My wife and I are always very conscious of the fact that our daughter is a PK (pastor’s kid) twice over (we’re both pastors). Danger seems to be lurking on every side — some pastors are so immersed in their work that their families suffer, and their kids stray from the faith; other PKs have this strange sense that their pastor-parent is the “boss” of something, and act accordingly.

On top of all this, factor into the equation that my wife and I are both committed to children’s and youth ministry, and our daughter is well on her way to writing a best-selling, tell-all memoir one day…

This week, we are having VBS at church. It’s great — but also crazy, tiring, and hectic. I feel like I’m running on a constant deficit these days — sleep, attention, you name it. My body is kind of around, but my mind is always half an hour late.

It sounds corny and obvious, but we really want our kids to know and love Jesus more because of this crazy, crazy week we’re spending together at church. The last thing we want to do is create more consumers who crave churchy experiences. Rather, we want to create an environment where kids can encounter God’s love for themselves in the presence of caring, prayerful adults — with tons of singing and laughing together, of course.

My prayer is that more of our church families will take Jason Evans’ words to heart:

We, as parents, need to take back our right to be our children’s spiritual directors. We owe it to our children.

What an amazing thing it would be to see parents joyfully take responsibility for the spiritual growth and formation of their children — that this VBS week would be partnership in ministry to their kids, not the whole endeavor in and of itself.