Ministry Spark Webinars - What Ministry Leaders are Doing Right Now

uh this is byron reagan's from david c cook publishing and on behalf of david c cook and ministry spark which a number of you are very familiar with we want to welcome you to another webinar that we want to bring to you and not just another webinar because a lot of us are doing webinars in the season we're in 2020 what a year for us but this webinar our team uh really wanted to create kind of a conversation around this topic around this theme and this topic and theme kind of leads us into a series that we're going to be bringing to you in the next couple of months and that is ministry right now a number of us are thinking about the future and probably most of us are thinking about tomorrow today or this weekend right so where we're going to focus today and in more more webinars to come is really how are you expressing ministry now or for this webinar this conversation how are you reaching families now so the big word is how are you reaching families now i am very glad to bring to you a panel of ministry giants some who have been in ministry for a long time some who are relatively new in ministry and these these are four incredible friends that i've gotten to know that really cover the entire country and world because we actually have a canadian on this call and he'll he'll certainly sound like it in just a few minutes but what i've asked them to do is to really look at this question how are we reaching families now it's a question that we that we ask probably uh prior to covid it's one that we've asked a number of times during covet but it's a question that we've got to be looking at now and a number of you and our panel have really made a number of shifts since march when everything really changed in our world and i think when we begin to go through these questions that i'll be asking our panelists you're really going to hear their mindset and how they've executed moving their children's and family ministry from where it was prior to march to where it is today so i am going to start to my left and um that would be cynthia cynthia i would love for you to tell us very quickly uh who you are where you're from and um what is most unique about your church and children's ministry cynthia well i'm cynthia collins um i'm at winfrey memorial baptist in midlothian virginia which is right outside of richmond um and it's been a pleasure to be here at this church winfrey is unique in that um what drew me here was its its dna of service and ministry in the community and it began back in the 1800s when they rolled the little wooden structure down the highway several miles to be closer to the mines in 1881 and then in 1882 the mine exploded and they ministered to those mining families so that's been the dna of winfrey it has so many fingers out into the community with different service projects and different ministries and missions projects we go on mission trips all of this it's just really a unique church in that it thinks about service to others first before thinking of itself wow wow wow so a kind of historical church and winfrey memorial church is really being recognized as a church that serves others before yourselves that's beautiful great and cynthia how long have you been and uh this is a fair question how many years have you been in children's and family ministry we want to know i've been in ministry of children for 33 years and i just celebrated my 25th anniversary of being ordained into the ministry this past week that is very good let's do a clap let's do like an air clap everybody that is fantastic so cynthia collins we welcome you to our panel today and we're excited so excited to uh to hear from you i already know that you're doing some incredible unique stuff can't wait to bring that to uh to our community uh alex douglas yes sir i am uh happy to be your uh your international flavor today and i'll try and uh not let my canadian drawl uh distract too much today but uh yeah no i am the uh the lead pastor of the family church of heritage green we're up in uh near toronto in ontario and canada and um what's certainly unique about our church is the how closely uh the concept of how close the concept of family is to everything that we do um this church was replanted six years ago with that unapologetic family focus [Music] yeah and uh and so the intent behind that was to sort of take the family ministry experiment that a lot of us had been trying in departments or at events and asked what could god do with that if we made that the orientation of a church and so hopefully my perspective will be a unique one not just from an international flavor but uh from a perspective of what it can look like because i'm what i'm excited what i have been excited to see is how many churches have really jumped at the opportunity to double down on family uh during this kind of era of coveted church so hopefully i can i can bring some of that today that's great alex so good to see you and i can't believe it's been six years i remember when you made the big word these days is pivot you made that six years ago and with great passion uh you were you were ready to begin a new work and uh wow how how excited i am for you and it's good good to see you again and good to hear your voice karen baines hello hello how are you very good tell us where you're from and what is i've been to largo community church but what is unique about you all sure so i am in mitchellville maryland which is about 15 to 20 minutes right outside of washington dc um one thing that is unique about largo community church is that we are a very close-knit church and it's odd as it relates to our size our congregation size that you really know all the families within the church and i think that also goes back to the fact that this is um our pastor is also our founding pastor and um the members here really have been lifelong members like myself my mother actually started attending this church before i was born and so then i came along and you know i stayed i got married here and it's just it's odd that you will see a church this size where we are just very close and where you know everyone that's great that is that is good that is good how are your boys you have twin boys don't you i have twin boys their head in here a minute ago but yes i have different boys they are eight years old um and they are also in virtual school as well so yeah it's exciting yes and karen if i remember you and i met about a year ago you came from public education correct correct yep yeah and you've only been uh shall we say a full-time children's pastor director not even a year or has it been a year it has been a year yes it has been a year it has been a year oh my goodness you know when you get there did what a horrible year to begin your ministry but you have been beautiful i know some of the work that you're doing it's incredible and i can't wait for our community to hear from you my friend karen bain so glad to have you nancy deyoung uh probably of the panelists one that i've known the very most uh nancy who are you and what's unique about pine lake and all that kind of stuff you go so i'm nancy deyoung and i'm at pine lake covenant church in sammamish washington we're an eastern suburb of seattle so what makes us unique part of it is our location and just the nature of the area with high-tech giants here they bring in people from around the world and so we have a pretty diverse community that we're in and we value as a church really value intergenerational worship and we call it all ages all growing all the time so any program event um connections that we're creating we're so mindful of all of the ages being present and especially for children how do we not just make sure that we're present that they're there's something for them but how are they engaged how are they part of what we're doing rather than having them just sit through something how are they leading where are we creating space for them to step in and and be who god has called them to be how are we elevating the place of a child in the kingdom of god wow which is also very very much part of our covenant denomination absolutely absolutely well said so uh to to our guests that are joining us right now you're obviously hearing these four panelists are expressing ministry all differently in all different contexts that's what's so absolutely beautiful about a panel and certainly this panel so as we jump into this um we're going to spend as much time as we really need to on several questions but my my difficult work is is to really kind of pose the question and then give us time to really give you time to really kind of go back and forth and in your context really answer because that's going to be helpful to to our listeners so i will ask us all to be as succinct as possible and i've asked our panelists uh guests to to um feel free to ask one another questions or clarification if i miss something so i really would love as alex is taking a swig of coffee i would really love this to be a conversation that we're having with each other and that we're having with you so as we dive into to to our conversation my first question really would be how are you reaching families now and uh is your church how are you meeting um how are you gathering right now what does that look like not only worship i think often we say are you re-gathering we we talk about yeah well worship is regathering but i really want us to talk about children's ministry as well what does that look like nancy i'll start with you how are you gathering as a church for worship and for children's ministry so we are still gathering virtually so just the phase that our county is in in the state of washington um we are pre-recording all of our