If you have been living under a rock, the Mars rover ‘Curiosity’ landed on Mars August 5th, 2012. The mission made extra news when they streamed the reaction online for everyone as they dealt with the 7 minute time delay between what was happening at Mars and what NASA was learning. So when they saw that the spacecraft was experiencing G’s from the atmosphere, the rover had either already succeeded or failed.
While that is fun, the video below is even better for all of the celebrations of the little successes. We will share what we mean after the video.
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I serve in youth ministry and it can be a very thankless and mundane job from the vantage point of successes and failures. Of course, when a mission’s trip is successful or a student comes to Christ, we praise, sing, and throw a party, much like the NASA employees learned that the rover had officially landed. But what about the other 99.5% of ministry?
Spiritual Births
I heard a great illustration recently about a new way to look at the spiritual life of a new Christian in relationship to a child being born. We of course celebrate the life of the birth and hearing that it is healthy, but their are several little celebrations along the way: that moment you learn you are pregnant, you feel that first kick, ultrasounds, and when she started to show. After the birth, there are even more celebrations including those first noises, rolling over, and sleeping for more than 4 hours.
Celebrating All The Little Things
Now compare that with the spiritual birth of a Christian. They hear the Gospel for the first time, even if they do not make a decision right then. When they first start to ask the tough questions. When they come to small groups that go deeper into understanding of what it means to commit your life to Christ. After someone makes a decision to follow Christ, they get that first Bible, want to share the Gospel with others, go through challenges and come out the other side better, and begin a discipleship with others.
We in ministry need to celebrate these successes at every point with our staff, friends, volunteers, and parents. Make them aware of it, clap, cheer, and just have fun. These moments can be so life-giving and we must continue to be aware, even in the moments when their seems like nothing to celebrate.
Do you have any of these moments recently? Share them in the comments below.
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