The Challenges and Rewards of Children's Ministry

It's amazing how quickly a program can transform by God's grace when the right tools and the right people are in place. A year ago, our children's ministry program was described as "Another year has come and gone and still we have very few kids. There is a possibility of 5 for the roll, but there is an average of 1 or 2 attending with some weeks having no children attending". Now, we have an average of 15-20 kids each week, and the classrooms are filled with life, laughter, and a whole lot of learning. Praise God! I invite you to journey with us as we continue to explore the challenges and rewards of children's ministry. We will sample new curriculum, weeding out the bad and delighting in the good. We will listen to the heart cries of the children as they work to claim their faith as their own. We will open our eyes to see the plans God has for them, and we will be amazed when we see what unfolds. Let us share our knowledge together so we can make a greater impact for this generation.

I think there must still be some churches that are left a little in the dark when it comes to adjusting their Children's Ministry to our postmodern culture. Often times, as was the case in our church, the ministry consists of several caring older women who have nurtured the ministry for several years. They have a genuine interest in the children and want them to learn about God's truths, but their methods have become somewhat outdated. Let me explain some of the initial revisions we made in order to bring our ministry up to speed.

1) Find a consistent curriculum. Originally we were using books like "5 Minute Bible Lessons for Children", which I'm sure were helpful, but when you have kids for 60 minutes, finding enough 5 minute lessons to fill that time has to be taxing. Search long and hard for your curriculum because you want to stick with it for at least a couple of years. I read that you shouldn't switch curriculums too often, because this disrupts the consistency and because you could end up repeating lessons over and over again, since many of the curriculums out there cover the same lessons, only in different order. For our church, we needed a change fast, so we used the Alliance (Christian and Missionary Alliance) curriculum, "Getting to Know Jesus" until we could find a more permanent solution. This had about 10 lessons in it, and covered Jesus as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and soon coming King. It also a had a lesson on missions. We're now working with Faithweaver Friends by Group Publishing, which is working out well, but I'll cover that more in depth later.

2) Make sure your class size is a good ratio for your teachers. We had three teachers willing to work, but one teacher had 2 kids while the other teacher (the two remaining would alternate weeks) had about 10! We broke up the groups by ages and forms three groups of about 3-5 kids. We were in need of more teachers, but more were willing to teach because the group was so much more manageable.

3) Lastly, we incorporated games each week. Only about 15 minutes, but boy, did the kids respond! At first, they were just fun games, but when we adopted Faithweaver Friends as our curriculum, it came with lesson-coordinated games, so that was better. Currently, we don't do games every week, but at least every other week. The kids are in school all day, and certainly don't want to sit still in a "school-like" environment all Wednesday night too. So loosen up! We didn't have a ton of room in our church, so we played games in the fellowship hall. The laughter and yelling which carried into the sanctuary where the adults were having Bible Study reminded them to keep contributing to the building fund, and to keep these kids in their prayers!

One of the first things you need to do when creating or seriously revising a ministry is to create a vision. Proverbs tells us that without a vision, the people perish, and that is because people need to feel a purpose. A vision gives you and those involved in the ministry a sense of direction. It allows you to filter through all the potentially good ideas to pick only the ones that are going to propel your ministry forward in the direction you feel God has called it to go. When you have limited recourses, the best way to get things accomplished is to Focus! Focus! Focus! A vision allows you to do this. There are several books that helped us as we worked towards a vision. The one listed above, Making Your Children's Ministry the best hour....", along with a few highlighted below. With the help of the three current workers and a few others, we developed our first vision statement for our children's ministry:

To provide the children in the H.-------, L.---------, W.--------, and surrounding areas with a biblical, Christ-centered ministry which places high value on family involvement, experiential learning, friendship building, and fun. Our hope is to provide consistent outreach to our communities and to also provide discipleship to the children through small groups and mentoring.

Recently, we have been rethinking our children's ministry approach, and we decided to revise our vision again, and make it a little more focused. Our current vision is:

To Ignite a desire for a genuine and passionate relationship with Christ and to equip the kids for the spiritual battle that they are in.

In order to make a vision, you start by asking: What is the problem I am trying to address with this ministry? Is there a lack of biblical teaching and knowledge? Is there a low attendance problem? What kind of challenges are you facing?

Next, decide who you are going to focus on reaching. Do you want to focus on the neighborhood directly around your church or organization? Do you want to focus on a specific age group? This should be included in the vision.

How are you going to accomplish the vision? Is it through mentoring? Through small groups? Through consistent teachers? Think about this and add it to your vision.

A vision should be in use for at least five years or so. Don't make your vision so short-sighted that you have to always be revising it. It should project an idea of success for the future. It should give everyone something to be working towards.

Finally, make sure you vision is Memorable. It will do no good to have a fantastic vision if no one in your ministry can remember it. It is supposed to give them focus and direction. What good do directions do if you can't remember them to follow them? In constructing your vision, you should make sure you have all the components needed to make it complete, but when making your vision public, feel free to shorten it a little in order to allow others to remember it.

For example, when we recently began revision our vision, we wanted it to include things like family-focused, friendship building, mentoring, maturing in Christ, service, etc. However, we felt this was all too much to include in our memorable vision statement. We plan on using these things to fulfill our vision, but didn't feel like we needed to include them in the statement itself.

Above all, make sure the vision statement is yours. If it does not stir your heart within you towards the ministry and the work of God, it's not finished yet. Keep working and revising, you'll get it!

When I began working with the children's ministry program, I spent the first few weeks observing the classrooms. I noticed what the teachers were doing well (i.e. getting the kids to use their Bibles and review where verses were found, classroom management) and what needed some improvement (kid-friendly rooms, etc). I also spoke with a number of parents to see what they would like changed. The two predominant requests were (1) open and consistent communication and (2) earlier meeting time. We fixed the second request by moving our Wednesday night meeting time from 7:00 to 6:30pm. This way, parents could get their kids home, bathed, and in bed for at a decent time for school the next day. Eventually, we planned to also serve some kind of dinner for the families on Wednesday, but our current kitchen facilities didn't allow for such a service.

