Protecting your child’s calling and purpose at church!(part 2)

Show me a parent who has won thousands to Christ all over the world and built a hundred churches and I will ask one question, “where are their children during this time of ministry?” For years my wife and I would arrive at church hours before the doors opened and then we would be the last ones to leave, fortunately this was only a season and before my wife and I had children. I love being at church and my passion is people at church! Today, however, we still have the opportunity to volunteer as much as we like, and when we do, our children must wait in a classroom or sit quietly in church while mom and dad minister in whatever capacity.

Often times life and our actions speaks louder to our kids than we do about church. For my six-year-old, he sees church as a place where adults make him get up early (Mom and dad have to practice hours earlier for worship), sit still and don’t talk loud in the sanctuary (His name is Zeal, his normal voice is loud) and then go to a classroom and sit still and don’t talk loud (did I mention that is what he does best?). Church is like school to my six-year-old, he doesn’t understand why he has to be there for so long and be quiet for so long, but it has to be good for him, right?My wife and I are a little unique in that we minister together in worship and have for nearly fifteen years but I am very protective of my children’s time spent at church.

My father was a pastor and missionary when I was a child and I remember being at church five times a week. His passion and calling for the church was very strong but he struggled in including his family in that passion. My father was unable to keep our family together, despite winning thousands to Christ, seeing thousands of miracles, dead people raised to life and starting a Bible School that today has graduated hundreds of pastors.  Moses struggled with including his family as well, when all the miracles in Egypt took place, his family was nowhere close to being apart of it. Why couldn’t Moses’ children lead the people to the promised land when Moses died? Because he failed to include his family in ministry!

As my kids are getting older, we are including them more in times of ministry outside of the church building (no one can light up a nursing home like a child) but they still are unable to join us in music ministry while we are at church. My job as leader of my family is to get my whole family involved in their calling and purpose at church even at the expense of my desire of volunteering in church being scaled back. Dana and I have friends that are pastors and full-time ministers doing a fabulous job at including their kids in ministry but everyone needs the grace of God to purposely protect their children!

We recently recorded a worship album for my wife (www.graceforeternity.com) and my children sat quietly on the couches in the studio, my heart ached as we constantly had to quiet them for hours upon hours, day after day! Then the final group voices were needed and we were able to convince the producer that our children could sing and would do great! I stood beside my family and about ten other people as we sang praises to God while the microphones recorded for over an hour. The kids were not perfect singing, their timing was off which probably made the producer a little irritated, but finishing the album with my family by my side meant so much to me.  I wouldn’t trade that one hour of family togetherness for a lifetime of ministry alone!

Stepping off a waterfall, while people watched and laughed!

Last year my wife and I asked the Lord if we could do a worship album and the Lord said yes. We didn’t have a band, we didn’t have enough money, we didn’t have enough songs and we didn’t have a congregation or a worship position. We volunteered at our church for nearly seven years throughout the week but because of the size, our pastor and most of the staff were unaware of our names. On occasion, home groups would welcome my wife and I to lead worship! All we truly had was the audience of One, and like David tended his sheep and sang to the Lord, my wife and I would spend hours a day watching our children and singing new songs to the Lord. I remember waking up one morning early and Dana had gotten up an hour before me, just crying out to God in worship in our study. I could hear her singing as I often would, while in the kitchen making myself coffee. She was half crying, half singing “I cry grace for eternity” and I remember thinking in my spirit, “Lord if grace is a waterfall let me stand in it for eternity!” I had just heard a sermon that week that grace through the blood of Jesus cleanses us like a continual waterfall and now my wife was singing of God’s grace for eternity. Not long after that we prayed together and heard the Lord say it was okay to move forward.  We then made the announcement of our first worship album to about 30 close friends and they graciously prayed with us! There was a whole lot of laughing with us and maybe even some laughing at us, thinking we were crazy, but I wouldn’t trade one friend or moment during this process of seeing God’s favor and blessing upon our first worship album!

I enjoy stepping out in faith when God speaks, but most of the time I have experienced it being a very private moment. When you hear God’s whisper and you obey at the possible risk of looking foolish in front of yourself and the few involved. I realize now the hardest thing Peter did was not walk on water, but to face the fear of public failure in front of all his friends!  I can imagine his friends laughing at Peter, while he is standing there with his feet planted on a moving liquid called water. Peter was the only one that asked to step out of the boat and Jesus answered him to come! I believe all the disciples were qualified to get out of the boat and walk on water, not just Peter! Peter just happened to be the only one to ask and obey while keeping his eyes on Jesus.

Because of God’s grace we raised $15,000 in less than 30 days with one hundred friends giving to the calling of God on our lives (now you understand the laughing).  We had over $8,000 dollars of media/website time and effort donated.  While in the studio the Lord gave us new songs to go along with the few we had.  The Lord even opened the door for us to guest lead for worship at a reputable church with more than 1,500 members over the last few months! Yesterday, we finished in the recording studio and it is now being mixed and mastered. We are standing in the waterfall of his grace and all we can do is laugh with our friends!

