The purpose of these devotions is for you as a leader to have some powerful thoughts from God’s Word to encourage your team members. Please feel free to adjust or adapt as you see fit.

Scripture

2 Timothy 2:10 (English Standard Version)

10Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Devotion

To start things off, call one person out of the room and assign them a task to do that would take them a minute or so to accomplish. You choose the task. It could be folding several shirts, sorting papers by color, or building a Lego structure. Whatever it is, it should require their concentration. Tell them that if they complete the task, you’ll give them a $5 gift card (so have a gift card ready). Have them wait outside while you tell the rest of the group their assignment. Assign the rest of the group the job of trying to distract the person from doing their job. Tell some to be very negative toward him. Have some noise making implements for others to use. Give a few more some feathers to tickle the person’s nose or ears. Be creative.

Obviously, the person will complete the task, but it will definitely be with some setbacks. Award the gift card (or prize) and ask a few questions:

  1. What made it hard for him to complete the task?
  2. How did you feel being one who was a distractor?
  3. Why do you think he finally completed it?

Paul has some very good insight to the young pastor Timothy. Paul chose to be one who endured hardship for a greater purpose.

  • Paul’s motivation to push on in ministry was the risen Christ (v. 8).
  • Paul endured ALL things with this motivation. Christ is bigger than any distractions in our ministry.
  • Paul knew that his endurance was beneficial to the “chosen” (those who would believe in Jesus)
  • Paul endured with an eternal mindset

Children’s ministry can often bring great opportunities to endure. Kids can get rowdy, parents can get angry, and other volunteers can gossip and make life hard. Often people let all of those distractions get in the way of ministering to kids and at it’s base, that is selfish. God wants us to endure through those things based on the example of Jesus and for the glory of others knowing Christ.

So as volunteers embark on a new season of ministry, gearing up for the fall, they need a reminder that it’s not going to be a journey on a feather bed. There will be some distractions from Satan that push one to give up on enduring. It is at that point that remembering the endurance of Jesus and the potential for little one’s to know Him as Savior bolsters your calling and empowers your ministry. Be a Paul and endure!

Related posts:

  1. Fire Them Up–I Timothy 4:16
  2. Fire Them Up–II Corinthians 5:18-20
  3. Fire Them Up–I Corinthians 15:3-4