied with being average, safe, or doing the bare minimum is sloppy. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13

Stop comparing myself to others. My standard for peculiarity must be Jesus and not the celebrity Christian who rolls in my feed (this is set by an algorithm or someone trying to sell me something) or who I think is the most spiritual person in the room just because they’ve been in the room the longest. Tossing my hands up just to keep the peace or because it’s hard is sloppy. “Thou shalt not covet.” Exodus 20:17

Stop waiting for permission. I’m over sitting at tables of collaboration and leadership only to continue to hear, “Let’s wait until….” It’s going to be inconvenient. I’m going to get pushback. I’m going to be told all the logical reasons why we shouldn’t. I’m over it! If the disciples had waited, the gospel would have never made it to me. I don’t like being in trouble anymore than the next person, but for goodness sake, our Great God can be trusted with the outcome and I have decided to follow Jesus. Let me set aside my selfish vices to submit to the Lord’s commands to go and make disciples teaching. We are in the mission field everywhere we go and “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

I confess that I slip into spiritual sloppiness when I’m tired, when I’m hurt, when I compare, when I have to be right, when I wear a critical spirit like a new pair of boots, and when I spend more time on my phone rather than in His Word. How do I move out of it? I repent and pray for it: a God-glorifying, Jesus-pleasing Christian peculiarity. It’s lonely and takes courage to pray for such a thing, but He is so worth it.

“Anything that would hinder us from the closest walk possible with Jesus Christ is not for us.” Amy Carmichael, missionary to India for 55 years without furlough

The first time I heard Melissa Mashburn speak was at the She Leads Church online conference. She’s clear, organized, and living in the trenches of local ministry with a history of wearing multiple hats. Her posts are encouraging and her redemption story includes her mother-in-law. Sweetness! I joined her Ministry Chick Facebook group immediately after the conference and have been an Instagram follower every since.

She’s written a book and it’s an absolute delight! Ministry Chick: Find Your Community, Own Your Leadership, Take your Step! Throughout the book she repeats a message that ‘you, Sister, were made for more’. She covers most of the major themes we all have or will encounter as a female leader in ministry reminding the reader that her identity is always in Christ. Her writing is like we’re sitting on the back porch in a small group holding multiple conversations going on at the same time. The wisdom is just that good and I felt I was drinking from a fire hose.

The wisdom is for all women in ministry. The quiet servant who loves behind the scenes and those of us who wear ‘too muchness’ like a new jean jacket.

She speaks about setting core values as guardrails in the ministry which serve as
protective barriers to keep me safe, healthy, and on track thereby resisting the wind gusts of other people’s opinions and values. This is just the thing to set aside the people-pleaser in many women in ministry, or is that just me?

The book is sprinkled with multiple Chick Chats. Chick Chats are insights gathered from the amazing and diverse women within the Ministry Chick online community. These women are making decisions every day, serving our great God in Christian community, leading others, and oh the stories they have to tell. Melissa kindly and graciously shares in several places my own experiences and stories I have shared within that amazing community.

Want to know if your voice matters? “If you want to think about it from a 30,000-foot view, your voice, as a woman, represents roughly about 60% of your church, ministry, or organization. This means it is imperative that you use your voice to represent your team, experiences, and thoughts.” Melissa Mashburn, Ministry Chick

The last section of the book is about taking your next, best step with a holy confidence and a healthy humility. The book closes with a fantastic Group Discussion Guide.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book and can’t wait for the conversations to begin.

“It’s the coolest thing to see a woman who has a holy confidence and healthy humility. She knows who she is, and she knows Whose she is, and she is not afraid to be all her and give Him all the glory.” Melissa Mashburn, Ministry Chick

My local Chick-Fil-A Operator’s team is super creative. They just offered a pajama party event at their restaurant, but not for kids. The event was a sleepover for a kid’s stuffed animal. As I watched the night play out on their Instagram, more like stalked, I saw pics of kids with the CFA cow in its jammies, with their stuffed animal friend, security bracelets matching a kid with their animal, and fun pics of the animals in fun poses all over the restaurant. Some pics included sleep masks on the stuffed animals and others posed at tables enjoying some CFA snacks and dinner.

