BIO
As I look back on my life journey, I realize that my vision and
passion for keeping the next generation in the Faith began with
my own children. My husband Dave and I could not imagine eternity
without our three children. We recognized the privilege and responsibility
God had entrusted to us to lead our children to Him, and as we
tried to find fun and creative ways to teach our children about
God’s amazing plan for eternal life, the foundational ingredients
of the ministry I’m now involved in began to take shape.
In 1989, Bethany Evangelical Free Church, like many churches across
the country, decided they needed a Children’s Ministry Director
and I was asked to formulate a plan for this new position. With
only a vague idea of how to begin, I asked God for guidance and
wisdom. Drawing on my training from Moody Bible Institute, I dusted
off my Christian Ed. books, sought out a mentor and found churches
with great Children’s Ministry programs and learned from them.
Looking back I see that God ‘expanded my territory’ so that He
could use my God-given passion to influence the faith of the next
generation.
As Children’s Ministries Director, I enjoyed teaching children,
leading them to Jesus and investing myself in the lives of my
incredible team of volunteers. My responsibilities included teaching
children, leading my Children’s Ministries team, organizing programs,
training staff, and keeping up with new curricula and resources.
During that time I also had the privilege of doing Children’s
Ministries training in the Czech Republic (2000) and in Ethiopia
(2003). In the fall of 2001, the Evangelical Free Church was forming
a National Children’s Ministries Council. I was asked to be on
the council and I still serve on this council.
During my 17 year ministry as a Children’s Ministries Director,
I was continually evaluating the effectiveness of the program
I was leading. My observation over the years was consistent: children
whose parents took responsibility for teaching Biblical truths
at home tended to live out a Biblical worldview more than children
whose parents did minimal spiritual training at home. I was concerned
about how many children, entrusted by God to Christian families
and churches, were being lost to the Faith when they went on to
middle school, high school and college. Statistics showed that
in spite of the best Children’s Ministries programming in history
we are still losing more kids than ever before. The conclusion
that I, and others were coming to, was that we have not been following
the Biblical model for passing faith to the next generation. Instead
of accepting primary responsibility for the spiritual development
of their children, parents have been depending on the church to
do this job and we in the church have been encouraging parents
to give us this responsibility.
Since stepping out in faith and resigning my position in Children’s
Ministry at Bethany in 2006, God has led me to raise my own support
to be able to work with churches and parents to raise awareness,
cast vision and train churches in developing a ‘faith at home’
philosophy of ministry. This includes presenting new ministry
models, and directing the church and parents to effective resources.
I have been working extensively with church plants, and wrote
a church planter’s manual that establishes a biblical foundation
for Family/Children’s Ministry entitled, What Do We Do With the
Kids? God is confirming to me every day that he indeed has directed
me to work with the larger scope of this faith at home challenge
by networking me nationally in several organizations. In addition
to being endorsed by the Evangelical Free Church, I serve on three
boards: the EFCA’s Family/Children’s Ministries Council, the National
Association of Family Ministries, and Family Time Training. In
July of 2008, I was asked to join a Kidzana Ministry Team to do
training in Trinidad. This has resulted in an invitation to return
to Trinidad,
Board/council member of the following organizations:
National Association
of Family Ministries (NAFM)
EFCA
Family/Children's Ministry Council
Family Time Training
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