Around Christmastime, 2016 I was beginning to feel strongly that I wanted to get involved at CCH (Christian Church at Holbrook) so I set up an appointment with Pastor Peter right after the new year. I thoroughly enjoyed attending the church as well as the Men's small group I was in, but when you have a heart and burden for kids, you can't just walk away from it. I did have some opportunities to share at Christian schools, but I was not involved with kids ministry for quite some time. I was ready. I set up my meeting with Pastor Peter in his office and when I told him I wanted to get involved with Holbrook Kids, his reaction was "I was just waiting on you to see when you were ready to begin with our kids ministry." He the reminded me that the church was still looking to hire a Children's Pastor. I will admit I did love hearing that, but knew I needed to get to know the kids at the church. That following Sunday I was handed my curriculum and would be teaching first and second grade the last Sunday in January as well as the entire month of February. The week before I began teaching, I had the privilege of not only attending but volunteering at the Children's Pastors Conference in Orlando, FL. I attending this conference many times while I was on staff at SGT. My very first one was 1990 in Denver. This time I wanted to give back to that conference by volunteering. I helped serve in the bookstore. It was great being amongst other children's pastors and I will admit I felt like the old man there. I was excited to come home to a new challenge at CCH.
At my very first experience at Holbrook Kids I was shocked. I was expecting loads of kids but only saw we had 10. Holbrook Kids was launched the previous October and being in the sanctuary that had about 60 + people I thought there were tons of kids. I was wrong. My class had 3 kids on a good day maybe 5. I was so used to having 45 + kids at SGT so working with a small group was a challenge but if you know me, you know I love challenges. I also taught during the month of May as we rotated every 3 months. It was so amazing being back doing what I love! At the end of May, Pastor Peter approached me and said he wanted to meet with me. I had no idea what the meeting was about. I continued working as a manager at Chick Fil-A Port Jefferson 6 mornings a week so our meeting was on a Monday afternoon. Pastor Peter asked me a question I had wanted to hear for four years. "Would you be interested in being our Children's Pastor?" I said yes of course! I was introduced to the church that following Sunday and a vote was taken at a membership meeting the Sunday after that. 34 Yes...2 No! The position would be a paid position and I would have a 6 month trial period. I started on June 1st and was excited about the new challenge. Some people might think I was taking a step down after serving at a huge church. I did not feel that way at all. I had always said a would love a job where I could help build a children's ministry and watch it grow with God's help.
The first order of business was learning the ropes of how they do Vacation Bible school. It was a lot different than VBS at SGT where we had over 400+ kids. I always believed VBS was meant for smaller churches, not big churches. Many people at SGT disagreed with me. At CCH, Pastor Peter asked me to do one of my ventriloquist figures for the VBS worker meeting and I chose Shelton the Shark. The workers had never seen me do that and they loved it. Our VBS took place in early July and my job was not only to learn the ropes for 2019, but to be the Bible teacher. out theme was Maker Fun Factory by Group Publishing. I also opened each program, which was in the evening with Grandpa Lou, my ever popular puppet friend as well as Shelton and Sonkist. We had well over 50 kids at VBS and the week was a success. We had a closing program the following Sunday morning where the kids sang the songs they learned that week with many parents attending. The majority of the kids who attended were from other churches. My prayer was that they would begin coming to CCH.
After VBS, I organized a program for the kids on Wednesday nights I called "Wacky Wednesdays." It was a fun night planned for all ages with themes such as Christmas in August, Hawaiian Beach Party and Wet & Wild night to name a few. My hope was that the kids from VBS would come but that didn't happen. Attendance was low and I was frustrated but I figured maybe it was because It was in August where families go on vacation. During the fall season I was all geared up to begin running Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. I found it challenging especially Wednesday nights. Trying to run a program where you have 4 year olds and 4th graders together is difficult. I started feeling like maybe I was losing my edge as a children's pastor. I tried making videos for the kids on Sunday mornings and tried to bring in new ideas but I never felt like I was connecting. Looking back I think I was hoping to make CCH a mini SGT. I was used to a huge budget, a huge room to work with and tons of kids. CCH had a small budget and although a beautiful Holbrook Kids logo was painted on the wall, the rooms were small and multipurpose. My 6 month trial period was over and I began to wonder if this was really for me. In November, I knew in my heart I would not be asked to come on staff as an associate pastor. The board met with me in early January and I was told they wanted to go in a different direction. I was expecting to hear that and truthfully I was cool with it. It seemed as though God had other plans for me. I will always be grateful to Pastor Peter for the opportunity I had to serve at CCH and would like to thank him. During the fall. I attended a small group that did a church-wide DVD series called "Life on Mission." We had such a great group of people and they asked me to lead a bible study. I sad "yes" and that bible study is still meeting on Tuesday mornings to this day. As the calendar changed to 2018, God had new opportunities for me and new challenges that I will write about in the coming weeks.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
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