Kidzworks, King Nebuchadnezzar, and a Duckbilled Platypus

I grew up the son of a missionary in the Philippines.  My dad trained pastors, and was great at it, but we didn't really have a church that we went to as a family.  Instead, my parents put on a church service every week in our living room.  Dad would play his guitar (rather poorly as I recall) and we'd sing and pray together.  Sometimes other people would be there with us, but I don't really remember much of that.  Here's what I do remember:

Shadrach, Meesach, and To-Bed-We-Go...  (Daniel 1-3)

...and God said... "duckbilled platypus," and BOOM!! there was a platypus... (Genesis 1)

One time, Dad played King Nebuchadnezzar and made us kids bow down before him in fear.  I'll never read the story of Daniel without picturing my dad screaming at us to touch our faces to the floor. It was fantastic.  There were no props or flannel-graphs (remember those?) or Veggie Tales or super whiz-bang videos.  It was a mom and a dad who loved their kids enough to introduce them to Jesus and the stories of the Bible.

Then we moved back to the U.S. and into a duplex on the east side of Janesville, WI. We started going to church in Milton, and a couple of women named Barb Green and Cheri Appel started investing in my friends and me.  They told us more stories.  They loved us.  They yelled at us (trust me, we deserved it.)  In 6th grade, Cheri told us that if we memorized this whole list of scriptures, she would take us to Noah's Ark that summer.  To tell you the truth, I couldn't have cared less about "hiding God's Word in my heart," but water slides sounded pretty cool, and I still remember some of the verses I memorized that spring.

So, why this trip down memory lane?  Because these experiences were formative in my life, and I want every kid who comes to our church to have those kinds of life-giving interactions.  There's a temptation to think of Kidzworks as just something that the kids do while the parents are at church... that somehow it's less important.  But I believe that what happens between Kidzworkers and their kids might just be the most important thing that goes on during the weekend. It might have more kingdom impact than any song that's sung or any word that's said from a stage.

At Central, one of our core values is that "babies, children, and students are worth our best effort," and we'll live that out in Janesville with every bit as much passion as we do in Beloit.  Kids aren't the church of tomorrow.  They're right here today, and they can make just as profound an impact on their friends and their schools as we adults can. 

Someday soon, we'll start putting together a plan for how we'll create an environment where we don't just "take care of the kids," but where we invest our time and our energies and our resources to give our kids a great foundation... not just so that they don't fall away later in life, but so that they are so overwhelmed by the love of God and the grace of Jesus that they make a profound difference in the world around them right now. 

We're praying that God is shaping some of us into the kinds of people who are passionate about doing this.  Listen to his voice, because he might just be getting you ready to make a lasting impact in the lives of kids you don't even know yet.