Leader Servants

Today I saw two examples of leader servants. We attend the early service at our church. There are usually just a handful of babies and toddlers, including our two. While the second service has an organized nursery, the first one doesn't. This morning Pastor Francis Dognon said that it would be good to get help for the nursery so that young mothers could get to hear the sermon, rather than sit in the nursery.

After sitting through part of the sermon, our 3 year old said that he wanted to go up to the nursery. After I took him up, our 19 month old communicated that she wanted to go as well, so Nicole brought her up. I got there expecting to be spending the rest of the service in the nursery.

To my amazement, I opened the door and found André Pownall sitting with one kid his lap and 4-5 other ones there. André is an ordained pastor, as well as the professor of practical theology at Nogent Bible Institute. He recently got a Doctorate of Ministries degree. He is also the President of Urbanus, the French branch of Urban Associates, begun by Dr. Ray Bakke. Despite his degrees and "reverend" status, he was humbly up there serving the kids and their families. He said that he was "training to become a grandfather." He has earned one of hero awards through his act of service.

If I ever train ministry students, one thing that I would have them do is spend some time in a church nursery. If a church wants to attract families, then it has do a good job with its nursery, toddlers' and children's programs. (I didn't quite understand this before having kids).

If pastors spent some time in the nursery, instead of clustering up in the place of honor in the front row, then they would be better able to connect with the children and the families of their church. Hats off to you, André.

After church, we were treated to a wonderful Asian lunch by Sarah Anderson. It was the ideal lunch, as she ordered takeout from a local restaurant and brought it to our place. The kids didn't nap long and enjoyed being Sarah, her daugther Meghan, friend Devon, and future daughter-in-law Jenn.

Sarah and Mark Anderson and I have been with 3 different agencies together in France. They are veterans of ministry wars and have lots of scars and wisdom to share from them. They have no airs about them. What you see is what you get. They also are a couple of my favorite people. By virtue of their heart and their experience, they are colleagues whom I would not hesitate to go to with a problem.

They have hosted 2 open houses for us in Wheaton, Illinois, where they now live. These open houses have been very helpful in helping us connect with a number of different friends during the same evening.

Sarah is now in charge of lifelong education for workers with our agency. She herself has good formal training, including recent studies in spiritual formation. Our agency is going in a good direction in trying to develop lifelong learning.

She uses a tool called a "LifeMap." LifeMap is a tool designed to help us listen to what God is doing, how He has uniquely created us, and the work He has invited us to do. It also is a snapshot of our life thus far, as we can't map where we haven't yet been. The LifeMap process consists of nine areas: character and spiritual formation, personality, strenghts, spiritual gifts, values, passions, relationships, experience, and vision. While I'm not necessarily into forms and programs just for the sake of forms and programs, this one sounds like something worth pursuing.