I want to continue our series of posts about What Matters Now in Children’s Ministry with a few posts about the answers that really resonated with me.  The final submission to be turned in was by my friend and mentor Byron Ragains.  If you do not know Byron, who ministers with David C. Cook, just wait – he’ll find you.  And when Byron finds you, he’ll never forget you.

Byron writes, “My word is MORE.  I am almost 50! I recall the days when my two sons were babies. Occasionally, I got the call to feed them a nutritious meal from a jar. I can still hear the click noise once the lid is opened! I creatively tried everything to magically force the boys to eat: Pickled squash, sweet potatoes and even some peas!

Nothing really worked. All of that seemed to change once we got to dessert: fruit and puddings! They went from refusing to enjoy the Gerber’s main entree to inhaling the desserts! I can hear them saying, “MORE, daddy! MORE!”

What I am hearing is children asking for MORE! We continue to ramp up the fun, excitement, lights, crazy and volume in hopes to satisfy their thirst for God. What if we became burdened and restless to make sure our ministries are creating space for our children to hear the mighty voice of God and a huge thirst to seek and follow Him? This is the MORE I am talking about! They want it. What about us?”

I love the idea that in the era of abundance, Byron challenges the field of children’s and family ministry to have a spiritual passion for the “mighty voice of God.”  Sometimes I minister from a posture that I have to talk kids into loving Jesus.  So we brainstorm better video ideas, snappier graphics, or clever series.  But as Byron posits, “[The kids in our ministry] want it.”  I do not have to become the master at everything digital or fluent in the language of technology and video games, I need to make space for kids to fulfill their desire to meet God and hear His voice.