floodgates broke I have never stopped!! God made me this way so what else would He do with this gift but use it and call me to be a voice to Children & Children’s leaders. My question to you is what is it you actually enjoy doing because you don’t have to look to far from how God made you to find what you have been called to do. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - Ephesians 2:8
The last piece of this puzzle is the fact that it is all because of His grace. We are saved by grace, we are made with gifts and talents by his grace, we get to take these gifts and lay them at His feet and ask how to use them with the opportunities He provides and then we outwork these gifts by God’s grace. Sounds like He’s sort of doing a lot of the work doesn’t it? Now before you put your feet up and do nothing let me remind you that after verse 8 in Ephesians 2 come verse 10 that says; For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
So we are actually called to do something, in fact that is the whole point I am making here is that you are uniquely called & purposed to outwork your ‘Craft’ or your ‘ART’ within Children’s ministry but right from the start of this book I want to remind you that the moment you focus on what you are doing, what you are called to do or anything with you focused it’s the moment you will stop outworking all He has for you. Now I’ve been there and burnt out whether you believe in such a thing or not I have experienced the time when you have no more to give and you are empty. Reading the bible I see so did some early Christians.
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? - Galatians 3:1 (NIV) These verses speak of the Galatians who have started out under the new message of grace but have switched back to the Law and been bound again. Today in Church we start with being freely saved by His grace and then we get caught up in protocol, politics, trying to prove ourselves, or anything else that resembles with us and our own strength and from here it’s a downward spiral to being ineffective and NOT outworking exactly what God has called us to be.
So my challenge in this first chapter is to go back to the beginning of how you started your journey with God and receive His grace freely and fresh again in order to outwork His calling on your life with the gifts he purposed in you before the world’s foundation was even laid. If you do this then you are operating in ‘The Art of Children’s Ministry’ exactly how God has called YOU to do it not anybody else.