Matthew 18:3 "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will not see the kingdom of Heaven."
Have you ever been to a church that was pretty much lead by children
and teenagers? My answer to that question would have been no… until this weekend. Before I tell you about the amazing kids, I’ll explain where we are….
We are primarily doing ministry this month in the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lampur. But this weekend, we are about 2 hours outside of the city in a small town called Slim River. Our contacts weren’t
lying when they said we were doing ministry in the jungle this weekend. Slim River, where we’re staying is a pretty small town, but we drive out into small villages twice a day to lead church services. We did 2 services a day, all in different villages. It was so cool driving out to them, literally through the jungle.
To our surprise, walking into the first church, we noticed that it was made up of about 75% children, then a handful of women and a few men. Upon seeing all of these adorable Malay kids piled into a room for church, I immediately thought to myself…. ‘great.. It’s going to be chaotic in here, we’ll have to teach them songs to keep their attention (I was thinking some fun songs like Father Abraham). Then all of the sudden, one woman picked up a guitar and started strumming, and the kids stood up. My jaw dropped when I watched as the children closed their eyes and raised their hands as they sang to God. It was
so pure and so true. After we left, I thought to myself, ‘well, that was awesome, these kids are so blessed, they are going to change this country, I wonder
if I’ll ever see such passionate kids on the race again.
Then we pulled into the next church in another village. Okay, these kids worshiped too… the difference? They were LEADING worship! It was wonderful… there are plenty of pictures on this blog to show you everything I’m trying to describe. All 6 of the churches we went to had this similar story. I went into these churches with my Bible story skits, fun songs, and inspirational messages, and walked out with a new understanding of worship. And I learned it from children. Don’t get me wrong, I think our kids ministries in America are awesome. The kids learn so much about Jesus and the Bible.. But of all of the churches I’ve been to, I’ve never seen kids WORSHIP God! I mean, maybe we should rethink how we teach kids. The Bible talks about
having faith like a child… but do we really understand that? I don’t think I did until I saw these kids this weekend. Yes, it’s good to know about events in the Bible, and what they teach us… but it is equally important for the kids to know how to worship the God they are learning about. I love to watch the kids worship because I know they
are worshiping from their heart. They are not thinking about themselves, or what is going on in their life, and they may not even know a lot about the Bible, and that’s what makes it so pure. It’s just them and God. Wow, God continues to blow my mind with his presence in every country I’ve been in!
