by A lot, if you’ll let them… As Josh found out:
Anyway, as part of the new schedule of things on Saturday nights, we started using the same curriculum for the elementary kids in both hours. By doing this, we are encouraging parents who are there for both services to take their elementary child with them into the service. As a parent, I understand the scariness of this, but also the benefits of it. In the last 2 weeks, it has not been the easiest task having Ava in the service, but I am already starting to see the benefits and how they far outweigh the costs.
This past week, I was preaching on the wicked rich from James 5:1 – 6. Ava is very artsy and creative and would do crafts 24 hours a day if we let her. To help her in paying attention, Katie asked Ava to draw a picture of what I was preaching about. She drew a picture of a man with gold, saying that was the rich guy and a poor man who was asking the rich man for money. She told me the rich man didn’t give the poor man any money and that God was not pleased by this. What is interesting is that neither Katie or I told Ava what I was preaching on, she picked up.
Two other things jumped out. Paul mentioned that now that we are in 2 services we have some empty seats and challenged us to invite people and pray for those we are discipling to Jesus. When we were praying before bed this past Saturday night Ava told me, “Dad, we need to pray that all the seats at church get filled, that people will invite their friends so they can become forever friends with Jesus. Dad, I’m going to start praying for that.”
Don’t tell me a 5 year old can’t pay attention in church and get something out of it.
Read the whole post at Missional Thoughts…
