Latest / Kids Ministry Calling with Jana Magruder / 73. Two Children's Books Every Kids Ministry Leader Should Own: Featuring Blaire Linne & Kyle Worley

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73. Two Children's Books Every Kids Ministry Leader Should Own: Featuring Blaire Linne & Kyle Worley · Kids Ministry Calling with Jana Magruder

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are you dedicated to working with kids and families in the local church?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, clearly that's more than a career, that's a calling.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jayna Magruder and this is Kids Ministry Calling.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is a special one.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're bringing you two powerful conversations with authors who are gonna help kids understand big truths through meaningful and engaging stories.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: First, you'll hear from Kyle Worley, author of The Dragon Slayer and his super special suit, which is a creative and compelling retelling of the gospel that also introduces kids to the armor of God in a way that they won't forget.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're joined by Blair Lennon, who's the author of Yarn of the Bray, a beautifully honest story about anxiety, courage, and learning to walk through worry with God's help and not run from it.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Together, these conversations remind us that books aren't just resources, they're discipleship tools.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: They can help kids process fear and understand truth and see themselves in God's bigger story.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking to build a bookshelf or a ministry that points kids to Jesus in both truth and tenderness, this episode is for you.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hello everybody.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: We have an exciting episode today for you.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I am joined by uh Kyle Worley.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Kyle, I need to ask you something.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Did I say your last name correctly?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: You got it.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Worley is the way to say it.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've had everything from Worley to Warley.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's Worley.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: You nailed it.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't know what you did.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, good.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Good, good, good.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I had a little bit of a heads up because I listened to your podcast.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, listeners, you need to know that uh among other things, Kyle is a podcaster of host of Knowing Faith Podcast, which is one of my very favorite podcasts.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just telling him before we hit record that I've actually kind of studied his style and learned from him because he carries a show very, very well.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh most of you know that for a long time I had a co-host, uh Chuck Peters, who branched off and started his own podcast.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so that leaves me.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I have been kind of studying some other shows just to kind of get a practice and feel for what hosting really means.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Kyle, you really are one of my favorites.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you're very kind, Jen.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: We have a really good time on the Knowing Faith podcast, and uh it's a real joy to get to do it with Jen and JT, and they make the show uh great.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just happy to play my role and get out of the way.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Jen Wilken and JT English are also part of the podcast.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: They talk a lot about ministry and theology.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the episode that I just listened to, uh, this is how I knew how to say your name, and I'm glad I heard it, is because Jen said that she mispronounced your name for many years.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's Worley, and it's Worley.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, that's exactly right.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know when Jen and I started working together, I was a writer.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was on staff at a church and I was writing for their blog, and Jin was the editor for that blog at the time, and she was an incredible editor to work with.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: I loved working with her.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, she would routinely be like, you know, I I would hear that she had referenced me in another conversation uh with a mispronunciation of my last name, but I was so eager to impress her as the editor that I never corrected her until much, much until we actually became we moved from partners to friends, and then I was like, hey, that's not actually how you say my last name.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been all gray since then.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is hilarious.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, I can't imagine if Jen Wilken was my editor.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So wow.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: It makes you walk in the fear of the Lord.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: There's no doubt about it.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason why I wanted to have you on the show is because I saw BH, our book publisher here at Life Way, um is releasing, or just released, you just released a children's book called The Dragon Slayer in his super special suit.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this is new for you.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: You are an author, but is this your first kid's book?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: It is my first kid's picture book, but it won't be my last.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's at least one more coming on the heels of this one, but it is my first one, and I'm so delighted to have it out and have people reading it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: In a nutshell, can you tell us um the heart behind the book, who you wrote it for, and and why you wrote it?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the heart behind the book, it's an imaginative retelling of the gospel that focuses on Christ's victory over sin, Satan, and death, and the armor of God.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's what it's about.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: Honestly, Jana, um, a previous book that I'd written with BH was about this doctrine called Union with Christ.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's the book is titled Home with God, our union with Christ.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: And whenever I was finishing up that book, they asked me, is there a way that you could adapt this into a kid's picture book?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so I began to just kind of creatively think about how I would communicate what it means to be in Christ Jesus to a kiddo.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: And as I just scanned the pages of scripture, I found myself coming back and back to the armor of God.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: The armor of God is a great way to talk about what it means to be alive and living the Christian life in Christ Jesus.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so I just returned again and again to the armor of God.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: And like I often do with creative projects, I began to refashion that armor of God passage into a creative story for my daughters.