segments and then we have a team that puts them together and then we have a live premiere of our service on youtube and facebook so we also have some small groups that are just starting to meet in person either on campus or at home i'm entertaining the idea of what that would look like for some of our families to create a space for them especially for our fourth and fifth graders starting with that group so our kids program then we do a message that i share in our facebook group on sunday mornings and encourage families to watch the children's portion and then participate through worship and then i also have a short kids message in the service so giving the children space to be involved wonderful and your primary reason for not gathering now is primary reason is the levels that we're at in our state and in our area and we have an older congregation as well we have a lot of aging members that we really want to protect them and as a church we've also had conversations with other churches in our area of how do we be good neighbors and care for our whole community not just our body of believers and several of our volunteers are not ready to come back in person right now either so trying to have uh even a live stream of a service right now most of our volunteers are not comfortable with that i see so it would be very true that your children's ministry if we were to look at that is open and it's being done virtually correct and what kind of response are are you getting by having children's ministry open it's not happening physically but it's happening virtually uh what would what would be some of your analysis or some of your observations that you would make about the successes of that to this point i ask myself that all the time and i've tried to let go of the metric of success and instead focus on relationships and qualities of relationships rather than looking at those abcs of attendance building cash any of that how are we building relationships and i should have known that about you so i apologize for asking a crazy question i should have known that but continue yeah so a lot of it is connecting with the families and i feel like i have to use any medium that i can because families are still so overwhelmed schools are still [Music] okay to encourage them to equip them and and help them see who god has created them to be uniquely that's great that's great how about you alex um what what is gathering looking like for you there in in canada please share um yeah i suppose i i love a lot of what you just said there nancy in terms of your your desire to partner physically and the relationship piece because i think that's the the biggest shift that i've seen for us has sort of been a doubling down on caregiving as opposed to um sort of more of the i think pre-covered you know i think the philosophy of church was generally how do we partner with families and while that certainly remains i think um definitely what has defined us in the last seven months has been caregiving for our families um just trying to to come alongside and i know i'm jumping ahead a little bit but um that's right it's good yeah no what we what we've been up to we are we're still entirely digital as well um we're a very young church and uh my own family is a good reminder of the amount of saliva that can be produced by a young church and so we would have some senior friends in our church that we want to protect as well and so it's part of the reason why we're renovating our sanctuary right now is that the building is empty and and it allows us to open safely um so we are gathering online and our service is a live uh youtube event so it's a combination of some pre-assembled pieces um but also a live piece that i do on sunday morning with our director of children's ministries um there's only three of us that are in the building so that her husband is our av coordinator and he sort of quarterbacks the the technical side and the live streaming side but what we're finding that allows us to do is is maintain some level of uh engagement and connection um that we have we'll ask questions live in the morning and then have people answer them in the comments section of youtube and then we'll interact with them that way and it just helps it to feel a little less like we're separate um by having that that minimal it's really only two people because uh aaron and andrew are married and so it's uh it's really a two-person bubble on sunday mornings um that allows us to do our ministry um in many ways it looks very similar to the way it did before which is again a real comfort piece for our families i think it's great beautiful beautiful thank you cynthia what does church what does it look like what does children's ministry look like for you today completely different completely different i kind of thought you would say that that's why you're on the panel well see i was on sabbatical uh february 5th through march 13th and so the sunday i came back was the sunday we gathered we gathered very small you shouldn't have come back so i haven't seen my kiddos in a group setting since before february 5th wow wow that is i did not know that yeah yeah and so it's been it's been a real shocker but when coming back you know we thought coming back you know we closed oh it'll be for a few weeks oh maybe it'll be for a month you know you start out thinking temporary and then it just is morphed into this is the way it is so what we did immediately is not knowing how to get with our kids we went ahead and packaged up our bible and life curriculum for each kid on our sunday school roll and mail it to them every two weeks so every two weeks i get a packet of two weeks of sunday school curriculum and then um on our win free a children's ministry facebook page i uh post videos that go along with those lessons um that just didn't seem to be enough for me so after a while um i made the plan of trying to visit in each of the homes now we had 161 kids on our roll now we have 150 because we graduated 11 up sure sure i'm up to 79. a little over halfway there but just staying in contact with our families and our leaders um you know it's it's just a it's a juggling act on i'm always feeling like i'm not doing enough you know whatever we're doing it's not enough right now um but yeah we just completely pivot complete pivot do any of you i want to pick up on that cynthia that that is great do do it's a loaded question i know but do you other three feel like you're doing enough you're not doing enough um you want to weigh in on that in any of you i think that's a very interesting transparent word from a seasoned veteran children's ministry who came back into covid 19 sometimes wondering and i know that you're doing a lot but what about you other panelists guests with us what would you say about that how are you with that i always feel like i'm falling short like there's more that can be done and it's not enough or not enough connection or face time that i would like to have with families and i have to recognize that there's always going to be more so i have to give myself grace as well as extend grace to other families and make sure that i'm practicing self-care so i can also model that for my families too when they're feeling overwhelmed um so it's taking that intentional pause and resting in in what god has planned wow that's great that is wonderful karen you you or alex wanna yeah i i agree with uh nancy when you just have that feeling of you're not doing enough but then also we have struggled with well not only are we not doing enough but what should we do you know so that that's just the biggest thing like what should we do and it's not like the parents have that answer either or the kids have that answer so we kind of just grapple around with it and then i'll probably say it's like just a month ago where i realized that um we're we're for lack of better words we're in this together so showing that vulnerability to parents um really helps in just being an encouragement it was like a time when my boys started virtual school and they come with me here to the church for virtual school and zoom was not logging in internet was going crazy and i wanted to throw my laptop i really did and can i see a show of hands out there yes it's like 7 45 in the morning i'm sweating and it's just like what in the world and so finally um i just i put together this email because i had to think to myself that god knew covid was coming god knew that karen baines would be the christian education director during covid and that wasn't an accident so i share that with the parents i'm like look he gave you sally he knew that you would be sally's parent during covet so don't think that like you know you're in this alone he purposely chose you to be here at this time with these children so i think when we just show some vulnerability and just you know like we're all struggling together but we can do it and just don't forget that you were chosen for this moment you know your kids were chosen to go through this pandemic like all of this was for a reason and if we get back to that i think that helps us just get through this day literally get through the day yeah i think it really does and i i think karen i i'm impressed with that nancy i i appreciate what you said too i i really feel like as ministry leaders and as a publisher we're playing the long game i i don't know when this is going to be over i i am not one to say hey ministry is never going to be like it was i i don't say that nor do i really like to hear that from people or even life is going to be radically different than what it was i i don't know that and a part of that as it relates to ministry saddens me because there's so many things that we used to do that i want to go back and do but i have to