Okay, I know that our Facebook invitation (click here to check it out) told you to bring
your elementary kids this week, but a simple invitation isn't enough. Here comes the hard sell...
Up until now, Sunday nights in Janesville have been all
about adults. Oh, sure, we started
providing "child care," but that was just so that we adults could
talk about the business of planting a church.
But I've been convicted that our kids shouldn't just be "along for
the ride." I think our kids can and
should play just as big a role in launching this work as their parents do. Let me explain.
On launch weekend, all of us adults will be working our
tails off preparing for all of the people that will come from the
community. We will have spent weeks in
outreach and marketing and inviting our friends and serving the people around
us, and we will be creating a great place for people to come and meet
Jesus. We aren't doing it so that we can
look good. We aren't doing it so that we
can feel like a "success."
We're willing to put in the blood, sweat, and tears so that people we
know and love who are far from God will have a place to come back to him.
And what in that previous paragraph isn't true of our
kids? Do they have people they love and
want to introduce to Jesus? Do they have
friends and neighbors and other kids at school who are hurting and could use a
place that accepts them just as they are?
Of course they do. And if we rob
our kids of the opportunity to be a part of creating that kind of place for
their friends, shame on us.
So, when your elementary aged kids (K-5th) come this Sunday
night, they'll experience our worship time with us, and then they will head out
with some adults who are ready to help bring them into the process. They'll spend time talking about the kind of
place that their friends might want to come to.
They'll have fun, but our hope is that they'll leave feeling like
they're a part of something, not just along for the ride.
Don't miss this Sunday night... and don't let your kids miss
it, either.
(We will have child care and games for the little ones
through the entire service as well.)
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