When I Started Serving In Kid's Ministry, I Knew I'd Never Be The Same

On Sunday mornings, you get up, you go to church, you hear a sermon that may or may not resonate with you, and then you go home.

You go about your day or your week only letting the sermon "hit" you Sunday morning or whenever it's convenient for you.

Sound familiar?

Yeah, that was me a few years ago. I attended church when I felt like it, never confronted with an opportunity to serve.

Okay, okay. Guilty, I was never seeking an opportunity to serve.

But looking back, I can't understand why. I could blame it on being introverted, but even I know that's not a sufficient reason.

Anyway, I had just started attending my church and my sister-in-law asked if my sister and I would be willing to volunteer in their Kid's ministry. We said, "Why not" because we love kids and we did VBS for our mandated service hours in high school.

And wow, God took our "Why not" and it did much more than we could ever have imagined.

Suddenly, I wasn't just attending church to fit my Jesus quota for the week - yes, I know, it's not the way to live just bare with me a little bit longer - I was not apart of a church. I was apart of something bigger.

And if you've ever served in Kids ministry, not babysitting, but a ministry, you know all the ways that God transforms your character, your faith, and your life through these little humans. These tiny, creative, and intelligent little humans.

Oh man, not only are you challenged by the questions these kids come up with but now you're teaching these kids, things that you may or may not have learned yourself.

One of the greatest things serving in kid's ministry has taught me is the importance of going back to the basics.

The basics of spiritual disciplines.

The basics of prayer.

The basics of Christian knowledge. And when you have that foundation, you get to help lay that same foundation for the kids so that they grow on that foundation in the years ahead of them.

Now, I'm not just apart of one church in California, I'm apart of something so much greater - God's kingdom.

Serving in Kid's ministry might not be "for you" but it wasn't "for me" either. It was always for God first, then the kids themselves.

Because if we're only serving for the kids, the first time a kid throws a crayon or a toy at you in the middle of your teaching, you're going to want to quit.

If we're only serving for the kids, the Sundays where they're just not listening and you're just having a bad day, you're going to want to give up.

Believe me, they will throw things at you that you can't always catch. They will be disrespectful and stop listening. They will talk over you. And some Sundays, especially the Sundays where you forget your coffee at home, it will feel like you're talking to a wall and nothing makes sense to them.

But when you are serving God, first and foremost, He keeps you steady. He keeps you going.

I think if you were to seek volunteer opportunities at your Church, instead of just attending it, you'd find that you belong and God will transform your heart to hear his Word into one that's also willing to serve. And a servant's heart is one that starts to look like Jesus more and more each day.

Isn't that what we strive for?