believe that god in his sovereignty knows what's going on and he loves the bride his church more than we would ever and he wants the best he wants the best for it let me ask you guys this question what were you doing in february or early march what was your mindset what were you thinking about what were you preparing before this happened i was in the holy land and i was preparing all of these videos and all of these lessons and then i went to jordan and i had all this this curriculum that i was writing and getting it all together and i haven't been able to share it yet right right right right wow you you pounced on that for whatever reason i did not know that's where you were cynthia before before this happened what about you alex where was your mind where are we you ladies are are hitting all the same notes here this is great i am our year for 2020 uh has been the year that our church has been looking forward to since we began the process of replanting as it was going to be our final year of uh receiving grants from our parent denomination the presbyterian church in canada and so this has been we called it our moving out of our parents basement year the year that we sort of uh became you know entirely self uh sustaining and uh kind of putting some things in place throughout covet i've transitioned from being the uh children's pastor to the lead pastor and so this has been a really fun trial by fire um super glad that there's lots of books about how to minister during pandemics because they've been super helpful super super helpful but um and so i think for for us we had a lot of things planned we had we had some wonderful celebrations planned we had some really cool the week after we decided to close was supposed to be a service but we were going to baptize 12 kids um and so we've sort of had up this i think what uh you know what we shared about having these things in your folder that you haven't had a chance to share we've got a whole pile of stuff that we've been gearing up to and just haven't been able to do and so i think a lot of it was sort of mourning the loss of that and then deciding okay what what is god going to redeem in this what is god saying let go of it and what is god saying don't worry we're going to do it differently and so that's sort of been a lot of i feel like that's been my last seven months has been sort of putting everything through those filters can you give us those three again sure what did i say so what is god going to redeem uh what is he calling us to let go of and what is he saying don't worry we'll come back to it yeah panelist and our guest i hope you're writing those things down that that is gold and that is beautiful there is a there is a thread that's happening here and and nancy i want you to continue to kind of stitch that thread but what about you what were you doing in february one of my favorite things i had been doing and praying and working about was a community-based play group for moms in our community i have just really been growing um in my heart about reaching the families that are in our community that don't yet know jesus or have been hurt by church and don't have connection now and i saw that we had a large gym available so i had spent um over the summer but it really picked up a year ago in september uh it just opening up our space for an hour and a half every monday morning and we had been bringing in the coffee cart and i regularly had 15 moms and multiple kids but the count was probably 30 to 40 families that were regularly coming and i was just at that point of really building up those relationships and really making connections that as we were approaching easter and all the events and activities and programs not that i was driving them towards a program but utilizing that as as a way to connect them to bring them into the church to surround them with more community and embrace them and that has been one of the biggest losses for me that i've been incredibly sad about that not only can we not gather but these these families that we're feeling isolated and starting to find connection that they don't have that connection now [Music] nancy we were in the exact same situation where it was a group that had grown from this enormous little facebook pocket that had decided you know what we're going to get together and started using our building as that and it was the exact same situation where we had different people coming in with coffee bringing snacks just to come we had some honorary church grandmas that came to hang out with kids while the moms went for walks and it was so sad to be able to have to make that call to say i'm really sorry ladies but we can't do that anymore for the time being so i i'm right there with you there is a thread it's a very it's a very flashy color of red that's being woven here that i want to go to in a moment if if karen do you have anything that you want to add as far as what you were doing before this happened um right before it ended we just finished writing our own vbs and we were going to have a superhero themed vbs we had the graphics the video together and then we just put it aside we were actually thinking like miss cynthia that this will just be for a couple of weeks or this will be for a month and i think um it really hit home to us about the end of april that this is you know real and we're gonna have to really start thinking about what our plan b c d and e will be so we hear from i'm kind of looking at the screen from cynthia going to the holy land which she was so glad to tell us that she was there and has story and story and story that she would like to lay out with her children to my friend in maryland karen baines who was at that time uh preparing for vbs and then alex and nancy in between but what did we hear and and you know it's interesting i think there's some fine questions here but this is a question that's not on the sheet that's right that's right you ministry leaders are expressing lament you're expressing sadness you're expressing loss you're grieving not not only are you grieving um what you would like to cynthia take from that holy land trip and use with your awesome children's ministry but it sounds to me you're even not struggling but there's a lamenting about your calling that you're not able to express your calling as deeply and richly as you did prior to march that's really what i'm hearing yeah that's true one of the things and we talked about this in staff meeting this last week one of the things that really took me by surprise was how much i received from ministering to children large groups of children you know in all the different programs children's worship we could do bam which we call bible arts and missions and it has choirs and missions and all of that and seeing the spiritual growth of the children through the weeks and then all of a sudden a light bulb will go off and you're just like yeah he's got it you know i don't get that now and and it's like there's a void but visiting the homes you know every week and seeing the little kids run to the door miss cynthia you know it's like yeah right yeah you know but yeah it's really difficult not being able to see that spiritual growth of our children and it took me by surprise how much i got out of that of that give and take in that ministry setting wow that that's remarkable it it's it's affirmation it is it is we're lamenting the you're lamenting you're grieving the visible affirmation that you would see on the faces of children one after another yeah um so i guess my question to us because i know uh we we have hit our stride in this conversation and i know there are many if not every ministry leader who's listening to this conversation is saying the same thing i just have to believe that that there is a grieving process uh a lamenting going on a sadness so i my question for us because as ministry leaders we have to be healthy how are you staying healthy how are you staying above the fray what does that look like i'm throwing it out there to any of you to jump on please i'll start so that was great alex that was great you aren't going to want to write this one down i go home i tell my boys to get out the car i text my husband and tell them they're coming in and i sit in the garage in my car really violent i just think cause sometimes you know i mean the car is off the car is off and the garage is open because i can't scare you know so i just keep it open just okay all right because i was nervous about that yeah the driveway because alex karen alex was writing this down i just wanted to make sure that the car was off and the door is open number one car off right but um really it's just making sure that i have quiet time and not only quiet time but um at the beginning of the quarantine my best friend lives in my neighborhood and i've known her since i was in like third grade and so we decided just to make a quarantined um social group so it's me her and her children and my children so at least the children were able to interact with each other and then i was still able to connect with a girlfriend you know and i was so needed there were even times that i would just drive over to her house and say come outside really quick let's just sit down you know and just relax for a moment but you you kind of have to be creative with that you know you can't go shopping can't go get your nails done you know there's lots of different things that you can't do you can't go to a beach or you know on a vacation but just really having those um mindful moments and then realizing when you're when when you need to step back like okay i need to take a break you know before you're forced to take a break that that's a big thing just realizing within yourself you know let me take a breather before