The children were given a drop-off window around dinner time 5-7pm and a pick-up time around breakfast 8-10am for more pics and fun staged with the cow reading a night-time story to the pack of animals, pics of the chaperones, at the drive-thru in a toy car (think Toy Story), and at other locations in the restaurant.

It got me thinking about offering a stuffed animal church lock-in over a Sunday night, when there isn’t school on Monday, all the places a stuffed animal friend could be posed throughout campus, doing stuff that kids do at church, scheduling hourly posts on social media throughout the evening and morning….

If we offered the friend’s lock-in the Sunday/Monday of Thanksgiving week, we could anticipate new families joining the closed kid’s Facebook group to check out the lock-in shenanigans right as we begin to promote and encourage families for the season of Advent. The algorithms could actually work for us to roll in their feeds during advent. It’s the perfect time to grow the online community for Advent.

It would also give us a way to communicate and practice our systems for security when the kids are the bigs of their little stuffed animals.

Rarely do I come up with an original idea, but inspiration can come from lots of places. Where do you get your inspiration to roll out new things with a purpose?

“We 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

Summer programming is dedicated to Sunday morning small groups, Special Sundays (National Ice Cream Day is July 17, so we have reserved an ice cream truck for after services), and onramp family events like the Tall Small Archery Party. With the weekly Thursday drive-ins in June, July extends an invitation to ‘come on in’ beyond a Sunday and here are a few reasons why:
– New families want to experience life and faith together.
– Current families want to bump elbows with new families.
– Faith formation experiences outside Sundays says we honor your profession and family which calls one or more parents to work on Sundays (retail, medical, hospitality, law enforcement fields, etc.)

Coming from “What’s in my hand?”, our staff includes a great dad who is an archery coach for a private school, Shaun Nguyen. Coach Shaun began his interest in archery on a mission trip almost ten years ago. He applied for a grant to purchase all the equipment and his team now competes. I invited him to ‘set the table’ for smalls with their talls who love them as part of our Soul Food Summer campaign.

Promotional: Tall/Small Archery Party is for children kindergarten and older (small) with an adult who loves them (tall) on Thursday, July 7, 6-7:30pm in the Gym.  Register online. Sponsored by McEachern Kids

We set out snacks which ended up ‘for the road’ because they didn’t want to stop.

We used a QR code on a stand-up sign for check-in rather than a paper sign-in and it was fantastic. For anyone who had not signed in at the June drive-ins, we now could capture their information all inputted by the tall. Smalls wrote name tags for themselves and their tall, which gave everyone something to do as we waited to enter the gym enmasse to begin the teaching piece.

Coach Shaun took 15-20 minutes to introduce himself, teach vocabulary, equipment, and safety. With mom/day/grand right there, each little had their own personal coach when it was time to hit the line with their equipment.

Littles AND bigs took turns learning together, using only fingertips to pull back the strings, chatting, and encouraging one another. With an element of danger, everyone was paying lots of attention and the frowns of “I can’t do it” soon transitioned to hearing the thud of hitting the target. They stayed and talked each other through it. Just like families do.

At 7:05pm, we stopped for a 10-minute break and I shared a younger version of the sin talk, we prayed, and hit the line again with Coach Shaun attaching balloons to the targets this time.

Next time we’ll go until 8pm since we went a little long. We sent them on their way with a blessing and two gifts: (1) a child’s book on The Lord’s Prayer, and (2) faith conversation cards to share at their tables as they continue to enjoy a Soul Food Summer wherever they are.

This was one of the best events and we hit the target on all goals, all levels of hospitality, and with 11 families, we had lots of elbow-bumping to make new friends. Follow-up is the roll-out of a new Sunday school curriculum which has a fantastic parenting piece families can access on their phones, National Ice Cream Sunday for a free ice cream truck after church, and a Tall Small Paint Party on the last Thursday of the July.

“For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” Psalm 122:8