In order to provide more open and consistent communication, we started a newsletter. We used the newsletter to tell the parents what the kids were learning that night, the activities they participated in, and their memory verse for the week. We also used it to announce upcoming events such as Family Movie Nights, Camp dates, etc. We used to say happy birthday to the kids in the program, and we used it whenever we made any kind of change - a change in curriculum, a change in classroom structure, new prizes, etc.

Parents loved it. They always made sure to come back to the registration table to grab a copy. Parents were more on-board with the program once they knew more about what we were teaching and the activities were planning. We had parents regularly bringing in supplies and offering to help where they could. (More about parental involvement later). We've been using the newsletter for over a year now, and most parents still consistently read it. Parents of younger children don't always, but they make sure they take one. We post the newsletter on our website online and mail it to parents who miss a week of church.

Others in the church also have been taking Newsletters - Sunday School teachers, the pastor and his wife, and older people. I'm grateful for the others who take the Newsletter because I know they consistently read it, and lift the children up in prayer. This is what keeps our program continuing. We can never have enough prayer for these kids.

Recently, I've been using the Newsletter to do media reviews - for music, movies, etc. I've done reviews for the Bee Movie, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Concert movie, and warnings about the Golden Compass movie, for example. I find most of my information for these reviews at Focus on the Family's Plugged In online - http://www.pluggedinonline.com/. Parents and kids really seemed to appreciate this.

I also use the Newsletter to recognize those that help out the Children's Ministry program. If someone donated supplies, I made sure to thank them in the Newsletter. If a volunteer went above and beyond, they were featured in the Newsletter. If someone came to teach a "guest" lesson or help with a particular project, they were recognized and appreciated. Things like this go a long way in keeping people involved in the ministry and encouraging others to join the team. People need and deserve to be appreciated. A Newsletter is a great opportunity to do things like this. (Note: If you decide not to write a newsletter, make sure you recognize and appreciate your volunteers and donors some other way. Cards are great, but they need to be recognized publicly at least once in awhile.) Children's ministry can be challenging at times. It takes time and effort, and people need to know that they are making a difference.

One Sunday, we decided to set up tables and feature all the ministries that were available at our church. We made clear standard signs for all the tables, and then let everyone set up their tables as they saw fit. Some people made display boards with pictures of their ministries (Nursery, children's church, etc), some people brought samples of things they had recently done in their ministries - for example, our Alliance women's ministry had recently made care packages for college students. The Bible study groups brought the books and materials they were using for study. You get the idea. We held "Ministry Sunday" during the normal Sunday School hour. We provided coffee and donuts, and then let the people mill around and look at all the different booths. For those who didn't normally attend Sunday School, the booths were also up after the Sunday worship service. There were sign-up sheets at each of the ministries, but the event was really to raise awareness, not recruit volunteers. The event was a huge success. There were many people who commented, "I had no idea we had so much available at this church!" More people did sign up to become part of the different ministries, such as choir, Alliance men and women, and worship team. Others were more willing to help when approached for other ministries. If your church is smaller or middle-size, this would be something to think about to get some new-comers involved or to encourage regular attendees to get a little more involved. If you do, let me know how it goes!

One of the first things we implemented with our revised children's ministry program was a reward system for the kids - to encourage them to attend every week, bring their Bible, and to memorize their weekly Bible verse (originally we had a new verse every week, but then I read that kids retain Scripture long-term better if they learn fewer verses, so we switched to one verse every three weeks - it seems to be working much better!). The sticker charts were also used to encourage the kids to bring friends. Occasionally we would have "Double the Friends" month where kids could get double stickers for bringing a friend. We also did other promotions to encourage kids to bring friends.

At the end of each month, kids would go to "Sticker Store" and get to trade in their stickers for prizes. I shop Oriental Trading, Big Lots, Dollar Store, Target - anywhere I can find a good deal. Be wary of Oriental Trading - sometimes you can get a good deal (bouncy balls for instance), but when things break before they get them home (i.e. paddle balls, kaleidoscopes, etc), it's not much of a prize. One member of our congregation is a member of Columbia House Music and because she has ordered so many CD's over the years, she can get a number of free ones for just the shipping ($3). She has been generous enough to get these CD's for our Sticker Store which has been a huge hit with the older kids.

Occasionally we would get newcomers on a Sticker Store night - of course, they didn't get a chance to accumulate many stickers, so we would give them a half-off pass to get something in the store. This usually worked out well. The most important thing with new comers is that they leave with a positive experience concerning sticker store (and the night in general).

Many members of our congregation have contributed to the sticker store as well. This has helped a lot because we are able to get better prizes this way (and not break our budget!). Donations like this are definitely mentioned in the Newsletter. Also, sometimes I mention hot items in the Newsletter - things kids really like if others want to donate.

Now, Children's Ministry Magazine (to which I subscribe) feels that such reward systems are unhealthy for children. They suggest reward systems set children up to only memorize Scripture, only bring their Bibles, etc if they are going to get a reward. This may cause children not to internalize their faith - they will only pursue religious or church activities if there is a reward promised. While I agree this may occur, our whole world is built on the reward system. We go to work - we get a paycheck. Nice reward. We write a great book - and receive recognition. Nice reward. We do a great job on a project - we get a promotion. Nice reward. Now, we might also go to work because we love our job, or write a great book because we are passionate about the topic, does that mean we don't want the rewards? No. In the same way, children may memorize their memory verse only for the sticker, or they may memorize their verse because they love God's word. Either way, they are memorizing Scripture, and God's Word will not return void.

I find that our kids memorize Scripture to get approval - the sticker is great, but I don't see them rushing to their sticker charts each week. I see them rushing to their small group leaders and slamming their verses out for high-fives and hugs. If this is their reward system, I approve. It's building great relationship and excitement about the word of God. Children will learn to internalize their faith, but that seems like a task for the later years.

