fathers | dandibell

there are people you have conversations with and you walk away either encouraged, challenged, or inspired. well, whenever i leave a conversation with sam i leave feeling all three. i don’t think i have ever met a more humble ministry leader more passionate about the Gospel and making sure it is central to all we do in ministry. sam makes no apologies for his desire to see Christ at the center of our personal and ministry lives. don’t believe me? just check out his blog at samluce.com. just a warning, if you want some light ministry reading or some easy ministry ideas, his site isn’t for you. sometimes i have to chew on an article for a couple of days and let it marinate in my soul. but never does one of his articles leave me unchanged.

i am thankful to be serving on the gospelatcenter.com team with sam. even through texts, conference calls, and video chats he is all about one thing – the Gospel. (well and that yankees team.) i am thankful he took time to answer these five questions.

1 – what do you see kidmin and family ministry leaders doing right?

I see almost all of them asking how can we engage with moms and dads. How can we encourage and equip parents to spiritually lead their kids. That is super encouraging. One of the marks of the Great Awakening was the intentionality and widespread nature of family worship.

2 – what do you see as the greatest need in kidmin and family ministry right now?

Men leading at home and at church.

3 – if you could have coffee with every kidmin/fammin leader, what would you want to make sure you shared with them?

1. The importance of communicating and transmitting to kids a love and reverence for God’s word over relevance and fun. 2. The need for a greater awareness of the supremacy of Christ in all things.

3. Remember Jesus builds the church.

4 – what word of encouragement do you have for today’s kidmin/fammin leaders?

I would encourage Family ministry leaders to live lives of Active-Passivity. We work as hard as we can and trust as much as we can never forgetting that Jesus not only builds the church but loves the church and gave his life for her. What a privilege and responsibility to represent her to the world and to the next generation. Do it well with the strength God supplies not the strength that you muster.

5 – why are you passionate about children’s and family ministry?

Because children are who Christ says we are to be like and Marriage and family is his idea to demonstrate to a watching world what his love is like.

Sam Luce has been a pastor at Redeemer Church in Utica NY for the past 18 years. 14 of those years serving as children’s pastor. Currently, he is serving as the Utica Campus Children’s Pastor and the Global Pastor to Families. Same blogs at samluce.com and it is focused on Leadership, Family Ministry, and Theology.

Sam attended Portland Bible College in Portland Oregon where he graduated in 1997 with a BA in Theology, upon graduation he became the children’s pastor at the same church for over 18 years. Sam has done children’s ministry for the last 20 years. In those years, he has seen kids ministry grow and change tremendously.

Sam is currently a contributing editor to K! magazine, has served as chairman of INCM, co-authored “The Eric Trap”, has been involved in several book projects, and been blogging since 2007. Sam has spoken at conferences and have done some consulting and coaching. His real passion lies in preaching the gospel, building and strengthening the local church in any way possible because he believes in creating environments where life change can take place. Sam truly believes that the local church is the hope of the world.

Sam has been married to my beautiful wife for 15 years together they have 4 beautiful children ages 11, 9, 6 and 3 years. They currently live in Upstate New York.

When not writing on his blog or working at the church, Sam enjoy reading, racquetball, writing, photography, watching movies with the family.