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: And the book emerged from that attempt of how could you creatively retell the gospel story with a focus on the armor of God for kiddos and the dragon slayer as a result.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a great um, it's a great way to frame that.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm thinking through the lens of maybe some of our listeners, our kids' ministry leaders, who um maybe are a little side-eye sometimes uh about using an allegory to teach theological truths.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I can think of no one better to speak about that than you because you really truly are a theologian and you love to communicate theology.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us maybe, you know, uh how this allegory works, but also maybe some things to uh, you know, why let me ask it this way why do you think allegories sometimes get a bad reputation for teaching spiritual truth?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think that um a lot of people are suspect of shallow allegories, and I don't blame them for being suspicious.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like not all stories are created equal, not all allegories are created equal.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but kids are story sponges.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: They're story sponges.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to get to their heart and mind, oftentimes the best door is their imagination.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: This is what Lewis said years after the Chronicles of Narnia was released.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Lewis took all kinds of flack, um, really not from the Christian community, but really from his own professional community that thought allegories were a really weak form of persuasion.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of his really serious contemporaries couldn't understand why Lewis would waste his time with allegories.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe ministry leaders listening to this podcast would say, like, we'll just give them more and more storybook Bibles and more and more kind of storybook retellings that are just directly or creatively connected to the actual biblical text itself.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: And listen, thanks be to God that we have such a wealth of resources for picture books and storybook Bibles.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I encourage you to make use of the best of them as often as you can.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: But Lewis said that his goal in the Chronicles of Narnia was if he couldn't win the hearts and the minds of the kids of Britain, that maybe he could win their imagination.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was a kind of subversive evangelism, was getting up underneath the wall through story.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this is really compelling for anybody, but particularly compelling for those who work with kids, because, like I said, kids are story sponges.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the truth of the matter is that all kids are going to be told allegories that look to communicate truth, goodness, and beauty.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: This is what Pixar movies are and Disney movies are.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: So true.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: And every marketer knows this is the way in.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: There's something developmentally appropriate they've keyed in on.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I would just say I want thoughtful Christians in the game telling creative, imaginative stories that do connect explicitly with the gospel.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's what we've offered here in this book.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I love how you used Lewis to talk about that and remind us that storytelling is such, and and especially in an imaginative way, is how we can capture uh kids their attention in a noisy, noisy world where they have so many choices to have some thoughtfulness, theologically, doctrinally sound pastor who is able to weave those two things together in a trustworthy way.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we should definitely uh look for that, but also just be mindful of um other things that are out there that may not have uh the depth to it or could accidentally teach heretical truths.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that when it comes to storytelling and allegory and metaphor, like we can't attempt to try to be holier than Jesus.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus was constantly like a pattern of his communication was picking up ordinary things and making extraordinary connections with them.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: He was, he was, he, he, he had a profound use of metaphor and symbol and sign and story.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that pattern certainly it's perfect in Christ's presentation and we'll never be able to reach that same perfection.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: He is who he is, and we aren't him.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I think it's a faithful application to say, well, if the way that we're talking about God's kingdom has to be somehow more literal than the Son of God Himself, then I would just say we might be setting a false standard for ourselves that we'll never be able to reach.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think it's great.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: I am 100% in favor of Bible literacy and age-appropriate Bible studies.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: Get them in the text as soon as you possibly can.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: But when it's eight o'clock at night and mom and dad are tired, um, when it's like you're trying to just keep their attention before you get into the meat of the lesson and you need a hook, story and imagination are persuasive ways in to keep the conversation going with kiddos.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: At least that's what we found in our home and our church.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, what age grade do you would you say is the best range for this book?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, four to eight-year-olds, you know, pre-K into early elementary, I think will really thrive with it.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I have a two-year-old daughter at home, and right now she wants to pull it off the shelf every day and flip through the pages and take a look at it.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it can reach down, it can reach up.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I think you're looking in the you know, late pre-K into early elementary.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of the target group for this.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: I road tested it, I'll tell you, moms and dads, ministry leaders, uh, road tested it with my two uh daughters the whole way through.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: So it is um kid approved from my daughters, uh, and they are fierce critics themselves, certainly.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm looking at it right now, and the illustrations are beautiful.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um it is, you know, the allegory is that the dragon is the enemy.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah um, Satan.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um the good news is that at the end of the book, you pull it all together with a parent connection.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if parents, you know, you're listening or ministry leaders, you're listening, you're thinking, I'm not sure I could pull together the whole allegory about the armor of God and spiritual warfare and and um the whole point of the book.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: At the end, there's a connection piece where it brings it all back to the scriptures, Ephesians 6, right?