Kids Ministry

Dedicated to helping Kids Ministry leaders in their mission of making disciples

Christmas, Encouragement, Enlistment, Kids Ministry, Volunteers

A Christmas Miracle: Help for Last Minute Volunteers

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Twas the week before Christmas
and all through the halls,
Not a teacher was stirring,
they were all at the malls.

The kidmin was restless
Not sleeping a wink
Would she have teachers in place?
Her heart started to sink.

When all of a sudden
She remembered that God
Had not failed her yet
He would send her a squad!

She need only prepare
and be ready for who
God would send ‘cause He cares
He will always come through!

You’re not alone! Kids ministers and directors everywhere struggle with finding volunteers at the holidays. But remember, God loves these kids even more than you do. He will provide—sometimes at the last minute—but He does. (Not His fault…sometimes people just don’t listen when He calls!)

What YOU can do is be faithful to do your part and be ready for who He sends. 

  • Mark a Children’s Bible at Luke 2:1-20. Include a preschool version written out for less experienced leaders. Suggest that the teacher or an older child read the Bible story while the kids act out the parts.
  • Provide individually gift-wrapped Nativity pieces. As each piece is unwrapped, tell where that piece fits in the Bible story. Use child-safe pieces for preschoolers to play with. Encourage kids to act out the story as they play.
  • Provide a simple craft.  Have all the supplies readily available in a tub.
  • Make Christmas cards for friends or family using construction paper, markers, stickers, etc. Print Bible verse labels to be used in the card.
  • Provide a coloring sheet that depicts the Christmas story. Encourage the teacher to sit with the kids as they color and talk about the picture.
  • Take the kids Christmas caroling through the hallways. Add instruments for more fun! 
  • Kids love to wrap and unwrap gifts! Provide small boxes, wrapping paper, removable tape, and ribbons. Preschoolers will enjoy pretending to give each other gifts again and again!
  • Give tips on guiding conversations away from the secular points of Christmas back to the celebration of Christ’s birth. If kids begin talking about gifts from Santa, remind them that God loves us so much, He gave us His Son, Jesus. Or, talk about the gifts that the wise men brought Jesus when they visited Him later.

Lastly, show appreciation to your volunteers (both last-minute and regulars) by providing Christmas snacks or a small gift. (Maybe even a future “parents’ night out” at no cost for those with kids!)

Now relax!
Stop your fretting
And don’t be surprised
when God shows up big
He always provides!

Sunday morning went great!
Not one tear was shed
By a child or a teacher,
They were happy instead.

The day went so well,
I heard that it’s said
The kidmin was joyful
The Good News was spread!

She went home rejoicing
And exclaimed with delight,
Merry Christmas to all!
And to all, a goodnight!

Klista Storts serves as an Editorial Ministry Specialist for Lifeway Kids. Before coming to Lifeway, she served as the Weekday and Preschool Specialist at the Tennessee Baptist Convention and as Director of Preschool Ministries at churches in Oklahoma and Tennessee. Klista has a passion for equipping leaders to share the love of Christ and lay foundations for conversion in the lives of kids.

Christmas, Crafts, Fun, Uncategorized

Fun Friday: Graham Cracker Nativity

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Check out this fun Christmas activity to do with your family.


Items Needed:
• Graham crackers
• Icing
• Animal crackers
• Bear-shaped crackers
• Shredded coconut
• Paper plates
• Plastic knives

  1. Use icing and graham crackers to create a Nativity scene.
  2. Add animal crackers to represent animals that may have been present and
    shredded coconut for the manger.
  3. Use bear–shaped crackers to represent Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the shepherds.
  4. Remind your family that Jesus came to the earth to share His love with people.
Christmas, Family, Fun

Holiday Season Bucket List!

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By Sarah Humphrey

The holidays are upon us in all their splendid, colorful, and beautiful glory. What occurs in the next few months can be settled into a child’s mind for many years to come. Memories are made during this season that will turn into traditions, and those traditions may be handed down for generations to come.

How we spend our holiday season with the children around us will undoubtedly be one of the best investments we make. With a pull toward consumption and over-spending, culture can easily encourage us to go in the direction opposite of Christ. We can be pushed into a hurry mentality, with high emotion, a lot of sugar, and a loss of order, but what kids love most about the holidays is the presence, joy, comfort, and connection that Jesus offers through the celebrations of gratitude and His life.  

