I had the opportunity to make a short drive out to Camp Zephyr yesterday to hang out with the children from our church that are in the midst of children’s camp this week. They were all having a great time and making it through the heat just fine (I’m not sure I can say the same for our adult sponsors).
I got in on a game of Gaga Ball and got to eat camp food and go to worship with the group before heading back last night. The games were fun and the speaker was great but what impacted me the most was getting to watch our kids worship. So often, I fear kids do not feel part of what happens in corporate worship on Sunday mornings. I was moved to hear kids singing with open hearts.
It was a truly beautiful sound!
I left challenged to make sure we are more intentional in the way we plan worship services. I went to camp to be with the kids for an evening so that maybe they would see how much I care about them and that I am just as much their pastor as any adult in the family. I left reminded that we need to make sure they feel our church is their church.
What will we do to be used by God to form the next generation?
Clay in the Hands 
This is so true. My girls have said that on Sundays they just don’t understand what’s being said. I try to tell them they can still try to pay attention because I remember being a child sitting with grandma (back row Baptists I believe they called it ha!) during ‘big church’ and I didn’t always understand, sometimes I even took a nap on her lap, but there were a few times that things did speak to me. I firmly believe that even though I didn’t understand logically, spiritually I was in that church and God was right next to me. It’s one of the few places I felt calm and like I didn’t have to worry about anything that would be going on in my life later. At that moment I had peace. While grandma may not have talked to me about God and she did let me sleep during the service (anything to keep me still and quiet haha..) That experience alone was enough to create a deep foundation or link between me and my God. As an adult I still search out that peace feeling during chaos and find myself in that back row of the church tears streaming during the service because He is the only thing that I know for certain. (All because I was taken to church as a child not understanding exactly what the pastor was always saying) As an adult I want my children to know more than I did at that time, I want them to know that He is who I turn to because they see me STILL doing it. Children are so innocent and sometimes I think they see God as this mystical being and not as our Father who we can really confide in. I want them to be so much further in their Faith than I was. I do notice how the kids are treated at church by our leaders, and that is new to me and just a wonderful blessing to have help guiding them on their walk. Thank you for all you do Brian.