i start this next project or whatever it is wonderful alex i think uh i i love that question byron because i think as as i reflect on covid as a pastor as a husband as a father um i think the thing that we have been learning the most are the things that we didn't even realize we relied on before the things that we didn't even realize we we needed to get through the day and uh i relate to you you know the pause at the end of the day so you know i have uh twins as well a boy and a girl who were three and so pre covid it was part of my routine at the end of my day to go pick them up from daycare and i loved that 15-minute drive from the church to the daycare where i would turn the radio off and just have quiet and i live a one-minute walk from my church and so um i don't have that anymore and when i'm coming home to i was full of four little ones bouncing off the wall um i need that 15 minute pause but uh and so we're discovering all these different things that we needed or and didn't even realize we needed and so i'll tell you my family in the last little while um i don't know about the rest of you when kovid dropped bless my wife's heart she went into lockdown mode man and our freezer i'd never even knew they made that many different kinds of frozen lasagna but we were we were set and we were good to go and actually what we found as things kind of marched on was that our hearts were really craving um the the fresh food that god has given us and ontario canada is a wonderful place to live in the summer and fall and so we've actually made it a point as a family every week to seek out fresh produce as a way of like apple season in ontario i'm sorry you need to come and visit because it's fantastic here and i have just been loving uh and trying to be really intentional it sounds super corny about like just enjoying the fruits of god's creation and really allowing that that good fresh stuff to fill us up because so much of what we're getting is not fresh right now and so just kind of leaning into those good things that god has given us and allowing them to fill us up that's great that's great i'm sure nancy would probably argue with you about apples because washington state is pretty good with their their apple crop as well nancy do you want to weigh in on that uh that which by the way we are going to be bringing a soul care webinar by kit ray uh many of us know kit rock harbor church costa mesa california that's going to be coming out in november it is going to be lights out it is imperative i thought for some time we really needed to have a webinar that is really dealing with our punctured souls and he is going to to deliver there but um nancy i know you you probably like us have struggled with some of this uh grief and loss ministry wise how do you how do you survive how are you surviving yeah it has been a challenge um all the things i used to do uh we can't go do that you know a pedicure uh a massage those things we couldn't do anymore so um time is kind of my big piece yeah he's got painted toes over there now um time is my big piece of setting aside time i make sure that my friday mornings are still my sabbath time that i don't schedule anything during that time i spend time with god i you know listen to music and read and that's been huge in my rhythms of creating rest um i also looked at what can i do around here how can we create some structure um so i also have twins that are stepchildren i know i was like what um i didn't know this is a very unique cynthia you you're gonna well you weigh in in a minute mine are bonus children so i have uh three kids of my own that are young adults and then four step daughters and right now i have three young adults in my house my oldest stepdaughter and two of my kids that are all doing college online and my husband works from home and i'm working from home so there's a lot of us here and we just really had to create schedules and that has brought peace so it's not me you know being the nagging mom on everybody or yelling at everybody quiet i have to do a video now um so we made schedules early on that um here's what day you clean your room and do your own laundry so everybody has their own laundry day we made schedules of who cooks dinner on what night and i go grocery shopping friday afternoon or saturday so they have to get their lists to me and meal plans and um that has brought some rest for me so i don't have to figure that out the nights that i know i'm going to be super busy and have lots of meetings somebody else makes dinner that night and i know and trust that dinner's going to be ready for everybody and that has actually been really helpful and to know that we're all working together on keeping the house picked up because when chaos and clutter builds up it drives me crazy and i can't i can't function and so that has been like a piece of self-care for me that we're all doing this together and beyond that i looked at what do i really like to do so i like gardening so over the summer we built some garden boxes um even a rabbit had some babies in one of the boxes so it was like a full course meal in the garden box not really not really um stay with us listeners stay with us okay my other uh self-care piece was uh early on i was that person on like youtube and instagram watching all the pet videos and all the little kitten videos so um that was relaxing to me and i finally got two kittens in july so we have become that pet family and they're sequestered in a room otherwise they would be like climbing all over me wow they just they bring me a little bit of joy and even the kids in the house somebody to comfort and some fun and joy so yeah it's just really good to hear i mean because i know you four but it's really good to hear what you are expressing to me and to each other and to our listeners that we're all um hey we're all struggling and there's a there's a piece of isolationism i think that might be a word or being isolated that even though you're expressing ministry even though you're reaching families you're not reaching them like you did you're not reaching them or you're not doing children's ministry like you want to hey even for me as you know i travel i've not been on a plane since january and and i'm in my office here in chicago in my home and i'm i lament not being able to come out and see you and to do networking and to do conversations and doing okay without you pardoning me are they married are they doing okay without you they're doing quite well they're doing quite well i'm sorry i digress let me get back to the questions so can i add one other thing there please spiritual direction i had a break from spiritual direction and i had started up around the time the pandemic started and so once a month i meet with my spiritual director over zoom and so having somebody outside of church staff that helps ground me and what god is doing and look at ways he can be redeeming has been very life-giving to me how does someone go about doing that how does someone go about finding that spiritual director in our denomination we actually have a network of spiritual directors and that's part of your denomination is coveted yes evangelical covenant church and so we have so many sessions per year that are covered um so i don't know if somebody else has weigh-in of where to find a spiritual director or how to do that bad to certain we don't do that but i have a um a group of area children's ministers there's about 15 of us uh there's presbyterian methodist uh non-denominational baptist cat we even have catholic and we were meeting together you know every six weeks or so but now we do it over zoom and we just check in with each other you know how are you doing what are your struggles um how are you managing this it was very helpful in the spring when we were all struggling of what to do about vacation bible school right and we all came to the consensus that we could not have on campus vacation bible schools it just was not safe so many of us digressed and did virtual vacation bible school so just having an area a group of people that are doing the same work as you and having the same struggles um to bounce things off of her to see what they're doing and what's working for them and what's not working has been very helpful for me that's great cynthia that's very good yeah so whether it be a spiritual director as nancy is connected with or having a a group of leaders that you can get together with over zoom yeah it's it's it's very important that we continue in conversations another reason why we're doing this and we're doing webinars is is to bring people together yeah i would obviously rather be in space with you right now but this is the best we can do at this time and i think this conversation is being very helpful to a number of people and so uh i know i've spoken about it before but can i ask you byron so i imagine in january when things kind of slowed right down you probably initially had a sigh of like oh i can put the suitcase in the closet and whatnot but what have you done to to kind of replace that piece of you because i know that's a huge part of who you are and a huge part of who you are to the rest of us as well is that you're the guy that checks in and you're the guy that you know gives a little bolst and the you know little shot in the arm to say keep on going you're doing great and so how have you been through this wow uh it's been very difficult you're right you know i think early march was like oh you know in fact i was preparing to come out to see nancy at the northwest ministry conference out in seattle when all this broke loose and i i unpacked my bag and it has not been packed since so uh i thought it would pass quickly and it has not i have spent uh a ton of time on the phone i