What I learned from Jumping Josh

Why has it been SO long since I blogged? (I mean, its been days. Really?) I have so much to say. This past weekend was incredible. I think it will go down as one of the best in my book. Friday night my family sang at a benefit, Saturday morning I went to a kids ministry workshop, Saturday-day Joseph and I did lots of fun things like painted pottery and ate homemade pizza, and Saturday night my sisters and I led praise and worship at a kids revival. Sunday was church church church. So much happened, I want to blog about it all, but there is one thing I really want to blog about right now and that is (as my title indicates) what I learned from Jumping Josh.

Now, if you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember Jumping Josh from Camp Mulberry. If you haven't (or do not remember) here's the deal: Jumping Josh is a kids evangelist. Check out his website at http://www.kickministries.com/

Anyways, he is fantastic with kids. At Camp, my sisters and I led praise and worship every night for the kids services and he did his thing. I really can't explain it. He does all of this silly stuff that kids love, like sings songs, tells jokes, and acts out Bible stories (really, I feel like I'm doing it an injustice by not going into full detail here) and somewhere in the process he teaches kids how to worship and teaches them about salvation and then BOOM! After he gets done teaching, all these kids come up to the front and start worshiping and praying and getting filled with the Holy Ghost! I think working with him has been one of the greatest and most learning experiences in my ministry.

On Saturday morning Joseph and I went to a kids ministry workshop that Jumpin' Josh was leading (it was hosted by the same church hosting the kids revival). He did two sessions. The first was "Praying for Children" and the second was "The Funnel Effect," in which he broke down the way he goes about organizing a kids service or VBS lesson, etc. The fact of the matter is, I already knew most of what he said, its just the way he said it really opened my eyes to a few things. Here they are:

1. When we are praying for children, it is our obligation to impart faith to the child. To impart faith means, in essence, to deposit faith into the child's life. Here's the thing: we cannot make a deposition of faith if we have no faith. Think about it as a bank. If we wrote a check to a child, but had no money, the check would be no count. Its the same with faith. We cannot impart faith if we have no faith. And children are not ignorant! They can detect our doubt, or lack of faith. Jumping Josh's exact words: "In order to lead a child somewhere, we must go there ourselves. If we want a child to receive the Holy Ghost, we must be filled with the Holy Ghost, If we want a child to repent, we must be repented. If we want a child to make a commitment to God, we must be committed." Whoa. 
2. If a child does not receive the Holy Ghost, its okay. Every time a child prays, he or she takes a step closer to God, and that is still a victory. We need to make sure we encourage that child and let them know that God is proud of them. In the same way, when we are trying to please God or do something for Him, and fail, we have not really failed. Every attempt we make to do something for God brings us into a closer relationship with Him. Maybe you are battling an addiction and you do the best you can, but you feel like your best isn't enough. Guess what? God is proud of your effort! Take heart, we serve a God with unmovable grace and mercy and he loves us no matter what. This isn't an excuse to act stupid, I'm just saying, if we are doing our best to please God, he is proud of us. Keep trying.
3. Jumping Josh taught that when teaching children, there are three steps: Engage, Deliver, and Challenge. I think they are pretty self explanatory, but in this session Josh talked about being versatile and he used an example from the story of the prodigal son that I loved! When teaching about the prodigal son you can teach it in so many ways. You could teach it from the perspective of the prodigal son, which is the way we hear it taught so often. Or you could teach from the perspective of the Father, that he was waiting patiently, like our heavenly father is waiting patiently for us, or you could teach it from the perspective of the older brother. This is the one that really got to me because this one is for the church kids. You could teach church kids that they have everything they need in their father's house, that they don't have to go out into the world to find what they are searching for. What a great lesson! 

Anyways, these are just a few things but this post is getting kind of long-ish, so I will maybe add more later. Really, check out the website and everything. Children' ministry is so important.