Ho-Hum Horror!

Perhaps you are challenged with a plateau in the quality of your ministry. After examining your services, you can see that they are lifeless and bland. The leftover oatmeal from yesterday's breakfast seems to be more appealing than what you are seeing in your services. Can you identify with what I am talking about?

Without even sitting in your service, I believe that I can deduce where the problem lies. Lifelessness and blandness are set in motion long before you enter into your classroom. The problem is found in the preparation process. I have found that in doing children's ministry for a while, it is ever so easy to skim through the words found on the pages of the lesson and to have a good idea about what to do. After a quick glance at the lesson, we are prepared. We've taught that subject before. It will be a breeze to make it through the service.

Here's a reminder that we need to constantly think about. Blandness and lifelessness are guaranteed if you stand in front of the children and only do what is written in the lesson or curriculum. Remember that the lesson's words are printed in black ink, not red ink. These words reveal the minimum of what the Holy Spirit wants to do through you. It is only through time with the Holy Spirit that the words are transformed from black ink to red ink, from minimum to maximum, full of life and power. It is only through time spent with Him that will enable you to ooze with creativity and life. He will bring about wardrobe and props that weren't mentioned in the lesson. The Creator will provide examples and object lessons not suggested in the lesson. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is creative. Remember that at Creation, the Holy Spirit is the One who took God's directives and actually did the creating. That same Holy Spirit now lives inside of you and loves to enlarge and expand and burst out at the seams with creativity.

So, read the lesson and then read it again. Then, set aside the book and spend time with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to move inside of you and create. Please, please, please don't limit yourself to what some writer who has never been to your city or visited your church or met your children dictate what the Holy Spirit wants to say. Spend time with Him and draw from His creativity. The bland will disappear and the children will be begging their parents to come to your services!