have spent much time on email conversations and zoom but there is nothing like um and i've done a lot of webinars and going to continue but there's nothing like being in a room with people and as a people person as you guys know i am it's been very very difficult and you know you get tired of talking to yourself all the time you know so so um you know i'm a gardener so i've done some gardening um i build bird houses and and i like to work with rustic wood and and crafty stuff and so i take old barn wood and i make beautiful things out of them and i think for me that has been life-giving from a standpoint of being able to see something from start to finish because even what we're doing today we we don't know what next month is going to look like right because we're we're living in the now how are we doing ministry right now so those are some things and and i for me as a people person uh i am at my best and i feel weird answering your question alex but i do because i love you um i'm grateful that you turned the tables on me here but for me it's uh i'm at my best when my eyes aren't on me but when my eyes and my attention and my interest is on you form and um you can do that by phone mail email but we have done it by being within six feet and um yeah i'll never forget when i met karen baines over a year ago i mean i walked into the church and i said yeah i'm byron from david c cook you all are using our curriculum here at largo and and i'd like to meet karen baines and she was standing right next to me it was wonderful i'll never forget that karen and we've had that kind of relationship you know so i a part of me you know is lamenting that and we'll well you know god's church was was meant for us to be together physically physically it was meant for us to do children's ministry physically for cynthia to be able to see spiritual formation taking place on a child's life and to see a child respond i mean that's affirmation that's that that illuminates your calling and inspires you and so yeah i'm i'm right there with you and i appreciate that that question alex and um it it's challenging me as your guest excuse me as your host to to really um remember my calling and that is um i need to be pouring into you all more and more and less focused on my weariness but my concern about your weariness so with that um let me ask you this question so when all this happened it it all took place in march i mean we all began including us at david c cook we began to scramble and put stuff together in digital files and and and ways in which you could express your curriculum on the weekend we were trying to arm you all and um in return you would take or you would create and you were just inundating it seemed like as we were inundating you you were inundating your people your parents uh where has that gotten us now how what is the receptivity of your families as far as whether it be you cynthia receiving the physical curriculum in mail which i think is so old school but so cool yeah or the the kind of thing that you're doing karen with facebook and zoom and so on are parents saying enough is enough i mean i'm i'm schooling i'm working i'm going insane my kids are around here all the time or they're here half the week and at school where are we at with our families and our desire to see them do more christian education spiritual formation in this season come on let's let's hunker down here and really get honest with one another and what are you doing simplistically to help those families somebody jump in come on i think this whole thing has really brought to light the need that the spiritual development of the children should be back in the parents ballpark which is where it should have been but somehow over the years it the appearance left the spiritual development of their children up to the church and so this is something that's really kind of surface that i think should carry forward so i i've kind of redefined my purpose as enabling parents to con to be the instructors and the educators in the spiritual development of their children rather than depending on other people to do that so i think that's that's something that's good that has come out of it that's great and i don't know about you guys but i am so tired of seeing myself on video you know we do each of our staff we do um uh video devotionals every day and we have different days so we do that we we video virtual worship services uh video um you know uh little blurbs that go out to the church it's just i had that that took a long time to get used to but we're learning and we're doing all the things that we need to do the lighting and all of this kind of stuff so that's a new a new kind of exciting thing that has come out of this is learning how to do videos and virtual virtual stuff but yeah the spiritual development of the children is back into the bear to the parents ballpark now so uh let's go there for a minute and i'm gonna i want to park it here for uh for a good while so obviously that was deuteronomy 6 cynthia i know you well enough that that was something that you were striving prior to the covet outbreak uh but i think what you would say is uh they were really real parents were primarily relying on you yeah to to do the work so so i guess my question to you is um i mean what are you doing and are you seeing parents uh being more receptive to being the spiritual leader formation person kind of a rhythm with their children i'm hoping that they are in each of the packets that we send i send articles from child child mind institute or helpful things from the cdc ministry spark you know the family prayer walk things like that each packet has something that parents can do with their families or maybe some sort of support help for the families uh because this has caused anybody that has the least little bit of anxiety and stress this has shot it through the roof it's just shot it through the roof and so helping parents to work through that step by step giving them resources uh has been i think helpful now not all of the parents are using them i'm sure and not all of the parents are doing things on sunday mornings i'm finding that some are doing them on saturday afternoon some are doing them throughout the week um it's not that sunday morning at 11 o'clock kind of thing now it's it's more of a woven into the fabric of the family kind of yeah kind of integrated integrated in a family's a family's life or rhythm through the week yeah and so you're probably asking questions right or analyzing or reviewing evaluating if some of these articles are being read or how the curriculum is being used do you have anything that you'd want to share with us there as far as are are you getting are you getting some satisfactory comments from parents that what you're giving them they appreciate it most of the families the 79 families that i have been doing porch visits that's what i call them porch visits most of those have commented that they are really appreciative of everything that we're sending that is really cool and again that porch visit uh give that to us again uh what what does that look like well you know our numbers are pretty high here in virginia too and so i go i mask up i take a little something with me i visit on the porch with the family i never go inside you know now sometimes the porch visits are 30 minutes sometimes they're three you know it's all according to where that family is in their comfort zone as far as people outside of their bubble but that's we call them porch visits i love that i love that that is you know between that and sending the curriculum home by mail i i don't i think it's brilliant i haven't schooled we did that 30 years ago i know i know i know i i have a five-year-old grandson whenever he gets physical mail he's like oh my gosh the mailman brought me something i can't believe it it's so old school but it works how about you alex i mean where where are your families are they like i i'm done with this i i can't do any more learning as much as it's important i don't have the bandwidth where are we at with with your people yeah you're 100 right and i again i'm really grateful for the place that my wife and i are at in terms of our life stage of having a nine six and twin three-year-olds is that we're right there with them and so you know when the school year was grinding on oh my word i might have actually thrown a laptop back in the spring as we were just like i can't take this anymore if i get told to to load one more program and then it doesn't work i am going to need a new wall after the new laptop and so we were just feeling really stretched and so and i think again i'm really grateful for the the network of families that we have we're a community church i mean as much as we have people tuning in to our service now from all across canada and even some overseas um we're at work a local church our mission is 360. that's our address and so we try to be a church that is about the people that all go to the same school together around the corner that live in this area and so we really try to lean into that and and walk through those phases of life together but i think for us the big thing has been you know less is more so we we scaled back a lot of what we were doing but also trying to do more with the less i don't know if that's if that's too corny for you but less is more and more with the less and so really trying to lean into those things and and and do precisely what uh what was just chatted about is sort of res you know doubling down on family instead of i think when it's easy when something like this happens to go okay now we gotta jump in as church and and and take take on what we can take on and there are places for that absolutely when you're talking about quick wins that'll