Because They are Loved

I don't often get a chance to verbally reflect with my leaders after KICK. Usually, we are busy getting registration forms for new kids, cleaning up, and supervising the kids staying for Wednesday Worship. Yesterday, my husband came to help, so after Wednesday Worship and spaghetti, I got a chance to talk to somebody about it.

KICK is an afterschool program that meets every other week at LaFontaine UMC. Since 2014 the program, more than a decade old, has grown from 12 students to 43 students per meeting. The program offers an afterschool snack, Bible lesson, craft, active game, and singing. One of the sources of our growth has been a much higher retention rate of students. Kids try it once and keep coming back. They invite their friends. If we can get one kid in a classroom excited, it often isn’t long before we have a quarter of that class coming.

The part that Nick and I reflected on is how not-big-church the program is. I mean, we don’t have top notch equipment and often have to yell over 40 kids in a cement room. We don’t use a kit for curriculum. I write the lessons, the craft person finds the craft on Pinterest, and the games rarely have props. The songs are the same ones I was singing 30 years ago, and probably my mother was singing when she was a child. They are led acapella, usually after I have lost my voice due to the lack of sound equipment downstairs.

I would not use the term “cool” for our crew of adult volunteers. A couple grandparents, a couple moms, and a couple of single adults with chronic diseases. No one would look at any of us and be like, “I bet they were really popular when they were in high school.” None of us are particularly gifted when it comes to working with kids. We aren’t people who are professionally trained to work with kids like teachers or daycare workers. We are just a bunch of nerds who think it’s important to share Jesus with the next generation. That is it.

The kind term we use these days for a program like KICK is that it is “grassroots.” It doesn’t have any of the glitz of well-polished productions. It’s not perfect. No one would use it for a marketing program. So…how in the world are we growing? Why do kids keep coming back? Why do they invite their friends? I asked Nick this question, after reflecting on all of the glitches of the afternoon. 

He said, “They keep coming because they are loved.” 

I think he’s right. The kids don’t come to KICK because it is the kind of program that Christianity Today would run an article about. They come to experience the love of God. They don’t love the leaders because we are cool. They love us because we love them. They love us because we care about them so much that we show up to love them despite being amateurs. They don’t care that we meet in an old basement, on antique chairs, and sing acapella. They hear their stories in the Bible. Not just stories about miracles and heroes, but stories about people who were forgotten. They learn about being kind, being seen, and being loved.

That is what makes KICK a success.They keep coming because they are loved.