Over
the past several months I have heard the question raised in various locations
by various people: "Why are we doing FCJ?"
After it was announced in
services several weeks ago that the church council had voted to move on to step
2 in the FCJ process, I wanted my Sunday school teachers to know the exciting
news that they would miss hearing in the service. I took a couple of minutes to
share the news that I had previously heard at 9 am and then decided spur of the
moment to try and help the kids relate to the larger decisions the church is
making right now.
Many of the children hear the
initials FCJ, and I can only imagine they are thinking of other initials we use
in daily life that are relevant to them - PB&J, KFC, TTYL, LOL, etc.
Do they wonder if we are talking
about food or if this is special language adults use in their text messages
about church? Or maybe it's just another church word they don't understand.
From my standpoint as Director of
Children's Ministries at First United Methodist, I feel that we are taking
these important steps to make sure that our church is alive and relevant for
the children in our congregation so they can bring their children here in 20+
years.
I shared with the kids that there
were two special girls in our classroom whose mom had attended our church when
she was a little girl, and because adults had loved and cared for our church in
previous generations, these two kiddos could attend the church their mom had
when she was young. I wish I could accurately describe the look of pride on the
faces of Lainey and Katelyn Jeffers when they found out I was talking about
their mom Melissa.
I told the kids that the adults
were making these special decisions right now because they cared about God and
our church and wanted to make sure that kids like Laurel and Eli and Ethan and
Andreina all had a church where they could bring their kids when they were
mommies and daddies.
How powerful for kids to know
that we don't just care about them right now, but we care about who they will
become and how we can help them know and experience God's love both now, and
also in the distant future.
Another
question I have heard is "But are we doing a bad job?"
Any time people, plans and
institutions are evaluated there's a level of anxiety. However, going through
several years of schooling to obtain my teaching degree, along with supervising
student teachers in my later years of teaching, I came to appreciate the need
for evaluation and to see that the word 'evaluation' didn't need to have a
negative connotation.
At first I was anxious. Would I
fail? Would it all be bad? What if they had nothing good to say? After several
evaluations from supervising teachers, principals and university officials, I
realized that they would point out several items that I was doing properly and
then choose something for me to work on before the next evaluation.
It was never presented as 'man -
you're horrible at this or 'maybe you should rethink teaching as your career
path'. It was constructive feedback that would further my knowledge and skill
as an educator and really - who wants to stay mediocre? Don't we want to
continue growing and maturing? I continue to strive to be a better friend,
employee, spouse, parent, daughter and child of God on a daily basis and if I
can gleam knowledge that will help me in that quest I am all ears. I am excited
that my church family has chosen to do the same in this place that we call home.
I liken this second step of the
FCJ process to a student teaching evaluation. We will have evaluators come
through our doors and experience how we do church. They will observe, ask
questions and try to discern how we live out Christ's mission within our church
walls, as well as in the community that surrounds our church. It's a
scary thought, but I have a hunch they will find many things that we do well
and another list of things that we can pursue to become even better at sharing
God's love with others. The constructive feedback from those involved and our
commitment to continually strive for better-than-mediocre will ensure that our
downtown Bloomington church is making disciples of Christ for the
transformation of the world for years to come.
Alex Lamb
Director of Children's Ministries
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