Kids have a capacity for faith that we all should long for. Uninhibited joy, incredible trust and radical belief. There is a reason why Jesus calls us to become like little children! In this episode Gina talks with Taylor Bedoya about her personal journey with Jesus and what would happen if we approached ministry with kids differently.
There is no Junior Holy Spirit
Gina:
I have a very special guest today. My dear friend Taylor Bedoya. Taylor is the family pastor at Canopy Church. She works with kids of all ages, and I used to be on staff with her and just love her heart for the Lord and for kids.
I love how she leads them, and really her understanding that no matter what age, kids have a great capacity for faith. Kids have a great capacity to have a relationship with the Father, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit.
As adults, we can learn so much about faith through kids and the purity with which they believe and trust and know who God is. Jesus even talks about children and their capacity to come to Him and how we need to be like them.
Hey Taylor, Thanks for being here, friend.
Taylor:
You are my friend. Thanks for having me.
Gina:
We were on staff together at a church. You and your sister and your brother-in-law and your parents are all people that I love and adore and got a chance to pour into quite a bit too and see God grow and ignite and bloom some really powerful things. You’re one of my favorite people and I love you. I don’t get to hang out with you enough, but I’m super grateful that you’re here.
I’ve always said since I met you and Kelsey, and I’ve told this to you, I feel like a broken record. And I said this in the interview with your parents, that the two of you are deep wells, that you just have a hunger and a heart for Jesus that is really sweet and pure. And I would even say rare.
I’m not trying to put you on a pedestal at all. I’m just saying it’s really awesome to see both of you in your pursuit and your hunger for what Jesus is saying, what He’s doing, what He’s speaking. Your hunger to grow, to learn, to lean into the things that you don’t know yet. It was such a joy to get to know you and to be able to partner with you in ministry.
Gina:
One of the things that I love about you is your heart for children, and your desire and understanding that no matter how young, a child can have a deep intimate relationship with Jesus. A child can have a significant relationship with the Holy Spirit, with God, the Father. It is a little bit of a cliche, but there is no junior Holy Spirit.
When Jesus, in the book of Matthew, brings the child to sit on His lap and He said, “Unless you become like this child you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.” And we look at all of that and we can analyze that all day long, but there’s just such an uninhibited faith and belief, and willingness to trust, that children have. As we get older, we lose that.
And it’s just such a clear tactic of the enemy to steal that faith as early as possible to get in there and start removing things. I wanted to have you on to talk about some of that. Why don’t you tell a little bit of your story, how you ended up in ministry serving in that capacity? What is it about children? Tell us your story.
Taylor:
One funny thing about me is when I was in fifth grade for Halloween, I decided to be a school teacher for Halloween. It was super nerdy, but it’s fine. I literally put on a skirt and I put my hair in a bun and held books and everyone’s like, “What are you, honey?” I’m like, “I’m a teacher.” But I have always loved kids.
Even when my sister and I were probably 12, we decided to put on a summer VBS in our garage. We made a plan for each day. It was maybe a two, three day VBS. And we had snacks and lessons and we sang and we danced. There is just something about kids that I personally have always been drawn to.
A while back I was questioning, “Lord, what do You have for me? What am I gifted in? Where can I use that?” And the opportunity came up to work with kids in church ministry. And honestly it has been a very fun, very wild journey. One of the things I always say is, if you want to stay humble, work with kids. Because they’re just so honest. They are filled with faith.
You get to start at a different place with them than you would with an adult. And I love the opportunity of that. And as I was praying about “Lord, how have you gifted me?” This really sweet woman was praying over me and said that a word that the Lord gave her for me was that He wants to use me to put the hands of kids into the hands of Jesus.
And I can tell when I’m with children and when I am sharing God’s love with them, that that’s what’s happening. That is something that I was created to do. The journey started with asking Jesus, “What do You have for me?” And He gave me an opportunity.