eventually build momentum yeah absolutely take it on as a church staff and knock it out of the park and then you know build onto the next thing but with regards to the overall ministry and this was again the piece that we kind of were awakened to as being a tremendous blessing is that what this had given us was the perfect opportunity to grow even deeper in our commitment to families being primary parents being primary is that they couldn't even come to us on sunday anymore and so we we leaned really heavily into the message of um the decisions that you take that you that you make now to spend time in worship to spend time and study to spend time that's all up to you and it really really honors god when you do and again as part of the learning process for all of us there is now zero social payoff to coming to church on sunday right there there isn't one you're not impressing anybody by getting into your car and your kids you know all dressed up and trot down the driveway walking down the sidewalk even even to seeing your friends at church the social payoff just isn't there for better or worse sometimes it's a good thing but what is there and what people are discovering and what we've been trying to affirm and affirm and affirm is the spiritual payoff that they are they are owning it in a way that they probably haven't even realized up you know until it's pointed out to them that you know you're doing this entirely for your walk with god you're doing this entirely for the example that this sets your this sets for your children as they go they'll look back and go yeah remember that season when we had church together every sunday morning and you know we we sat down and had church in our living room together or wherever now i mean you can do it on four different devices in the same room or you can do it together around the tv whatever it is but it's a very special thing and so we've been really trying to lean into affirming our families and as i said i mean maybe a little less partnering in terms of asking things of them and more caregiving in terms of how do we how do we support you in what you're doing right now rather than asking you to build into us and and god really seems to be honoring that i think it's you know it's the the offering parallel i mean so you give you receive and i think as we've been focusing less on i forget who it was that said the uh you know the metrics um you know that's that's i think been god honoring that when we're going look i just we just got to make sure you're okay um god has grown our church through this um our offering is up 25 this year to where it was last year at this time and that stuff just blows my mind and those are the metrics but those weren't the reasons we did things those weren't the things that we set out to do we set out to be good neighbors we set out to be uh you know the the the spiritual center um and and when that was our focus god's just blessed and that's been pretty amazing to see man that's remarkable that that stuff will preach right there that is fantastic you know it's the care and i hear that from you brother and i'm so proud of you and i hear that from cynthia you know with the the porch conversations which could be three minutes or you know you you you ring the buzzer and a young parent comes to the door with four kids and they're at their wit's end who better than to have masked up cynthia collins standing there saying [Laughter] how can i pray for you i want to encourage you not to give up god sees you god is for you here's something i have for you i mean it that is so like old school but it could it be true that some of the old school could be some of the best stuff as opposed to asking more and do this and download this and watch this and go here and do that just a phone call that i'm praying for you an email that i'm praying for you a ding-dong i'm praying for you i see you i miss you yeah that's the affirmation that cynthia needs i mean she's living you talk old school one of the most successful things that we've done uh which is just again it's the things that god puts on your mind that you don't even really understand the fullness of until you see it play out has been on fridays at four o'clock i do a story time on youtube live and we picked four o'clock because in our house that's the time of my wife and i are going absolutely nuts where it's the end of the week and we're trying to get dinner together and but you know everybody wants to be on your leg at that time everybody wants to tell you about what happened that day and to be able to host a half hour story time uh first of all the willingness of publishers to allow groups like churches and schools to read books in this way has been an incredible show of community well-being of saying look we don't care about the rights right now we want families to be taken care of and so doing a story time at four o'clock that allows parents to something is simple i have one mom that says i look forward to that because i get to have a shower and i know that my kids are going to be sitting down and watching that story time for half an hour with mr alex and that for that half hour i don't have to worry about it um to be able to put dinner on the table it's those little things that we can do to come alongside our families and like you said by our not ask them to to go out and get something new or do this it's like you know what this is screen time it's going to be good screen time park them in front of the screen for half an hour they'll be read to and it'll be a relationship piece and then you can go shower you can go use the washroom you can you know peel potatoes without being worried about losing a finger you know whatever it is but it's those little things that we can do to come alongside families that i think god is really showing are our real difference makers right now that's great i think like what alex said and also what cynthia said about just going back to the basics that has been a huge eye-opener for me personally especially as it relates to just thinking about how can i engage with the kids you know because we do our sunday school via zoom so i can see them um on zoom and they'll talk back and we'll have our conversations and sing and things like that but i still felt that we needed more so um i'll probably say like july yeah probably july we did a drive through carnival and the carnival had five stops and these games that the lord gave me were the most gay basic games you've ever had like get out your car run to the cone and run back you're a winner you're a winner and alex loves that game he can do it i do all right get out your car at this station and jump rope for two minutes they jump rope you're a winner you get to keep the jump rope you know it's just like that kind of stuff well you get karen you gave him the jump rope because of covert 19 you can't take it back you need to know that you're a winner and then the last stop they got you know their curriculum so we were able to you know bring more folks in actually because they just saw on the sign on the bar key that we were having to drive through carnival it was free um and we set the time like it was literally like an hour too because everything we do we try to keep it you know within range and so that works and then you know now temperatures changing so we really can't do that much stuff outside we're still going to have a drive-through um trunk or treat where they'll get the curriculum their winter curriculum now inside of their trunk or treat um bag but um the the computer piece of it here at largo i'm the christian education director so i also have to ensure the adults are okay as well and so i've learned through this that um it's not about me that's really what the lord has told me karen it's not about you you know you are here to do this job for me and i was struggling with lord i don't know what this is i don't know what this job looks like right now and he has just shown me so many different things as relates to training the senior citizens on zoom that they are now able to call in dial in they can share screen you know we are having our prayer service um via zoom now the kids are participating in the prayer service the prayer service you said about 10 people that were up to like 60 and the kid is leading the prayer you know so things are just transforming but i also have to be able to trust god to know that this is part of his transformation so if i have to think of something different or or i really just have to keep on thinking outside the box and um the cynthia you also mentioned something like you wanted to know how they were engaging with the materials that you mailed with them and this it's it's worked for [Music] our elementary kids whereas i'll tell them on our zoom sunday school class like all right guys today or your challenge this week is to say five kind things or to write a letter to your mom or whatever it is and then i'll ask them to provide me proof i said if you provide me a picture a video with your parents permission i'll put it in our sunday school powerpoint for the next week so at the beginning it's a looping little video of whatever the kids sent me and they love that you know so now i get to see that you are engaging you are doing the challenges that's i call everything's a challenge you are doing the challenges now and now i i can see that you're doing it and i see your parent is involved as well so that does help me to continue the work because i am seeing that it's being practiced at home so if you think of just like ways like how they can come to you virtually i think that will help with seeing how well it's paying off and stuff yeah wow that that is extraordinary and i've seen some of the work that you're doing karen with