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Is it that's right?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um about the armor of God.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And um it it helps you explain that and and what each thing represents.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's also another tool to have in mind um for how to make it how how to make the book work, age up or age down.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And if I could say one more thing about that, um, I was really proud.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think this is the first time BH Kids has done something like this.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: We're um uh, you know, I pastored a church with over 400 kids under the age of 10.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: They almost outnumber our adult members at this point.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it is a wild circus for us.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: We have a lot um, and we are always looking for um low-cost or free resources that we can use to equip families to do family discipleship at home.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: So BH Kids was really um happy to partner with me to create a six-session unit study to accompany this that's offered for free right on the website.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so no matter where you buy it, you can go get this unit study.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we know that some Sunday school programs are already using it for Sunday school.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Others have chosen it to be the core for their VBS.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, families are using it for family discipleship and family worship, and homeschool families are using it for a unit study, and it goes right in line with the book, it has crafts associated with it, uh, sessions, uh, family worship guides.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: We really want this to feel like um it can be a launching pad uh for families or for people that do at-home school or for Sunday schools that might benefit from just really free resources.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so if that's something that piques your interest as a ministry leader, BH has really built out a whole toolkit for that.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I did not know that.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So good to know.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so check listeners, check that out for sure.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as I'm looking through it, uh, I'm putting my school teacher hat back on.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I used to teach uh fourth grade, and uh I would even age it up to a preteen.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um it gives you a way to talk about the armor of God.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: All the time I hear like we're we need to teach the armor of God, teach the armor of God.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but how are you really going to do that?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so um this gives a tool, another tool in your toolbox for how to um to teach about how we have access to the armor of God.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is a visual way to do that, uh, but I could see working with um maybe they don't want you to read it to them as a read-aloud, sitting, you know, crisscross applesauce on the floor.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe you could partner them up and have them read it together or um or have you know one student read it to everybody, but but use that as a way to have these deeper discussions.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing spiritual warfare is real.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the other thing that I think some parents and leaders may get a little nervous about is talking about spiritual warfare.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if we avoid it, then we're not we're not helping kids understand what tools that they have.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So tell talk about the topic spiritual warfare and and why our kids need to um um have a deep understanding of what that is.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, I I avoiding avoiding talk about spiritual warfare is would be a little bit like um, you know, just avoiding talk about temptation, you know, or avoiding talk about evil, or avoiding talk about proper boundaries for young kids and families.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: It it can feel like, oh, it's really touchy to talk about it, but the risk of not talking about it is disproportionate to the risk associated with talking about it.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so I understand as a parent and as a pastor, I can understand that you you don't want to like needlessly provoke your children to kind of outlandish or unreasonable or irrational fear.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that there can be a hesitancy sometimes thinking, well, if I if I bring this up, it's gonna provoke something that wouldn't be there otherwise.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I would just say the Bible is really clear that the spiritual forces of evil oppose the working of righteousness anywhere.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're trying to lead a ministry or if you're trying to lead a home in a righteous way, you should anticipate that that is going to experience spiritual opposition.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: And if kids are involved with that, that they're also going to experience spiritual opposition in ways that it would be helpful for them to have a grid for.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: And what we try to showcase in the Dragon Slayer in a super special suit are are two things I think are really important to tell kids at the same time.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: One, Jesus Christ has accomplished victory over sin, death, and Satan.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And there is no battle going on between Christ and Satan.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: He's won that war, that war is finished, that power is removed.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: And because of that victory that we receive in Jesus Christ, we're now empowered and equipped, having received his armor, to go out and fight the daily battles of the Christian life, battles against temptation and the wickedness of the world and evil spiritual forces.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: And those are real battles to face, but we face them victorious already in Jesus.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that it's important that we tell kids Satan's power is not even remotely close to the power of Christ.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: Christ has already crushed the teeth of Satan on the cross and in his resurrection.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: And in Christ, you receive the armor of God, uh, each piece of which is associated with or attached to the finished work of Christ.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: And that means you can go out knowing that um you are emboldened and empowered to fight the daily battles of the Christian life.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I think we need to tell kids the world is broken and beautiful and God is above it all.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a great way to summarize the whole goal of the book.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, leaders, I hope that you will um check it out and go go see about it and maybe order one for yourself and see if it's appropriate for your ministry.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly uh parents need to know about this, I think, um, for all ages and um and to engage their kids in these deeper conversations.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, Kyle, um I told you that um we close the show out by talking about calling stories.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: We love to ask our guests, you know, how did you get called to ministry?