It's every pastor's dream. Ministry that springs up and grows without any direct pastoral input doesn't happen very often. In most churches I've known, it doesn't happen at all. If the pastor isn't creating or pushing it, it doesn't happen. I've been there, with ideas for great programs that ran only as long as I did. It took me awhile to figure out that if I invested in people instead of programs, I would get a much higher rate of return. I learned that if I found what grabbed people's hearts, encouraged and supported them in their endeavors, they would come up with their own ideas and would carry things much farther than I ever could.
I wrote awhile ago about SOTA, the School Of The Arts that had its genesis in college student in our congregation who took a kid under his wings and started teaching him guitar. Our ministry director got wind of it, and they began working together. It's grown to the point where we are teaching more than twenty kids. This isn't just teaching kids to play an instrument; they are teaching them to lead worship. To see my kid's generation leading their next generation, and to see these even younger kids stepping up to the plate and leading their peers in worship is deeply satisfying. To see this and know that I had nothing to do with it other than thirty years of laying a foundation gives me cause for great thanksgiving.
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