Children’s Ministry has spent the past two weeks putting random things away and finding stray decorations and game pieces all around the church. The time after VBS is always a time to exhale and put things away. What I don’t want to shelve away is the beautiful picture of multigenerational community and service to Christ on display at VBS. We had volunteers from our Silver Connections Ministry down to our rising sixth graders who served and shared the love of Christ and the hope of the Gospel with our kids. God was praised all three days as the young, and not so young, were singing together, “I’m trusting you God, you are good!”
God is good as we see our children and youth increasingly putting their trust in Him. As I watched our youth serve at VBS, I saw the words of Psalm 71:5 on display, ”For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.” God has been working in the lives of our young people since the beginning. He has used their parents who have discipled them in the ways of the Lord, nursery volunteers who rocked them and sang to them of Jesus’ love, Sunday school teachers who taught them to love and live out God’s Word, Kids Club teachers who pointed them to Jesus in every lesson and Bridge Teachers who share the Truth and the foundation of the Gospel with our preteens.
God’s faithfulness continues as many of our young people take the trust planted in them from childhood, wrestle with it and, in turn, dedicate their lives to Christ and publicly confess their faith in Him. This upcoming school year, we will have more than 60 students who are active communicant members. Praise God! Just as God used teachers and volunteers during their younger years, He continues to work through their parents as their primary disciplers, in partnership with our youth leaders. These leaders include our faithful, wise (and fun) Friday night volunteers, our insightful Sunday school teachers and our high school discipleship group leaders, who invest in students through life-on-life ministry.
We also see God at work through the youth themselves as they reflect their Savior by serving in ministries throughout the church. GRC is not simply a multigenerational church, but a multigenerational movement, one in which generational distinctions do not define or divide us, but instead provide opportunities for every generation, with its particular strengths and weaknesses, to serve, be served and belong in community with all the others. Would you consider joining this multigenerational movement of God in our children and young people? Would you consider serving in the Children’s Ministry as a teacher or assistant in Kids Club, Sunday school or Bridge, teaching our covenant children to hope in Christ and find their confidence in Him? Would you consider volunteering in the nursery, showing the love of Christ to the youngest in our community? Or even consider serving with our older preteens and teens in youth ministry. We need adults of all ages, from retirees to college students who love the LORD and want to point our kids to our sovereign and loving Savior. Reach out to karen@graceredeemer.com or drew@graceredeemer.com to find out more.
Karen Jacobsen serves as the Director of Children’s Ministry at GRC.
Drew Heftye serves as the Director of Family Discipleship at GRC.