Don't Betray Others

The title of this post may have gotten your attention, and while I did want to get your attention, I also want you to stop and think about the following questions -

• Why is it in children's ministry - and in the church - we are often so quick to betray, marginalize and wound those who serve alongside us?
• Why do we use "shame" to further our own agendas and church politics to move people out of our way?
• Why do so many people end up deeply hurt in our churches?

I've served in churches where it was an absolute delight to do so! I've also served in churches where church politics and using people as "pawns" resulted in people feeling betrayed, wounded, feeling alone and marginalized. While the sad potential certainly exists for church politics to "rear it's ugly head" in any area in the church, I've noticed it shows up often in children's ministry. I've wondered why this happens, and think it may be for some of the following reasons -

• In children's ministry, unlike other areas of ministry, people tend to think they know what to do and often want things for their children to be as they were when they were children.
• Most people are saved while children so this is an area of ministry where Satan certainly does not want us to be effective. If he is able to sidetrack the children's ministry he can cause a great amount of damage.
• Some people like to be "in charge" and so the children's ministry seems like a place where they can "flex" their "muscle"

Church politics are evil. Church politics cause great damage. There should be absolutely no room for church politics in any church and especially not in the children's ministry. We talk about many things in children's ministry, but I do not ever recall hearing anyone talk about church politics. If we do not identify problems and dangers in the children's ministry, we can not deal with them. Since the children's ministry tends to have the largest number of volunteers, when church politics "shows up" the potential for hurting and chasing away people increases - this can have lasting damage so we need to face and deal with church politics. When we do not stand guard against church politics we are much more likely to find ourselves betraying others - especially volunteers. I'll be writing about church politics this week . . . what do you do to watch for and deal with church politics in your church?