Those are some of the changes that we underwent to revise our Children's Program. There is more to share, but I'm going to shift to some of my present concerns and ideas. Be sure to check back -- I'll add in more capsules about our early days when I get a chance!

This weekend, I attended a children's ministry conference at a local church. The conference was put on by Group publishing, and I was very excited to attend. However, about five minutes into the conference, I was having second thoughts. First, we all had to sing and do the motions to one of Group's DVD praise sessions. It suddenly occured to me why our older kids were not that interested in doing things like this. Next, we had to make special signs with our hands to describe our ministry and walk around the room until we found someone with a different sign -- not exactly my idea of productive. I know that part of the point of conferences is to network and discover what others are doing that you could improve on, but we only had about four minutes for this "sign" activity -- no in depth conversations there.

As the conference progressed, there were certainly grains of truth that I could glean and take back to our program. I don't have my packet with me now, but I will highlight some of those things later. My co-worker attended with me, and she felt a lot of the presentation was propaganda for Group's products and curriculum, and many of the activities did seem to lean this way. Maybe it was my personal preference, but if I'm going to go to a conference, I want someone to set up a nice powerpoint and teach me some things. I'm not big on the object lessons, and moving around, and acting out funny scenes. I do that every week with the kids, surely I don't need to spend my weekend with a bunch of adults doing the same thing.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do love Group Publishing. I eat up every book they publish and have a great rep (Les Britingham) that serves our church to the best of his ability. We use Group curriculum, and for the most part really enjoy it, but I was just disappointed with this conference. Then again, I'm not really a conference sort of girl!

I would like to share what I learned, so check back again soon, and I'll have those notes posted. One thing that really stuck with me was staying current with culture. They listed the top 10 things kids are into right now, and asked if we knew anything about these things. The presenter emphasized using these cultural hot-points to build a bridge between Scripture and what the kids already know and love. I agree, and this is something we have been slacking on. I am going to work harder to keep current with kid culture, and hope to keep you updated here as well!

One of the things we did that was very help was a pre-teen breakout session. At our church, we will be starting a pre-teen group in about a month, so I wanted to get some feedback on what others are doing. I've been having the hardest time decided on what to do for a curriculum. I want something engaging, yet fun. Something a little more meater, yet not over their heads. I couldn't find any curriculum I was really wild about, so I ordered a few seperate books and will teach out of those for the first few months.

However, I did hear from others in this break-out session that Grapple Curriculum (From Group Publishing) was a real hit. I had browsed this curriculum on Group's website, but wasn't thrilled. For one, the online reviews didn't drive me to excitement. The whole "unique" factor of this curriculum is that the teens involved would have their own Grapple website to go to, play games, learn more about the lesson, and blog. However, none of the online reviewers' groups were doing much online activity. Likewise, at the breakout, none of their pre-teens interacted with the website. But, I got to thinking, maybe the curriculum is good withouth the website. I ordered a sample, and will let you know how it goes. If anyone else has used this, leave a comment and let me know about i!

Okay, I have to admit-- I wasn't a fan of YouTube -- all I heard was stories about monkeys falling off trees and recaps of American Idol, and frankly I didn't think it was worth my time. I didn't need one more media source sucking my life away. However, as I was working on my hub about the recent Children's Conference, I stumbled upon several videos about parables Jesus taught. They were entertaining, and I think they would be a hit with our kids, especially the older ones. I displayed one such video below.

Now, I am cautious about using this because I don't want kids to randomly go surfing YouTube to see what they can find. Who knows what they might run into! But, if I can pick up a few applicable videos and use them to connect with kids (this is a form of building bridges to their culture, right), it might be worth a shot.

I'll let you know how it goes!

For our Wednesday night Kids for Christ group, I am a small group leader of the 9-11 girls. The girls have journals with questions in them about the night's lesson. The questions are designed to help them think about key elements of the lesson and to apply the lesson to life. Usually the girls race through the questions and then goof off the rest of the time. This week, however I decided to challeng the girls a little bit. We were talking about how to be the salt and light of the world for Christ, and they were asked to write three ways they could do this. Without exception the girls all wrote things like "Be nice. Be sweet. Be cool". Pretty surface answers if you asked me. I tried to dig deeper. I asked what they could do to make a difference for Christ. One girl suggested helping her mom with the dishes. While this is of course, a good answer, being the salt and light means being a witness to those who don't know Christ. After a brief silence, one of the girls talked about some classmates that watched things she didn't think were nice. We talked about how we could make a difference in this situation. Then, we talked about what to do if members of your family want to watch something that you don't feel comfortable watching. I was surprised at how concerned the girls really were about this. In a way, they were really wrestling with how to do the right thing, yet not stand out from their friends and family. We role-played some things they could say to their cousins, and we talked about how when we start to watch something that "isn't so bad", suddenly things that are pretty bad begin to look "not so bad", and so on. One girl confessed..."Yeah, it's like that when I listen to the radio. At first, the swearing really bothered me, but now I don't even hear it." It was amazing. I really didn't think the girls were capable of thinking that much into things, but here we were having a discussion about it. I was so grateful that God had given us that opportunity. I believe the girls are really starting to challenge themselves and wrestle with what it means to be a true Christian. We call this a Vision Moment because we saw our vision in action that night. I hope many more will come in the near future.

Last night was another night at Kids Club. The evening started off a little slow, but a few more kids trickled in late. Can't get those kids to show up on time! We've talked about having a dinner for the families so they wouldn't have to worry about feeding everyone before they headed to church, but our facility doesn't have the resources for that...just yet. Our new church building should be done in May, Lord willing! I know other churches have dinners before their Wednesday night programs and it's a big hit.

