I love reading my Bible through in a year.  I read the same words year after year, yes, but I see new things every time.  This post stems from one of those times.

Last night I was reading in the book of Exodus, chapter 19.  Verse 17 of that chapter says (NASB):
“And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.”

We see the Israelites here coming to meet with God at Mount Sinai.  But something interesting happens.  They come out of the camp specifically to meet with God.  They stood there for days, if not weeks on end, waiting for God to speak and share His message with them.  I don’t know about you, but when I stand for more than a few hours I’m ready to sit down!  The Israelites stood there for weeks! (more…)

I’m writing this post to you from my BlackBerry on my way to teen camp.  I was just looking through the photos on my phone, and noticed one that I had taken at IKEA just last Saturday.

The photo was of the entrance to the Children’s IKEA area.  On this arch are written the words: “For the most important people in the world.”

IKEA has figured it out.  Most people reading this blog have figured it out at some point.  Children are the most important people in the world.

So many times, it’s easy to forget this, even as children’s ministers.  Children’s ministers spend so much time “doing their jobs” that they forget what’s truly important: building vital relationships with children to transform their lives for God.

You also have to remember to remind your pastors and church members why children are so important, because they don’t see the ministry at work week to week.  They’re even harder to remind.

I don’t know about you, but I want to do with my life what is most important.  Kids are that thing.  So just remember: the world has figured out how important kids are.  We need to remember that too.  And that’s the way I see it.

I went into Starbucks this morning to get a Grande Iced Coffee.  While I was waiting, I was looking at the wall art and noticed a theme: the one thing.  It’s repeated over and over all over the walls.

At Starbucks, their one thing is obvious.  It’s coffee.  Yes, they do pastries, tea, and other things too, but coffee is who they are.  It’s what they excel at.

Each of us need to have our one thing.  The thing we’re great at, our passion, our way of life.  For me, my personal one thing is passionately sharing with children not only what Christians believe, but why we believe it.   Our church’s children’s ministry’s one thing is raising kids to be their best physically, mentally, and spiritually.  KidzMatter’s one thing is to partner with churches to help them to make an eternal impact in the lives of kids.

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Our senior pastor has been leading youth group for the past several weeks with a series on the book of Daniel.  Last week we were covering the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  If you forget the story, go read Daniel 3.  For a quick summary, the story was: king set up idol, everyone but three worshipped it, three get thrown into furnace, saved from burning by God, king is amazed.  I just condensed an entire chapter of the Bible into 22 words.  Wow.

In talking about idols, our senior pastor made this remark:
“Anything that comes between you and Christ is excess.  An idol.”

He went on to talk about how anything can become an idol: family, friends, socializing, even ministry. (more…)

Last week, I went and saw “Horton Hears a Who!” in the theatre. I was reminded how much Dr. Seuss reminds me of Biblical themes. So, over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about the Seuss series and some of the things we can learn from it.

We’re going to start with Horton Hears a Who. We’re going to use quotes to make our points.

1. Children matter, just like adults.
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

OK, I know I’m kind of preaching to the choir on this one, but it’s something important to never forget. Every child from the youngest baby to the oldest preteen are just as important as the “grownups”. While we can’t use the same approaches with kids as we do adults, they have an amazing ability to understand God and who he is. Remember that they aren’t stupid! (more…)