Imagine what it’s like to be a kid and to wait for your parents after church.
You might remember the feeling!
Now imagine – even worse – that your mom is the children’s ministry pastor and you get dragged along to work a couple of days a week!
This has the potential to be – at the very least – boring and – at its worst – make you resentful towards church.
Unless …
one of the seniors who help out on Hot Dog Day for all the local junior high students steps into your mom’s office, waves his hand at you, and says –
“We’re working today – I’ve got hot dog buns for you to carry.”
And that simple invitation of inclusion and welcome saves the day – and perhaps even saves this kid.
That boy became a regular volunteer for Hot Dog Day.
The other volunteers – mostly seniors – welcomed him and loved him and he felt like he belonged.
It felt like his church and he had his own people.
They just weren’t friends of his parents.
Six or seven years later, this boy may still occasionally roll his eyes if his parents take too long after church but the truth is this – he knows that his church family loves him. That God is real. That faith is not just for the adults.
(Varsity Bible Church, Calgary, AB)