People don’t like the word “agenda.”
For one, it leads to rather mundane mental images of long, boring meetings bubbling up in front of our mind’s eye. “And now, let’s take a brief look over our agenda before we begin. First….”
Yes, agenda can be a word rife with bullet points and stale water.
But there are more reasons people don’t like agendas, and I’d be willing to wager that one of the biggest reasons has to do with the fact that agendas can be code for things hidden, things not quite sinister, but not quite beneficial either, and not at all honest. Agendas are made up of those things closeted under the surface. They are the something behind something else.
That said, as Christians, we have an agenda. That’s a fact. We have an agenda in our church activities, in our personal interactions, at our jobs, while riding our bikes, on vacation. And his name is Jesus Christ.
That means that there are always two sides to every coin. There’s what we might call the normal side. And then there’s the Jesus side.
And our agenda is certainly present in our children’s ministry as well. For example, in a little over three weeks, Madison will be hosting No Fear Here again. And while No Fear Here is about creating a safe, fun, candy-filled alternative for regular trick-or-treating, it’s kind of not about that at all.
Instead, what things like No Fear Here and Cadets and Madison Girls and the Summer Leadership Academy and Youth Group and everything else that goes on in Madison’s Children’s Ministries and everything else that goes on at Madison as whole are really about is Christ. Everything we do, all of it is about becoming a sticky church. The ministries God uses us as part of are about intentionally bringing our savior into the community we serve and about intentionally bringing the community through Madison’s doors so those around us can meet Jesus on a deeper level. It’s about making ourselves sticky in such a way that people can’t just bring their kids to No Fear Here; they have to come back. Maybe just for the next fun event. Maybe just for one or two worship services. And maybe for something more after that.
Behind every fun event, behind ever ministry, behind every agenda or plan or schedule or interaction is our savior. All we’re really doing is creating ways to connect others, adults, teens, and children, to him.
We deal with no little things in this work, because the agenda we deal with is Jesus Christ.
