Last night at Catalyst, we had 0 kids in Kidopolis. This was actually a good thing, though. As I sat upstairs in big people church, I think I got a glimpse of how we need to do children's ministry here.
Our goal is to reach the lost, the letdown, and the looking. It's hard at first to picture kids who fit this mold, but the more I thought about it and opened up my eyes to what is going on in the lives of kids, they might be farther along all of those paths than most adults.
Most children's ministries I have seen don't really reach unchurched kids. Even ones that have that goal in mind tend to eventually come back to traditional kid's church as we know it. I think too often we try to reach unchurched kids with "churchy" methods. Something in my gut tells me we have to move outside that box to really be able to connect with these kids. Honestly, I don't think I have a clue what that is going to look like or what it will take to get us there. The good thing is that I have a team of amazing people along side me as I try to figure out just what God wants us to look like.
I sat in the back of the church last night, listening to Jonathan talk. I have heard this particular message a couple times (through early launch team meetings and also when he spoke at Southern Hills), but certain points really hit me tonight. Jonathan mentioned how Jesus didn't go out looking for the brightest and best religion students to be his disciples. He went after the ones no one else wanted. There are so many kids that feel unwanted in this world and I think those kids are specifically who we want to see reached here at Catalyst. It will be messy and we probably will need to have a giant bottle of tylenol around for all the headaches that will come from doing something this messy.
Jonathan mentioned something else in his lessons that got me thinking. Jesus spent 24/7 with his disciples. They followed him around everywhere he went, listening for him to share his wisdom with them. I don't know if this is the case or not (because I wasn't there), but I imagine that because of them being there 24 hours a day, a good portion of that time wasn't Jesus teaching them necessarily. It was just Jesus building a relationship with them. Laughing, crying, listening to their stories, talking about family, etc. I imagine another good portion of that time was sleeping. Wouldn't you be tired after all that walking?! That's beside the point, though. I think what will make or break us will be our relationship building. Will we be about a nice, neat little program where we do some songs, a game, a lesson, another song and then pray or will we be about really getting to know kids and love on them the way Jesus did with his disciples?
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