Our Heavenly Father

'When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”  Joshua 4:1-7 NIV

I know that this week’s devotional was supposed to be on Adventurers, but I am going to delay that 1 more week.  With this Sunday being Father’s Day I felt God leading me to focus this week on the importance of men and fathers in our children’s ministry. 

So, let’s just be honest for a minute, children’s ministry needs more Christian men.  There is a unique contribution that only men can provide, and that is being strong male role models and modeling God as our heavenly Father. 

This role is so important in so many ways, one of the biggest is that church may be the only place that some children experience a positive male role model in their lives.  Church may be the only place where children have the opportunity to interact with men who model loving, caring and nurturing values of manhood.  How do we teach boys to grow up to be strong men in Christ?  We have to model it for them. 

The Bible is so clear in instructing men to be actively involved in the discipleship of children. In Joshua 4:1-7 the Lord tells Joshua to instruct the men of the tribes in their duty to teach God’s faithfulness to the next generation.  Just as it was thousands of years ago, the same instructions are still important today.  Children need to be around Christian men who are actively involved in ministry, have a passion for God and who are faithful fathers and husbands.

Our generation is hurting.  There are so many broken homes and broken lives.  Today more than ever, children are being raised in single parent homes and the influence of strong men in their lives is often hard to find. 

This is why children need men in children’s ministry. It’s pretty amazing when you think about how God choses to help us understand His desired role in our lives.  God communicates his commitment, love and dedication to us by selecting a word that best describes his nature. Over and over again God is called our Father.   

The word father should give us the image of responsibility, commitment, provider, and love, the person who picks us up when we fall and tells us to keep going.  But in a world of fatherless children, this image is so often skewed.  As women we can dry tears, and show compassion and love, but we will never be able to model the image of God in the lives of a child like a man.

I know that I am writing to men who already serve in Children’s Ministry, but my hope is that this will inspire you to not only to live your lives as an example of our heavenly father, but to encourage your friends and family to see the important role that your 1 hour a week of influence in the life of a child can really be.  Imagine the church we could be if our children’s ministry was exploding with men and fathers investing into the eternity of the hundreds of children who come through Ekidz each week.  What impact would it have on our community?  In the world?

To all of you who serve, Happy Father’s Day.  I thank our heavenly Father each day for your dedication and tireless service.  I pray for the day when children’s lives are no longer impacted by the lack of a father in their lives, but until then, let’s continue to do what we can to fill that hole with the love of Jesus.