DON'T FORGET THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

When first launching a new preteen ministry ten years ago, I was on my hands and knees before God asking Him to show me what to do. I was completely clueless, but knew God would give me the needed wisdom, direction, and strength. Making a lot of mistakes along the way, I began to get the hang of it. After about two years, things began to pop. We started to grow and parents were seeing life-change in their preteens. The word got out in our community about our quality program. It was awesome!

I distinctively remember our second summer retreat and how God did some pretty cool stuff that week. I met with some leaders a few days before the trip to pray for the upcoming retreat. We all sensed the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and felt it was going to be a powerful week. After worship on the second night, over ten kids surrendered their lives to Jesus and about half of the group came up for prayer. We didn’t have enough leaders to pray for the kids, so they started praying for each other. God continued to move the third and forth night, each being a powerful experience. Seeing so many preteens praying for each other, leading one another to Christ, and hearing how God spoke to them was life-changing. Our little group of preteens came home completely different.

A few years passed and all was good. Gaining experience and success in ministry, I slowly started to rely more on myself rather than God. Now having a framework of how to do preteen ministry, I left out the most important thing – God. Yea, I would pray for the leaders, kids, and parents. But I kicked into autopilot and didn’t look back. Often I would wonder why God wasn’t doing all the awesome stuff he did in the past. I would look for a cool curriculum or creative resource hoping that would make a difference. Several years went by before realizing I was leading in my own power and had lost my sense of dependence on God.

Success can do that to you. Sometimes the more you know, the more you don’t grow. Always remember that God is your source of strength and power. Surrender daily your ministry to Him. He is the one who changes lives. You just get to have Him work through you. It’s funny how you can know something to be true, but do the opposite anyway. The truth is that we all fall into phases of our lives where we try to do life on our own. Learn from my mistake and continually rely on God to breathe life into your ministry.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6