Gina:
We got a chance to work together on big VBS’ with hundreds and hundreds of children and all the bells and whistles and the costumes and the crazy stories and themes and all that. You have really fought for the depth. You’ve fought for, “We need to believe the kids can understand because they can.” And you’ve never approached children’s ministry from a condescending perspective.
And please hear this, everyone who’s listening, I’m not accusing or judging children’s ministry. But I think it’s easy for us to get into this routine of “it’s really just childcare, and we’re going to talk about God, but they’re kids so they’re not really going to understand very much.” And I’m not saying we should go into Leviticus and start unpacking the law, but believing that children actually can grasp more spiritual things than we give them credit for.
What I so appreciated about watching you as a children’s pastor, as a shepherd of these little hearts and souls and minds ,was that you saw every child, whether they were considered a behavior problem or not, every child has the capacity to see God, to hear Him, to hear His voice, to speak to Him and have their prayers answered. That’s what has set you apart. That’s what I so appreciated. And you had a lot of tenacity to fight for that.
Living from God’s Love
Taylor:
I think a lot of it did stem from my own experience with Jesus. In that season, when I got married and then in those following five years, my eyes were so opened to who Jesus is and that He actually is near, He’s present. He’s with me. He’s for me. He wants to speak with me. He wants to have a relationship with me. And I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault because every kid has their own journey.
At the end of the day, it’s by the power of the Holy Spirit that we come to know Jesus. But looking back at my journey when I was younger in church, it was a lot of hearing how to act. It was so black and white that you either look and act a certain way or you are not saved. And as a kid, I didn’t know how to process that, because then what happens is, God becomes a lot less near in a story like that. He becomes a lot more about my actions for Him.
When you hear the true Gospel and when you come near to Jesus, you find that this isn’t where the story starts. It doesn’t start with my actions. It doesn’t start with my behavior. It starts with who God is and what He’s done for me before I even had to do anything.
Honestly, God used you so much in my life to show me this. I was so hungry to know God, but I still struggled with that mindset of having to work for God’s approval. It just took the faith to step forward and say, “God, do You love me?” And He showed up. He does.
And what I started realizing is that before I do anything for God, I am so deeply loved by Him. And knowing I am loved is transforming and changing who I am. It actually creates in me the desire to want to know Him more and also be a part of His good Kingdom. He’s such a good King. And I started experiencing hearing His voice and experiencing healing. I had a really tough journey in the beginning of my marriage and I needed more healing.
The things that people were trying to throw at me, like “Read a book.” Still not healed. “Sit in your room and just pray these types of prayers.” It wasn’t three dimensional, it was very two dimensional where it’s like, “God, please do this for me.” But there was no relationship behind it. There was no ability to just totally let loose and not be okay. It was like, “You need to be okay and then God will heal you.”
Gina:
Because if we reduce the Gospel to “Believe and do”, we’re going to come to the end of ourselves. And then that leaves room for the enemy to come in with accusation and shame, “See all of them. They’re good. But look how screwed up you are.” And that brings isolation and fear. It’s such a distorted identity and it puts us in the slave mindset rather than the son and daughter mindset.
I was having a conversation with Justin, one of the first podcasts where we were talking about the prodigal son. When he comes back he says, “Let me just work in the kitchen. I’ll just be a servant.” Because to him, that was the only way he could handle himself coming back to the father. It was like, “If I’m a servant, then I can maybe exist.”
But the father ran, met him, kissed him and put his robe on him and his ring on him. And I’ve wondered too, how did the son receive that? How humbling would that be? Did he get to take a bath or was he ushered straight to the table sitting right next to his father, knowing that he doesn’t deserve it.
Depending on where you’re at, that’s either humbling and overwhelming, or it’s humiliating and shameful. It’s all on your perspective and your identity. And it’s easy for us to get into a Pharisee mindset, which keeps us in the place of slavery, keeps us in the place of “Believe and do. Do better and do more.”
Taylor Bedoya is the Family Pastor at Mountain View Church
Check out the rest of this conversation Child-like Faith and Risk
Check out the Dwell Meditations
