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Four Great Ways to Improve your ministry to children Call Barbara Galbraith, Associate Director at Arrah Wanna #1: In my opinion, the number one thing you can do today to impact the ministry to children at your church is to go home and educate yourself about what “Children’s Ministry” means in the 21st century. There are more resources out there than you could ever use in your lifetime. You do not have to recreate the wheel to have a fruitful ministry! Take some time to see what is out there – use the web; use the attached resource list; find conferences to attend; contact the children’s minister (or that GREAT Sunday School teacher that all the kids love!) at a church in your area and meet for lunch to find out what is working and what isn’t; contact several children’s ministers in your area and ask if they’d be willing to meet for a brown bag lunch once a month to network; find a training to attend; there are a hundred other things I could recommend. Call me if you want to hear them! (503.956.1371) #2: Bring your children’s ministry space into the 21st century so it is there and ready when all those kids come to your church!! Look at your classroom / meeting space w/ the eye of a 21st century child and the eyes of a safety conscious parent. Updating this space does not have to equal spending a lot of money. Fresh paint does WONDERS to a room. Go to the local bookstore or your library and buy / check out one of those home improvement magazines that features kids’ rooms – I believe Martha Stewart comes out w/ one every so often. You can get GREAT ideas for making your space visually appealing to kids - - and their families. A clean, organized, bright, happy room welcomes kids in and immediately puts them at ease. It also tells their families that you care about their kids. Don’t let your children’s ministry space become the dumping ground for all the old furniture and broken down stuff that the rest of the church building doesn’t want to use. Toys, supplies, furnishings, etc., should be clean, safe and pleasant to look at it. Don’t let that ugly old green cabinet from the men’s bathroom get shoved in the corner of your classroom!! For new toys and supplies in your rooms, have a Children’s Ministry Shower. Draw a big tree on butcher paper and hang it in the foyer. On the tree, hang flowers (if it is Springtime) or leaves (if it is Fall) and on each flower / leaf, write the name of an item that you would like to have for your classrooms. On the back, indicate an approximate cost and where the item can be purchased. Folks can either purchase the item or donate the purchase price and you can buy it. Have folks bring their purchases back to the foot of the tree (just like a Christmas tree) and when the shower is complete (two – three weeks is usually sufficient), and your rooms are stocked w/ all your wonderful new stuff, have an OPEN HOUSE after worship one day. Invite everyone to come and see your wonderful new rooms and new stuff! #3: Involve children in the worship service regularly! Make worship clipboards for your kids to use in Adult Worship; talk to your Pastor about involving children regularly in the worship service as Scripture readers; talk to your Pastor about a time for a regular Children’s message in the worship services; You don’t need a fancy children’s choir to have them involved musically in the worship service – everyone LOVES to hear kids sing or ring handbells (Kristal Bell Method out of Baton Rouge, LA, has the best bells and easiest method!). Make sure folks are not only seeing kids in worship but seeing them PARTICIPATING in the service. If children are dismissed from worship at a certain time during the service, make sure that is announced and that kids all leave together in a very visible way (i.e. – the door at the front of the sanctuary!) so that folks see and hear that there are KIDS IN WORSHIP!! #4: This should be #1 probably: Take your calling with the seriousness that God intended in regards to children: “About that time, the disciples came to Jesus to ask which of them would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven! Jesus called a small child over to Him and set the little fellow down among them, and said, ‘Unless you turn to God from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore anyone who humbles himself as this little child, is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And any of you who welcomes a little child like this because you are Mine, is welcoming Me and caring for Me. But if any of you causes one of these little ones who trusts in Me to lise his faith, it would be better for you to have a a rock tied to your neck and be thrown into the sea.’” Matthew 18: 1-6, The Living Bible Children’s Ministry Resources Read everything you can by these authors! My favorite titles, if I have them, are listed, along w/ their websites if I know them. Any of them can be found by via Google.com, or by searching on Amazon.com:
a. Expert storyteller with GREAT resources for bringing God’s Word to life!
Take a day to go through these websites:
Buy the CD’s, Tapes, Videos of these artists (you don’t NEED a worship band or praise team to lead kids’ worship – you need a CD player, a TV and VCR or DVD):
Subscribe to the free newsletters available on many of the websites listed here. Subscribe IMMEDIATELY to Children’s Ministry Magazine, published by Group Publishing. It is probably the single best, most comprehensive Children’s Ministry resource available today. This page updated 7/31/06 |