In Elevate, having preteens lead in ministry has been an essential component. It’s one way that we are helping preteens to take ownership of their faith. From the check in table to setting up the chairs to leading worship to running the tech booth, there are preteens running areas of the ministry. As the year progresses and they receive intentional training, they take greater responsibility for the Sunday morning ministry.
Josh, a fifth grader in Elevate, has shown great interest and aptitude for running our tech booth. In fact, Josh’s commitment has landed him the position of tech director, and he is able to run the tech booth himself. He even organizes volunteers (other preteens) to help him run the lights, sound, and media.
Some days, I forget that Josh is 11…and then, some days (like this past Sunday)… I remember.
On Sunday, I had an idea of how I could make reference during the message to a slide we had seen last Sunday. Before service started, I asked Josh to locate the slide and place it in the tech program – he knows how to do this.
As I was speaking, I came to the point where I wanted Josh to put the slide on the screen, and I thought my cue was pretty clear. I looked at the screen and it wasn’t there. I tried to make eye contact with him in the back of the room as I repeated the cue. Again, I didn’t see the slide. So, I just said, “Josh, go ahead and put that up on the screen.”
I looked at the screen, and saw these words, which he had typed into the overlay component of the program: “I couldn’t find it.”
He could have given me some signal from the back of the room or said something to that effect, but in his mind, the best solution was to write his thoughts and project them onto the screen for everybody to see.
Yes, Josh is 11. And 11-year olds think differently. When put in charge of areas of ministry, they make decisions and do things that we wouldn’t do. They “mess up”. They cause interruptions in an otherwise smooth service.
But Josh is 11. And 11-year olds need opportunities to mess up. They need safe places to take charge of ministry, and to make their own decisions. They need leaders, like me and you, that are willing to put down our desire for a perfectly smooth service in favor of training and involving them in the work that Christ wants to accomplish through THEM.
Yes, it was a funny interruption to our Sunday morning service. As our small group’s pastor likes to say, “Without interruptions, Jesus wouldn’t have had much of a ministry!” I guess I can be OK with interruptions, too.