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh since it's called Kids Ministry Calling, everybody listening uh can relate to that.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to share your whole testimony, but maybe give us a little snapshot of um your original calling story.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I became a Christian underneath the just ordinary faithful discipleship of my mom and dad.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: They love the Lord and they made um engaging with the Lord in our home a very natural and sweet thing.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so I grew up in a Christian home underneath the ordinary faithful discipleship of my mother and father.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm truly grateful for that.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then around uh late middle school, early high school, I experienced just a unique calling to ministry.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: I actually had prepared a career day presentation project, had my poster board all filled out um to be an orthopedic surgeon.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: The only reason I had filled that's every eighth grader's dream was to be an orthopedic surgeon.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I had chosen that because I had flat feet and I had to go see an orthopedic doctor, and I and I had heard that they made a lot of money.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: So as an eighth grader, I'm like, all right, great.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we'll just cash that check right now.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and while I was sitting there and my like the person in front of me was doing their career day presentation project, I experienced something that was a little less than an audible voice, a little bit more than a prompt or a burden of the heart.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the Lord made it very clear just in a moment that I was to serve his church uh in ministry.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and that was very overwhelming.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I stood up in front of my classmates and said, I prepared this career day presentation project to be an orthopedic surgeon, but the Lord just told me that I'm supposed to be uh uh in full-time ministry.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, I'll tell you this: your eighth grade friends never forget that.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the rest of high school, they definitely remember that story and will tell you how to hold you accountable to that.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: They absolutely did, no doubt.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I was really grateful that the Lord moved in that way.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and outside of that, just really began to walk um in my uh with my local church into increasing leadership and student ministry.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Then I went off to college and got involved in a church that had a very eager desire to race up young leaders and um a lot of pastors who were willing to come alongside me and mentor me and disciple me, namely my father, who has not only been my father my whole life, but also the pastor of the church that I've been involved in until uh I went and worked at the village here in Dallas and then planted the church where I currently now serve as pastor.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's been a really sweet thing.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um the Lord has led us through a crazy journey of serving in student ministry at a very kind of traditional Southern Baptist Church and then on staff at a very large mega regional church.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then we've planted um in 2018, we planted along with a group from our sending church, a church right here in town that's very much just a local community church of a bunch of young families with a lot of kids.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: So um, so yeah, it's been a sweet journey.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for sharing that.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, we'll have to have you back again.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're gonna do a discipleship uh series um in the fall.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I know that's one of your passions as well.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't you uh close this out by telling us about your deep discipleship project?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we partnered with LifeWay to release something called the Deep Discipleship Program, and we've been blown away by the response to it so far.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Deep Discipleship Program is really our effort, Jen Wilken, JT English, and myself.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's our effort to take something that we built together at the same church when we were all leading there together, um, which is a year-long theological discipleship program, walking people through the fundamentals of Christian story, Christian belief, and Christian formation.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: There are books attached with it.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's a video based curriculum.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: You can do right from your church.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of seminaries have partnered to either give credit to that program upon completion or free classes on the other side of completing that program.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're a ministry leader looking for some Theological development and instruction.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: It'd be a great toolkit for that.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: If your church is looking to really consolidate how they can create a culture of deep discipleship, then you should check it out.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's available at lifeweight.com and everywhere else.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Heard so many good things about it.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've got I got to hold one of the journals the other day at a conference, and it's beautifully designed.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I've heard a lot of good feedback, even in the kids' ministry space, uh, from leaders who are seeking to go that next level of theological training.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And just like the conversation we just had, we steward a heavy, you know, responsibility of teaching children the deep truths and doctrines of our faith.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I am here with Blair Lynn, and Blair and I are just meeting.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you are hearing us get to know each other in real time, and I can't wait to hear her story.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: So just want to let you in on um us get to know each other a little bit and then talk about some tangible tools that that we can use uh to help um ourselves with anxiety and the children that we serve or that are in our homes with anxiety as well.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, first off, Blair, welcome to the podcast.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Janet, for having me.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a privilege to be here with you today.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh let's just start off.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: You tell me a little bit about yourself.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've got your bio in front of me, but tell us just who you are, what you do, and um yeah, and then we'll get to uh this resource that you have for us.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my name is Blair Lynn.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: I currently live in Dallas.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: We just moved here this past summer, and I live here at home with my husband, Shai.