Last night we learned about the Samaritan woman and how Jesus loves everyone. We gave the kids each a bag full of rice crispies and some marshmallow fluff. We said that the fluff was Jesus' love and they had to get it to all the people. It was tough to reach "all the people", but eventually we did! It made for a good analogy too, because some people are harder to reach for Christ, people that are far away, people that aren't like us, but we have to keep trying. After we mixed, we squeezed out the concoction onto a cookie sheet and cut out heart shaped rice crispie treats. A big hit!

We didn't do journal time because we were working on learning a new verse. I would say there were no profound vision moments last night, but some good friendship building, which is also important.

I stumbled upon some Prince Caspian materials the other day and sent away for a "Teacher's Insider Kit". It's great! The whole kit was free and it has three lessons from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and three lessons for Prince Caspian, plus regular emails with ideas about promotion and activities. I decided to head this way for our preteen group and would suggest the same for others. It would work great for a youth group as well. You get posters, and other things to hang up, and when the movie comes out in May, we'll all go as a group. We're starting our preteen group on April 16, so I'm anxious to see how the kids will respond.

narnia@interlinc-online.com -- here is where I get the stuff. Check it out!

Soulja Boy: Musician 

Keeping Current by Children's Ministry Magazine

With his big break on MySpace, DeAndre Way, 16, developed his persona "Soulja Boy" - a rap artist with contagious dance moves. Nearly 10 million people have visited his MySpace page. Soulja Boy creates his own songs, shows, and music productions. His ambitious nature and natural business sense helped him sell out shows as a headline act, even before his album released.

Children's Ministry Magazines Take: Soulja Boy's music is popular with kids who like to dance, but be cautious on the choice of songs from his new album. Though some tunes are clean, others have lyrics with derogatory messages relating to girls and have innuendo of alcohol and drug use.

Lindsey's Take: It's been my observation that pre-teens embrace artist as a whole and do not differentiate between their clean songs and not-so-clean ones. As such, I wouldn't encourage becoming a fan of this young artist. One of his most popular songs, Crank That, contains a number of swear words, very derogatory terms towards girls, and other themes that are inappropriate. In other words, steer clear.

http://www.family.org/entertainment/A000003449.cfm

http://www.family.org/parenting/A000002871.cfm

There's no youth group program on Wednesday nights at our church. The few teens that we do have attend a Monday night Youth for Christ program leaving the Wednesday night attenders between the ages of 12 (when they age out of the kids program) and 18, when they would most like appreciate the prayer meeting for adults, high and dry. We've been kicking around some ideas for these kids. The teens ages 15 and older have been serving as helpers, which has been a tremondous blessing, but that still leaves 12-14 in the lurch. In fact, once kids turn 11, they begin to get a little bored with the kids program. Thus, after much prayer and deliberation, the Adventure Group was born. (I just realized that I think I already mentioned some of this before! Oops). We thought about many different things to study, and then decided on the Narnia series. We have a curriculum from interlinc and this week was the first time we used it. I was hoping to get the kids in the new gym for the first 15 minutes to blow off some energy, but painting prevented that. So, I just stuck them in their classroom while I finished up registration. They chatted away and seemed fine. Whew! We started the lesson, and the normally apathetic kids I encounter wouldn't stop talking! They were engaged in the lesson, told stories from school, life, the larger community, and listening well when I was drawing parrellels between Narnia and the Bible. They were amazed that they were connected! The film clips were a huge hit, and the kids went home with "tasks" to do to help restore this world to the way God intended it. Let's hope they are working on it! I was hugely nervous about this group, but I am grateful that God paved the way for a very successful session! Until next time!

A week ago, it was service project night for our kids. A service project is built into every new semester of curriculum, and this semester was making cookies for the Fire fighters. How appropriate, a few days before this schedule project, one of our local fire fighters passed away at a fire, and now our service would mean even more. The kids had a good time making cookies, the younger ones especially. While we were waiting for them to cool so we could frost them, the kids made cards for the fire fighters. It was a great night, very intense, and we couldn't have done it without our faithful volunteers. We only had about 45 minutes, and we ran about 10 minutes over, but the parents didn't seem to mind.

My husband suggested for next time, we should have a firefighter come, fully equipped, and talk to the kids about the dangers and rewards of his job. This would have been great, and I bet it would have really pulled the older kids in more. Hindsight is 20/20! But maybe it's an idea that you can use.

I like doing service projects with the kids because (a) it teaches them the importance of being a servant, and (b) it lets the adults in our church see that our program is more than just babysitting the kids and of course (c) it blesses others!

Review of Bridge to Terabithia (Movie) (Rated PG)

By Plugged in Online (Focus on the Family)

As the story begins, all of Jess', an artistic seventh-grader, energies are directed at winning a playground footrace. But he's beaten in the contest by an eccentric and free-spirited new girl. The race proves an unlikely start to friendship between Jess and Leslie, who encourages his creativity. Leslie is plenty creative herself and together the two conjure the magical world of Terabithia, a land of castles and trolls that appears when, in Leslie's words, "you close your eyes but keep your mind wide open."

In detailing their many get-togethers, the film offers a strong model for friendship in Jess and Leslie. The two are sensitive to one another's problems, particularly their difficulties in fitting in at school. We also see several broken relationships mended. Jesse Sr. is a sometimes gruff man, impatient with his son over the slightest misstep. The story's main conflict shapes him into a more nurturing father, able to be soft-spoken and tender when his son needs it most. There's also a powerful case made for helping those who hurt you (a biblical concept found in Matthew 5:44). At school, Jess, Leslie and Maybelle learn to show compassion toward an eighth-grade bully named Janice, who is suffering at the hands of an abusive father. The three youngsters eventually see through Janice's tough-as-nails act and find sympathy for her.

While Terabithia has the look of a mystical world, it is consistently shown to be the product of the children's imaginations. That's not to say there's little spiritual content in Bridge to Terabithia. To the contrary. Leslie seems thrilled to attend church with Jess' family. After singing "The Old Rugged Cross" and listening to the sermon, she gushes to Jess and Maybelle that the "whole Jesus thing is interesting ... I think it's beautiful."

