Connection — Ministry Leaders

Curriculum:  There are several publishers who have developed curriculum for the 1-and 2-year olds. We chose to develop our own year-long curriculum that works well for us. I share it here simply to spark ideas for what can be done. We have tweaked our curriculum several times, but this is the general plan. As you can see, we spend December through Easter focused solely on Jesus. In October and November we quickly review other people who are mentioned in the Bible including Moses, Daniel, and Jonah. We end that study by emphasizing that Jesus is the Super-Hero of the entire...

There’s an elephant in the room. Everyone sees it, but no one wants to do anything about it. Maybe no one knows what to do about the elephant or how to handle the elephant or some are hoping that if they ignore the elephant long enough it will just go away. Go ahead and open your eyes. Is the elephant still there? What is the elephant’s name? How about we call it what it is, “conflict on the team.” How did this elephant show up? Especially at our church and on our team? Look out, here comes the first lob...

Every one of us in children’s ministry has a unique story. Mine began several years ago when I was volunteering in the nursery at our church. On a semi-regular basis, I would show up and love on the little ones with no preparation and no real responsibility. I had noticed that we often didn’t have any babies, but we had a room full of toddlers who were just playing when they could be grasping biblical concepts we weren’t teaching. But my children are grown, so I wasn’t looking for involvement. That fateful Sunday, when I was volunteering in the nursery,...

The dark storm clouds erupted as I pulled my rental car up to Gate A15 at the Orlando International Airport. Johanna Townsand, my seminar co-teacher, jumped into the passenger’s seat, dripping water from her trench coat. “Hey, friend,” she said, hugging me. “Are you ready for another great adventure?” We were part of a children’s ministry team that trained leaders throughout the U.S. every fall. Our grueling travel schedule gave us time for girl talk and had truly deepened our friendship. “Guess what I did last week?” I said, “I bought a house!” “Me, too!” said Johanna. “Well, mine is...

When Jesus called His first disciples, He did not invite them to a special event or a workshop. Neither did He invite them to a series of classes held over several weeks or months. Instead, He invited them to live life with Him and with one another. That was how they were going to learn to be His followers. This is the biblical model of discipleship. Yet many churches and ministry leaders tend to make discipleship a lot more about the facts we know than the Person we know, more about what we do than about what God does while...