Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry

Don’t Be Kid Focused

Dont be kid focus blog

Jesus Focused

Although it sounds ironic, kids should not be the focus of our kids’ ministry. Now before you write me off as a kid hater or as a fuddy duddy who thinks singing along to cassette tapes makes a great Sunday school lesson, let’s consider John 3:30. Just as Jesus’ ministry had started flourishing, John the Baptist’s disciples come to John frustrated that all the focus has switched to the Jesus. Notice what John says, “He must increase but I must decrease.” This should be the heart of every biblical ministry, kids or otherwise. We are to be making a big to-do about Jesus. A biblical kids’ ministry will always be focused upon our Savior. Instead of seeking to satisfy our kids’ longing for fun with hi-tech, adventurous activities, our kids’ programs should be designed to introduce our kids to the awesome Savior of the world. We (including our kids) must decrease. Christ must increase.

Kid Focused And Failed

If we don’t decrease, weird things start happening. Recently, several kids from my church and I attended a Centrikid camp put on by Lifeway. My church kids had a blast and my adults were impressed with the camp’s gospel focus. Before we scrambled back on the bus to go home, I heard another church leader say, “Our kids have all been complaining that this camp is too much like church. We really miss all the games during the worship times.” Although I do not know everything about this church’s kid’s ministry, I do know that they think “church” is a negative thing to be avoided.

Think about this for a second, a church’s children’s ministry is calling the Word of God and the body of Christ boring, unattractive, and expendable. The only way for a kid’s ministry to conclude that Jesus is boring or an obstacle to happiness is to think that ministry is all about you and your kids.  Equipped with this mindset, people come to church to have fun, make friends, and feel loved. Each kids prominence and desires is increasing.  But this mindset contradicts the purpose point of church and fails its followers. As counselor Ed Welch notes:

 God has given us gifts to serve rather than needs to be served. Any other perspective is less than biblical and will ultimately lead us toward misery rather than joy – p. 167

If we truly want our kids to be happy, we will have ministries that cause us all to decrease.

Jesus Focused And Approved

Immediately, someone will object that kids learn differently. They don’t belong in church. They can’t be expected to survive waves of the adult world.

CENTRIKID-LOGO-ORANGEYes, kids do learn differently.  I fully support having children’s programs that use music with motions and visual object lessons to introduce children to Jesus. I am constantly looking for ways to better connect the gospel to the kids of FBCE. But the goal of children’s ministry is always to link kids into the church by making much of our awesome God. Just as the children in my church enjoy hanging around my wife, the kids in hte “Fun Zone” or the “Happy Village” of our churches should leave Sunday with a growing love for Jesus and his bride, the church. As longtime Sunday school teacher, Jack Klumperhower, writes, “We shouldn’t let fun become a tool to keep kids interested so we can feed them good news on the side. Jesus isn’t a side dish…[he’s] the selling point” (p. 155). Jesus must increase!

Now many fear that we will lose kids by going all gospels on them. Perhaps, some kids will check out. Or some may bug their parents until they convince the family to find a church that is more “fun.” But friends, a majority of the kids in our ministry are not Christians. Naturally, they are going to find the gospel offense because by they are: “lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” ( 2 Tim 3:1-4).Unredeemed kids reject the gospel because the are blind sinners.

The Defining Question

Today, we all face the following question: how should we respond to kids who find the gospel and the people of God offensive? How we answer this question will radically shape our children’s ministries and our kids’ view of Jesus and the church. We have two options.

First, we can appeal to our kids’self-love as many mainstream churches have begun to do. We attempt to compete with Nickelodeon, Disney, and PS4’s by offering slimy games, cheesy videos, and kidcentric Bible lesson’s- Jesus loves you; he wants you to be happy.

Second, we can challenge our kids with the hope of the gospel like the Centrikid camp staff did. We can preach Christ crucified abandoning gimmicks and manipulative story telling. Moreover, we trust that:

The Holy Spirit is working, and once [kids] get a taste of Christ, they will be irreversibly captured for his kingdom. Rather than pander to kids…[we] offer life to kids who are thirsting for something more – 156

Go Gospel

If we hope to reach kids for Christ, we must choose the way of the gospel. If we go with the cool appeal, we will ultimately lose. The church can never outpace the world’s indulgence of self-love. One day, our kids will discover that the pursuit of wealth, alcohol, sex, and a host of other things is more fun than Sunday school worship bands; they’ll leave the church. But if we give them Jesus who outshines all this world has to offer, many will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! They will stay, grow, and begin introducing others to Christ.  Jesus must increase, we must decrease.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. – I John 3:15-17

Works Cited

Klumpenhower, J. (2014). Show Them Jesus: Teaching The Gospel to Kids. Greensboro: New Growth Press.

Welch, E. T. (1997). When People Are Big And God Is Small . Philipsburg: P&R Publishing.

Peter Witkowski Apologetics, Parenting

A Quick Word About Biblical Courage

Blog On Coourage PicCannon to the right of them
Cannon to the left of them
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d.

 

Though I was by no means a fan of memorizing poetry or of anything that smelled of school as a kid, I did find the “Charge of The Light Brigade” to be fascinating account of courage. I dreamt of what it must have been like to be a British soldier charging into Russian cannon fire undaunted by the threat of death.  Ah, bravery!

Today, American society has transformed the idea of courage from an act of selflessness into an act of selfishness. From the content found on ESPN or in any other major news outlet, society appears to be saying that the most courageous thing a person can do is to publicly be yourself. Hence, the rookie football player, Michael Sam is a champion of courage because he expressed his sexuality irrespective of societal norms.

