Batteries Not Included

Rather than give a leadership/motivation/teaching thought this week, allow me to jump start your creativity with an idea for your children's ministry.

This past weekend, we began a four-part series with our children entitled Batteries Not Included. We taught our first lesson yesterday showing that while each and every child is fearfully and wonderfully (amazingly and miraculously God's Word for Today) made (Psalms 139:14) and are placed on this earth with an assignment (Jeremiah 1:5), each child is placed on this earth with batteries not included.

To illustrate this, we used a television remote control and a garage door opener. Both are specifically created and crafted to perform a task. And while both are similar in that they both have circuitry on the inside and buttons on the outside, each was formed by its maker to do a task that only they can do. The television remote cannot open/close a garage door and the garage door opener cannot turn off/on the television or raise/lower the television's volume. With our children, God has created them for a task that will greatly impact the world. While each child may have similar features as other children (2 hands, 2 feet, a mouth, 2 eyes, etc.) they are so unique. Their circuitry (personality, passions, physical features) were formed making them a wonderfully complex individual. (Psalms 139:14, The Living Bible). God designed this individuality or uniqueness for a task explicitly for that specific child.

As great and needful as the television remote control is, this device will never fulfill its assignment without the required batteries. The same can be said about the garage door opener. Jesus made the same claim. No individual will fulfill their God-given assignment without the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) for we too come with batteries not included.

Hopefully these thoughts will jump start your creativity and help you provide the opportunity for children to receive heaven’s gift of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.