Archives For Children’s Ministry

Sunday Will Happen

April 20, 2011 — 4 Comments

It happens like this: You’ve worked all week to make everything cool, calm, and collected…but then about 20 minutes before service starts…you get the call.  You know the call.  It’s your sound/video/light guy in your Elementary Production saying that he can’t be there, because he’s been called in to work.  That’s all cool, except the teenager-in-training is also away for a Spring Break trip; and your backup to the backup has been asked to fill in for a small group leader that was scheduled to be out; and the backup, backup, backup is in the 4 year old classroom working for a volunteer who’s toddler woke up puking; and the backup, backup, backup, backup is nowhere to be found…and you’ve suspected they might be leaving the church anyway.

Panic begins to set in, and you’re not sure who can transition slides on Pro Presenter for the awesome God the the Rescue slides you’ve spent all week arranging with cool background tunes to make the teaching slick and presentable.  About that time your own kid’s teacher approaches you and says that your kid is complaining about their stomach hurting and is greenish in color.  ”Are you kidding me!” you think inside.  ”Does somebody have it out for me?!” you ponder in your heart.

Then before you know it the morning is over.  Wait, what happened?  How did we get past the chaos?  Well it’s easy really.  Sunday always happens.  Even if you have a 10 year old running the sound board, and the small groups are a little more chaotic than normal, and your kid has to sit in the back with a trashcan between their legs.  The kids at church have learned something.  It might have not be perfect, but that’s all right.  Sunday doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective. It’s going to happen anyway, just prepare yourself for this fact and you’ll find yourself patient beyond your own understanding.  Sunday’s are funny that way, huh?

Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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God to the Rescue Release Party

March 16, 2011 — 7 Comments

Sam Luce let the proverbial cat out of the bag last week, and has continued to write about what is being released today over at SamLuce.com.  This project is the collaborative efforts of some Kidmin people you all know and love.  Here how it all came down: Around the end of last year, during a normal Kidmin conversation about different things we liked and didn’t like about different curriculums an idea was launched about what could be if we worked together on something unique.

But what would make this project unique?

  • For starters, we all work with children, parents, and other Kidmin leaders on a weekly (almost daily) basis.  This makes us unique in a big way when you look at curriculum developers around the world.  We bring a fresh perspective to what we believe will work, and what won’t work.  I’m not saying it the perfect perspective, but it’s out-of-the-oven fresh baked!
  • Then we separated responsibilities based on what our own talents, gifts, and experiences were.  I worked on Small Group Materials, of which you can download some below; Dan Scott worked on Large Group Programming; and Gina McClain worked on Small Group materials and parent take-home conversational stuff: and Sam Luce managed most all of the Small Group Planning.  We also used many of our own small group leaders, large group storytellers/teachers, and staff to help make it happen.  It goes beyond 4 people, and that may be the very best part!
  • It’s also important that you know that it’s all themed around the Easter season.  The entire project was based on an idea that at Easter, we would move away from the usual teaching format and instead write something that completely elevates Christ.  Now hear me out, I’m not saying there aren’t others doing the same thing…only that we were intentional about making sure Christ was easily found in every lesson and small group.
  • It’s free.  Enough said, right?

I’m personally thrilled to be a part of this project and share it with you, because of the unique collaborative opportunity I had to work with friends, and other like-minded kidmin leaders.  It was a severe challenge to find the time for what we had to do, but today I’m proud to get this out to all of you in the Kidmin community.

I’m sure you’ll recognize some things from each of us, but it’s my hope that you find this package something easy to implement, easy to change, and exalting of Christ as you use it.  Please take what we have and share your thoughts, feedback, criticisms, and likes about what has been created!

 

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The Beauty of Approachability

February 17, 2011 — 5 Comments

When I was 16 years go I got my first job busing tables at a Goldie’s Restaurant in my hometown.  This job involved removing half-eaten food from tables, waiters that wouldn’t share their tips, cleaning the bathrooms, and just about every other conceivable disgusting thing in the restaurant business.  But I’ve always remembered one thing from my 4 nights of employment.  (Are you surprised?  Of course I quit after 4 days!)

I guess I wasn’t exactly hiding my dissatisfaction with my chores, and my boss pulled me into his office to tell me to smile more.  I laughed at his request and then he got in my face and told me that to work for his restaurant I had to look approachable, and if I was walking around looking upset; that nobody would ever ask for my help…and then there was the potential that an unhappy customer might leave the restaurant.  That right there is some truth!

So fast forward almost 20 years and that advice still stands!  Every Sunday morning as I walk in and through the areas of my church, I’m interacting with a customer of sorts.  Not the kind of customer that is buying something, but the kind that has a need that needs to be filled.  I don’t know what those needs are, but I need to work to be as approachable as possible.  Sometimes it’s being approachable to tell someone where they can find a particular place on our campus.  Other times it’s being able to reward the bravery of a child that wants you to pray with them.

Here are the ways I work to always make people feel welcome.

  • Smile.  This is the simplest one.  Simply smile.  A simple smile always disarms even the most frustrated person.  And here’s a little secret about the power of a smile…it can cover whatever turmoil you may be going through in the moment.  Have you ever heard this saying, “Fake it, ’til you make it!”?  Just because you don’t feel like smiling, isn’t a good enough reason to frown!
  • Look Around. I work every weekend to not always look at myself, and what I’m going through during a busy weekend.  Instead, I take the time to look at what is around me.  Many times I’ve discovered I can help people by just seeing what they see.  Walking around and looking for those needs, is key to finding the needs I can meet.
  • Avoid Groups. By this I mean, that I avoid standing around in groups of cliques.  If you go to church you know what I mean.  I don’t hang out with the other pastors in the lobby, loiter in front of the nursery, or restrict myself to the guest connections counter.  I’m not rude, but I just never stay in one place very long.
  • Smile. Oh, did I already mention this one?

