Macel and Ralph Gardner enjoy serving the Lord and people through the ministries they are involved in at Immanuel.

Gardners enjoy serving God, people through ministry

By Greg Miller
STAR STAFF
gmiller@starhq.com

   Macel and Ralph Gardner enjoy serving the Lord and people through the ministries they are involved in at Immanuel Baptist Church. Macel works in the church's nursery department and children's church. Ralph serves as a deacon, church treasurer and teaches the Victory Sunday School Class.
   Reading helps a Sunday school teacher be prepared to teach his or lesson, according to the Gardners. "We ought to read the Bible every day, read a good commentary and anything else that's in line with what your beliefs are," remarked Ralph, who said that in his class he's "more a discusser" than a teacher. "I try to read the Bible every day. If you get up in the morning, or go to bed at night and don't feel too good about the day, it sure does help to pick it up and read somewhere in it. It's also good to read the Bible systematically."
   "I think it's a constant reminder to you, too, as an individual," Macel said. "In this day and time, there are so many happenings and situations and it helps to know that God is there and cares for you. I think that when you read the Bible, it's a reminder. It's not something you think or something you've heard, but it's something you know when you read it."
   The greatest reward in working with children, Macel said, is "as we plant the seed now, we can see that seed bear fruit in the future. It's a joy to see the children that you have taught in Sunday school become involved in the church. Especially with the little ones, when I take them by the hand, I think of leading them on a journey with their parents in knowing God as they grow up."
   The age at which a youngster exhibits an interest in spiritual things "all depends on the parents and teachers and what you have planned for them and your teaching method. We had one little girl who began saying Bible verses at about age two, and she would tell us where they were found in the Bible. A lot of it depends on how much training they have at home. I think when they're two and three years old, they pick up the word God in songs and Bible verses."
   Parents can enhance their children's educational experience in the church with efforts at home, Macel said. It's important to "take time with them with the Bible and show an interest in the child. Let them know that they appreciate the teacher and what that child is learning."
   Nature seems to bring out the children's interest in talking about God. "When we take the two and three year olds outside on the lawn, we talk about the grass, let them feel the grass, and tell them that God made the grass," Macel said.
   With the growth of the church's nursery department, "We had to promote our two and three year olds to the Toddler Department. Now, I'm working mostly with the bed babies. We don't do a lot of teaching with that age group. We just do songs and books. We use the Bible telling them about God, as well as books on nature, family and love."
   Macel's goal is "seeing that the children are nurtured in a godly way as they continue to grow and seeing them accept Christ when they get older. It's a joy to see one of them walk down the aisle to accept Christ when you know you've taught that child in Sunday school and helped to lay the groundwork for them."
   A deacon's job is to "serve the church in a spiritual way," Ralph said. "If you can enhance the spirit of the church, then you enhance the church itself and you, therefore, are more mindful of what God has done for you.
   "The best way to serve God is to serve people. We have a visitation program at the church called 'Evangelism Explosion.' You go 13 weeks and study how to evangelize people. It's amazing what it has done for Immanuel. Through Evangelism Explosion, the gospel is presented to people in their homes in a conversational way. That's a service to the people, and I think we need to serve people both physically and spiritually."
   Ralph says being the church's treasurer doesn't alter his ideas about spirituality. "People get concerned about financial things and forget about the spiritual things, and that should not be. If the spirit of the church is good, right and up, the finances come anyway. So if the spirit of the church is that they love their church and they love God, there's no worry about the finances. Finances shouldn't be a primary concern for anybody in the church. I realize that you need money to evangelize, but the primary concern is the spirit."