Connection

You know you are involved in preschool ministry or have a preschooler in your midst when the infamous “Why” questions start! “Your child probably uses the why word for the same reason you do: to get information about a world they don’t fully understand. Preschoolers have only been in the world for a short while, after all, so life experience is minimal, but their wonder and imagination is huge! Here’s why: At this age, their brains are developing rapidly and they’re trying—really trying—to connect the dots in their always new and fascinating world” (Flanders, 2021). Working with and ministering to...

We need to teach our fourth and fifth graders with a unique approach as to where they are and what they’re learning. Typically, 9-11 year olds are transitioning from ‘what they think’ to ‘how they think.’ In my church’s 4th & 5th grade ministry, we consistently announce that if you’re sharing a belief in something from the Bible, you have to know where it is in the Bible. Not knowing is ok! We just want to foster a pattern of thinking or belief based on their own findings in the Bible, rather than what they’ve been taught or told. Traditionally,...

  Let’s look at this simple commandment from the master teacher, Jesus. Simply “go and make disciples.” I can hear someone saying, “You don’t know the kids in my ministry. They barely know how to sit in a chair and listen to me tell incredible Bible stories to them each week. And now you’re asking me to disciple these same kids? You gotta be kidding!” Greg Baird* poses this question, “Are you practicing informational discipleship or transformational discipleship?” Yep, you read his question right. There are a lot of churches and ministries that have become experts in informational discipleship. It’s...

My son cracked me up when he wrote, “I love you more than the games on my iPad!” So touching. But the reality is, my son is growing up in an age where he plays on electronics as much as he does with physical toys and games. I’m delighted that Lego still captures his imagination as much as Minecraft, and that he’d still rather play outside than on his X-box, but at the same time I have a love-hate relationship with iPad games. There are times I wish he didn’t have one—but I also realize that touchtablet technology is the...