The following story is essentially true, with some Hollywood-style exaggerations thrown in.  The names have been changed (obviously—as you’ll see) to protect the saints involved.  Sadly, you may be able to give a similar account about yourself or your church if you’ve been around church work for any significant amount of time.  Perhaps we could imagine it in the format of a story outline for a three-act play.

Act one: A Group of Elders Eld-ing

Scene one
            It had been another Sunday-as-usual at the Rhema-licious Church in the rural community of Podunk, USA, and Pastor Bud had reached a breaking point.  He had gotten tired of the same old grind and was pretty much at his wits’ end.  He needed something, ANYTHING to get the church in gear and to finally see the Holy Spirit move in some fresh and vital way.  He genuinely appreciated the dozen or so families who came regularly, but he longed for solid growth in their commitment level as well as their number.  So he spent Monday evening calling up all the elders and volunteer staff at Rhema-licious (carefully timing the calls so they’d come during the commercials of the football game on TV) and asking them to pray, and fast if they could, for a fresh idea that they could pray about at the board meeting scheduled for the following Wednesday.

            Wednesday’s board meeting came, the normal business was conducted, and then Pastor Bud asked if anyone had heard form the Lord.  There was a dead, awkward silence.  The silence was finally broken when Ferd, the head of the Sunday School, said, “Well, I guess we need to pray some more, fellows.”

            “OK, let’s start now,” said Junior, the youngest and most zealous member of the eldership, and bowed his head as though he meant business.  The others quickly joined in, as if they would be too embarrassed not to.

            Suddenly, without any warning or urging from Pastor Bud, a feeling of intensity fell across the room.  Instead of praying aloud, the members began simply speaking out in words or short phrases:

            “The kids.”

            “We need to get them into Sunday School.”

            “Some fun and interesting way.”

            “Like a show—or something.”

            “Or camp.”

            “They’ll need transportation, like…”

            “Like a bus—just for them!”

            This continued for several minutes.  By the time the session was finished, they had the seeds of a plan.  And this plan was not just one person’s—it was clearly from the Lord.  At the end of the meeting, Pastor Bud prayed something to the effect of: “Lord, if we’re off-base, please stop us before we start.”  But they all knew that it was right, and they started to get to work immediately.

Scene two
            Various members of the board quickly volunteered to get certain jobs done; the first need was someone who would oversee the purchasing and maintaining of the bus, and of course, the resident mechanic was first to raise his hand.  A sub-committee would be formed to take care of painting the outside and refurbishing the inside especially to accommodate the purpose.  Junior (the most energetic of the group) would be in charge of the activities that the kids did on the bus as they traveled to and from Sunday School.  Ferd and the music director would work together to make the Sunday School itself as interesting as the ride to and from.  The bus driver was someone who could not only drive it and see that its gas tank was full, but who also had a safe place at his farm to keep it during the week.

            Parents in the church talked to their own children to get some ideas about how to make this fun.  The kids had so many good ideas that the parents weren’t sure how they could accommodate them all—but they would surely try.  Every member of the Rhema-licious Church caught the vision and pitched in to make this new bus and Sunday School idea the best experience for the children of Podunk that it could possibly be.  The church was pulling together as they never had before.

            The plan that emerged went something like this: the driver would wear an official looking chauffeur uniform, while Junior dressed in clown-like clothing (without the make-up).  Together they would spend Saturdays taking the bus around to the homes of the many unchurched families in the rural community and ask if the children would like to go to their Sunday School.  The names would then be collected of those who wished to go (and whose parents consented), and the next morning the bus would return to pick them up.  The driver would then drive the route to collect the kids while Junior sang songs, told jokes and stories, and later on as he learned how, do object lessons or little magic tricks.  Sunday School itself would be more of the same, with special concentration on skits, snacks, puppet shows, music, and Bible stories.  The bus would then deliver them back home afterward, while along the way Junior not only continued the fun activities but also would informally poll the children about what they liked best and quiz them about the Bible lessons, constantly taking mental notes an how to improve things.

