The Priority in Children’s Ministry

Posted on 02. Feb, 2012 by in Teaching Tips

Why does the children’s ministry exist?

(a) To babysit so parents can be ministered to? (Absolutely not!)

(b) To help children get their annual supply of cookies and kool-aid? (No, not never!)

(c) To help new volunteers understand why some animals eat their young? (Of course not, although…)

(d) To reach and teach children and families with the Good News of Jesus Christ. (This is, has been, and always will be our purpose. Everything we do is measured against this aim.)

This is the reason that we exist, but sometime we get so caught up in the details and preparations that we miss what is at the heart of children’s ministry…

Consider this story:

Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord’s word, seated at His feet. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving along? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10: 38-42)

The priority of a children’s ministry volunteer is first and foremost to walk with Jesus daily. What you lead, and do, and teach in ministry comes as an overflow of your own relationship with Christ. On a scale of 1 to 10, how closely are you walking with Jesus? Do you have a daily time set aside just for Him? What is the most important thing in your life? And be careful not to get so caught up in the details of life that you forget about the one thing that really matters in life—which is you and Jesus.

Also, be sure to remember that the most important thing in your classroom this week is not your preparation nor your teaching plans—the most important thing in your classroom is that child standing in front of you. Don’t get so caught up in the “package” of ministry that you forget what really matters—which is Jesus and your students.

 

Think Back

Posted on 02. Feb, 2012 by in Teaching Tips

Use your past to help you understand your students and share experiences from your younger days to help teach them life lessons. Here are some questions to consider:

What are your strongest memories from when you were young?

What were you like when you were the age of the students that you’re teaching?

What were you afraid of?

What excited you?

What mistakes did you make?

What was your family like?

What problems did you face?

What made you cry?

Did you ever get in trouble for something you didn’t do? How did you feel?

How did you relate to your teachers?

Did you have a favorite adult at church? What made them your favorite?

Do you remember any of your Sunday School teachers or someone in your church that made a difference in your life? What was different about them? (You probably won’t remember a single lesson that they taught, but you probably remember how they related to you and how they made you feel. Your students will remember the same about you. Your effectiveness comes through your relationship with your students, not your teaching abilities.)

How to Lead Games

Posted on 02. Feb, 2012 by in Teaching Tips

-Keep everything fast-paced.

-Students should be involved and engaged from the moment they enter the room. Get rid of any “dead-time.”

-Give every game a spiritual application. These don’t have to be long teaching times, but strong, memorable quick-hits.

-Try to involve as many children in the game as you can. You want them moving, not sitting.

-Give quick and clear instructions. Be specific. Sometimes you may need to show them how to play instead of just telling them.

-Guide the game while your students are playing by being vocal.

-Give praise and encouragement during the game—i.e., “Good job.” “Nice try.” “That was awesome!”

-Help the adult leaders to understand that their role is not to stand in the back and talk but to be a part of what the kids are doing.

-Do everything that you can in advance to be set-up for the game. For example, if you are doing a balloon game with younger children, blow up the balloons before they arrive. Otherwise you might spend half your time blowing and tying balloons and what are the kids supposed to do while you take care of this? I guarantee they will find a way to “entertain” themselves.

-Always be aware of items or objects in your playing area that could be harmful—i.e., a hole in the ground, the corner of a cabinet, a chair off to the side, etc. Point out these dangers to your children. Remove them if possible. If not, put an orange cone near as a reminder or station an adult there to guard against accidents.

-Always have a first aid kid nearby. As with anything where children are active, accidents will occasionally happen no matter how safe the game is.

-Adapt the game to fit your playing area. If you have a lot of kids and not a lot of space, use the following variations to adjust for this: Have the kids play the game by hopping on one leg, by doing a duck walk, or by doing a bear or crab crawl.

-Use a Control Tool to help your kids re-focus. A control tools is where you say a question and your kids shout back a response. For example, if you need to give instructions and get your kids listening, simply shout out, “Who should be number one in your life?” The kids yell back, “Jesus!” Do it a second time but challenge them to be louder, or see if the boys can be louder than the girls. Immediately following this, say, “On the count of three, I want you to…” and give them the instructions in a quick and clear manner.

-Never allow students to choose their own teams. Someone will always be chosen last. Feeling left out or unwanted is not the experience you want students to have at church.

Sending Pictures as Postcards

Posted on 02. Feb, 2012 by in Teaching Tips

During events or during regular church times, take pictures of your students, especially close up face-shots and pictures with their friends. Tell them to make a crazy faces, to smile big, and so forth, but don’t tell them what the pictures are for. Develop the pictures in a 4×6 inch size. Add your church name and address to the format for sending pictures as postcards and print it on a full-page label sheet. Cut these out, write a note on them, and then stick them to the back side of the pictures…and, just like that, you now have a postcard with your student’s picture on it that the post office will deliver. Just be sure to put the right postage on it. Parents and students alike love these.

