At our church, we are in the middle of our kids' crusade - the services themselves are going AWESOME! We have Jay Risner with us (who is an international children's ministry specialist - if you are looking for someone to come and speak to the kids/families of your church, I highly recommend him!), and we had 105 people there our first night.  A Sunday evening, no less, when it is extremely difficult to get ANYONE out of the house!

On to the point of my post: the prize we are offering to the kid who brings the most visitors is a Nintendo Wii.  The kids, of course, are going nuts over it, and calling up all their friends.  Our YP's 7 year-old son went home and started talking about all of the friends from his school and neighborhood that he could invite, and his mom cut him off saying, "You know you aren't going to be able to win the Wii."

She told me this and I said, "Well, if he brings the most friends, he definitely can win it."

She informed me that they do not want him to be the winner because it will "look bad" if the YP's kid wins the grand prize.

WHAT THE HECK?

My view is that any child who earns a prize should get one.  Period.  I don't care who his or her parents are.  Besides, how many kids in the school and neighborhood (we're talking about a pretty social kid, lol!) are going to miss out on hearing the gospel presented because mom and dad don't want to "look bad"? 

And I'm sorry, but the people in our church are SO not like that!  We are part of a supportive and loving congregation who would be thrilled if the YP's son won the grand prize.

Whatever - these services are going WAY too well to let some stupid, small-minded and WRONG ideology steal my joy!