Callouses and Crayons

Are you desperate for children’s church leaders?

Maybe you should ask Bubba. Men with calloused hands can teach children’s church too.

According to the U.S. Government, 1/3 of the children in the U.S. do not have fathers active in their lives. In some minority communities the nearly half of the children live without a father’s influence. [source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/fatherhood_report_6.13.12_final.pdf].

This amounts to a crisis.  I’m not talking about a national, political or even racial crisis. I am talking about a crisis in the lives of these kids.  To a small child, a dad is a hero, a star, a role model extraordinaire. Children learn their concept of masculinity from their fathers.  Absent the presence of a good father, those concepts will develop from some other source.  Too often that source is a bad one.

Even worse, in my opinion, is that a father’s absence/neglect/abuse really, really messes with a person’s concept of God. God has chosen to reveal himself to us as our “Father”. I have seen fatherless kids (and adults) struggle with the concept God as “Father”. I don’t often quote President Barack Obama, but I will on this subject. From the experience of his own childhood, he says that there is a “hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children.”

Maybe, just maybe, we need to think outside the box a little bit. Many of the kids in your children’s church are desperate for the example and love of kind, godly man. So that brings us back to Bubba. Bubba may not be you stereotypical children’s minister. He may have perm-a-dirt under his fingernails or be graying at the temples. Perhaps he has never taught a children’s class in his life. That’s okay.

Can he pray? Can he read the Bible story? Can he sit at the short table, pass out crayons, and color with the kids? Can he brag on a little girl’s coloring page or listen to a little boy’s tall tale? Odds are that if Bubba becomes a part of your children’s ministry he will fall in love with those children and they will fall in love with him.

As I said a few paragraphs up, I have seen fatherless people struggle with the concept of God as Father, but more importantly, I have also seen many fatherless kids blossom under the attention of a godly man.

So, give the men in your church a chance. Do something unconventional in children’s ministry. In the process you may just find someone to imitate the greatest Father of them all.


"Father of the fatherless…is God in his holy habitation."  Psalms 68:5 ESV

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." - James 1:27 ESV

"Well, Well, Jezebel"

Characteristics of the "Jezebel Spirit"

Tragic history is recorded in the Biblical books of 1 and 2 Kings. Among the most tragic, in my estimation, is the account we have of a woman named Jezebel. If you haven't done so recently, I encourage you to read her story beginning in 1 Kings chapter 16. Her's is a legacy of destruction and spiritual deprivation. 

I am convinced that same spirit is alive and well in the church today, so I want to take a few lines to help you identify the evil that lurks behind the "Jezebel spirit".

The Jezebel spirit is cloaked in religion. The greatest opposition to the people of God is not the"anti-God" crowd. Rather, it is the "almost-God" crowd. It veils itself in religious tradition. It is fluent in "church-speak", yet totally devoid of the heart  or Spirit of Christ. Jesus came to "seek and to save that which was lost" [Luke 19:10] but the Jezebel spirit thrives in arrogant exclusivity [1 Kings 21]. 

This Jezebel spirit can manifest itself in many ways. Sometimes it will manifest itself in old-fashioned racism. Other times it will show up as prejudice rooted in social class, economic status or even a person's history.  All of these are just as evil and destructive as blatant racism. True Christianity eliminates social strata of all kinds, but "almost-Christianity" amplifies it.

The Jezebel spirit is domineering. She was not the monarch, but she was married to King Ahab. Though he tried to project the image of regal strength, Ahab was a weak man who repeatedly gave into the evil ambitions of his wife. To satisfy her, he committed all kinds of evil, and left a trail of blood throughout Israel. Good men, honest men, godly men were all the recipients of her murderous wrath.

The Jezebel spirit is unrepentant. Despite multiple demonstrations of God's supremacy, she would neither acknowledge or  repent of her evil.  Famine could not break her obstinate heart. The mighty display of God's power on Mt. Carmel only angered her. God's mercy displayed in life saving rains only emboldened her.

The Jezebel spirit is enslaving. Have you ever looked at these "prophets of Baal" and wondered about their unflagging loyalty? They danced to her tune. They sacrificed their children to the torments of hunger. They willingly injured themselves on the altar of a false god, and they did it all at her bidding. She displayed neither love nor affection for anyone but herself, yet she had a loyal following, for they feared the wrath of Jezebel more than they feared the displeasure of God.

The Jezebel spirit is destructive. Eventually all of those around her paid the price for her evils. Her cadre of "prophets" were violently killed. Her children were cursed. [1 Kings 21]. Her husband died an agonizing death. [1 Kings 22]. Jezebel herself died violently, tossed out an upstairs window by those in her own household. [2 Kings 9].

The Jezebel spirit plays to the most base instincts of humanity. Pride, vanity and lust for power all make the short list. Mostly though, the "spirit of Jezebel" is simply a rebellion against God. It is rebellion that tries to reshape God and godliness  into a package that gratifies the the fleshly/carnal desires of humanity. It revels in religious experience and despises the oracle of God.

How do you fight it? You don't fight it, you simple expose it. Then you leave the fighting to God. I am struck by the fact that the only defense that the real prophets of God seemed to have against the Jezebel spirit was distance. They left. They hid in caves and deserts and foreign towns, while Jezebel strutted and the hearts of Israel were tested. Sadly, the Kingdom of Israel never returned to the true worship of God. They were eventually destroyed, still enslaved in their idolatry.

So please, be ever so careful my friends. The Jezebel spirit is still out there on the prowl. It exists in mega-churches, in small country churches and everywhere in between.  It will sweet talk you. It will draw you in. It will promise you many things, then it will turn on you and destroy you. It will come after you family. It will never be satisfied. It maliciously attacks all that is good or godly. It spreads like a cancer, and it has its eyes on you.

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." [Matthew 10:16 KJV]