This past week, a historical event of mammoth proportion went largely unnoticed by the American church. Overshadowed by the other festivities on October 31st was the remembrance and honoring of an event that forever changed the church. It was on the Wednesday of October 31st in 1517 that an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther publicly renounced the sin and heresy of the church as he nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. From this act, the Protestant Reformation was birthed.
I am quite confident that Martin Luther wasn’t alone in his assessment of the gross error and sin of the church. Surely there were many who also recognized that the church had deviated from the Word. But while there were possibly many who were disturbed by what they saw, it was Luther who took action and declared that enough is enough and in doing so changed the course of human history.
I challenge you to look at the condition of today’s children’s ministry. Surely you can see what I see. I’m not talking about a children’s ministry plagued with sin and doctrinal error. I see a children’s ministry that is void of power. I see children graduating from our ministries not prepared to be the world changers that God destined them to be. We have settled for ministries filled with hype and performance (enticing words of man’s wisdom … 2 Corinthians 2:4) but missing the visible, viable presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
Where are today’s Martin Luther’s? Where are the men and women who will stand up and cry aloud, “Enough is enough!”? Where are the children’s leaders who will post a mantra to ignite change in a powerless, unproductive “ministry” to children?
Will you just stay disturbed or will you join me in being a present-day Martin Luther? Will you go beyond being disturbed and do some nailing and announcing that enough is enough? Will you begin to announce that the same-o, same-o days are over and that today is a new day? It is a day of change. It is a day of REVOLUTION as “Today is the day of the Holy Ghost”.
Let’s go get our hammers. We’ve got some work to do.
