The Holy Spirit Party

Yesterday we blocked out the whole morning (Erin and I) for a Holy Spirit Experience- and it turned into a "Holy Spirit Party" really. The first half Erin did a fantastic job of "warming the kids up" for their experience and laying the foundation with teaching about our friend HS. Then the second half we spent more under my leadership saying "Holy Spirit, what do you want to do next?" and it was a wonderful and challenging and not at all what I thought it would look like. What it didn't look like ever at any point was this picture of a sudden Holy Spirit falling on the kids in mass HS experience with manifestations and healings and whatever we picture that kind of scene looking like. What did happen was a friendship was developed. We laid the foundation in teaching and by sharing our own examples then we modeled a morning of walking out that friendship -- asking Him what He wanted to do, following His lead, telling him what was on our mind ("we'd really like some cake at this party") and absolutely giving Him space to be there with us. The most spiritual thing I can think we did was to have a bit of extended quiet / soak time at the end to MAKE SURE we had given Him room to move/say something/whatever. And even that was so well done and well received by the kids. When I think back at how much "freedom" we wove into that morning and how much we looked to the HS to lead (and even the kids to be the leaders as they were the ones to ask and hear from Him) I am so impressed by the cohesive, engaged, successful morning we had. To devote the entire morning to "one" activity together (pursuing the HS as a large group, staying engaged, not spliting into small groups time where there's a different teacher and tone and feel and maybe a craft, etc) is a lot to ask kids to do for an hour and a half, I think. But, again, I want to make note that I NEVER saw them disengage - no kid ever 'lost interest' and stopped participating in what we were doing. And I even thought there were less distractions. Now being an outside observer you may not have seen it as a morning of order and control and may have questioned our method and what we were actually accomplishing but I AM CONVINCED that we gave HS free reign in the best, most pre-planned, hands on / hands off way that we knew how. My goal was to really truly (once we laid a foundation and expectation) see how He wanted to lead us -- through the kids -- that morning.

The night before He had led me to a scripture that talked about how He reveals things to children that He doesn't to the wise. I wanted to see that for myself. He also reminded me (in that passage) that His yoke is easy, light, to learn from Him. And that morning the picture He gave me was one of a family -- that I am a daughter and daughters don't have to worry about the plumbing -- or putting food on the table -- maybe there is disfunction in our families today and we don't personally experience that, we take on responsibility that isn't ours to take -- He says putting food on the table "is My Responsibility. You can set the table if you like..." And so that's what we did yesterday, we set the table, we gave Him room, we asked for cake. And let me tell you that together experience of asking for cake, even though we didn't magically see any appear (this time) was a time of growing in our friendship with Holy Spirit. We had a fun, Spirit-led, unified, honest, true, fun experience together of really turning to Him and asking!

I really want to tell you this story! So it started in the main room, after the warm up activities, after the foundational teaching, when we were first (this is first service kids) starting to ask God what He wanted to do the rest of the morning. Some thoughts/pictures kids had already head were starting to add up to: 'hula hoops+fun=holy spirit party' and so we asked for more ideas and someone said 'cake'. After I quickly (but with effort!) shook off my natural reaction to say that was a silly answer and entirely not-possible thing to have in our morning I said "well, let's ask Him". And so we said 'Holy Spirit will you give us some cake'? And we opened our eyes in expectation, nothing, tried again, until one kid said "maybe we should ask in the kitchen"! So we all scooted into the kitchen and gathered around the island and put our hands on the counter top and prayed together in unision and expectation "Holy Spirit can we have some cake?!" then we'd pound on the counter top with mad little drummer hands as an explanation point to our question or maybe it was like a drum roll of expecation - yeah, that was it :) and then we'd stop abruptly all together looking for some answer to our question to appear! And we'd try again, each time building, breaking something, growing a friendship, growing an expectation, believing in the impossible! Then one kid said "Maybe we should say 'please'" and so we all thought that was a good idea and the asking ritual continued with an emphasis of please added :) No, nothing ever 'showed up' in the natural, but the feeling at the end, looking back, now I can't remember disappointment or loss of steam, loss of momentum in our HS morning at all - I only remember it as a GOOD time together and I believe it (and the whole morning) was one big Holy Spirit experiment that turned into a party-time, a time of growing in awareness, friendship and trust with Holy Spirit. He was SUCH a part of our morning together. I can't imagine doing another Sunday without inviting Him into dialogue with us. I think it was a turning point for our KidsChurch. I am so proud to say Erin is my leader and her heart is for more and MORE of the Lord, coming up with whatever way possible to bring kids into a friendship with Holy Spirit and a love experience with God himself. She is a fantastic steward of the piece of the kingdom He has given her to watch over and grow. I look forward to more fantastic things. Let's pray for more grace for the bumpy road of uncertainty and unknown that will get us there -- it is worth it -- the place we're going is amazing. Makes me think of the Wizard of Oz and that journey wasn't easy, but it was worth it. In the end they had a brain and courage and a heart and found their way home. If we want easy and predictable results, we go back to doing someone else's curriculum, but that's not the adventure (no road map) that God calls us to, is it?

Amen.