There are a number of put-downs and crude words in this movie, earning it it's PG rating. Though, no drug or alcohol content. For full details, please visit: http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0003081.cfm

In this movie, Jess and Leslie value kindness, compassion, forgiveness and not just courage, but moral courage. But by introducing the subject of death, the film will naturally force families to think a little bit harder before rounding up everybody including little Sarah Jane and heading to the mall. Families faced with their own tragic loss may consider Terabithia a bridge to therapeutic discussion. But parents whose children have been spared such pain may not be ready for a Hollywood tearjerker to introduce it to them. And, indeed, this coming-of-age tale about a dreamer's positive influence raises more questions than it answers, and it leaves a lingering sadness.

Additionally, Movie Ministry Weekly, states that Bridge to Terebitha is one of the most realistic looks at playground cruelty the trials of adolescence and may open doors to further discussion with your children about what happens in their school. They call it mindful entertainment and encourage parents to view.

April 21-27 is the National TV Turn-off Week. A couple in our church recommended a great book they read last year during this week: Fixing Our Eyes. They bought copies this year and we handing them out to parents last week. Hopefully they will make an impact.

I also found another site with some free Narnia Curriculum. It seems to be for elementary. A little younger than what I am using for our Adventure Group

http://www.outreach.com/print/articlef.asp?article_name=p-narniacurriculumpdf&sid=4809360042ACE17F

This last Saturday, we had some outings for the kids in our program. The two younger groups (ages 4-5) had a pajama party at the church from 6-8pm. The kids came in their pajamas, we played some games, read some stories, had some snacks and then they went home. It was open to everyone, but we only had girls attending. It was a very pink party to say the least. I, being a highly-type-A person, had everything planned. However, I overestimated the attention span of a 4 year old. I planned a pillow-case race, similar to a sack race, and that was to last about 10 minutes, but in reality, it lasted about 45 seconds. Oops! The night continued in this manner, but the girls came up with some ideas on their own, from hide-and-seek, to curling up in their sleeping bags and pretending they were catepillars in cocoons, to long balloon fights. It was a blast, though not what I planned. I got a lot of game ideas from Family Fun online, and a great cake idea as well.

The oldest boy group went on a "Camping Adventure". One of our leaders has a connection to someone with some old property with old cars laying around, so the boys went there, built a fire, had some hot dogs and others snacks, and ran around, and smashed some cars. Not exactly an event I would have planned, but the boys seemed to love it.

We've also had a egg-decorating party and a brunch with the older girls. Both were hits.

Children's Minstry Magazine has recently begun offering a newsletter for parents through their website. It's about $8.25 a month, and three pages long. It seems to have some good discussion starters for families, but I wasn't overly impressed with their reviews of movies and music -- a little too generic. To check it out: www.theparentlink.com. It might be a great option for ministries who don't have the time or people to write their own, but still want to give parents resources.

We are currently in Burkina Faso, Africa and learning lots about what the Lord is doing here. Internet is scarce, so blogs will be a little less for the next week or so. I can't wait till I get back though and can report on all the wonderful things we have seen so far. We've had lots of opportunity to tour different children's ministries and interact with the Missionary Kids, so there will be lots to share! Until then!

May 3 - 16, 2008

While I was away in Africa, I had two substitutes for the Adventure Group. I followed up with one already and she let me know that during lesson time, the kids got to talking about different religions. One girl said, "I know there are at least three religions that will get you to heaven: Judiasm, Christianity, and Islam". The teacher tried to correct her, but she was a little caught off guard, so it wasn't a totally put-together presentation. Another preteen responded with, "Yeah, sometimes I think that Christianity is one big joke". Though these comments seem a little alarming coming from our "Christian" kids, I am encouraged in a way because they are finally stepping outside the "safe answers".

I addressed the differences between Judiasm and Christianity the next week. Since we are still in our Narnia series, I used an illustration from the newly released Prince Caspian movie. In the movie, Lucy looks across a great chasm and sees Aslan. She knows that he wants the children to follow him, but the others don't believe her because they didn't see him, plus they don't see how they can get across. Peter, who is feeling a bit prideful at this point, decides to go his own way since there's no real proof Aslan was really there. Later, Susan asks Lucy "Why didn't I see Aslan?" and Lucy responds, "Maybe beause you didn't really want to."

I explained to the group that people who follow other religions are a lot like Susan. They don't see Christ because they don't really want to. We explored a number of different biblical prophecies -- I'll have to post them later. We talked about how Jesus wasn't the Messiah they were expecting because he didn't free them from the oppressive empire, but he was the Messiah none the less. The kids seem to respond well, and by the end of the lesson, they were saying, "Yeah, okay. I guess Christianity is right." I was glad for this in a way, but it just seemed a little too easy. They didn't really have any questions or arguements, so I wondered if they were really processing what they were hearing.

I've been doing a little digging into Islam as well, and plan to talk about that next week. Until then!

May 21, 2008

I know, I haven't gotten to reporting on our Burkina trip, but don't worry, it's coming! Last night, we had an incredible experience, and I want to get it blogged before the details leave me!

We have been partnering with a local church to do some multicultural services (ours is a mostly white church while theirs is a mostly black church). They were having a youth revival week, and invited us to serve as a worship team for one night. I admit, I probably wouldn't have gone if I wasn't involved with with Worship team, so I am mighty glad that God roped me into that! :)

We sang our songs, and then settled in to hear the very enthusiastic guest preacher. He was an evangelist by calling, and from a Southern Baptist background, so you as you can imagine, things got pretty rowdy. I thought much of what he said might have been going over the kids' heads, but they all seemed to be paying attention pretty well, even the kids from our church who are used to having a 20 minute sermon, tops. This sermon was more like an hour and a half!

