Leveraging Force

Have you ever seen a pencil penetrate a tree?  Having grown up in Oklahoma, tornadoes were a seasonal activity in my life.  Foreign objects protruding from tree trunks was not an unusual sight.  The impossibility of it is what makes it so fascinating.  How can a little wooden ‘twig’ penetrate that amount of solid mass?

The answer is force.  I’m no scientist.  And this is no scientific explanation of said phenomenon.

It’s an amateur, ‘wikipedia-like’ response by someone amazed that a pencil could harness enough power to penetrate a tree trunk.

Have you ever served an hour in kids ministry that felt nothing like ministry and a lot like Lord of the Flies?  Me too.

Days like that I leave church feeling like I just took a pencil, threw it at the tree trunk and watched it unceremoniously ricochet to the ground.  I doubt the tree even felt a thing.

There are other hours in kids ministry where things run smoothly, the story flows flawlessly, the kids respond harmoniously and I float out of church on cloud 9.  I took the pencil and threw it with great force and accuracy.  The tip drives in slightly.

Yet if I know that my goal in ministry is to penetrate the tree trunk, investing and sewing God’s Word deeply into the hearts of these kids… then even my best hour doesn’t create enough force to drive the word deep enough.   I need more force.  And I can’t produce that on my own.

This is where parents enter the picture.  Connecting with parents is a critical step in ministry to kids.  Imagine the conversations you start on the weekend continue throughout the week at home.  Imagine the scripture you encourage your kids to memorize is sewn into the hearts of parents, as well.  Imagine the force of your serve combined with the force of parents’ love driving God’s word deeper into the hearts of this generation.

Engaging parents in this journey… equipping & encouraging them will create a phenomenon in your ministry that will cause others to stop and take a second look.  Is that really a pencil in the trunk of that tree?