How Do You Spell SUCCESS?

I can't believe that the week has already ended and I'm facing my first Sunday morning in my new congregation. There's a part of myself that is facing that first day jitters. Yet the class rosters are filled for the next two weeks and individuals are beginning to sign up for the summer months. This coming weekend the church is starting to add registration cards in the bulletins and passing out the bulletins at the beginning of service so they can highlight and give the opportunity for individuals to hand in their cards - good call. They'll be highlighting the summer months for children's ministries and beginning on Tuesday I'll be hitting the pavement high and low for individuals to fill the gaps.

It's been a good week of settling in. I still feel like I'm in a whirlwind with information overload yet it is different this time because there is so much information and preparation that has been made for the person who took this spot. For that I will be forever blessed and thankful! There's much to do; first on my plate besides the acclimation is a budget line item and then beginning to flesh out possible vision/objectives for the upcoming year. This is going to take time - I will be doing this in the culture and company of other individuals who have been a part of this ministry to make certain that we are focusing on what is of importance to this community and to help with buy in and ownership of what we plant. Afterall, it is the entire communities crop, I am blessed to be the one that is given the weighty responsibility of watering, weeding and harvesting. As I shared, this is going to take time yet it is again bringing me back to the question of what a spiritually healthy child looks like? And as I am this causes me to ask some questions:

• When a child moves to Jr. High School/Middle School ministries what foundation will they bring with them?
• Will the scriptural knowledge they bring with them consist merely of stories, memory verses and random ideas with no real understanding of how they all connect?
• Will a child be able to begin to make critical decisions about how they will incorporate their faith into their everyday lives?
• Have they begun to incorporate spiritual disciplines of prayer, study, service and worship into their lives?

And then of course comes the question of how can one really measure those responses? One of the biggest challenges in ministry to children is the quest for a reasonable way to evaluate "success." I admit at one time I was looking at success through the lens of growth - participate numbers, increase in giving, consecutive weekly attendance, volunteering parents etc. The problem with measuring success this way is that you can become so myopic on numbers that you wind up missing what is in front of you that is truly important. The child and their spiritual development. That's not to say that growth or increase is not a factor that needs to be considered - healthy programs will show growth yet it is an outcome of, and not the main goal.

My hope as I begin this ministry is that the answers to these questions will look something like this:

• Children look forward to being a part of our ministry with them. They desire to be regular participants in it and begin to build relationships not only with their friends, but with their shepherds and guides.
• Volunteers find that they are energized by their time in ministry and are eager, excited to be a part.
• Families become like the apostle Andrew who exhorted others to "come and see" about this Jesus. They become the first link in outreach to the community about what we're doing with and for children.
• Children develop a deep seated, heartfelt love for God that is communicated through involvement in worship, a desire to be discipled, living out their faith through their choices.

I'll be spending much time digging around for ways in which we can remain faithful to the message of Christ while fostering children's faith in this ever changing and challenging world.