On Wednesday night, I was feeling frustrated with one of the girls in our Adventure group because she was so distracted, and was distracting others with her jokes and laughter. I was trying to explain to the kids about the spiritual battle we are all in, and it was like Satan was purposely putting up road blocks so the kids wouldn't hear it, especially this one girl. Well, it just so happens that the same girl was serving in the worship team, so she got another dose of "be prepared for the spiritual battle we are in" from this guest preacher. The sermon was amazing, and at the end, he had all the kids come to the front for a blessing.

He blessed the little ones, prayed over them and sent them back to their seats. He kept the older ones there and began to prophesy (in a way) about them. Now, I'm definately not charismatic, but after returning from Africa and hearing about the validity the missionaries put on Spiritual warfare and the leading of the Spirit, I was a little more open to last night's events. He starting with this young girl from the Adventure Group. He told her that she was a special child, and that God had big plans for her. He said that he knew that people at school didn't understand her, especially when she tried to do the right thing, but to hang in there. I could see Pastor on the stage tearing up. I was tearing up, and the girl's mother was tearing up, because it all rang so true. I knew this girl was special, she was always trying to do the right thing, and I had felt for a long time that Satan was really battling for her soul. She returned to her seat, eyes full of tears and just sobbed. I hope that he accepted Christ last night, I will be following up soon. I think that because she had grown up in a Christian home, she had never really owned her faith, but this night, she was challenged to do so. I think she really felt the Spirit for the first time. She was really shaken up about it, and I think the Lord is preparing her for some big changes. I hope to get a chance to really follow up and mentor her, because I'm excited to see what the Lord is going to do!

Two other girls from our church were up front, from our youth group. Not my department, but I've been really trying to mentor these girls. I know them pretty well, and what he said about them rang very true as well. One he said reminded him of Deborah the judge, and how she was going to be a leader. I can already see this in the works, and I hope this girl continues to be faithful in her calling. Life is tough for teens in high school, and I am going to be diligent in keeping these girls covered in prayer!

May 22, 2008

We went to go see the newly released Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. I had been advertising it for several weeks, through our weekly newsletter, and even showed a trailer to the adult prayer meeting. We showed the trailer a few times in the Adventure Group class. The materials I received from Interlinc reccommended we make a big deal out of the whole thing, buying extra tickets and giving them away as prizes for various things. They suggested ordering Turkish delight, bringing in a red carpet for the kids to walk on, buying out an entire theatre, etc. While I think all these things are great ideas, they require money. Frankly, I spend a lot on Children's Ministry, and I have to be careful on big events like this. I couldn't justify all the expense, especially because I would be in Africa two weeks prior to the "big event" and couldn't really push it like it needed to be pushed. I settled for an average event this time. I figured the movie could carry itself.

Well, average event is exactly what we got. We invited the entire congregation and all kids over the age of 10 (the movie was a little violent). We made it front page news in the newsletter. We announced it on Sunday morning. But, we got two from the Adventure Group, some teens, and three or four from the congregation. Not exactly what you would call a blow-out event. Granted, I had to change the date at the last minute, but I'm not sure that would have made any difference. We went during the day, to cut down on costs, but that made it seem a little more "ho-hum" I think. People came in spurts, so we didn't even end up all sitting together.

I'm not sure what I could have done differently. I could have sat outside the congregation and sold tickets every week for two weeks prior to the event. I could have ran around and picked up all the Adventure kids myself so we could talk about what we expected and then what our favorite parts were. We could have had a party immediately following the movie to highlight some of the biblical parallels right away. Whatever the plan, I could have done more. I was disappointed in the results, but I have only myself to blame! Next event will be more of an event, that's for sure!

May 24, 2008

June 1, 2008

I love our baptismal services. You get to hear people's life stories and you get to hear how uniquely God has worked in each of their lives. This baptismal was no different. There were several people in our church, eight actually, who were baptized tonight. Some I know a little, some I didn't recognize at all.

One woman got up, and I don't remember ever seeing her. She told about her parents religion growing up, how she respected it, but she just didn't think it was for her. She wandered from faith most of her life, but then a blessing in disguise came. Her mother, who attended our church, broke her shoulder. Because this woman knew how much her mother loved church, she committed to taking her every week. By the end of the first month, she knew she needed Christ. She went forward, accepted the Lord and was now getting baptized! How exciting! My husband and I were just talking about how we couldn't remember the last time someone was saved in our church, but here we had one!

The young girl at Mt. Ebal was also baptized! She claims that night at the revival was the night she accepted Christ as her Savior! She was too shy to say anything at the baptismal (a little stage fright I suspect), but it was still so exciting to see her enter into this relationship with Christ. I can't wait to see what God's power will do through her.

Tonight in Adventure Group, we only had one kid. However, through God's grace that was the exact child that was questioning the different religions, so I thought this was a great opportunity for some one on one. I talked to her about what I found in Lee Strobel's book: The Case for Faith, in that all religions claim some exclusivity, not just Christianity. We say that Jesus is the only way to heaven, but Hindu's say that you must believe in Karma and reincarnation to attain "heaven". Muslims say that the Koran is the only way, and even that should only be read in Arabic. There are "only way" rules for all world religions, yet Christianity is the only one targeted for it's arrogance. Interesting.

We watched a video on Lee Strobel's website where a former Muslim explains why Christians and Muslims cannot possibly worship the same God. Short, but very effective. We also talked about the parable of the elephant (see my blog on other religions and worship for the full scope on this). The lesson went quickly, but the kid was like "This makes so much more sense!". We have to make sure our kids are getting both sides of the story.

The rest of the kids worked on their Service Project for this quarter. This time, we made postcards to send to teens that were at Group work camps, helping to fix up houses for people. It didn't seem as meaningful to me, but maybe that's because I wasn't out there participating with everyone. I miss being in the hustle and bustle of things, but I am glad I was involved in the start up of the Adventure Group. Now that it's on its feet a little, I might start to look for someone to take over it, at least in part. I would like to have a chance to interact with all the kids a little more.

