Remind Me Why We are Doing This?

Fall 2015 - Remind me why we are doing this imageI thought I knew all about getting results.  My background is one of planning and executing corporate agendas, fueling economic and development growth, and in areas where success factors were always financially driven with a self-promotion/preservation undertow—swim fast or drown!

Working for the growth of the Kingdom was quite a paradigm shift for me. I am very much a “go big or go home” gal so I am usually very excited about change and the work involved to undertake it. But I was not prepared for the impact that Christ-centered results could have. 

When I began working in Children’s Ministry, we embarked on the very laborious challenge of creating name tags for the families and the kids so that we could easily identify them and efficiently check them in each Sunday.  This process was absolutely frustrating! Families were slow to complete the process, names were incorrect, classroom allocations were wrong. So much so that at one point I turned to my ministry partner, Heather, and said: "Remind me why we are doing this?" Then God, in His sovereignty, reminded me.  

One Sunday we had a Grade One boy come and visit our classroom.  We knew that he was from a different faith and we all tried to make sure he was comfortable.  When we asked the kids if there was anything they wanted to pray for, he raised his hand and asked us if we would ask God to help stop his dad from hitting his mom.  You can imagine how we all were moved.  At the end of the class I encouraged him to come back the following Sunday. He replied, "If I do, will I get a name tag like the other kids?"

This is where I clearly realized what our work was about, not making things run smoother, getting kids checked in faster, being more organized, but doing Kingdom work. Those name tags were not about my administrative desires, they were about connecting that boy to Christ!

Colossians  3:24 tells us that when you serve others you serve the Lord. We must submit our leadership to God's sovereignty or efforts can easily lead us to bitterness, exhaustion, and indifference where we say: "Remind me why we are doing this?"

I am a bit of a slow learner. I grew up in Swift Current where some say we are neither "swift nor current!" So God has to remind me often to get over myself. In December 2014, we planned a Happy Birthday Jesus Christmas Party.  We worked so hard to have it look pretty. We had great food and fun activities for the 60 kids who attended. But at the end of the day we were pretty disappointed by the lack of response we received. To be honest, I felt really defeated. Again, I thought to myself, "Why are we doing this?"

The following Sunday, God answered my question.  At the Christmas event we had met three new children who had just entered foster care with one of our church families and we had done our best to connect with them and make them feel welcome. I was blessed to be in the Sunday school classroom of the oldest of the three. During prayer time when we asked the kids if there was anything they wanted to pray for, this little boy raised his hand, and asked if God would make his mom better.  You can imagine the pull on our hearts. But for me it was more like a kick in the backside, as though God were reminding me that I need to leave the results to Him.

The change in this boy is miraculous!  He stands taller and his smiles are wider. God has clearly done a work in him.

Kingdom work is not about sign-in sheets, curriculum, activities, crafts, or hosting great events, Kingdom work is about introducing and connecting people to Jesus. It is about creating opportunities for connections to happen and relationships to form. God has designed us with a need to belong, a need to be in relationship with Him. It is this need to belong that should fuel the work we do.

Matthew 25:21 says: "Well done you good and faithful servant".  None of us are going to hear, “Well done you smart, talented and hardworking leader.” Whatever talents we have been gifted with are only useful for the Kingdom as we submit those gifts to Him.

—Dayna Olsen-Brooks is Director of Children’s Ministry at Maple Ridge Baptist Church in Maple Ridge, BC.