The greatest potential for ministry

At our RightNow Conference last year George Barna made the statement that the most potential for ministry is with children.  Keep in mind the audience was a bunch of lead pastors, small group pastors and young adult pastors … so I don’t know that inspired the audience to second guess their career choice or what.  Barna went on to explain that between the ages of 4 and 13 many of our thoughts, habits and beliefs are formed.

Last week Julie and I hosted a Neighborhood Club at our house.  It’s basically a Vacation Bible School type program that our church does in homes across the city instead of inviting everyone to the church building.  We had about 20 kids from our neighborhood each night.  It was chaos — but a good kind of chaos.

Now that we are done with the Neighborhood Club, three things stand out to me:

1. Kids have an amazing ability to memorize. We spent the week memorizing 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 and every single one of them had it down.  These kids ranged from age 4-7.  For me it evokes a feeling of “if they can do it then surely I can do it too.”

2. Despite the chaos the kids really listened. It didn’t always look like they were listening … but every night when we would ask them question about the Bible story, their hands would fly up and they would recall various details about the story.

3. One of the highlights is connecting with the parents. At the end of the week we did an ice cream party and invited the parents and siblings over.  It was great to just hang out with the parents.  We should do that more often.

A few months ago I was having a “get-to-know-you” breakfast with a guy.  He said his life changed when his non-religious, non-spirutual parents sent him to a Vacation Bible School program down the street from their house.  At the end of the week his parents heard the gospel clearly for the first time.  Within a few weeks his parents had trusted Christ and that set his family on a much different path.

Maybe George Barna is on to something.