I really enjoy the event season. Generally I have a quizzing or a games competition to go to almost every weekend in February and March. Yes, it can be draining at times, but when you see the children memorizing God’s Word and not ashamed to share it in front of others, and showing God’s love to their competitors and officials during games as a testimony to the many spectators, it can’t help but energize you.
The times that become a real bummer is when I see a coach (for either quizzing or games) that is so focused on winning, that they lose the point of the event. The events are held to reach out to family and friends who may not come to a church service, but will go and watch a child compete in an activity. When winning becomes the sole purpose to participate, then the event has lost it’s purpose and should be discontinued.
At the end of the day, a participant and coach should be able to say that they did their best and be able to thank God for the ability and praying for those who attended, that the Gospel would take hold and draw the atendees to God. If a particpant leaves frustrated at themselves for not winning, then we as coaches and leaders have failed.
Now I can hear you saying, what? They shouldn’t try to win? I am not saying that. It is a competition and one team will come out in 1st place and all teams and individuals should do their best, striving for first, but not all teams will place 1st and how they react to their performance will say a lot about the child, the coach and the church.
Remind the children that they are participating to share about God to others who may not otherwise hear it. That is why quizzing, games and the Grand Prix are all listed under outreach. Becasue their main purpose is not to showcase a child’s ability, but to showcase the Gospel and living a life for Christ.
Listen closely to the questions during quizzing. When I prepare questions, I keep in mind those who may not know Jesus in attendance and I try to have questions that share the Gospel, or that may have the attendee ask the child, or someone, “What does that mean?” hoping to initiate a conversation about Jesus from the quizzing they have just witnessed.
May many come to know Jesus during this outreach event season.
