This fall at my church, Charisma Church, we are starting an outreach children’s ministry.  To the untrained eye, this could seem like a normal thing that any church would consider doing.  So let me give you a little insight into the demographics of Charisma.  Our Sunday service is held on campus at NC State University.  We mainly have college students and young adults in attendance.  But here is the kicker: we currently have no children, and no children’s ministry.  So now you may be wondering why would we want to start an outreach children’s ministry.  The answer to that is simple.

God told us to.

It sounds crazy, and may makes you scratch your head a little, but I am so excited about it.  At our leader’s retreat this past spring, we split up into groups and brainstormed ideas for where Charisma could go in the next year.  When we came back together to share, multiple groups had discussed starting a children’s ministry.  It was so cool to see God drop the same idea to multiple people in multiple groups.  As we explored the idea, it was easy to see how God had put together a group of people in our church with the passion and talent to make it happen.

That’s what I love about God’s ideas and plans.  Although they may not make sense to everyone, if you follow them you can see how He put everything in place to make it happen.  Before that retreat, I had never really thought it would make much sense to start a children’s ministry at Charisma.  Now that God has opened my eyes, I can see how God has been laying the foundation for this for years.

It makes me think of the story of Esther.  She became queen and then King Ahasuerus issued a decree that all the Jews should be killed.  She is speaking with Mordecai and he tells her to go make a plea to the king to change his mind.  She explains that if she goes to the king uninvited she could be killed.  Mordecai’s response to her is, “who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).  He basically tells her that he knows it is a crazy idea and it doesn’t make sense, but maybe that is why God placed her there in the first place.  She decides to have faith and go to the king.  The king invites her in, hears her plea, and they come up with a plan to save the Jewish people.

When you get a God vision there is one thing you should always do: run towards it.  Even if it seems crazy or doesn’t make sense, you have to have faith that God knows what He is doing.  At Charisma, we are jumping all in and starting our outreach children’s ministry.  I can’t wait to see the cool things God does through it!

You will still hear from Nick from time to time on the TV One Life blog, but you can also keep up with him at iamnickspindler.com.