A Protest, A Revolution

As I write this, it is early Sunday morning, October 31st. Ahead of me today are the two Sunday morning services, a full afternoon of last minute preparation and set up for our huge Family FunFest, and then the FunFest begins at 4:30 with 2 1/2 hours of big carnival-type rides and activities and then at 7 PM we have our 1 hour salvation oriented service conducted by an awesome evangelist, Big Vinny (http://www.bigvinny.com/), ending with giving each child a bag of candy as they leave. Thinking of all that lies ahead makes me want to crawl back into bed.

It is October 31st and all of America's focus is on Halloween and trick or treating. Sadly, Halloween has overshadowed a far more significant event that happened on this day in 1517. On October 31st, the priest and scholar Martin Luther approached the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nailed a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Revolution. In his 95 Theses, Luther stated and condemned the status of the church and cried out for a revolution.

Today's blog entry is my cry for fellow Igniters to look at the current status of America's children's ministry and, like Luther, announce that enough is enough. We can't continue as we are. We are losing a generation. Our current way of doing things isn't producing life-changing results. Because of a lack of a true move of the Holy Spirit, our boys and girls are bailing from the church after leaving high school. In this protest, we must cry out for a Holy Spirit revolution, one that will push peer pressure aside, one that will cause us to forsake religious tradition and doing things the way that we've always done them. This is a protest of dissatisfaction. It is a statement of holy anger that will cause us to be like Luther and leave the ranks of the satisfied and unashamedly identify yourself as a spokesman and activist for change.

Will you join me? Will you establish and publicize your "Theses" to your staff and co-workers? Will you put your reputation on the line and become known among fellow children's ministry leaders that you are leaving the status quo and become labeled as a radical Igniter?

If today is the day of the Holy Ghost (and it is!), then let's announce and facilitate His arrival at the forefront of our ministry!