Move Forward with Focus
Have you ever watched Olympic gymnastics? These athletes consistently demonstrate unthinkable feats of strength and coordination. Gymnasts are groomed from an early age to swing freely through monkey bars, to execute perfect somersaults and cartwheels, and to walk the balance beam flawlessly. Some people are naturally gifted in these feats of precision; others (like me) are not.
My wife and I enrolled our sons in a variety of local sports programs when they were young. Anything with “tumble” in the title caught our attention so we could ensure lengthy naps later in the day. I remember the first time my son stepped up on the balance beam. It was only a few inches off the ground, but he was scared. I spotted him by holding his hand until he learned to place one foot in front of the other with confidence. However, as the height of the beam rose, the harder it got for my son to keep from falling off the edge. I was happy to walk by his side, but it was obviously frustrating to him and the kids waiting in line behind him.
Ready to give up, he gripped my hand hard and said: “Dad, I just can’t do it!” I wasn’t sure what to do. Just then, some outside perspective came to our rescue.
I’ll never forget what the gymnastics instructor told him: “Don’t look at the beam or the floor. Keep your eyes on where you want to go and put one foot in front of the other.”
Armed with this simple advice, he and his classmates improved dramatically during the class. As it turns out, my son inherited my gymnastic genes so we’ll just be watching the Olympics from home. However, we learned an important life lesson about focus and forward momentum that’s applicable to more than tumbling in the gym.
Wandering Eyes Lose Their Way
In our most recent research at Awana, we discovered that kidmin leaders around the U.S. got involved in serving children and families for one important purpose: Produce children who know Christ and His Word and follow Him all their lives. Simply put, they stepped up to be disciples who make disciples. Fueled with passion to impact this and future generations for eternity, kid-influencers of all kinds set course and move forward in the best way they know how.
Proverbs 22:6 is a key verse for many children’s ministry leaders and parents: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
This is a powerful passage, one marked by great intentionality and lasting purpose. We long for kids of all ages to know, love, and serve Christ forever! Yet, as our research strongly indicates, we’re not quite sure how well our weekly efforts are translating into lifelong discipleship. Our wandering eyes cause us to lose our way in children’s ministry. There’s a lot of great curriculum and programming resources at our disposal. We cast vision, recruit leaders, walk alongside families, and navigate church dynamics all to ensure the Gospel will change kids lives. While we may have pure motivations for ministry, we quickly discover that it’s difficult to measure long-term effectiveness in disciple making.
Honestly, we’re clear about our proverbial balance beam. We know the direction of our ultimate destination: Make disciples of all nations and ages. Still, we keep falling from side to side, somehow getting derailed with each step we take. Our eyes wander; we stop looking ahead and we misstep much more easily. How can we keep from losing our balance? How can we stay sure-footed and keep going straight? We need to consider what hinders our ability to focus and experience forward momentum in disciple making.
What Gets Us Off Balance?
In The Gospel Truth About Children’s Ministry: 10 Fresh KidMin Research Findings, Matt Markins, Mark McPeak and I discovered three aspects of children’s ministry that represent the primary passion areas of most kidmin leaders and decision makers:
Top 3 Passion Areas:
- Evangelism
- Discipleship
- Teaching the Bible.
These three rose to the surface without any prompting. Kidmin leader after kidmin leader wrote these in as responses to open-ended questions about what matters most in children’s ministry. What surprised us even more was that 50% of those surveyed use Awana, but the other 50% did not. Across the board, sharing the Gospel, leading children to become like Jesus in every way, and teaching the importance God’s Word were all critical for effective disciple-making with kids and families.
Conversely, our team found several inevitable frustrations, or pain points, that get in the way of strong disciple making ministry. Here are a few of them:
3 Common Pain Points:
- Lack of relationship
- Broken church-parent bridge
- Changing culture
These findings are not new issues. What’s new is hearing the children’s ministry leadership community speak up in one voice through the research. If kids are experiencing an endless cycle of programmed activities and new leaders each week, they have a difficult time learning from godly examples or trusting adults with what’s on their mind and hearts. When the church starts pointing fingers at parents to get more involved, and the families point fingers at churches asking for miracles without consistent engagement in ministry, kids end up caught in the crossfire. And, as technology, media, family priorities, and more keep shifting, the church needs innovative disciple-making approaches to stay relevant. Since there’s no plug-n-play solution to address these pain points, we need to recalibrate our perspective and priorities.
Trying to balance our passion areas and pain points takes a lot of energy. As soon as we get re-ignited about why we’re serving kids and families, we get a phone call or leave a tough meeting that highlights our struggles. We stop looking ahead when we turn all of our attention to passion areas and pain points. It ends up swaying us back and forth like trying to walk a balance beam with a strong crosswind. There must be a way to press through, to stay on mission with great purpose so that every child will come to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ for life.
We Must Move Forward with Focus
Remember when Peter walked on water toward Jesus? He gets a lot of flack for sinking and having little faith. But, can you imagine the conversation back in the boat or at breakfast the next day?
“Hey Peter, I can’t believe you sank!”
His reply? “Yeah, but I actually walked on water!”
Of all the disciples, he was the only one who got out of the boat and walked toward Christ. And, he survived to tell about it. We can learn from his example. We can’t let the wind and waves of children’s ministry pull our attentions from side to side. We must focus on where we’re going if we want to experience forward momentum.
As a kidmin leader, someone who loves kids and families and wants them to follow Christ forever, you can move forward with focus. You can keep your eyes on the purpose of why you got involved in ministry in the first place:
Produce children who know Christ and His Word and follow Him all their lives.
Our research discovered that children’s ministry leaders want resources that are highly biblical and highly relational to achieve the greatest discipleship impact. The ministry of Awana is raising the bar in this by updating our classic programming and developing new kidmin solutions for today’s kids and families. You can find out more in the appendices of The Gospel Truth About Children’s Ministry.
Hebrews 12:1-3 clearly instructs us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, for our faith fulfilled by him alone. We take courage because our Lord endured. On your watch, you can lead kids, parents, leaders, pastors – anyone who impacts children in your church or community – to look ahead, fixated on making disciples who make disciples. It won’t be an easy journey; but it will be totally worth it.
If you want to move forward with focus…
Get a copy of The Gospel Truth About Children’s Ministry: 10 Fresh KidMin Findings from Awana (click here to order). We recommend reading a copy yourself and providing copies to your pastor and core children’s ministry leaders. This new resource from Awana will help you start the conversation about what matters most in your church and children’s ministry. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter to spark your thinking. Our desire is to support you and serve you in your work with this and future generations. Take time together to identify your unique challenges and concerns. Then, talk with trusted people in the kidmin trenches about how to make adjustments in your context for maximum disciple-making impact with kids and families. We’re available to help you move forward with focus toward lifelong discipleship in children’s ministry.
