Sometimes the Wrong Path Leads to the Right One

As youth pastors, Mark and I had a wealth of connections in our world of youth ministry.  Those all proved useless in the quest for a children’s pastor.  We didn’t know where to start, who to talk to, and why would anybody come and work for us when they didn’t even know our names?  To top it off, we wanted quality leadership for our children, not just a warm body.  It was overwhelming!

So, we started knocking on every door possible to get a grasp of who was out there and who would fit into our ever expanding picture of a church.  Finally it seemed as if we had our solution.  A young woman at Northwest University was graduating in December 2006 and felt like she could commute for those first few months of the launch. 

Over the next few months we talked on the phone, kept her in the loop of our emails, and finally put on the calendar a day in July for her to come down and meet our entire team.  We were excited!  This was the woman that would invest into the masses of children that we had as a part of our launch team.  She was our hope for an amazing children’s ministry. 

So, being the type of church we are, we went all out!  We hired a giant bouncy house, got gifts that represented all of her favorite things, developed games for our kids centered around her name, and made banners to display for when she arrived.  We were ready for the carnival!!!

Our kids spent the morning playing with their new pastor, getting to know who she was, and intergrating her into our team.  We laughed together, told stories of our journey, and began the process of developing a lifelong relationship.

And the next day she quit.

So, as we sat there in July, ready to launch a church devoted to young families with kids in September, we had no children’s pastor.  And we laughed.  We laughed because the one thing we know is that God moves the chess pieces where he wants them for a reason.  We had a strong faith that God was doing His work.  And He was…