I love this visual from Matt Mc Gill’s blog a couple of weeks ago: “Love the roster a mom put together… It says, one team, one fight. Perfect.” When I saw this it made me think of you.

Well, not you specifically because we’ve probably never met before. It made me think of US: people who are Christ-followers, working to serve God’s purposes in our lifetime.

Sometimes we let our own insecurities overwhelm and paralyze us from doing anything. Other times we let our own agenda and sense of entitlement take over and it causes us to do too much, which just railroads the relationships we are entrenched in. And because of all of this we get caught up in the wrong struggle, in the wrong fight.

Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out. – Ephesians 6:13-18 (The Message)

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/shirley-postcards/4345477084/

When I was a kid I used to go to church alone. I can’t really explain why 6-year-old me felt compelled to do that but I did. Just about every Sunday I would get up, have breakfast, wake my parents up, and had them drive me to the church that I also went to school at. I did this until I was old enough to walk there and back by myself. I think it really weirded my parents out for a while. “Why’s this kid going to school on a Sunday?” they probably thought to themselves. I was a pretty strange child anyway so my parents just rolled with it, figuring there were worse things that I could be doing.

I never really made a lot of friends at church growing up and almost quit going. As I was starting to leave one time my Sunday School Teacher, Miles, asked me where I was going. I told him I was going home because I had no one to sit with me in church. Miles stopped me and said that I could sit with him and his family. Later that day Miles took me home and asked my parents if it was OK with them if I sat with him and his family whenever I came to church. My parents knew him a little from school because I was in his daughter’s class and they said it would be OK.

It was one of the first memories I have of ever being accepted by people who weren’t a part of my family. It’s the first time I can ever remember someone caring about me when they didn’t have to. And I’ve been in Children’s Ministry ever since.

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The one thing that the families and leaders that we minister to need from us is to be more proactive than reactive.

Yesterday I did a post on some thoughts I had from Haggai 1. Throughout this passage God uses the phrase, “Look at what’s happening to you!” and it made me think, “Do we really know what’s happening to us?” So much time in our ministries and personal lives are spent running from one program to the next, putting out one fire and then going to put out two more that started while we were putting out the first one. Sure unexpected stuff comes along and sure we need to be able to think quickly on our feet but we also need to have a plan. Simply being reactive to everything that happens to us is basically giving control of our lives away to other people.

So what does it mean to be more proactive than reactive? Let me explain:

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At High Desert Church we have a great resource that we give out a couple of times a year to the families in our children’s ministry. It helps them to invite their unchurched friends to HDC. It clearly defines our approach to evangelism, points them to a great entry point event, and gives them tips on how to strategically invite their friends to one of our campuses on the weekend. Feel free to take it and adapt it to your setting.

I do want to clarify one important thing that you’ll see in this resource. There’s a term that you may have noticed I use on my website called oikos. It defines my church’s approach to ministry at all age levels. Oikos is used in this resources and is pretty familiar in my ministry setting. It has been a great approach to doing church that you may want to check out. The resource above still works regardless of whether or not you embrace oikos. Feel free to comment on this post or use the contact page on my blog to learn more about oikos.

Click here if you would like to take a look at it.