On Sunday I announced that Chelsea Miller would be leaving our staff effective March 11th as our Director of Children’s Ministries.  You can read her letter here and the answers to some frequently asked questions here.  Today I’ll wrap this up by giving you some of the plan on how we’re proceeding.

• March 11th- Chelsea’s last day leading the kids.
• March 18th- Party (kids theater) and recognition (grown-up theater…you really didn’t think I was going to put adult did you?) for all that Chelsea has done.

In the meantime, Chad will be working with Chelsea to make sure the transition goes as smoothly as possible.  He will then oversee and lead the teams that will make make ECTV Kids Theater the highlight of every kids week!  For the most part we’ll be keeping with the same awesome format we’ve been using.  Here’s a brief overview video from another church that uses the same thing we do.  As you can see, the hard part is done for you…the key now will be instead of 1 staff person overseeing every aspect of it, we are looking for team leaders to take ownership of small parts of it. These team leaders will then have various people who oversee even smaller portions.

To be most effective we’ll need about 25 people to take on the above mentioned roles.  As I mentioned Sunday, some of these roles are during the week, while most are on Sunday.  Some require you to occasionally miss the Adult Worship Experience while others might require you to miss little to not at all what’s going on in the main theater.  There are various roles that will need to be fulfilled for nursery and toddlers as well as roles for our K-5th grade programs.  All types of skill sets and passions are needed, as well as roles that both introverts and extroverts could do.

Ok that’s the what…but now let’s talk about the why.  Why would you want to get involved in some way?  The reason is is quite simple…research has shown that if someone doesn’t become a follower of Jesus before age 19, there is only a 6% chance that they will sometime in adulthood.

In other words, since one of our core values is “Lost People Matter to God and Therefore They Must Matter to Me” then children have to matter to us as well.  Why? Because those cute little ones will one day get to the point of being convicted of and held accountable for their sins.  In that moment will they realize Jesus is their only hope of forgiveness or are we going to send them out and hope they become a part of the lucky 6% who have an adult conversion experience?Not only that but by teaching them a biblical foundation at such an early age, you will help them to be better people, students, and eventually moms, dads, workers and citizens.

Listen, many people don’t think that they can make a difference with their life…but the reality is you can. Miss Patsy, Mrs. Huffer, Mr. Bob, Aunt Dot, these were just a few of the children’s workers in the church I grew up in that made a difference in my life.  Little did they know when they kept telling me to sit down and be quiet and stop hitting people, that one day I’d grow up to be not just a pastor, but also a pastor who would get to travel all over North America training other pastors.

These 4 were homemakers and mechanics and bankers.  Each would have probably told you that they felt vastly under-qualified, and that some weeks they wondered why they did it, but I guarantee you that now looking at not just my life but the lives of many others they’d all say, “It was worth it!”  For two of them, they’ve already heard Jesus say, “Well done my good and faithful servants”.  In fact, at the church I grew up in there is a plaque honoring Mrs. Huffer and my Aunt Dot for more than 120 years of combined service to teaching children.  Having read the bible literally dozens of times from cover to cover I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that no matter what I do and how “successful” I am as a pastor, their reward in heaven will far exceed anything I’ll ever get.

So with Chelsea’s departure the goal remains the same…it’s just now we’re allowing more of you to get in on one of the most effective ways that your life can make a difference.  We’d love to see you get involved.  If you haven’t already, click here to let us know in what way you’re interested in serving our kids!