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: We will be married 16 years in July, and our three children, a 14-year-old, 11-year-old, and 10-year-old.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I love writing.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been writing since I was nine years old.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: I started writing poetry for spoken word.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I've had the privilege of writing books and Bible studies and um and speaking and teaching the Bible.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've been doing ministry for about 20 years.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's actually how I met my husband.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: My husband um has been a long standing Christian hip hop artist, uh, and I've been a long-standing spoken word artist in the Christian space.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we met in ministry at a conference, and we kept getting invited to conferences around the country, kept running into each other and became friends.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been sweet to now do ministry together in our home by loving our children and discipling them, but then outside of the home.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a ministry on family worship um that we travel around and do.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a little bit about me.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's great.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we we can put some of those things in the show notes as well.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so how are you like?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I have to ask as a native Texan, how are you liking your move to Dallas?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I love Dallas.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm from California and my husband's from Philadelphia.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the most of our marriage we've been on the East Coast.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm grateful for a little more sunshine, you know, like a little more space.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Make skin feel.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm like, I'm all for it.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we we're loving Dallas.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, so glad.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I uh the first thing I want to talk about is you created a resource called Made to Trimble.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this is for a book for adults.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And specifically, it's your story.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd love for you to um be able to tell us a little bit about that tool first, and then we're gonna talk about your children's book as well.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I wrote Made to Trimble.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: I never thought I would write a book on anxiety because I never would have considered myself to be an anxious person.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: However, in 2015, we were a young family in ministry.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: We moved to a new city to Philadelphia to plant a church, and shortly after, um we had a really bad car accident.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: I was behind the wheel and a deer came out of nowhere and totaled our car.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that mixed with uh postpartum, because my youngest was four weeks old when we made that move, uh, it just spiraled my body into a season of feeling anxious all day, every day.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know what to do.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what was happening with me.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Initially, that first panic attack, I thought it was a medical emergency.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: I went to the ER and no one sat me down and said, this is a panic attack.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it was much later after reaching out to some older women who we had attended church with, that I said, I don't know what's going on.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: And they started sharing with me and saying, Oh, I've experienced a panic attack.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Here's some resources, here's some things that have helped me.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a long journey from going from feeling like, okay, if I'm anxious, there must be sin in my life.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, somehow something must be wrong with my faith.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I must need to pray harder, trust God more, you know, read more scripture.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of how I was processing it.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: This self-condemning disposition and this isolating uh disposition because it just came with so much shame.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that season lasted for years.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord really taught me in the process how something like anxiety, which felt like the worst possible thing that could happen to me, could actually turn out to be one of the best things that can happen to my faith.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because the Lord taught me dependence in the process, um, what it looks like to cast my cares over to the Lord.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: He helped me to parse through different types of anxiety, natural fear versus sinful fear and the fear of God.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so, right around the time of COVID, I started coming out of that season while my friends were in the thick of it because of COVID and all that was happening in the world.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so friends started coming to me saying in my local church, okay, I know you went through that season of anxiety.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: What helped you?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like within one week, I was having several conversations with friends.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: I had a friend call me from out of state.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I thought, huh, if there's so many people struggling with this, and the Lord has really walked me through this and taught me so much in the process, maybe I could jot that down and maybe it will be helpful.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and one of those friends who approached me that week was dealing with a child who suffered from anxiety.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and we have dealt with our children, you know, at times having struggles with anxiety.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so I thought, okay, maybe I can write this resource for adults, but also it would be so cool if I could uh get this content, you know, to a child, a child's level, um, so that we all can learn dependence.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I say both of these books, they're not self-help books, they're God help books.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, how can we find God in the midst of our anxiety and our worry?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not self-help, God help.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because there is so much of the in the self-help space that um, you know, can blur the lines, and we love to keep our faith at the center.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I love that.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um why, okay, I have a question for you.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: As a mom and as as someone who's dealt with anxiety, um, why do you think so many kids are dealing with anxiety in our culture today?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because we know the statistics, you know, keep going up for our younger generations.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that anxiety is an age-old issue, right?
