Saturday, February 11, 2006

Hug a Children’s Ministry person today…

I’ve had a wonderful time with the Children’s Ministry Conference team the last two days. They have put in a lot of work to serve the Children’s Ministry community and close to 500 attendees came from Wisconsin, surrounding states in the Midwest and we also had Children’s ministry leaders from Ireland, Germany, and Liberia.

The event was held at Elmbrook Church and it’s always a thrill to go back and see so many wonderful people. Highlights were Stephanie’s worship leading, Edie’s encouragement, Brody’s jokes and Alison’s constant stream of coffee for me!

Probably the most significant conversation I had was with an older gentleman who said he worked with grade school boys in his community, many of whom were skaters. He shared with me how many in the church wondered why “those types” were there, and his eye’s welled up as he talked about them.

So much of my life can be caught up in theory. This man reminded me that the best theology is a theology of tears… where we have a love for others that moves us. Maybe he was the true teacher of the conference this weekend.

Here’s some pics of the conference…

Starbucks ready for me first thing this morning… amazing!


Steph and me with our conference bags!


My trip with buddy Dave to Altera… a great local coffee shop.


The team taking the evaluations VERY seriously.


The team after a great celebration dinner!

3 Comments:

At Mon Feb 13, 09:25:00 AM GMT-5, Blogger heather said...

steve- glad you had a great trip and a good conference. I've been involved a bit in children's ministry at ada (music) and have seen a different perspective of the church. we're currently training the little ones to take over the church and we're trying to get them to sing loud enough to disrupt the adult services. :)

 
At Mon Feb 13, 04:57:00 PM GMT-5, Blogger Angie said...

I'm all about getting them to disrupt "big church." I do the same thing with my Junior High kids :)

 
At Tue Feb 21, 04:18:00 PM GMT-5, Blogger Mindy said...

Steve-
We so enjoyed having you! What a wonderful spirit and engaging speaker. Attendees were certainly blessed. I am the Administrative Assistant for Elmbrook's Children's Ministry and although I spent much of the weekend at the registration table...I definately snuck in the chapel to hear you! Celia D. shared your page with me, and I am going to make sure that the CM staff know this exists. :D
Mindy Pitchford
www.pitchfordzblogspot.com

 

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