“You’re going to laugh when I say this, but…”
Last night during staff meeting, we took some time to debrief from my sermon last week. They gave some good pointers, and I am so thankful for the opportunity they are giving me to gain pulpit experience. I told them I’ve come a long way since my Sophomore year in college when I was still planning on going into film-making and saw no use for any of the preaching classes. After I shared a little bit more about what my original plan for life was (making wholesome movies…being salt in Hollywood…eventually making an epic about Elijah – on the scale of The Ten Commandments…) the conversation turned to defining my role within Sonlife/Southside Church. Here’s how the conversation went:
Frank (the Lead Pastor…I’ll list him as F from now on, so I don’t have to type): It’s funny that you mention that.
Me (well, it’s me…I’ll list me as Me…): What do you mean?
F: Well, you know we’ve talked a lot the past few weeks about defining your role here and helping you discover your “fastballs,” the things you do really, really well and can focus on.
Me: Uh-huh
F: And I’ve been thinking that you like to piece things together and like to be creative…
Me: Yeah.
F: And…well, you’re going to laugh at me, but…
Me: silentlyuh-oh…what’s he going to say?
F: After observing you interact with people and factoring in your creativity…I think you would be great at children’s ministry.
I laughed out loud. I’m sure it’s not for the reasons he was expecting. I laughed because Christy suggests children’s ministry at least once every couple months or so. She thinks I’d be good at it. Now the Lead Pastor thinks I’d be good at it. Maybe I need to consider this. It’s also funny because that’s the area I enjoyed the least in youth ministry. I don’t think it was because I didn’t like kids, or anything like that, but I was never really prepared for a ministry like that. I did enjoy telling the kids their weekly Bible story on Sunday mornings during the sermon. It was really fun re-enacting David acting like he was a crazy man amongst the Philistines.
What is God trying to tell me?
I might not know yet, but I do know that I should at least look into the possibility of helping out more with the children’s ministry at Sonlife/Southside. I guess this should be something I need to explore.
Sometimes, God throws you the pitch you hope He doesn’t throw – just to have you do something you can accomplish only by relying fully on Him. Maybe this is one of those curveballs.
Man, I’m using a lot of baseball analogies tonight. Football season better come quick!
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(vignette from Joanie’s life 18 months ago)
Any one of Joanie’s various friends and family members: you should go back to school.
Joanie: Never! I already have one degree I’m not using and I don’t have the money. And I will never go to seminary because I’m not going into the ministry.
Children’s ministry is all about creativity and crowd management. Crowd management can be taught, creativity cannot. It isn’t the craziest idea I’ve heard this week.
Go for it. I like children, but it really isn’t my passion- isn’t that funny? I like working with kids, but when it comes to church, my background has always been college students, not kids. I have wonderful ideas on how to relate the gospel to college kids because of my training, but no idea how to do it with children. I think you’d do well with children.
Hooray for God, Master and Creator of the confused!