What every kid needs

Recently I had the privilege of speaking to our volunteer children’s workers here at Grace Church at a Saturday morning breakfast and training time. What a special and important group of men and women these individuals are. They are not simply children’s workers. They are much more crucial than that. They are nothing short of being agents of God. I made this statement to them: “What every kid needs, is a warm welcome and an adult who is crazy about them!”

It’s true. The job of a children’s worker is not just to set up chairs and bring the chips or cookies. They’re job is to impact young lives for Christ. How do you do that? It starts with a warm welcome.

When I was a youth pastor I drilled this into my youth staff. One of my staff took it very seriously. His name was Dave. Dave taught our Senior High Sunday School class. This was the most difficult aspect of our ministry to teens. These teens had already sat through a church service that wasn’t the most exciting adventure for a High School student. Now they had to sit through an hour long class. The enthusiasm wasn’t very high. Dave would spend the first half of the class, sometimes longer, going around to every teen individually, making them shake his hand, and asking them questions about their week. To be honest, the teens kind of joked about this “ritual greeting.” But years later I spent some time with a young man who came to our youth group. He was the only believer in his family. As we talked he told me that the thing he missed the most about our youth group was Dave’s handshake every Sunday morning. He said that some weeks that handshake was like an oasis. No matter how bad his week had gone, he always knew he was going to get a warm welcome on Sunday morning from Dave.

Along with a warm welcome there must also be an adult who is crazy about each kid. Back at our church in Indiana we had an AWANA program in which we ran busses and brought in a couple hundred fringe kids. One evening I stepped out of my office and saw two young first grade age girls running down the hallway the opposite direction from where they were supposed to be. As I instructed them to head back to where they belong, they adamantly insisted that they had to go see their friend. This dialogue went on for a few minutes and just as I was getting ready to raise my voice at their blatant disobedience they pointed down the hall and yelled, “There she is!” Before I could react they took off down the hall and both jumped into the arms of their friend. Guess who this friend was? She was my wife. Do you know why these girls came to AWANA each Wednesday night? Because they had found an adult who was crazy about them! It’s true: “What every kid needs, is a warm welcome and an adult who is crazy about them!”

Why don’t you be that person? Why not consider becoming a volunteer in our children’s ministry. You won’t just be a children’s worker. You will be an agent of God!