Goldfish Crackers are one of the great constants in every Children’s Ministry. It doesn’t matter what part of the country you go to; if you drop your kids off at a church you can expect them to be served one of those little cups overflowing with Goldfish Crackers and another one filled with water. You can count on it like the guy at RadioShack asking you to give him your zip code when all you want is to buy two AA batteries, or watching a rerun of “Three’s Company” where there’s some kind of misunderstanding. It’s gonna happen.

I’ve been in Children’s Ministry now for about twelve years. I hate Goldfish Crackers and their dirty little cousin, the Cheez-It. Even as a kid I couldn’t stand them (and no, they did not become any more delicious to me when they put those little eyes and smiley face on them). I always felt that the old ladies at my church growing up that peddled these disgustingly processed snacks were akin to bullies whenever they attempted to force them upon me. The other kids would look down on me, with cheese cracker stains on their alligator shirts, because I wouldn’t eat the Goldfish. To this day I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat because of a recurring dream about drowning in a sea of Goldfish Crackers while a group of Sunday School kids sing a round of “I Will Make You Fishers of Men.”

So why am I telling you all of this? It’s my tongue in cheek way of saying that we hold on too tightly to certain traditions. We give Goldfish Crackers out to kids every weekend because that’s what we’ve always done. We have our meeting on the third Sunday of every month ending in “uary” because that’s what we’ve always done. We follow this schedule every weekend because that’s what we’ve always done. We _______________ because that’s what we’ve always done. Like the Goldfish Cracker, we have a bad wrap for being bland and cheesy.

This weekend as you pass out Goldfish Crackers (which is OK to do, by the way) and you’re not sure about trying that new thing in your ministry, just remember that it’s OK to do things differently from time to time. It might not always work the way that you want it to but it’s more important that you were willing to take the risk!

What crazy idea are you holding back on because it’s not the same “Goldfish Crackers” that everyone is used to? Do it anyway.

–Jeff

PS – No goldfish were harmed in the writing of this post.

PPS – In case you weren’t aware, this is a bit of a rip-off from three websites:

Stuff White People Like (Not a Christian site. Please don’t go there and email me about how offensive the site is. It’s satire, and very funny!)

Stuff Christians Like (It is a Christian site. Please don’t go there and email me about how offensive the site is. It’s satire, and very funny!)

Sam Luce (Sam did a series of posts like the two websites above. His are funnier and better written than mine, but don’t tell him that I said that.)

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