At one of our children's workers meeting, someone suggested getting Bibles for the younger children so they would all have the same one -- making lesson time a little more coordinated. The Children's Church leader and I previewed a few and found some that were good. The church approved it last night, and we will be soon ordering Children's Bibles for kids that are turning four. They will keep this Bibles until they are eight, and then the receive an adventure Bible, more appropriate for their age.

The things we really looked for were good illustrations, something that would keep the kids engaged and a collection of more than your "standard Sunday school" stories. Karen Henley put out a good one, great illustrations, but the one we went with had many lesser known stories that we thought would be great for the kids to learn about. It was called the "Read and Share Bible for Children".

If your church doesn' already have some system in place for getting kids Bibles, I would reccommend it. With our reward sticker charts, we give kids stickers for bringing their Bibles. However, for unchurched kids, this seems a little unfair, so we always have Bibles (at least New Testaments) on hand to give out, so the new kids don't feel like the deck is stack against them. They also have it during lesson time, making them feel a little more part of the group.

We haven't had Vacation Bible School at our church for two years now, due to the building construction and because there was no one to run it. This year, plans are in full swing, and we are excited. I'm running the VBS this year, and am I little behind already! We got a curriculum from Group Publishing, and it comes with a timeline starting six months prior to the event. This is great, as long as I stick with it!

We had a meeting about it recently, and one of our volunteers suggested the kids marching in a local 4th of July parade to advertise for our VBS. What a great idea! I have to contact the township to see what we need to do, but I think this is goign to be a super idea. We thought about doing advertisement by handing out mini bottles of water with our name and event info printed on the outside. We'll see!

For our costumes, I have a friend who makes great t-shirts for a really reasonable price (contact me if you want more information). We will make "Official Park Staff" t-shirts for all our workers. We always make costumes to match the theme, but sometimes the costumes are really time consuming and expensive. This will be easy for everyone! Plus of course, we'll get some leis for festivity!

If any of you out there has done this particular VBS, let me know if you have any pointers! We're excited to have a wet and wild time, riding the wave of God's love!

For the past few weeks, we've only had one in attendance for our Adventure group (ages 11-14) due to softball and baseball, and other sports. I felt bad because this girl had no one to hang out with, but I made special effort to adapt the lesson to her life and to talk about what was going on. There are only about 4 that regularly attend in this age bracket, so it wasn't a huge absent problem, but no one likes to be alone, right?

Well, after last week, I shot this girl off an email to thank her for attending and I said "I hope you had fun". She wrote back right away and said she had "sooooo" much fun and can't wait till next week. I just wanted to send out a word of encouragement for all those who suffer with low attendance in the summer. Those that are still coming value your time. You are still making an impact, maybe an even bigger one because you have one-on-one time. Keep it up!

I've always wanted a library in our church, but there's never been enough space to dedicate a room to it or anything. I knew there were great books out there that I wanted our students to be reading, so instead of waiting for the space, we've started a mini library for our Adventure Group. We gathered up a few of our own personal books, some books donated by congregational members who have preteens, and we grabbed some at a local book sale. I just put the books in the room, on one shelf in our cupboards, and I told the Sunday School teacher about it. Sunday I noticed, one of the girls had already borrowed one of the books! This just goes to show, you don't have to wait for a big project to get something started. Just start. One or two books, 20 or 30, it doesn't matter, as long as they are reading and learning more about Christ! There will be lots of opportunity in the summer to gather up books from big book sales at libraries or schools or at garage sales. Keep your eyes open. If you're not sure about a book, buy it and check online for reviews. Books are normally only around 50 cents, and you could find some great resources!

I found this video on youtube, and it's a good (not too long) one to review a few key elements in Children's Ministry, such as key training events and times, vision, and core values. Good resource to view before you run your own Team training meeting.

Well put together - worth taking a look at.

Kids in our program are generally excited about bringing their friends to the program, until they turn 11 that is, especially if they are a boy! We need to find some way to combat this (if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment). I am hoping to turn the leadership of the Adventure group over to one of our men (Adventure group is ages 11-14), and to make it a little more active/sports oriented. That's step one, but I know there has to be more that we can do to draw these kids in. Pre-teen is a crucial age and we need to make sure we are keeping kids actively involved so they will know how to fight against the tricks of Satan.

June 18, 2008

Well, I think I have actually found a completely online training program. I watched a sample video, and it was insightful, inspirational, and helpful. I browsed over the course content, and it looked like there was lots to learn through this program. Apparently, this is a site sponsored by a college, so students of this program are actually students of the Bible college (more details on the website). The registration fee is $25 and then courses are $90 a credit. Very reasonable, especially if the accredidation claim is valid. I will have to do some digging into this. The samples and free workshops seem very promising, and could be great for training purposes. The course work is comprised of online lectures and assignments -- estimated time each week is 5-7 hours per course. Might be something worth taking a look at.

June 18, 2008

Tonight we moved onto a new subject. I finished passing out the Narnia promo materials. We had two guests in our Adventure Group, and they were happy to get some cool posters too. We started talking about prayer tonight with the "Prove It Prayer" book. The first chapter talks about how we can tune out at dinner and not hear what's going on -- even if we are with people. They same is true with God. Just because He is always with us does not mean we are tuned in to what he is saying. The kids were all doodling on notebook paper, which of course, I found disconcerning. I have read that this age group (preteen and under) are classic multitaskers and they actually listen better when their hands are occupied, so I let them doodle as long as they weren't talking to each other. They seem to interact well, always had an answer for the questions I asked and seem to really contemplate the various quotes I wanted them to think about and reflect on. Of course, it didn't seem like they were paying attention, but maybe they were. This is definately an "old school/new school" tension, and I consider myself pretty new school. I can see why it's hard to keep up on children's education and ministry!

Anyway, the lesson went well, and we went outside to play a game. We had a boy guest, and he was the only one who didn't really participate in the running. I found out later that it was because he had a cut on his foot.

