I learned a long time ago that the adage “He who fails to plan, plans to fail” is so true. With children’s ministry, preparation and planning are extremely important. Consistently just “going with the flow” is a sure-fire indicator that you won’t be in this ministry very long. Praying and hearing from God and then writing or preparing the lesson before you walk into your classroom will keep your ministry balanced and on-track.
At the same time, if we are hard-headed about just going with the preplanned program, we will often miss what the Holy Spirit is attempting to say and do through us. It is so easy to become so programmed in our ministry that we totally ignore the leadings and promptings of the Holy Spirit. Having the mentality that we’ve finely tuned this lesson and have 120 minutes of lesson that has to be crammed into a 90 minute time-frame and everything has to be done can cause us to grieve the Holy Spirit and miss out on what could have been THE service that could have changed a child’s future and the course of your ministry.
What is the balance? We must walk into the service having prayed, prepared and organized just as though the success of the service depends upon us and yet be vulnerable and flexible knowing that everything depends upon His unction and anointing.