 (NOTE: If you stick the labels and then write a note once they are attached to the pictures, your writing can make an impression that will show through the pictures. So, always write the note, then stick the label.)

Favoritism Factor

Posted on 02. Feb, 2012 by in Teaching Tips

Everyone is drawn to certain personalities, but as a teacher it is extremely important that you lead your class without any hint of an attitude of personal favoritism. This means simply, if you do it for one, you need to do it for all. If you give one student a special treat or gift, they all need to get a special treat or gift. The only exception is if they have earned this special privilege, but the very idea that they earned it also means that any other child in the class could have earned it as well.

Picture a Sunday morning the day before Christmas where a number of the teachers show up with gifts. Students are unwrapping presents, but not all of them. The teachers just brought gifts for the ones to whom they were closest. “Impossible,” you say. Not true. I saw this happen and in a church that runs over a thousand. It should have never happened but I still remember it and I’m sure a number of those students who didn’t get any gifts remember it also.

A few years ago one of my teachers, who was an artist, drew incredible portraits of two of her students. Very proudly she brought me in the room and showed the pictures to me. As I looked at them on the wall I said, “That’s great. You are very talented. Of course, you do know that by doing this for these two students, you now need to do it for all of them. Otherwise, they will know without a doubt that you have favorites in your class.”

An attitude of favoritism will undermine everything you are trying to accomplish. There will always be some that you connect with more quickly than others and some that you may be closer to than others, but never lead your class without any hint of an attitude of personal favoritism.

 “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism . . . but if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers” (James 2:1,9).

Expectations, Expectations

Posted on 30. Jan, 2012 by in Teaching Tips

I knew a young lady once who told me that when she was a youth and made a commitment to purity that her parents said that to do such a thing was great but that they didn’t expect her to live up to it. After all, both of her other two siblings had made a similar commitment and both of them had compromised sexually, so why would they expect her to do anything different?

Expectations are a powerful thing. Children and youth will live up to or down to the expectations adults put on them. If you and the student’s parents don’t expect them to want to memorize Scripture, they probably won’t. If you don’t expect them to grow spiritually, they probably won’t. If you don’t expect them to read their Bible during the week, the probably won’t. If these are the feelings expressed to students by leaders, adults, and parents, then the students will sink to meet these low expectations.

However, when a goal is put in front of them and they are told that they can do such and such, an incredible thing happens. Instead of sinking, they can rise to levels that far exceed the expectations given them.

A few years ago I trained a group of sixth graders for a mission trip. Could a group of sixth graders really lead a VBS? Would they really want to learn how to share their testimonies and the plan of salvation? Would they be willing to memorize the “Roman Road?” and commit to weeks and weeks of training, even if it meant missing ballgames? The answer is yes and not only did that VBS have a record-setting attendance, they, one-on-one, led 16 people to Christ during that mission trip, and by the end of the summer they had led 29 people to the Lord.

In our churches today the greatest factor that holds children and youth back from spiritual development is the low expectations of parents and adults.

So, in light of this, what do you expect of the students under your care? Do you NOT expect them to memorize verses because you are not memorizing verses or to share their faith because you are not actively looking for ways to share yours? Or, do you expect them to grow, to attend, to listen and to soak in all the good things that the Lord wants to teach them and to share those things with their friends. What do you expect? What does God expect? Think about it.

Caught, Not Taught

Posted on 30. Jan, 2012 by in Teaching Tips

I was in a small church on a Sunday evening and one of the students said to me, “Do you know why they ask the youth to take up the offering on Sunday nights?”

“What do you mean?” I replied.

She answered, “It’s because none of the deacons are here.”

As I looked around I realized there was a great amount of truth in what she said. Only two out of ten or more deacons were present that night.

It’s amazing how students can pick up on just about everything we say or do. They know when we’re in worship service and when we’re not and if we’re absent they wonder why. They watch from a distance and soak in all that happens with us. They listen as we talk with other adults and many of them are watching to see if what we have is “real.” Consider the best teachers you ever had: What do you remember about them? Probably not a single lesson they taught, but you remember their passion, how they treated you, your relationship with them, how you felt important when you approached them with a question, and so forth. Life’s best lessons are not taught—They are caught.

What are your students catching from you? What do you want them to catch from you?

You are a living testimony to those around you. Make sure yours is a life worth catching.