zoom and so on it is captivating guys i'm telling you right now uh karen when you have those kids in those zoom rooms or your room and you're teaching it is as if you are in the room with them it's incredible to to watch how those kids are following you by way of technology nancy i want you to i want you to weigh in here but here's a thought that i've got right now how many times have we used the word old school you know why we use it because it's what we know cynthia it's what we know and i know you have to go soon that's fine it's what we know and where we struggle is we don't know what the next six months are going to be like but we know what we've done and some of the stuff that we've done it worked then and it works now wow that's amazing nancy stay stay in this flow that we're in right now and and talk to us well i think some of what we've tried to do is look at what we have been doing what the kids are used to what are those old school things for us and what's a new way to express it so how are we shifting and changing but it's still a value and practice that we have together we really looked at that at the beginning of what were we doing in person that we can translate a different way one of those things we took from a true story the rock wall and the remember verse and pre-covid that was part of our main worship service that kids would come up on the stage and put a rock in the rock wall for bringing their bible for being there if they know they remember verse but they physically did that in front of the rest of the congregation as we talked about building our life on who jesus has called us to be and marking these moments and then the kids would lead us in a remember verse so the whole congregation was working on the remember verse so we asked the question what does that look like at home how do we still incorporate that into our services so i encourage families to go find their own container for a rock wall or if you want to call it a memento container and mementos and then we added god sightings where is god at work in your life just look around and be aware during the day so it was trying to give families a spiritual practice rather than just imparting knowledge it was giving them that experience so this is actually my rock wall right back here um so even other activities i do with kids i try to put things in the screen that are familiar to them but that's part of our sunday um in our main service that i add in rocks and invite the kids to come closer to the screen and put in their rocks and call them out and then we would share the remember verse together and then again looking at how do we make this more visible or include more people this fall we shifted it up again and realized we need to see more faces of our people that's what we're missing people are getting tired of seeing my face even though it's helpful so i share part of the big god story with families just a snippet in our main service and then do the rock wall and then we have uh kids record the remember verse so they're added into the main service and get to share the remember verse and lead the congregation in that so i think that piece and then the ways initially i was rewriting curriculum and sending home activities for parents to lead but it just was feeling like one more thing so i have started doing a video for kids but i've included different pieces to keep it interactive for them so they have to go get their supplies and get your prayer ring and making prayer active which seems so simple and silly but they follow along now so if they're even rabbit trailing off you know hand over here hands here clap them together wiggle in let's pray so they're getting active and involved in it and families then are doing that together because we have young kids now like this is how we pray mom and dad come on so the whole family is starting to pray together in that way um and we've done some of the drive through i'm sorry thank you thank you cynthia it was wonderful bye-bye beautiful i'll talk to you more go ahead dance so we lost um or we've done some of the drive-through activities as well this fall we want to we usually do a back-to-school blessing and give the kids something for their backpack or pray over them and so we said how do we do that now and we recognize that we could what could we say yes to we could say yes for our whole congregation to do a drive through communion with the sealed containers so we're still at a distance passing them over and as families went through that and members of our congregation then they drove forward to the kids station where i had bags of some curriculum things but then just some supplies like glue sticks and construction paper so i could offer simple things for them to do and gave those to the kids i had a parent bag too i think this has been super important as well how are we blessing the parents and giving them information they need they felt cared for in that respect and then i was able to pray a blessing over each individual family and each child uh to send them back what virtual learning will look like and then there was still a youth station too so if they had older kids or just to be able to see people um so for for us it's been what does that experience look like and how do we unfold that into the rest of life rather than a specific teaching moment to just impart knowledge how are we making this a way of life yeah integration what a conversation this has been and i think when i really boil it down it it really is for ministry leaders from across north america that are expressing ministry differently but there's some common threads and if i'm hearing it right uh your ministry is being expressed primarily virtually digitally not in person and it might not be the way when god called you had he told you you were going to go through a 2020 karen baines first full year you might have walked away and said that sounds scary to me and to our guest some of you are relating this has been a really difficult year it's not over um it's funny i don't know if you guys can relate it all um last week i was having a conversation with a friend and the joke was is frequently when we chat is well you know obviously i was ripping up carpet last week because that's why i went to seminary right and that's you know the joke is of course that's that's what i learned at seminary and uh we were joking about this and i was joking about having doing we were setting up a cooking show that we were going to do to help people make their own flat bread at home so that they could have we could have communion together this was sort of the precursor to it of course because that's why i went to seminary and then god really kind of hit me in that moment and went no alex that's exactly why i sent you to seminary so that you would be leading right now and it was never part of my plan for you to be an ordinary leader for you to be someone who would just go through the routine and just crap sermon visit have tea copy paste repeat right like that was never in god's plan um not in god's plan for the world to get covered and yet something that god is redeeming tremendously and so to look at each of our lives and go this is exactly why god called us to be ministers at this time because of uh the heart that he gave us to to receive him and receive what he's putting out there and it's just so encouraging to hear some of the different ideas that you guys are doing uh and how god is using you and because this is it is exactly why he called us in the ministry and so blessings to you guys you're doing a fantastic job wow well that was very pastoral to um a panelist alex that was very pastoral to me and i and i would open the floor for nancy or karen uh if you would like just to say a word to to our guests as a way of encouraging them as we shared pregame my desire was for us to live hebrews 12 12 in this conversation and that is to provide someone who needs a new grip uh do you have a word for our listeners that would just encourage them nancy or karen i would say just um very similar to what i said at the beginning just remember that you are here for a reason you are leading this ministry for a reason and the same thing for um parents i tell them the same thing that you are here you were chosen to be avery's mom during covet 19. so remember that because whoever god calls he equips so fall back on that and and you'll be okay you know and then as it relates to just like practical tips think about you personally think about things that you have struggled with during this time and how you have overcome it you know i mentioned that i sent an email to my uh parents and i told them i was at my frustration level and i was getting ready to to give up and i'm just sick and tired of virtual school and then probably like a month later the lord just really put on my heart to say karen you should have a zoom on parent tips on distance learning like as a parent how can you help your child while you're still working at home so it's just like those practical things that when you think about it think about how you handled it just like how we're doing this webinar this is what we're doing and i'm just sharing information you know that's really what what we're here to do just just here to support and to love all of our kids and our families well said my friend nancy love that so much and i would say just keep reaching out to families whatever medium it takes even if you're not hearing back help them know that you are present that you are available and you will meet them when you know those other storms come that you're going to be there and be there for them and for each of us um i was teaching a lesson recently about uh when peter stepped out of the boat and started walking towards jesus you