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's not new.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that's common to man.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: However, what we see is in this particular generation, there are a few things that I think make this season almost feel unique.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: For example, all of the access to technology.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that opens up children to more information, right, than they ever had before.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: That opens up children to comparison, right?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Looking at the lives of other people and comparing that to themselves, because we know that uh, you know, not only is anxiety on the rise, but it's specifically on the rise, even in young girls more than boys, because boys have a tendency to like lean more towards um video games.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: Girls are more leaning towards social media.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's unique.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then we also were in a unique time where children are not playing outside, you know, like they are not able to take the risks uh that we were able to take.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a millennial, and so we stayed outside exploring, and there was this level of independence.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think parents tend to be a little more helicopter in their parenting, hovering over their children's every move and yet giving full access to what's happening in social, you know, on social media platforms.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so it's interesting.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder if as parents and leaders, we are more fear fearful, and some of that is rubbing off into our children uh as well.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree with all of that.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: We've done a lot of research here at LifeWay on um just that kind of one-to-punch of of um, yes, our kid, our younger generations, our digital natives, some call them.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: They've never known a world without technology.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they were born into that.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we have that going on at the same time as uh, like you just said, you're a millennial, I'm a Gen X.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: We like to, you know, think that we had this analog childhood and we did, where we were outside and with people, real people in real life, and um and not a lot of we had parents, but they didn't do a lot of over-parenting.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so that, you know, gave us a lot of freedom and things like that.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: So our our younger generations have the the one-to punch, is what I call it, of being born into digital awareness and having parents that are kind of over-correcting, maybe.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: We loved that we got to grow up independent, but now that we know so much back to that information, we've kind of over-corrected that.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: The pendulum swings and we hover, helicopter.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've even heard it called lawnmower parenting, where um where we just we know so much, we want to protect, and um and a lot of times that means be with me more, be inside more, um, where I can see you.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And what's waiting for them inside usually is you know, the screens in some capacity.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so and and nobody set out to do that on purpose, but it's just how how things have gone culturally.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think we're seeing a lot of the fallout from that.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know I talk to ministry leaders in churches all the time who um who ask, you know, what can we do to help parents, help equip parents to walk with their children through anxiety, but also um maybe get ahead of some of it as the church.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's an urgent opportunity for us um to provide real life experiences and help kids uh have friends at church and foster those friendships and uh um, you know, have adults pouring into their lives as well.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: All those relationships, you know, happen in in uh the physical world.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think um, you know, whether you're a parent listening or a ministry leader, the church is is what it is functioning as it's always meant to be.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: But now more than ever, you have the ability to use the church as a place where you can develop those real relationships that we know are so um life-giving because we were meant to be in community.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I like to encourage parents um and ministry leaders to think through that lens as well.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, well, it is what it is right now in terms of uh the rates of anxiety.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I want I want to give you a chance to talk about um this beautiful children's book, uh Yara the Brave is the is our main character in the swirling worry.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that that word swirling to me just kind of captures what worry is.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us about that.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us about Yara and um and how you how you came to to write this.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so Yara the Brave and the Swirling Worry is a story about a young girl named Yara, um, who you said is the star of the book.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: And she is known as the bravest girl in our town.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, amongst her friends, they're like, Yara can't do it, you know, whatever it is, climbing up in a tree, going on a roller coaster ride, watching a scary movie.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then one day she finds that she has a worry, and she's not sure what to do about this worry.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's a worry worm who's swirling its silk around her, and she is unsure what to do, and so she decides she's gonna hide the worry worm.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: She doesn't want anyone to know that she is worried because they believe she's the bravest girl in town.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and so at night, her parents turn out the lights and she goes into this fight or flight.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: She runs into the forest, and it's in the forest that she meets several friends who help her how to pro help her and teach her how to process her worry.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: So the first friend she meets is Mr.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: Wind, who teaches her how to breathe.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then she meets a raven who, which is hinting to the scripture, how God provides for the birds.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: He teaches her how to sing God's truth.