By Christopher Strok

Though it is nowhere near the time to celebrate Thanksgiving, I can’t help but think about the pilgrims.  The first spring in America, as the cold dissipated and life started again, the realization that set in must have been shocking.  The life they left behind was no longer the life they would lead, the place that they were would become the place they would stay.

I’m sure the feelings of insecurity and doubt that filled their minds ran rampant after barely surviving their first winter in a new world.  With a whole lot LESS than what they started with, they began a journey into the unknown.  Their faith was shaken and they were armed with very little, but they held on to what they had and they never gave up.

I wonder how many of us can relate – not to life as a pilgrim, but to a life that started out in one direction and took a completely different path than expected.   A different place, a new situation and the realization that maybe you’re working with a whole lot less than what you’d started with.

When spring transitions into summer, I always thought the transition was always was peaceful one… until I moved to Missouri.  Since my relocation, I’ve come to realize that sometimes change can be calm and peaceful and other times transitions is anything but.  During “tornado transitions” as spring fades into summer, change still happens whether it is tranquil or fierce.

Changes in position, additional responsibilities, marriage and kids can all contribute to the transitions in our own personal lives but what we are called to is much bigger than ourselves. 

Hundreds of thousands of kids live across America, “pilgrims” desperately searching for a place they can call “home”.  Living a life faced with desperate situations, they battle daily with doubt, insecurity, drugs, alcohol, peer-pressure, sex, fear, lies, temptation, abuse or suicide. 

I think we’re doing a pretty good job with the sons and daughters of people who are already coming to our churches.  In fact, I’ll bet many of them can quote scripture, name the books of the Bible and sing the latest praise and worship songs!  THIS IS GREAT!  We are raising a generation of kids to change their world!

I think the greatest issue we face today is authenticity.  Have the kids we’re ministering to become so good at conforming to the world that they’ve ceased transforming it?

When kids leave your kids services on Sunday or Wednesday are they leaving with head knowledge or heart knowledge?  How are we preparing them to “guard their hearts” (Proverbs 4:23) and live lives for the single greatest cause this planet has ever known?  Have we developed disciples or created Jesus robots? 

Do our children act INSIDE the church just like children OUTSIDE the church are acting?  Have we settled into our routines and grown so accustom to the status quo that we no longer notice this increasing phenomenon?

When we step outside of ourselves, outside of our comfort zone we see things from a different perspective.  When Christ enters someone’s life their perspective is changed.  Eyes are opened, chains are broken and new life is spoken… but have we become too concerned with growth for numbers sake that we have forgotten our greatest responsibility?

Please, don’t misunderstand me, numbers are important, but not for numbers sake.  Numbers are important because numbers represent individuals!  We don’t exist to put on the best kids church program, we exist to change the lives of the “pilgrims” who come to it! 

I contend that the solution to the equation is much simpler than we’ve made it.  As Christians we sometimes tend to “over dramatize” situations, making them much more complicated than they really need to be. 

To solve the equation 1+x(y) = P, you first must determine the value of “x” and “y”. 

What value does the individual child in your children’s church hold?  What is the value of the “pilgrim” whose parents have recently finalized a divorce?  What about the child who has just been diagnosed with leukemia?  The special needs child, what value do they have? 

You are the first part of the equation ([1]).  Your willingness to invest into a child (the [x]) and the factors that directly affect that child ([(y)]) result in the limitless potential ([P]) that God has gifted each child. 

We put too much pressure on ourselves.  We are not math teachers, we are math tutors.  We have been instructed by the Teacher and asked to pass along what we have learned to those He has entrusted to our care.

When we embrace this reality it becomes one of the most freeing moments in our ministry.  Pressure is released, weights are lifted and authority is placed in its proper perspective. 

I have always been told that best learning occurs outside of the classroom.  While tutors occasionally assist in class, more often than not, they strategically invest outside of the structured, four walls of the classroom. 

I leave you with a challenge: complete your assignments.  Complete them with excellence and complete them on time.  In order to teach math you first must understand it.  Your children are watching with open eyes and open minds.  Like a sponge, they constantly absorb all that is around them.  Live the life you desire them to embrace.

INVITE the kids God has placed in your life to join you for the journey, INFLUENCE the “pilgrims” He has brought to your ministry and INVEST into those students that God has given you to “tutor”.