“Be ENCOURAGED” - GOD is the One …

Positive Expectations & Excellence in Our Efforts --- These are the SEEDS for Ministry Success that We Plant, and then God Gives Us the Growth and the Results.

“God is the One who makes ministry successful; He is the One who reaches lost kids, and grows the faith of the preteen believers.” Nick Diliberto (from video ‘God Speaks’ at preteenministry.net)

This is the third Blog post in my series God is the One...

Pastor Nick Diliberto recorded his video, “God Speaks” as a testimony of how God moved during services he was leading at a Christian camp for kids in grades 4 - 6.   He made remarks in the video about how he had some plans for activities that he thought were very creative, but he listened to God for direction and was led to minimize the implementing of those plans.    

He still affirmed that you have to plan, and to be motivated to have excellence in what you do.   But God … when God takes over, to just stir the hearts and minds of the kids and draw them in - for powerful times of worship and revelation of Himself through the Word, then your plans for ministry and activities need to take a back seat.    “God is the One who makes ministry successful.”   You can get ready to switch gears, and start to harvest spiritual fruit from what God is doing in your midst.

I also can testify from my experience with taking a group of sixth graders to the Super Start Conference for preteens last March.   The conference planning, programming, and worship, with the singer Yancy, were all excellent.  But the real blessing was how God moved, challenging those sixth graders and stirring up faith in their hearts.   I was in a position to help by answering their questions, and counseling them.    I’m looking forward to next year’s conference.

The take-away idea for ministry to young people is to expect the Power of God to really be your Source.   I have objectives for ministry, and plans to accomplish them, but the main thing I need is the spiritual breakthrough that causes my preteen students to engage - first, engaging with spiritual matters (for the “Not Interested” or “Stagnant” kids), then engaging with learning and  discipleship at the next level higher (for the “Growing” kids), not just listening to some Bible stories but making a commitment  to be young disciples of Jesus.   

I can tell you that -- if you don’t have that spiritual breakthrough -- applying all the intellect and all the experience you have, into planning and program development, or curriculum development, will fall flat with preteens.   But, don’t let that drive your efforts.     Let positive expectation and faith be what is driving your efforts.

Be Encouraged.   God is the One who can take the positive expectations you have for your work in the ministry, and the effort you put into it, and use that as seed planted for a harvest.   He will give the growth and the ministry success.


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George Nielsen is an ordained minister in the Christian Church and Churches of Christ.  He is a teacher and evangelist with Faith Hope and Love Christian Ministries, of Springfield Illinois and teaches in the Children’s Christian Education ministry at Rochester Christian Church.   He is a member of the United States Reformation Prayer Network (USRPN) and is affiliated with Mountain Alliance of Illinois.   He is a US Army veteran and retiree.