Messy - Childrens Ministry Online

Tag: Messy

Faith is supposed to be messy

by Kenny Conley | Jan 21, 2013 | Family, Random | 1

I’m going to jump off from the post I wrote last week about the kind of faith we’re pushing. These are the questions I’m thinking about for my family as well as questions I’m thinking about for the ministry I lead.

I’ve found that the longer I’ve followed Christ, the easier it is to become institutionalized. We surround ourselves with people who think like we do, act like we do and believe like we do. We so easily create a Christian ghetto and consider it a good thing. I remember being a part of a church a long time ago that created a ministry environment where there was something to do at the church practically every night of the week. From athletics, school, swimming pool and even a cemetery, every significant experience in your life could happen right on that 80 acres of property.

Christian parents tend to do the same with their kids. We want to protect, protect, protect. Protecting isn’t a bad thing, but too much protection may have a negative consequence.

I’m not so comfortable with the mess

by Kenny Conley | May 2, 2012 | Ideas, Random | 0

One of my top 3 ministry gifts is administration. I love systems, processes and project plans. I love to set goals, strive to make them happen and help others move the ball forward. I actually enjoy coming into an area of chaos and bring order and structure so that growth can actually happen. These are my gifts and I work very hard to make this happen. I probably work too hard in fact. I spend a significant amount of time offsite because I don’t like being interrupted so much. I just need some peace and quite while I get stuff done. Although I think that my philosophy and approach is good, I’m confident that God wants to mess up my neat and structured little world.

As much as I prefer schedules and order, the real work of ministry doesn’t always happen that way. It happens at inconvenient times and beacons us to get personally involved, sometimes in uncomfortable ways. It’s funny how I’ve been experiencing this a little more lately.