After the game, we joined the adults in prayer meeting, which was the first time we had ever done anything like this. We took prayer requests before we went in, and wrote them down. We also took a copy of the adult prayer requests. I told the kids we would go to the altar and if they wanted to pray out loud, fine, if they wanted to pray silently, that was okay too. I was a little nervous about this activity, because we would be spending about eight minutes in prayer -- a long time to these kids. I thought it would be great exposure for our regulars, but what would our guests think? I had to just rely on God. I prayed about the night's schedule and I felt like this is what He wanted us to do. I prayed out loud when we got to the altar, but I was the only one. I could hear one of our girls praying quietly to herself, but I don't know about everyone else. How do you gage something like that?

All in all, I think it was good. I hope our guests return! Next week, (hopefully, if everyone turns in their permission slips), we will be heading to a destination unknown for an "on the spot lesson". Should be good!

June 18, 2008

This week, we had a great activity that illustrated how people are drowning in their sins, unable to escape. We made milkshakes with ice cream, milk, and blue food coloring, and then poured each student a cup. We said the milkshake was like a sea of sin. Then we dropped teddy grahams -- these are the people surrounded by their sins. They are trapped, and there's nothing for them to hold onto. They may be okay for a little while, but before long they start to sink. The sin takes over. They need someone to save them! We put little crosses on the spoons and then fished out the teddy grahams: this is like Jesus saving us from our sins. We couldn't have gotten out by ourselves, so Jesus rescued us!

This was a very tasty and creative way to illustrate the gospel message!

I read a book once called the "Be With Factor" and it talked about mentoring as bringing the kids or teens along with you on your normal life. I was pretty skeptical about this approach, since it would be a little boring for the kids. The book also advocated for finding individuals that are ready to be mentored. You can tell, by their willingness to get together, the amount they open up, their availability, etc. I discounted this advice because I figured if a kid needs to be mentored, you should do whatever it takes to mentor them, pursuing them until it works out. At the time, I was mentoring (or at least trying to) a pre-teen girl, but she was frequently unavailable. She couldn't make special meetings or get-togethers, she didn't want to attend movies, etc. I thought maybe this was just a bad age for mentoring, and I would focus more on the younger kids or older kids. I called another family to hang out with a girl (age 8), but she had former plans. Her sister, pre-teen, however, was jumping at the chance to go out. I took her to Walmart to pick out our 4th of July parade materials, then we went to Starbucks and just hung out. It was great. It was easy, it was very "be with" and she was ready to be mentored. She's anxious to go again. In conclusion, you really have to pray and search for those that are ready to be mentored. Just because you get along well in church doesn't mean they are ready for more committment and trying to pursue that will only frustrate you and maybe drive them away. Don't try to hard to do special things every time. The younger sister (age 8) likes coming over and making dinner with me, and then eating with my husband and I. Simple. We were doing that anyway, but it's special to her because she's ready to be mentored. Don't be discouraged if your first couple "mentees" don't work out -- there are always more kids. Just keep trying new activities and asking out new kids (same gender of course) and see what happens. Keep the Lord involved, and you may be surprised at what you find!

For some advertising for our VBS program this year, we are going to march in the fourth of July parade! The youth group leader suggested this, and it was easy to get it done. I called the township, and they were happy to send out the paperwork. A guy in our church has a trailer we can use, and another guy agreed to pull the float with his truck. Our theme is Waterworks Theme Park, where kids can ride the wave of God's love, so we're doing blue fabric on the sides to look like waves. One of the parents has tons of flotation devices and porch furniture, so we'll include that, and mini-pools! We ordered candy from Oriental trading along with some beach balls, a cardboard palm tree, and some clearance banners --- two lines of personalization on a four foot banner for $4.50!! It was was a great find!

This Wednesday we will be building the float as a team, and I hope all goes well!

This week was our first destination unknown trip. All the kids brought their slips, so my husband took them out. I was wanted to be with the little kids more and he was up for the challenge, so we switched for the night. The Scripture passage was when Paul was talking about "running the race", so the destination was a track. I planned to take them to a local school, and then the mom's suggested another local school because it has a nicer track, but whoops!, that school was having football practice! That was a little set-back, but still there was enough time for the lesson. My husband said the kids were a little distracted, and they didn't really seem to connect running on a track to Paul's analogy of the Christian life. This group is not entirely into "critical thinking" though. I would say it was a good first attempt. We'll do it again in a month and see how it goes.

We've been having some problems staffing our children's church program. Our director really wanted to go to one teacher a month, but was having trouble finding volunteers to fill such a position. She tried it that way for a few months, but the volunteers really couldn't sustain it. Why is this? We know that the regular, consistant teacher is best for the kids, but how do we really make this happen while respecting the teacher's need for spiritual growth as well? Eventually, she had to go back to one teacher a week, and keep rotating, but I wish that we could make some improvements here to deliver a better program for the kids. We're going to be previewing a new curriculum by David C. Cook called "Noah's Park". We'll let you know how it goes!

July 1, 2008

Natasha Bedingfield: Singer 

Coming to us from England, this singer started her career with a Christian band, The DNA Algorithm. Her latest album, Pocketful of Sunshine, contains a number of songs about her life. Children's Ministry Magazine tells us that Bedingfield is a strong supporter of humanitarian causes such as Global Angels and others. This magazine reports that she "takes pride in her Christian girl image and refuses to be something she's not to sell records". They recommend her new album as positive and clean.

Plugged In online echoes their review saying that "With one minor exception, her latest album is pure Sunshine." The exception is in her song, "Who Knows" where the singer is falling for a guy "too fast" and against her better judgment ("My self-control, it won't hold up for very long"). Other than this, Bedingfield has a good grip on valuing yourself for who you are, and not worrying about other's opinions. She values true love and realizes it may take awhile to find.

My take: Her tune, "Pocketful of Sunshine" is fun and catchy. For now, Natasha seems like a good bet.

Kung-Fu Panda (movie)

Though this movie has several positive elements, such as using your gifts and talents