know at first he wasn't sure is that a ghost and he said call me out jesus and as he kept his eyes fixed on jesus he was fine and it was when he turned to see the waves and the water the stuff going around us comparing our ministries to other ministries expectations that either we're putting on ourselves or our leaders or trying to measure up and feel like we're accomplishing the to-do list when we get so fixated on those things our focus is off of jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith so i just want to encourage people to keep seeking jesus keep spending time with him intentionally making that time put it on your calendar if you have to set that side of time set that time aside so that you're focusing on him trusting him and following him furthest when all these storms are still raging on around us wow that's beautiful as we wrap up i do want to um i do want to summarize to a degree and and perhaps the question that i ask uh you would say well i think we've answered that several times uh and we probably have uh and maybe not but we're we're speaking right now to churches from around the world uh of all sizes uh some are moving even quicker than you some are at the pace of where you're at you are thought leaders that's why you're on the panel that's why i ask you to share your story that's why i said just be you karen baines you be you and the world will be well and then some churches are just stuck for on for a number of reasons so as as many of our ministry spark guests are joining us as we conclude what is the one simple thing you would encourage a children's pastor to do that any church anywhere any size could do or should do right now alex well i think you answered it actually as you were affirming our our sister here is to say just be you um we're not starting a new church we're simply opening a new branch of our existing church and so when we look at ourselves and we place a ton of expectations on ourselves as we uh open up this but you know and it's going to be new but just because it's new it doesn't need to be foreign and in many ways it takes something that is true to who your church is and i'm entirely regurgitating something i shared in a webinar yesterday so this is a it's a little rehearsed but uh it's take something that's important to your church so that's a part of who you are it doesn't have to be unique as as like only you do this but you know if you're a church that loves to care for people find something quick and simple that you can do that looks exactly like your church but virtual so maybe instead of going out and doing something in the community you do a flash fundraising drive to be able to give to a group uh that needs it um you know music wise if you're a church that leans really heavily into music and making your own music is really important to you there are some amazing apps out there that allow you to make your own music and kind of like mosaic things like what we're talking right now and combine it so that you can make music together and share it during worship whatever it is that something about your church that's important to your church that you wouldn't have let go of when you were meeting in person don't let go of it now find a way to make it work now it doesn't have to be enormous and epic again we talked about setting reasonable expectations pace yourself we're this is the marathon we're not sprinting here and so find that what that quick win is and and allow your church to get a blessing that says we're gonna we're gonna be okay in this online realm because this is still familiar this is still who we are as a church that's wonderful because again i really do believe once we begin to more even swiftly re-gathering we're still going to have a group of our people that want to physically gather that yet people who are still no not ready but uh virtually is is is is the way to go after it yeah well said alex nancy what's the one simple thing i would say keep praying for your your people keep praying and asking the spirit to open your eyes and for you to hear his voice i just i keep coming back to that over and over again whether it's prayer on a facebook live like we do sometimes or just me inviting my volunteers to pray for specific families or other staff people but i think it's the holy spirit who's going to inspire us and bring other ideas and thoughts and help connect those things together so we can reach the people god has already planned it out so how do we see him at work where he is how do we listen for his voice and follow him once again it's beautiful and and karen i'm coming to you next as we close but what has been so frustrating for me and i think frustrating for each of you and frustrating to those who will listen to this webinar is children's and family ministry leaders they can do stuff and they know stuff they're educated they're well studied they read they go to conferences they grow we're in a season where we just don't know we're in unknown territory but what we know is prayer works what we know is prayer works it has it does and it will live on well after coven 19 in us and i should say karen the one simple thing the one simple thing that i would say is to i guess it's really just to combine what alex and nancy said and just put it into a practical way so while alex is speaking and nancy was saying i was even thinking to myself what can i do that i still want to occur that would have occurred if we were in person so i still want bring a friend to church sunday to occur and i still want memory verse sunday to occur so memory verse sunday that's easy upload your recording of your memory verse and send it to me got that how can i get bring a friend to church sunday and how can i recognize kids for doing that and i go back to when we had our virtual vacation bible school and i mailed them a certificate for attending the amount of parents that called to say they were so excited i said all i did was just on microsoft word thank you for attending here's your certificate it's not like it was just even my kid is they're like look mom i'm like you saw me make it on the computer but all right great and so like those are so small things i'm like okay if they love it and if they can really just get so excited about that i know that i can figure out how i can acknowledge bring a friend to church son and we have it be a zoom so invite them you don't have to ask your parent permission actually just you're inviting them to church you know so those small things just really think of how you can do it and um pinterest is a great place for ideas and there's like i'm always on there you know so just think of those practical ways and do it what if instead of bring your friend to church it was what if it's bring your bubble to church your bubble because you're who are obviously important to them right and so it's like look these are the people that you're supposed to be spending time with bring them to church with you on sunday have them over have breakfast together bubble that sucker up yeah yeah you're not actually bring your parents yes you know you can you know the canadians always get in the last word i want to i want to thank i want to thank our uh i want to thank my guest not only my guest uh but my my family my friends uh you have um you have reminded me of how beautiful you are and how beautiful the calling on your life is and these are difficult times and you give me hope that in spite of the toughness and it's not what we want um preaching and teaching the gospel has never been easy and the gospel still has this incredible way of helping dead people become alive and there are many people that are a part of your churches that are struggling mightily and i remind myself when i am weary and worn out that um god has called us to get above the mess and to beseech god to put us on higher ground so that we can speak as leaders to those people that make up your churches that need you to speak life into them and you have done that beautifully today as i knew you would our guest thank you for being with us from around the world i close with two things one and even to our panelists who i think again some of you uh perhaps again could be looking for a way to re-enter into ministry we have created something beautiful at david c cook called the re-entry road map so if you're in a place that you're looking for how do i get from here to there um i would love for you to go to david c cook you can download that it's a free document it is it's it's it's a wonderful gps so please have at that lastly i would say we have created a wonderful family plug-and-play discipleship curriculum called right here right now right here right now johnny rogers which many of us know is the creative producer behind this but the intent is to provide a short devotion that in the rhythm of life parents can with this video message with their children really get into the word and ask some deep questions that will help parents win and be a um be a leader in their family but more importantly help jesus and god the father win by having parents really discipling their kids so you're going to be hearing more about that my guest and my panelists you're going to be hearing more about that uh as the days roll on here at david c cook but we're really excited about bringing this to you very soon so um once again thank you very much god's best to everyone listening and to the guest our panelists uh until i um see you again know that i love you and i pray for you and uh keep doing the work that god's called you to do go in peace thanks again bye now

Channel: Ministry Spark

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Id: xMMLcYgBZm0

Length: 99min 59sec (5999 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 19 2020