Reading Cafe

On Friday I went to a “Reading Cafe” at the local Christian school where one of the Grade 2s in my congregation served me a course of pure Dr. Suess. When he called and asked me to come I had about five seconds of internal debate which could be summarized with the question, Is this an effective way to spend my time? For some reason I said yes; I think it was the Holy Spirit.

So I spent nearly two hours at the school. I had lunch with the young man, and then played some basketball with him and his friends. I also met another young pastor who ministers in a nearby church.

From a baptisms/souls-won-for-Christ point of view it was an unproductive noon hour, but from a relationship building point of view it was pure gold. It meant I had to stay up a little later finishing my sermon, but that boy now knows that his pastor cares about him (and will probably be more inclined to listen to his sermons in the future). The experience reminded me of how important it is to minister to the whole congregation and not let its future fall underneath our radar.