The Most Important Room in the Building
By Julie Hawkins, Associate Pastor of Ministry
I grew up in the church, this church. Chapel Hill was the place where my faith came alive. It was in Sunday school classrooms and Wednesday night programs, in the care of adults who showed up week after week to teach, to pray, to notice me. Somewhere in the ordinary rhythms of those Sunday mornings, I encountered Jesus. Not in a dramatic moment. Just gradually, the way a plant grows toward light.
I remember one week in 3rd grade when my Sunday School teacher Nancy was teaching about how Jesus called his disciples, these ordinary young fishermen, to follow him. She told us to picture Jesus going down to the docks in Gig Harbor in the early morning as our local fishers prepared to go out for the day and called them to drop their nets and follow him, that he would make them fishers of people. Ordinary people, called to follow Jesus, and called to share Jesus with the world around us. I still carry that lesson with me today.
I am who I am in part because of the people who served in Kids Ministry when I was small.
Here’s something that research has confirmed repeatedly: most people who follow Jesus came to faith as children. According to Barna, most Christians made a meaningful faith commitment before the age of 18, and a significant portion of those before age 12. The window of childhood may be the most formative spiritual season a person ever has. Our greatest tool for evangelism is our Kids’ Ministry!
What happens in our kids’ ministry is not supplemental to the mission of this church. It is the mission. The adults who show up to teach a Bible story, to lead a game, to learn a child’s name and ask about their week, to rock a baby, or sit with a group of wiggly three-year-olds — they are doing some of the most consequential work that takes place at our church.
Jesus understood this. When his disciples, those young fishermen, tried to send the children away because they had more important things to attend to, he stopped them. “Let the little children come to me,” he said, “for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” He took them in his arms. He blessed them. He made it clear that children are not the future of the church. They are the church. Right now.
We have room in Kids Ministry for more people who believe that. Our Kid’s Ministry is growing (Praise the LORD!), and we have room to grow with it.
You don’t need a theology degree. You don’t need to have all the answers. We are looking for ordinary people, like the disciples. You need to be a person who shows up, who learns names, who lets a child know that they matter in this place. Because decades from now, some of these kids will be standing somewhere telling someone about the Sunday morning or Wednesday night that changed them and you could be part of that story.
So friends, if you’ve been looking for a place to serve, come and see what’s happening in the most important room in the building. If you haven’t been looking for a place to serve, I want to challenge you to get in the game. We’d love to have you.
To serve in Kids Ministry on Sundays, contact Crystal Bentley, » our Kids Ministry Director. She will be excited to plug you in.
To serve in the Nursery at The Parenting Course, fill out this link. »
Pastor Julie
P.S.—A moment to remember. Today marks 25 years since the attacks of September 11, 2001. We pause to remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost that day, the families who still carry that loss, and the first responders and countless others whose lives were forever changed. We give thanks for those who responded with extraordinary courage and sacrifice, and for the freedoms we too easily take for granted. As followers of Jesus, we also pray for a world still wounded by violence, hatred, fear, and division. May God make us people of peace, compassion, courage, and hope—and may we never forget.
Pastor Julie