Kairos is blessed to have many children as part of this community. And, we have the honor of partnering with families to raise this next generation of followers of Jesus. We use the color orange to describe this partnership. When red representing the love of the home and yellow representing the light of Christ through the church are combined, the resulting color is orange. We know that when the church and home truly partner, not just co-exist, we have greater influence in the lives of our children.
While we are all part of this partnership, this year 67 adults in the Kairos community are serving as greeters, small group leaders, and hosts/coaches with our kids on Sunday mornings. They are saying yes to our babies, toddlers, preschoolers, elementary kids, and pre-teens. They are saying yes to toothless grins and snaggle-tooth giggles, yes to games and memory verses, yes to Bible study and prayer, yes to silly conversations and hard discussions, yes to play and projects, and yes to much, much more.
Each week they greet the children with smiles and welcome their thoughts, ideas, and creativity. As they do, they model God’s unconditional love. Jesus’ love becomes real as the children learn from these amazing leaders’ patience, compassion, and understanding. It is a joy each Sunday to see and hear them as they lead our children. By saying yes to the next generation, they are helping the children grow in their relationship with Jesus, experience the joy of community, and know they are an important part of our church family. Not only are they influencing this generation, they are also influencing generations to come because one day these children will become parents and church leaders themselves. Even when it seems their words and actions are having no impact, I promise they are.
This past Sunday, we took time to celebrate the leaders who are serving with our children this school year and to express our appreciation to them. We ended our worship service with everyone in the sanctuary as the leaders were recognized. Following the service, there were orange cupcakes and orange drinks for all.
As a community, we say a huge thank you to these leaders for saying yes to the next generation
Jan