I am a creative person. I have a degree in music, and I have spent many years in professional roles as a performer, teacher, director, writer, and creator. About a dozen years ago I started working in children’s ministry as an extension of my interest and love for children’s choirs and children’s engagement in worship. It was a natural and seamless transition for me to incorporate all aspects of faith formation for children into a new role in my congregation. I took it on with great excitement and energy, and I realized very quickly that I had some “areas for growth.”
The biggest thing that challenged me in this new job was the endless list of details. I am not great with the tiny minutia of details. I am an excited innovator. I love creating new events and experiences for children at church. I delight in big-picture visioning. But I learned very quickly that all the wonderful programs that I could dream up often take a lot of time and energy in the details. The best thing that happened to me was working with someone who was nearly the polar opposite. The chairwoman of my first Children’s Ministry Committee was a detail person in every way. She kept marvelous minutes of our meetings, she was a wizard with a spreadsheet, and she always knew what a workable timeframe should be for every event we planned. I hate to imagine what would have happened if she had not been part of my first experience working in children’s ministry.
We teach children that there is a place for everyone in the church. And that includes people who help to plan and lead programs at the church. While I have gifts for working on big-picture projects, I am so grateful for those people who help manage the details. They create class lists, make name tags, put together packets for classes, help collect forms and paperwork, keep a list of first aid kit items, and think of anything else that may come up. Families come to church and feel welcomed not only by the teachers and leaders, but by the care in the details.
In the subsequent years since I first started, I have become much better at organizing and managing details, partly because I invite and welcome volunteers with a variety of gifts to join the Children’s Ministry Committee. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)