Friday, July 11, 2008

Mad Props Friday!

Since I am feeling the "themes" this week we are going to call Friday Mad Prop's Day. This will be the day I give my "Prop's" to someone who has done something outstanding during the week. Feel free to leave your own "prop's", "atta boy's", or whatever it is you happen say to let someone know they are friggin awesome.

Mad Prop's Friday #1
This week's "Mad Prop" goes out to my boy Aaron. "Double A" (as I refer to him) is the Children's Minister in our budding congregation. He was hired shortly after I came on board to be the assistant CM and a couple years ago took on the lead role for the Children's Ministry. This year AA has stepped it up a notch and it is all going down this week.

For years our congregation has put a massive amount of effort and resources into a VBS program every summer. I know what you are thinking... "VBS? Is your church stuck in the 1980's Tim?" but this was the VBS of all VBS's. Every year we would see 500- 600 kids along with 200 volunteers come together to educate the children of our community on the value of God in their lives. With full production, music, story rooms (that literally made you feel like you were "there") and hundreds of kids our VBS program set the standard. For a 100 year old church like the one we are a part of, VBS was a jewel in our crown. Surely God was going to give us a bigger mansion because our VBS program was "bigger" and "badder" than any other VBS out there.

Of course AA, in the back of his mind, wondered if we were actually meeting the spiritual needs of our community or simply meeting a cheep babysitting need for the white collar, suburban driving, stay at home mom, ecosystem that is Owasso. So Aaron took a risk. A BIG risk. Aaron decided to kill VBS and create a tool to help parents and kids learn and grow together.

On paper this looks like a great idea. More and more we are finding that parents don't know how to teach their kids about God and the Bible. Part of that is due to our congregation making a concerted effort to reach more non-Christians (good job church) and part of it is due to our failure to educate parents how to teach their kids moral truths and Godly decision making (boooo church). So setting out to solve this dilemma sounds great... unless you work of a hundred year old church that has "always done VBS".

So MAD PROPS to AARON! Come Wednesday night he will either be the guy who took our children's ministry to the next level or the guy who sends you an e-mail to ask if your church has an open Children's Minister position. Either way he is doing what he feels like God is leading him to do and is willing to risk it all to do it.

3 comments:

Brenda said...

We just wrapped up VBS at our church this week and it was fantastic as always. I don't think it's an "old" idea. But I think that you can take and "old" idea and transform it every year so you don't have the feeling.I think we have done a great job at that.
I think what AA is doing sounds outstanding. There are hardly any tools out there for parents with children to teach them about Jesus in a way that they want to learn. Sure...thre is Growing Kids God's way...but what else? I'd say way to go AA...and I don't even go to your church.

Anonymous said...

We just finished Day 1 at the New VBS and I thought it was great. There were alot of people there and the idea, mission, music and storyline was awesome. I enjoyed spending time as a family in a fun setting learning about God. In the past my husband was always at work and VBS focused so much on the crafts, games, etc. I think the kids lost site of the goal, but not tonight. It drove the idea home with a great skit and then gave families a video tool to take home and help teach your kids more about the virtue. The craft was fun and cold. Great props go to AA. And to all who participated in making it come to life. I have been on that side and it is hard to do. Great job FCC Team!

Anonymous said...

Mission accomplished and being accomplished! Great Job FCC! Our God is awesome. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week. Our family has invited a family from Owasso that we don't know yet. Let me explain. A long lost friend from FACEBOOK gave me a number of a friend that is from our community. We spoke on the phone yesterday afternoon. They are suppose to be our guest tonight FIGHT NIGHT (VBS). They are not plugged in to any church family. Let that be a prayer today that they come and that there will be not obstacles in the way.