Training

If you are in children’s ministry, there is a good chance that you are NOT the boss. You could have a direct supervisor above you. You may report to the head pastor. You might even be accountable to an elder board. Regardless, you will have to learn the art of leading up: coming with a new idea, a proposed change, or a big request to someone who is above you. The Bible instructs us, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, and will give an account,” Hebrews 13:17 (NRSV). You can learn...

Have you ever wondered why God has given us the Bible? The more I read the Scriptures, the more I am convinced that God has given us His Word to reveal His power and glory, to show us His goodness and mercy, and to help us see how much He loves us. He wants us to recognize our deep need for Him and marvel at all He has done to reunite us with Himself. The problem is that very few people marvel in response to reading the Bible. The reason, I think, is that when we break apart the Bible...

Today’s culture follows a specific recipe to give their children “the best future possible”. Outsourcing. Want your child to be great in baseball? Find the best coach. Want your child to be great in science? Find the best tutor. This recipe forces a question on parents when it comes to spiritual development. If I haven’t gone through any formal religious training (or patience training for that matter), how can I teach my children to have a strong faith that holds up to the world’s forces? If you want your child to be great in faith, find the best children’s ministry....

I sometimes joke that I’m one of a dozen people in the whole world who would pick young teens as my favorite age group to teach. They are always in flux and always challenging. They are never dull and rarely docile. They are going through physical, mental, emotional and spiritual changes, perhaps at a pace they will never achieve again. I don’t understand why this isn’t everyone’s favorite age group! NEW START YOUNG TEENS are entering a new stage of development. Like newborn babies, they are constructing who they can become and what their lives will be like in the...

Remember when you first got in to children’s ministry? Remember the calling God gave you? The burden you had for children? The awesome responsibility you accepted? The urgency you felt back when it was about reaching lost kids and discipling those who had accepted Christ? What changed?You went into children’s ministry because you wanted to be a shepherd of children—and all too soon you became more sheepherder than shepherd. Just getting the kids where they need to be and hoping to have a reasonable adult-to-child ratio became a weekly battle. You feel your heart for ministry fading and you secretly...