Visit www.GraceforEternity.com for a free song “Heaven Be Revealed” coming out in the next few weeks!

Protecting your child’s calling and purpose at school (part 1.)

Mark 9:42 (NIV) says “If anyone causes one of these little ones-those who believe in me-to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” This verse says that children who believe in Jesus can stumble because of other people. Have you ever heard the saying “Stumbling out of the gate”? Often times this refers to the horse races but the bible says we and our children are in a race (1 Corinthians 9:24). It is very possible for our children to stumble in their walk with Jesus before adulthood  because of an outside influence in school, church, sports, friends or family. You might be thinking, “Well, we can’t be around our kids all the time to protect them from bad influences”. This is true but you wouldn’t purposely place them in a bad influential situation either. Most Christians know that “Bad company corrupts good character”(1. Corinthians 15:33) but they believe their children can be a light in a dark world. I agree our kids are the “light of the world” (Mathew 5:14) but no Christian parent would drop off their child alone at a bar to be that light.

The National Home Education Research Institute at www.nheri.org claims from their findings that after high school 94 percent of Christian children educated at home keep the faith and 93 percent of home educated children continue to attend church. But if they go through public school, there is only about 12 percent that continue in their faith and go to church. Homeschooling is no guarantee but the odds are not something to dismiss. I am not writing this blog to judge anyone, just recently through God’s grace our eyes were opened to this statistic, but I am asking for my friends to seriously pray for their child’s future and how they can protect their kids’ calling in school, church, sports, friends and family! It is not easy to pay the price for protecting our children’s calling and eternal purpose but as a parent this is what we are called by God to do! Public school might be exactly where your child needs to be in this season but continue praying for the direction to train up your child in the way they should go and when they are older they will not depart from it.( Proverbs 22:6)

How to stay and feel younger playing kids games!

Our weekly games of singing, dancing and just plain craziness in the Pollard house comes down to one favorite game, hide and go seek, because it never gets old with my children. The game however, has changed for me in the last few years because in the beginning, my hiding places were not complicated at all. If we go back to the very beginning of my kids lives, then really it was just me hiding my face behind my very own hands. The joy on my babies’ faces of finding me could make this grown man go up an octave in voice saying, “Where’s daddy?….There I am”. These days, my children will not allow me to just throw my hands in front of my face to hide (believe me when I’m tired, I have tried), no they want a challenge! So I find myself in places where no grown man should be able to fit. In spaces so small, that if I knew better I would stretch before trying to squeeze in, just for the joy of my children finding me. I still to this day always  leave some kind of clue for them to find me, whether it be my shoes sticking out of a curtain or a soft “whoo-hoo” when they weren’t getting close.

In my quiet time I was reading 1 Corinthians 1:30 which says: It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” and the Lord reminded me of my hide and seek games with the children.

When I was a young man, I used to boast of finding Jesus myself and encouraged other to find Him like I did; but the truth is that I was found!  I was like my babies just drooling all over myself with a full diaper, waiting to be changed, when Jesus pulled his hands back from His face and said “Where’s daddy?”  Still today I play this game with my best friend and Father, mostly in the mornings and sometimes late at night. His presence never leaves me because He is in me, but there are secrets about Him that He loves for me to find. His secrets keep me feeling young and energized, like a child with a brand new toy. He is still gracious enough to leave me clues and will give His own “Whoo-hoo” when I’m clueless but the older I get, the more I like a challenge because the joy of finding Him is that much sweeter!

The grace I need to teach my three children about sex

I was just like every other parent thinking that I had to have one big sit down talk with each of my three children about sex. That was how my father did it for me and probably his father and on up the family tree. Except one day, God in His grace, placed me in a women’s group at my church and the topic that day was about sex. Yes I was the only male in the room, after volunteering to play piano for the worship time, and couldn’t find a proper way to leave the room as the guest, sex -expert teacher began her class that day. The crazy thing was I was not uncomfortable at all once the class began with more than 100 women in the room. I actually was learning some things that God knew I needed to implement in teaching my children, and I was exactly where God wanted me to be that day! I learned that when teaching my children about sex, it is not a one time teaching event but a daily teaching journey that begins when they are toddlers (age appropriate of course). I learned that it is okay to teach them the proper names of body parts (I struggled with this the most at first). I found out that if they don’t hear the truth from me, their father, then their friends will be glad to make up some crazy stories! I still need grace to finish this journey of fatherhood, but my wife and I have opened the door to freely talk sex in our home to our children and I encourage everyone of my friends to start now as well!

The best way to love your children

The best way to love your children.