Calvary Children’s Ministry Blog

Then he [Jesus] looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:34-35)

When Jodi and I got married, we were both in the military and living in Germany.  We began our marriage without the benefit or hindrance of biological family surrounding us.  We relied heavily on each other, because, many times, each other was all we had.  We also learned the value and importance of the extended nontraditional family — our friends and fellow soldiers.

When we arrived in North Carolina, we had neither our military family nor our related family.  We were once again at ground zero, completely dependent our own resources.  However, we quickly learned and embraced a new family, our church family.  We discovered a new family, a family just as flawed and defective as any other, but still family.

When we came to Calvary in 2001, we had experienced our church family at our previous church fall apart.  People were fighting and taking sides.  We hoped with Calvary to make a new start.  We knew we needed church family, and Calvary seemed like a good place to find one.  We did find church family here at Calvary.  Many of you have become our brothers, sisters, mothers, aunts, and uncles.  Some have openly and willingly became family to us.

Jesus spoke often of such nontraditional, extended family.  In Jesus’ context, our family reaches beyond the home, beyond the church building, even beyond our neighborhood and city.  We have adopted brothers and sisters all over the world!  Perhaps we would do good to listen, and to treat each other as the family we are instead of just acquaintances (or worse, enemies).  It must hurt God to see His children fight, or worse to treat each other with apathy.

I thank God for my family at Calvary who surround me with love and understanding.  Who see me as more than just a member of a staff or a minister but as a part of their extended family.  God bless you!

In recent years, our children have been subjected to entry test and end of grade test before moving on to the next grade.  As of now, these tests have not been used to keep children from moving on to the next grade, but many times, it marks children in the minds of teachers and school administrators.  Such testing affects how teachers teach, right down to the preschool level, and many professional educators, including myself, have concerns about the appropriateness of such testing.  A child can be marked as a failure before they even begin kindergarten.  Some teachers resign to teaching what is on the end of grade test.  My fear is our children are not being taught to think, but instead, are just being taught to memorize and remember facts.  The brain is more than just a card catalog of facts and figures. 

In ministry, we must be careful not to become just another fact-feeding institution for our children.  Verse memorization and knowing the books of the Bible are all good and well, but memorizing a verse and knowing what it means are two different things.  Our children need to be challenged to think.  The BIG questions for everyone from age 2 to 200 is “What does this have to do with my life?” and “How can I use this in my life?”  Without making it relevant to a child’s life, it is just more facts and figures to memorize and possibly never use.  We need to meet them on the path and join them in their journey.  We need to ask and listen to what children think.  They might surprise you.  They will certainly challenge you.  You will discover you learn from them, too. 

Faith is not about facts and figures (though these things are useful), but faith is really about discovery.  Faith is about life.