Aginners
Today, we call the young Sunday School children “learners,” the middle group “discoverers” and the older children “searchers.” The Church I grew up in called the young children “beginners,” the middle group “primaries,” and the older children “juniors.”
Change comes hard for me. Sometimes I still slip and call the searchers the “junior boys and girls,” or call Discipleship Training, Training Union.
Well that’s progress I guess. But tell me this, why can Churches get rid of the beginners, but not the “aginners?” You know, the people that are always against everything.
I’ve seen “aginners” shoot down good ideas by using “the seven last words of the church,” we’ve never done it that way before. I’ve also heard the “aginners” put down a program by saying we’ve tried that already.
Now tell me this, if you can’t do everything you’ve already tried and everything that you’ve never tried, WHAT CAN YOU DO?
What’s the solution? How about getting the “aginners” to become beginners? Since we’re no longer using the term in our Sunday School, we can use it for this group of people. It will be easy, just remove the “a” and replace it with “be” and the “aginners” will become beginners!
It is really easy to attach the be to ginners. Start to be positive in what you say, and be active in ministry and be ready with a good idea if you think someone else’s idea is bad. You see, it is not that beginners are for every idea, it is just that they aren’t against everything.
I’ve always found that a beginner’s way of doing something is far superior than an aginners way of doing nothing. I pray that you will be all that God wants you to be and that you will do all that He wants you to do.
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
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