But this definition of courage is inherently flawed. Secular society by necessity has to place limits on self-expression. For example, people who openly express their personhood through various forms pedophilia receive jail time. Society puts limits on self-expression in an attempt to curb murder, bribery, fraud, and a host of other crimes. Admittedly, the definitions what is courageous self-love what is criminal changes generation to generation. In the 60’s, expressing one’s self through Christianity was acceptable and homosexuality was out. Today Christianity is out and homosexuality is in. But the fact remains: If everyone woke up one day and decided to ”courageously” express themselves without reservation as Michael Sam has done, western society would descend into never ending chaos.

Self-serving needs are not meant to be satisfied; they are meant to be put to death  – Ed Welch.

In an attempt to combat a world of self-serving courage, a growing number of Christians have stressed the need to return to the courage of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem. They teach kids that courage consists of shooting a thieving rabbit with a pellet rifle, scouting ahead for bears on the family hiking trip, or rubbing their hands in the  blood of their first kill. Such ideas of bravery often resonate with our minds. After all, I would have happily exchanged my school desk topped with a copy of the “Charge of the Light Brigade” for a charging stallion and a lance.

 Although created with good intention, this definition also ultimately fails Christendom. Instead of encouraging a humble dependence on Christ, adrenaline junkie courage causes us to trust in our own ability to successfully master a dangerous task. I’m brave because I killed a turkey or because I went alligator hunting and returned with all ten fingers. What have you done recently? Admittedly shooting a buck or scoring a touchdown is not inherently evil. But they act of riding off into enemy cannot fire is not inherently biblical courage.      

Biblical courage is about trusting Christ. According to Scripture, courage can be simply defined as: faithfully loving God and your neighbor regardless of the circumstances. This is what Jesus and the saints mentioned in the Bible did. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and spoke truth even when unpopular (John 9). He reached across racial lines to love his enemies by exposing their sexual sins in an attempt to give them living water (John 4:7-42). Instead of seeking their own self-interest, Peter and John healed the lame and spoke boldly for Christ; despite being physically threatened and eventually executed (Acts 4-5).  Biblical courage is lovingly speaking and living truth in a fallen world.  

Although faithfully following God  means some of us will need to take a stand like David and physically opposing those who mock God, most of us will display courage in the mundane setting of every day life: around the water cooler, in the dugout, or at our school desk. True courage is a child choosing to praise the winning team instead of complaining about the ref’s last call. Courage is refusing to lie when your boss tells you to. Courage is confessing Christ before your classmates when your teacher says all religions are equally true. Courage is turning off the big game to make your worn out wife and mother of two dinner. Courage is confessing your sin to those whom you’ve hurt. Courage is actively decreasing so that God may increase.

Despite my childhood love of cavalry charges, I don’t anticipate dying in a mounted sword fight. Nor will I be encouraging my son to leave for school with a lance tied around his shoulder. We can employ biblical courage whether we pursue baseball, oil painting, rock music, classical poetry, or the theatre. The truly courageous person loves the Lord with all his heart, soul, and mind and his neighbor as himself in every situation (Luke 10:27).       

Works Cited

Welch, E. T. (1997). When People Are Big And God Is Small . Philipsburg: P&R Publishing.

 

Peter Witkowski Babies and Birth, Pain & Suffering

What Do We Say?

Eleven years ago, today amidst a swirl of both joyful and frightful confusion, our first-born son – Peter Alexander Witkowski (Second Peter) – was born in the early morning hours. About 4 hours later, he abandoned his earthly body for the loving embrace of Jesus. As the days between Second Peter’s birth and death continue to grow, the truths that comforted my heart at his funeral continue to resound in my soul. I still have a jellybean size hole in my heart which now knows the deeper pain of associate with the loss of my dear April, Peter’s mother. But God’s goodness, love, and comfort still far exceed the depths of my great sorrow. Our savior dries our tears, holds our hearts, and remembers our prayers. He blessed us with our second son, Luke Alexander Witkowski and with two beautiful little girls. God is faithful! Today as I celebrate Second Peter’s life, I affirm with an ever-increasing realization that, “To live is Christ!” Below are the words I spoke at his funeral which remains our hope for today. (7.18.24)

What Do We Say:  

34. April and Peter holding 2nd Peter shorty after 100 pm.

The fleeting dance of poetry, the smooth elegancy of prose, and the most insightful uses of language all seem inadequate, trite, trivial, and unworthy of expressing what has occurred. On Tuesday morning after a sleepless night, April and I welcomed our precious little baby boy with trembling souls; our souls broke into happy smiles as we heard Peter Alexander’s heart beat firmly and his lunges taste the softness of the air. And then as if heaven itself had fallen, we flew calmly back to Second Peter’s tiny plastic bed to love him with unending passion. After an eternity that had been shrunken into four vaporous hours, we softly and slowly kissed his cool little forehead one last time. And now we follow his body to this somber chamber. So what do you say to these things? What do you say when your son of promise is born at 9:08am and then dies in your arms at 2:49pm?

“To live is Christ, to die is gain (Phil. 1:21.)”

2nd Peter Grave Side with Luke

When Second Peter died, he gained. April and I pleaded for his life, and God saw fit to give him eternal life. Our First Born Son is glorified. He knows fully the joy of Christ. He bounces playful to heavenly music. He gets to play with David, Samson, April’s Papa, and my own dear Grandfather, whom I never meet. He is the coolest little child that I’ve ever known. To die is gain!

For April and I, “To live is Christ.” We have and will continue to shed tears for Second Peter. And I know that both of our hearts will always have a jellybean size hole that will never be covered. Yet we will go on living, serving, and ministering because we have a savior who is a perfect high priest. Our hope lies in the life of another son who once lost his life alone on a cross to conquer death by rising again. For this we live, looking forward, as David did to going, to being with our precious son (2 Samuel 12:23). To live is Christ.