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then she meets a lily, again, pointing to the scripture, who teaches her um, you know, how to pray that God would help her.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then she meets a sheep, and the sheep reminds her of the good shepherd, and how the good shepherd has conquered worry, and he's the one who's actually able to take that worry worm who's spiraling its strings all around her and turn it into something good, which ultimately means that with Jesus, she's able to develop her wings, and now she can fly and be brave, not in her own strength like she initially had, but now brave in the strength that God provides.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is the story.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that is really my story, you know, and I pray that it's everyone's story as we learn to rely upon God's strength.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: What I found was in the thick of my anxious journey, as I was reading resources, a lot of them were saying, like, you can do it, and you have what you need, even Christian resources.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: You have what you need, you know, in between your ears, you know, as though like within I can just rely upon my brain, you know, my strength, my ability to be courageous.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: But what the Lord taught me is no, our strength really needs to come from the Lord.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: He has the resources.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: Any need that we have, we can actually go to him.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: When we feel anxious or afraid, we can go to him for courage.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: He provides the bravery.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so at the end of the book, I give all of these different scenarios of children gaining their wings.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: So to be able to try something new, uh, to be able to, you know, pet a dog, different things, to be able to sleep alone in the dark, to um uh participate in public speaking, that through God's strength, our children can be brave.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's really the message of the book.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love that because it's it just feels like um a tangible tool that you can read with a child and have these intentional conversations that that point back to God's promises.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's not all up to um, because that language, you have what you need, uh, that kind of goes back into uh what we talk a lot about expressive individualism, which is a big term to describe just kind of the secular uh worldview that we find ourselves in, where we want ourselves, our kids, to um define their own reality and how that all is up to them.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's you be you, um, you can do it, it's all up to you, your reality, your identity.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and I think that adds, by the way, to the anxiety crisis.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: That that's right.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: And what happens is that we start trying to fight anxiety with anxiety.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm reminded of, you know, even in the garden in Genesis 3, you know, after Adam and Eve, they had sinned against God, we see there that that was the beginning of fear.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because Adam, when he's approached by God, he says, you know, I was naked, you know, I was ashamed.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, so I hid because I was afraid.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: And what does he do?
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: He clings to his own resources, the fig leaves.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: He tries to cover himself, and uh, and Eve is covered with these fig leaves.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's not sufficient, you know.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: We have to actually turn towards God and receive his sufficient help, which God then provides a remedy.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: He provides an animal sacrifice and clothes them with the clothes that he provides.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's the message of the gospel.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we want to be instilling in our children that this isn't about individualism, this isn't about self-determination, uh, this really is about uh intimacy, dependence.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's about knowing the power and the might that our God possesses, uh, that we can take any trouble, any concern that we have directly to him, and he actually can do something about it, you know, like the very thing that we're concerned about.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: We serve a God who can move powerfully in our lives and change it.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like he can do it.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: So he he just says ask.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: He he tells us to rely upon him.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so this is a good reminder for us as ministry leaders and parents, right?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's also a good thing for us to be passing on to the next generation.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I know um a lot of parents and ministry leaders are looking for uh tools to um have these conversations with a child that may be struggling with anxiety.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know uh my time on church staff, I would um walk with parents who who were who were um um looking for ways to help their child.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would keep things like this in my office um to um if a child is struggling maybe at church, we could read it uh together, but also just for parents to come and even look at you know, my little bookshelf of of ideas for for ways to have these conversations at home, which is probably the most appropriate place to have these conversations.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so um if you're a ministry leader, I would um get a copy of this book, read it for yourself, recommend it um to your parents.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a parent, do the same.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I have loved the message that that Blair has shared with us.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so um um reassuring to hear your personal story, Blair, and how you've been able to, the Lord has redeemed that those years and and helped you not only help your friends during COVID, because so many of us struggled during that time, um, and then to to put this message out uh to the church and to the world.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we're so we're so grateful you did.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't ask you about this before we hit record.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you're willing to do this.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: But our podcast is called Kids Ministry Calling, and we really love to hear calling stories.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, would you be willing to share just your calling to ministry?
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like when did you first realize that um that was going to be your path?
