Children's Ministry = Controlled Chaos
Those of you who know my tendency towards train wrecks and detonations and away from harps and butterflies will not be surprised by what I am about to write. The rest of you will get a picture of me in your mind not unlike a mad scientist waiting for the lightning strike that will bring his creation to life.
One of the things that I love about children's ministry is, well, the children. That is especially true when they are acting out certain scenes from the Bible that are more Cecil B. DeMille than Beatrix Potter like God's saving the Hebrews from the the Egyptian army by drowning them in the Red Sea. It was quite something to see the kids rush the stage where the Moses and the Hebrews were standing only to be hit by a wall of water (i.e. blue bed sheet) that completely covered them. The adults that I had holding the sheet did an expert job making sure that every last Egyptian was covered. Pharaoh (the teen that I had leading the army) even got into the act and drowned right along with them. I had to clarify that was not what happened to Pharaoh but, if I could put the whole scene into one word it would be this: "glorious".
Then, last week, we told the story of how Joshua trusted God to fight the battle of Jericho the way God wanted him to and had the children up on the stage marching around a wall of boxes. I was up on a ladder taunting them as they did it until it was time for them to shout. When they shouted we did not have any Lucas special effects so the wall was literally trashed by Joshua's army. Boxes were flying all over the place as the wall was obliterated and the children that were sitting down watching the whole thing were even getting into the action as boxes rained down on them. Of course, once again, there was a bit of a debrief to point out the inaccuracies of what they had just witnessed when compared to the Biblical account, but it was quite the sight.
This week it is David and Goliath and I am looking forward to the point in the story when David cuts the head off of the giant. We only do one take in HighPoint because, um, the results speak for themselves.
One of the things that I love about children's ministry is, well, the children. That is especially true when they are acting out certain scenes from the Bible that are more Cecil B. DeMille than Beatrix Potter like God's saving the Hebrews from the the Egyptian army by drowning them in the Red Sea. It was quite something to see the kids rush the stage where the Moses and the Hebrews were standing only to be hit by a wall of water (i.e. blue bed sheet) that completely covered them. The adults that I had holding the sheet did an expert job making sure that every last Egyptian was covered. Pharaoh (the teen that I had leading the army) even got into the act and drowned right along with them. I had to clarify that was not what happened to Pharaoh but, if I could put the whole scene into one word it would be this: "glorious".
Then, last week, we told the story of how Joshua trusted God to fight the battle of Jericho the way God wanted him to and had the children up on the stage marching around a wall of boxes. I was up on a ladder taunting them as they did it until it was time for them to shout. When they shouted we did not have any Lucas special effects so the wall was literally trashed by Joshua's army. Boxes were flying all over the place as the wall was obliterated and the children that were sitting down watching the whole thing were even getting into the action as boxes rained down on them. Of course, once again, there was a bit of a debrief to point out the inaccuracies of what they had just witnessed when compared to the Biblical account, but it was quite the sight.
This week it is David and Goliath and I am looking forward to the point in the story when David cuts the head off of the giant. We only do one take in HighPoint because, um, the results speak for themselves.
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