Skip to main content

The best gift ever

 

Each year in December we give the Sunday School children a small gift as an acknowledgement of our love for them as a church family. This year, we have only had around four to six children attending Sunday School as we currently have very few families participating in our morning church services.

Today, I met with our Corps Officers (the Salvation Army name for ministers or pastors), to discuss what the children’s slot in the church service might look like. Each child will be invited up for their gift, plus I have a special extra gift which is a name plaque with the spiritual meaning of their names. I will give a brief talk on the importance of names, present the plaques then pray for the children.

We will also recognize a group of neurodiverse children who are brought to church with the couple who care for them. They do not attend Sunday School but are an important part of our church family.

Then the Corps Officers mentioned they would be inviting families from Recovery Church, staff, and the family stores. Suddenly it looks much bigger. We discussed how to manage an unknown number of children to ensure they all receive something.

I was thinking what a blessing children are to us, and how important they are to our church family. The reality is, the only gift that matters, the best gift of all, is the gift of salvation. We are called to instruct our children in such a way that they accept this amazing gift. It is not always easy to do, and their parents have a key role in this. For those children who do not come from a church family, it is even more important to talk to the children about this gift. I urge you to encourage and support any children you know, in the faith, that they may receive everlasting life.

God bless you each.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time to relax

  Another update on the ongoing saga of the renovations. The new kitchen has now been pushed out until September with no date given. The flooring has now been pushed out until the 19 September and wallpapering sometime after that. We have to wait for the wallpapering before we install the new heat pump and the range-hood. The new lounge suite will take three to four months to be ready in the colour we want. Family are coming for our 140 th church celebrations the second week in October. I’m praying that the heat pump is up! There will literally be no chairs for them to sit on. Hopefully the new kitchen will at least be installed so I can unpack all the boxes that are currently stored in the spare bedrooms otherwise I have no place for them to sleep. I am laughing at the thought of sleeping bags in the lounge around the piano which is currently right in the middle where we moved it to allow painters to get around it. But today, I had a lovely relaxing morning. My friend is stil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Planting Seeds

  Carrying on from last week, I was wondering how I am sowing seeds. I realised that we can all sow seeds everywhere we go. I don’t go out that often actually, I don’t belong to any secular groups but I can still be responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Under his leading I made a determined effort to get to know the names of all the staff at my two favourite cafés that I visit at least weekly. I ask about their families; I support where I can. My friends and I find opportunities to give them all a little gift of chocolate and a card with a verse of scripture written on it. They all know we are Christians. I guess that might be called planting seeds. I converse with the supermarket checkout operators just to have a chance to bring a blessing to them. Some of them now know I am a Christian. I can easily bring God into conversations with unsaved family members, neighbours and strangers I stop and talk to in the park—with the leading of the Holy Spirit. I do not adopt a heavy...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Importance of Unity

  What do you do when you think the Pastor or Senior Leadership Team have got it wrong! A friend was recently talking about a decision made by our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) including the Pastor. We are a small church community, so decisions affect every member there. However, unless directly involved in a programme or initiative the SLT do not know how a decision they make might impact on the on-the-ground day-to-day running of that programme or initiative. It is important to talk to those involved to get their perspective and even in a small church this might not necessarily happen. Having said that, our SLT are generally very good at consulting. So, what do you do if you think it’s an unwise decision? This will of course depend on size of the church, whether the Pastor is a good listener and is prepared to talk about it and I’m sure, many other factors. My perspective is that I do not want to be talking about the Pastor behind his back. I do not want to gossip about him ...
Post a Comment
Read more