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, it took me a long time to realize it, honestly, because um when I was just a child, my mom actually moved my sister and I to Los Angeles because she wanted to raise two movie stars.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that was her plan for her wonderful plan for our life.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so for um many years I was an actor.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so that was that was what I was doing.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: But um at nine years old, that was the first time I really felt like the Lord was drawing me to himself.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: I made a profession of faith at nine and was very much involved in the church.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: But it's interesting because at 22 years old, um I heard the gospel message in a clear way where the Lord really convicted me personally.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, where I think prior to that, because I was raised in the church and quite moral, it was easy for me to point to other people and say, Well, I'm not doing what they're doing.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I must be right with God.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: And at 22, that was a moment where the gospel message really clicked that this is good news because like Christ died for me, the sinner, very personally.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm not gonna wiggle out of it by pointing the finger at someone else.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm first of all so grateful the the Lord saved me.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um prior to that, I was doing poetry, and I was doing poetry that incorporated scripture.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I remember when I came to the Lord at 22, I said, Oh, well, I've used these gifts for myself.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've used it for my own glory.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just want you, Lord.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that I want to do anything for you, you know, like I just want it to be about me and you.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when we come to the Lord, we have that zeal, you know, it's like just me and you, Lord, and nothing else.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: But of course, the Lord has good work for us to do.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh it wasn't long after where as I was writing poetry, um, some of the churches I used to attend invited me and said, Would you be willing to come and speak?
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went back and I just shared my testimony in poetry form and spoken word.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord began to use poetry to minister to the hearts of those who attended these spoken word events.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so people would come up after and say, You're different.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: What's changed about you?
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'll say, Well, God has done this work in my life, and or they would say, you know, well, what must I do to be saved?
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I would think, Lord, just from hearing a poem like that, they would respond this way.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so the Lord just continued to open up doors, and I just continued to say, Yes, I'm willing to go.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I want to use all of the gifts that you've given me to just express my gratitude for um, you know, not not to repay you.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: I can never repay God for what he's done, not to earn my place with you, but just as a way to say, yes, because I love you and I'm so grateful for your love for me.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that was, I guess, 20 years ago or so now, where I just have continued to say yes.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there have been moments where, you know, when it comes to the call of God, there even have been things that I never thought that I would do, like teaching the Bible.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was always so intimidated by that idea because I thought, okay, I'm an evangelist, I'm willing to go out into the streets and share about Jesus, but to teach the word, you know, which we should have a very high regard for uh that call.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I just thought, oh, maybe when I'm 60, 70, 80, you know, um, to write a book, I remember thinking, yeah, I would love to write a book, but maybe, you know, when I'm, you know, really mature in the faith.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: And but the thing about it is, the Lord is just so faithful.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: He uses us as clay, the scripture calls us like clay jars, but inwardly we have eternal treasure.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: Inwardly, we're just pointing people to the lover of our soul.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: We're pointing people to the greatest message we've received by God's mercy.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_01: And and so it's not that we're perfect.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know those who are in ministry, I just pray that this will be an encouragement to you if you're feeling um, you know, unsure or you're feeling insecure, um, or you know, like should I even be in this position, that you just be reminded, like I often have to remind myself, um, of our God and of his glory.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and any bit that we can offer up, whether that's watering or, you know, planting seeds, just trusting that our God is the one who's bringing forth the increase, uh, that the word will not return void.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, our our desire is just to honor him.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really how this, you know, calling has come forth.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of pretty organic and just saying, yes, yes.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I just kept saying, yes, yes, okay, I'll teach the Bible.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'll write this book, you know.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then now to see the Lord use all of these gifts uh for his kingdom, it's just been so sweet.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: So um to get messages from people saying, Oh, we're using Yara the Brave, you know, in our Sunday school, or I'm using it in my counseling ministry, and it's already bearing fruit.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_01: Or a parent this week reached out and said, I've been reading it to my daughter, but really it's for me.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I need this message.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, has been just a sweet, sweet gift.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful for your faithfulness and your acts of obedience to keep saying yes, because we have all benefited from those things.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I love um, we're gonna have to have you back and maybe you can share some poetry because I I think that would be awesome.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, certainly we'll put some um links in the show notes for you to um hopefully go see some of your um your spoken word, whether that's videos or written.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know our our listeners and and watchers would would love to see that.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: So um, well, Blair, thank you so much uh for just your message and um encouraging our audience as well.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're so grateful.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me on.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's been great.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, everybody.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna close it out there.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: But hey, join me next week and we'll be back for another episode of Kids Ministry Calling.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: Producer Nicky Up Timmy, edited by Tri Garden, and recorded in the Lifeway Podcast Studio in Whiteway, Tennessee, with sound engineer Dominic Gordon, and artwork by Cameron Wilson.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm your host, Janet McGrator.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Kids Ministry Calling