Wacky Wednesday

This past Wednesday was the first ever Wacky Wednesday!  My primary ministry 'initiative' for the summer was to plan and carry out 'Wacky Wednesdays' from start to finish.  You see I had no idea that I would be involved in children's ministry until I arrived here in Alpharetta.  So at first I was kind of surprised, but in a good way.  I knew that the project would stretch me to be a leader and to learn how to work with kids (believe it or not, I do get along great with little kids).

Wacky Wednesdays is every Wednesday from 1-4 at Wills Park in Alpharetta.  The typical afternoon consists of water baloons, relay games, sports, snacks, Bible story, acting out of Bible story, and pool time.  The student ministry runs Wacky Wednesdays so that parents can drop their kids off and then have some time to their selves.

Last weekend the student ministry went on a weekend retreat.  On this retreat theme of the teaching was 'poured out'.  In Isaiah 53 Christ is prophesied in every word.  Verse 12 discusses Christ pouring out His soul to death for us.  In the Christian life we are given a gracious invitation from God to pour out our lives into others just like Christ our model.  Ephesians 5:1-2 instructs us to "...be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."  This is not a legalistic call to works, rather, like I said, it is a gracious invitation from God in which we are to be compelled by his love to pour out our lives for Him.  "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

It is with that in mind that the myself and the student ministry at Grace North began Wacky Wednesdays.  There are several families in our church community who have poured a lot in Grace North over the last few years (being a part of a church plant can be exhausting, especially for a young family).  Wacky Wednesdays was a great opportunity to not only love on the kids, but also to pour into the parents who love Grace North so much.  Hopefully Wacky Wednesdays is helping to build Grace North into the image of the church in Ephesians 4:15-16, "...we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."