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

Kids? Now? Say it ain't so...

Mark 10:14  But when Jesus saw [it], he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

Face it. Kids can be miserable little buggers at times. Not because they are bad, but just because they are kids. The fact is, bringing kids to Christ can sometimes involve a little suffering, a little inconvenience, on our part.

Here in this account in Mark’s Gospel, the disciples had enjoyed basking in the reflected glow of a great Teacher all day, and now, finally, they had there time to talk to Jesus. Suddenly they found themselves baby-sitting the primary class.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is for us to get “too big for our britches”? Too self-important? Jesus had to remind them of the true nature of the Kingdom and the importance of simple faith.

These children were not brought by theologians looking to have them filled with great teaching, they were brought by parents seeking Jesus’ touch on their little ones. Remarkably, the disciples rebuked them for this!

If Jesus ever gave his disciples the stink-eye, I expect this was the time, for he was “much displeased”.

I realize ministering to kids can be exhausting. I know sometimes it seems like no matter what you do, they don’t hear a word you say. There are times we’d much rather be involved in adult conversation than cleaning the crayon scribbles off of the short tables.

Here’s the thing. To follow Jesus example doesn’t mean we have to carry around a Sunday School lesson in our pocket all of the time. It does mean, however, that we are ever ready to touch their hearts with his love. God has a special place in his heart for children. A kind word, a hug, and a little bragging can do more to cement a kid into the Kingdom of God that a dozen Sunday School lessons.

The greatest blessings God ever bestowed on anyone in the Bible was children:

-God’s promise to Eve about redemption involved a child.
-God’s blessing on Abram was all about a miracle child.
-In dozens (if not hundreds) of places in the Bible that God is pronouncing blessing on someone, that blessing involves children!
-God so values children (who are by nature weak) that to oppress the fatherless insures the swift wrath of God.

The disciples had appointed themselves the “gate keepers” for Jesus. Jesus had had to spend a good deal of time that day dealing with Pharisees. Now either:
1. they didn’t have the guts to turn the Pharisees away, or
2. they enjoyed watching Jesus “smoke” them in argument.

At the end of the day their attempt was to keep these children at bay, because they found the timing inconvenient, but guess what.  The Lord has little concern for our convenience. 

In the armies of this world, Generals do not ask enlisted men if action is convenient for them. They give orders, and orders are carried out. For Jesus the cross was not convenient, but he set aside his will to do the will of the Father.

So yes, the kids you teach on Sunday, the pint sized menaces next door, and the kids you love dearly all have one thing in common. They need to experience the touch of Jesus in their lives, for he loves them dearly.

Will you lead them to him?