Scene three
            There were only four children on the bus the first week, and three of those belonged to parents who knew Junior from his workplace.  But as word spread at school and at the local playgrounds, the numbers started to grow, and after only about two months the bus was filled to capacity each week.  No one in all of Podunk was more pleased (or surprised) than Pastor Bud, who quickly had the elders redirect some of the church treasury into the Sunday School program, and then into another bus.  All of the elders were happy to re-assume their roles in getting the second bus ready for service, and a new chauffeur and activities leader (or “clown”) stepped forward to fill the need.

            Once the second bus was running, the parents of the children who rode the bus grew curious about what was going on at this church which had attracted so many kids to its activities.  Several started attending regular services, driving separately so the kids could still enjoy the ride.  Then the routes were changed, so that those who only came for Sunday School could be delivered back home afterwards, and those whose parents had come to church for worship would take the second bus which left after service was over.  It took only five months for the number in attendance at Rhema-licious to grow to the point that a new building fund was started for the expansion of the sanctuary and for some extra classroom space.  Happily, there was no shortage of volunteers to help with the second bus; even among the newcomers and novices to the faith there was a real desire to be a part of something special.

Act two: Fame and Fortune in Podunk

Scene one
            When the story of what was happening in Podunk reached the “suits” at the regional headquarters of the Rhema-tarian denomination/network, they expressed an immediate interest.  The attendance figures on the last two quarterly reports that came in from Rhema-licious were astounding, particularly for such a small town in a rural area.  When Dr. Longbeard, the regional coordinator, got on the telephone with Pastor Bud, he first went over the numbers to make sure that there was no mistake.  Then Pastor Bud explained that the difference was the new children’s bus ministry, but said that instead of talking about it on the phone, it would be much more valuable for him to come and see it for himself.

            That Saturday evening, Dr. Longbeard made the drive to Podunk, where Pastor Bud and his wife gladly treated him to dinner and told him about the elder’s meeting at which the plan originated.  Then the pastor took him on a tour of the church grounds, pointing out where the sanctuary expansion would be and unrolling the architect’s plans and renderings.  Then they took a drive out to the farm to see the first bus and meet the driver, and then back to the parsonage where Dr. Longbeard stayed in the guest room for the night.

            The next morning, Pastor Bud took Dr. Longbeard to the farm to catch the bus as it started out on its route.  That is when he got his first look at the driver in his chauffeur’s uniform, and met Junior, who was fully decked out in his clown-style clothing complete with oversized shoes.  As the bus went along and picked up the children, he noticed the personal attention each one received as he or she got on, and saw how all the dirty little faces grew happier as the ride went along.  He also felt a little out of place in his three-piece suit.

            At the church he met Ferd, the head of the Sunday School, who was dressed in his long-sleeve T-shirt, overalls and straw hat as he introduced the music, the puppet show and the skit, which took place in the sanctuary.  After the skits the children went to their classrooms for a snack and a lesson, and then came a honk from the bus horns to signal the end of class and the loading of the first bus to depart.  Before the worship service, Dr. Longbeard took the liberty of interviewing a few of the parents to get the adults’ perspective on what was going on.  After service he arranged to ride the second bus part of the way, getting off at a pre-arranged spot to meet Pastor Bud and return to the parsonage.  There he gushed with congratulations to Pastor Bud for a well-done ministry, treated the Pastor and his family to lunch, and drove back to the regional office.

Scene two
            Dr. Longbeard could not contain himself.  He immediately sent out e-mails to the rest of the regional board members briefly describing what he had seen at Rhema-licious, ending the message with: “This is really big.  We need to get this out.”  One of the members had a teenage son who had become good at making Christian videos and posting them on YouTube, so Dr. Longbeard offered him a stipend to go with his Dad to Podunk, ride one of the buses, and put together a ten-to-twelve-minute video about the bus ministry that could accurately show the rest of the regional board what was going on there.

            When the video was shown to the board at their next meeting, they agreed that this idea needed to be spread around.  They decided to call a special meeting and bring in Pastor Bud so that he could explain how the bus ministry might be replicated in the other Rhema-tarian churches.  Pastor Bud was surprised at the amount of buzz he was getting, but gladly came to the meeting and began it by playing the video in a start-and-stop manner so he could fill in the gaps and give more details.  He then took their seemingly endless questions and invited any of them who wished to come and see for themselves.