If you’re working at a church, and you’re not deliberately working to make yourself available to those that need you…then you’re missing one of your greatest callings!

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Dear Parent Letters // Talk about Church

February 1, 2011 — 4 Comments

The following is one part in a series of letters to Parents. All of it is meant with the most serious of intentions, and is not directed at any one parent. It is simply the writing of a man that has worked with children and their parents in a church setting for many years now.

Talk to your Kids

Dear Parents,

You attend church, and all of us that work to prepare exciting environments for your children are thrilled that you do.  It’s obvious to us that you value what the Body of Christ can bring to your life, and to your familie’s life by attending together.  For that be commended.  However, please allow me to humbly remind you that church attendance is only the first part of spiritually leading your family.  This letter is written to encourage you to talk about your experience at church with your children.  Do you ever ask what they really learned?   Not just if they had fun (which is an equally valid question, just not the most important information to get from them.)  Do you ever tell your kids what you learned?  Do you ever think to fall back on what your kid has learned when the situation arises during the week?

Here what can happen if you fail to talk about what happened at church this weekend.

  1. First, you can communicate that what we do at church is separate from the rest of our lives. // As parents we should be teaching our kids that God is the center of our lives and worthy of organizing all that we do around glorifying Him.  But when we fail to talk about what happens at church, we are quietly telling them that what happens at church stays at church.  This isn’t Vegas;  it’s important to live out what we learn at church outside of the church walls!  Work to destroy the walls between church attendance and real life.
  2. Second, you’re telling them that you didn’t learn anything. // You did learn something right?  You are grateful for your experience in worship, right?  You should be learning something, or being encouraged in some way with each encounter (and if you’re not please talk to someone.)  Share with your children what you are learning, and how thankful you are for what God has showed you.
  3. Third, to not talk about church is to miss a key step in spiritually leading your children. // That’s a daunting phrase right there, isn’t it? “Spiritually leading your children.”  Throw out all those images of nightly devotionals, and long family prayer services.  You might get to that point eventually, but right now we are talking about just taking a small but deliberate next step toward nurturing their spirituality.  When you fail to ask children what they’ve learned at church you are missing the easiest of easy times to talk to your kid about spiritual things.  Take advantage of the awesome team of volunteers and leaders that teach your kids each weekend, and just use what they’ve already taught your children to start conversations.  I bet some of them will even put things in your hands to help this happen!

It’s not too late to start talking with you kids today about what happened at church. Please don’t miss the opportunity that you have each time you attend church to start spiritual conversations at home with your children.

Sincerely,

Your Friendly Neighborhood Children’s Pastor

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Dear Parent Letters // Church as a Punishment

January 27, 2011 — 10 Comments

The following is one part in a series of letters to Parents. All of it is meant with the most serious of intentions, and is not directed at any one parent. It is simply the writing of a man that has worked with children and their parents in a church setting for many years now.

Parent Discipline

Dear Parents,

You love your kid. That much is obvious by your willingness to set rules and then hold your children to obedience to those rules. As a pastor to children, I commend your commitment to follow-up your parenting rules with consequences for disobedient actions. Consequences are good things.

However, suspending your child from church is not a good consequence. It sets the wrong precedent. Well-meaning as it is, for many reasons it is the wrong consequence. Obviously it’s a different scenario all together if your punishment is to suspend them from a lock-in, extracurricular activity, or other church-related activity. But when the church doors are open to teaching, mentoring, accountability, and the right kind of Godly relationships…please don’t keep your child from this as punishment.

This what I normally hear in the “witholding church as punishment” dialogue:

“[Insert Name] was not obedient at school this week, and so I told him he has to sit with me in the sanctuary. I know he really loves church, and I just couldn’t let him attend with all of this bad behavior recently.”

What is wrong with this statement? Here is what you are basically saying to them.

You aren’t good enough to go to church, and I will use the adult service as punishment for your crimes.

Why is this bad? It’s bad because you are telling you child a few things when you do this.  You are telling them that:

  1. Adult Worship service is boring and is a worthy punishment. // Your adult worship services may indeed be boring, and if they are I hope that you work to make sure that you find a place to worship that isn’t boring. When you this strategy as a punishment, you are telling your kid that church is something to be “suffered through.” Why would you want to make that impression on your kids? That’s right, you wouldn’t.
  2. Learning God’s Word is NOT something important. // I know, I know…you think this is crazy and believe that God’s Word is important. But when you deny your child the opportunity to learn God’s Word from godly people who have prepared all this week for the moment that your child would experience on their visit…you are communicating to your child that the lesson he would have learned is not valuable or life-changing.
  3. God doesn’t want you when you’re disobedient. // This might be a stretch, but hang in there with me on this one.  When you punish disobedience  by witholding opportunities to learn about God, you are tying obedience/disobedience with God’s acceptance of us.  Our Father in heaven has promised to forgive us of ALL confessed sin, and he has said that nothing will ever separate us from his love, and he has said that he has redeemed us from our past mistakes by sending his Son to pay the price for our sin.  I say all that to say this…please be careful how you represent the most grace-giving, loving heavenly father in your discipline to your children.

I know that you love your kids, and you are trying to do your very best to lead them spiritually.  But from your Children’s Pastor’s to your heart let me please remind you that there are many, many, many more creative consequences for disobedience.  May I suggest suspension from television, video games, sporting events, after-school snacks, and I could go on and on and on?

Sincerely,

Your Friendly Neighborhood Children’s Pastor


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