Why We're Teaching Our Kids To Serve In The Local Church: Part 1 of 5
And how we're doing it.
I grew up in a culture where serving others in and through the local church was the norm. My wife, even though she was born and raised half-way across the country, grew up in the same culture.
We both want our kids to have the same attitude and stance.
Why?
We believe it’s important to be producers and not just consumers.
When we serve others, it can help us put into practive what we’re learning.
There is no higher call for the Believer than to serve others.
Jesus said in Matthew 20:26- “Whoever wants to be great among you, must be your servant.”
We believe the best way to teach out kids is by letting them observe what we’re doing and bringing them in on the journey, but for whatever reason that seemed hard for me to actually do.
My wife and I would show up to serve, but would take our kids to their classes and our teen would connect with her friends before sitting with us in the service. They knew we served, but they weren’t doing it with us. That was until this happened:
The youth department at our church started an intiative where they encouraged all of the teens to attend the early Sunday service to volunteer in the area of their choice, and then stay for the later service to sit with each other during the message.
I wanted our teenage daughter to be apart of this initiative so I started by dropping her off for the early service and then going back home.
Then I heard the guys in the parking lot say they really needed help, so I started staying to help them.
Then my boys asked if they could come to the early service to help me in the parking lot. So we’re all riding together to the early service to serve and then attend the second service.
It all happened organically and has been fun. If you would have told me that basically attending two services on Sundays would be the path to begin showing my children how to serve, I would have opted out. It seemed to hard. That’s rediculous. With the right perspective, it’s more life giving than ever. And that persepctive is what the reminder of this series is all about.
Over the next four weeks, I will share the framework I learned and am using to teach my kids the heart behind serving. I’m excited.
Let’s go win!
-Rob
Thanks, Chris!