            Before long, Pastor Bud was in high demand.  Other Rhema-tarian churches called him to come to their leadership meetings to advise them about the plans they had made to start their own bus ministries for the children of their respective communities.  Some of these churches held rallies for “kick-off weekend” and asked for him to come and be their guest speaker.  Both the national Rhema-tarians’ Magazine and the local Podunk Press did feature articles on Pastor Bud and the “Amazing Technicolor Dream-bus,” as one wag put it.  It didn’t stop there—other regional directors started calling him in, resulting in some major traveling for him and his wife, and of course, he was well-compensated for his efforts.  There was even talk of a book deal with a major Christian publisher.

Scene three
            Back at Rhema-licious, a third and fourth bus were added, and by the time the expansion for the sanctuary was finished, it proved to be insufficient for the crowds who continued to pour in.  The new Assistant Pastor, as well as a few other guest preachers, were getting plenty of time in the pulpit as they filled in for Pastor Bud, who was having to turn down at least half of the speaking invitations he received because he felt he needed to continue to put most of his time into his own church and not be gone more than two weekends a month—or maybe three weekends if there were five Sundays in that month.

            Junior and Ferd spent quite a bit of time surfing on-line to find whatever new ideas they could, just to keep from repeating themselves too often.  They started keeping track of what songs they sang, what puppet plays and skits were used, and how lessons were coordinated with it all.  They began to spend quite a bit of time at a nearby Christian bookstore, bugging the manager there for ideas, ways to find resources, and for pretty much anything that they could use that was fresh and “kid-friendly.”  Any ideas that were being reused were spaced far enough apart that the kids didn’t notice, and were passed around to all four buses so that each one would remain in step with all the rest of them.

Act three: Rusting Bus Carcasses

            It only took about a year for most of the Rhema-tarian churches in the region to give up on their bus ministries.  The majority of them had very little success, if any at all.  Most of the kids from the larger towns didn’t want to stick with it, coming for three or four Sundays and then quitting.  Many of the other rural churches had discovered that they really couldn’t (or didn’t want to) make the financial commitment.  In several places it had become a joke, or else an eyesore—it seemed that every Rhema-tarian parking lot had a bus on blocks, infested with bee’s nests and spider webs, covered with graffiti and having several windows broken.  One of the urban churches converted their bus for use by its senior citizens’ ministry, using it as a shuttle to and from the local senior center.  The only people that were really happy about it all were the various school boards, who had been able to sell off some of their old buses rather than junk them.

            Each of the “suits” at the regional headquarters had a theory of his own about why the idea hadn’t worked in the other churches.  One suggestion was that none of the other buses had an activities coordinator with as much raw talent as Junior, while another speculated that it had to do with Pastor Bud’s personality and administrative skills.  Some were adamant about the assumption that the other churches simply weren’t committed enough to the program, or that too many had strayed from the original plan.  One said that this concept was only viable in a poor, rural setting, where transportation was an important commodity.

            By this time, the attendance at Rhema-licious had leveled off.  The bus ministry continued for about two more years before the children who were the original riders became too old to think it was still “cool,” and no more kids were recruited in their place.  The workers got tired of keeping up the pace, eventually backing out of their ministries with the program.  A new sanctuary was built, and many of the new families settled in the church, but the same old grind became the modus operandi once again.

            Pastor Bud has since moved to a larger, more prosperous urban church from which he plans to retire.  The book deal did not materialize, and the aura of spiritual superstardom faded quickly.  But he has taken it all in stride, and has now decided that “business-as-usual” is a noble thing—and about the best that can be expected.

The moral of the story

            In the business world, imitating success is a sure way to become successful.  But in the realm of the spiritual, each individual, each church, and each ministry will have a unique path to take.  If you want people to go to Chicago, you would not give the same directions to a person starting from New York that you would to a person starting from Los Angeles.