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How it got started...
Would you listen to suggestions on how to throw a baseball from a person who had never seen a baseball?
--- Neither would I and that is why I have chosen to put a “how it got started” page under the bus ministry and children’s ministry sections. I want you to know that I am not an arm-chair children’s ministry leader. I have been involved in children’s ministry and bus ministry since 1973. A lot of what I have learned has come from trial and error, but another large portion has come from networking with other ministers and study.
How it got started…
Shortly after my salvation experience in 1973, I felt that I was being called into a full-time ministry position. I was 16 years old and realized that I had a lot to learn if I was going to become a pastor. I decided one of the ways that I could start learning was to read everything church and ministry related that I could get my hands on. I spent many Saturday mornings sitting in the church office by myself reading a book from one of the pastor’s library.
On one certain Saturday morning, I had my feet propped up on the church secretary’s desk reading a book when the pastor walked in. He asked me if I had any plans for the morning and I said “no”. (I have since learned that telling a pastor you have nothing to do will usually result in him finding something for you to do.)
He said that he wanted me to go visit some people with one of the men in the church that would be there in a few minutes. He had no sooner finished telling me that than a car drove up and I was introduced to Bob (name has been changed). Bob was in charge of the bus ministry – I didn’t even know we had a bus ministry! Bob grabbed a couple bags of candy and we were off to visit some kids.
On the way to the neighborhood, Bob explained to me that they had about 10-15 kids that rode the bus to church on Sunday morning. He said he went out every Saturday morning for a couple of hours to remind the kids about the bus and invite more kids to come. The kids expected him to bring candy. The candy also encouraged other kids to come talk to him. (Remember that this was 1973 in south Louisiana.)
That morning I met many kids and parents. When I was invited to ride the bus the next morning, I quickly agreed. The bus was kind of a controlled chaos environment, but I did have fun.
I visited the kids on Saturday morning with Bob and rode the bus on Sunday for the next two weeks. The third Saturday I showed up at the church to visit and Bob was not there. The pastor showed up and told me that Bob was not going to be there. He gave me the “bus board” and candy. When I asked if Bob was going to be there tomorrow or next week, I was told that Bob would not be coming back because of a “personal problem” (I found out years later that he was in prison.). The pastor said that I was now the bus pastor and to let him know if I needed anything.
That was it! I was involved in bus ministry until I left for college two years later.
I knew nothing about bus ministry so I talked to bus pastors at other churches, did some reading, and a little bit of experimenting.
It seems that most of the churches I have attended since then have had a need for bus ministry workers and were very willing to have me “volunteer” to help.
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