Here is a list of small, intentional activities that foster connection, joy, and the life of Jesus. You can share these with your child or the children you serve through the holiday season:

  1. Create a simple, holiday bucket list with your children. What are a few activities or traditions they would like to see fulfilled during this season? Hearing where they want to connect will give you keys to helping them develop their faith walk!
  2. Think presence over presents! Try reading a story together that celebrates the season, playing a board game that teaches something valuable, or engaging in a form of service that helps kids express the spirit of generosity.
  3. Get in the kitchen together! Bake bread, cookies, or a sweet treat that can nourish the soul and the body. Give a few to your neighbors or friends!
  4. Sing a song. The holidays are the perfect time for learning new songs, Christmas carols, and even karaoke! 
  5. Celebrate giving! Choose a day to have your kids do several chores around the house or classroom.  Allow them to earn a “star” for each chore. After they’ve helped clean up, have them count all the stars, and then proceed to “buy” a gift for someone else using their earnings.
  6. Go see the lights! Take an evening to make some hot chocolate, hop in the car, and drive around town looking at holiday lights and decorations.
  7. Write a few handwritten notes, or color a few pictures for those in nursing homes in your area.  During the holidays, it can brighten the day of the residents to find a thoughtful note from a young one!
  8. Pray more out loud. Allow the time around the table to enhance your prayers, gratitude, and offerings to God during this time of year (and throughout it!).
  9. Exercise in the cold weather! Go for a crisp walk together with a hat, coat, and scarf and breathe in the frosty air. It not only enhances your mood, but it also increases energy and helps make the inside days run smoother.
  10. Slow down. Sometimes it’s easier said than done, but less is always more. Enjoy the nearness of Jesus, be compassionate with those around you, give to others from the peace in your heart, and celebrate the gift of God in every memory made.

Sarah is a wife and homeschool mom to three kids while also working as an artist, author, life coach, and voice actor.  Her writing and doodling can be found in her devotional, “40 Days to a Joyful Motherhood” and her voice in several commercials, children’s books, and audiobooks. Her education and love for holistic science also leads her to teach small workshops on health, wellness, and creativity. She loves encouraging women and kids to embrace self-care, utilize their gifts, and become leaders in the community around them.  Her latest devotional for tweens, “Solomon Says” releases this November. Until then, you can follow her Instagram @the.table.and.bath!

Christmas, Devotional, Discipleship, Family, Family Ministry, Kids Devotions

2021 Family Advent Guide—Free

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I love Christmas and can hardly wait to hang Christmas lights outside my home and put up our Christmas tree and other inside decorations. It’s definitely one of my favorite times of the year! 

But the Christmas season often carries a wide range of emotions for many people. Some people look forward to it all year long, while some struggle throughout the season due to loss, weariness, and loneliness. It is important to me to be sympathetic and sensitive to those who grieve or struggle during the Christmas season. We have all experienced seasons of weariness, and it is important during Christmas that we walk alongside those who are weary or hurting. But, we don’t walk with others in an effort simply to lift their spirits for a season. We walk with purpose. We walk with hope and joy. When we gather together at Christmas, we do so rejoicing, not in our circumstances, but that the Lord has come!

During the Christmas season, hope, joy, peace, and love are almost tangible, aren’t they? Even those who are non-religious seem to be more open to being more kind and joyful during the Christmas season. We sing together. We exchange gifts. We smile more. And as Christians, we have a great opportunity to share the true meaning of Christmas along with the hope, joy, peace, and love that Jesus brings with those in our families, neighborhoods, and communities. 

As church leaders, many of us are looking for ways to minister to families, both those who experience joy and sadness, and equip them to have meaningful conversations about Jesus in their homes as they celebrate and create new memories during the Christmas season. The 2021 Family Advent Guide is a great way to encourage families to discuss, read, pray, and do family activities that are centered around Jesus’ birth this Christmas season. 

Sign up for your free Family Advent Guide here!

Tips for next steps:

  • Download and print copies for the families in your church.
  • Distribute family connection cards each week.
  • Email the PDF and/or connection cards out to families.
  • Post the link to this page or a page on your church’s website on your social media pages to encourage families to utilize the devotional guide.
  • Consider ways during each week of Advent to encourage families to spend time together this Christmas learning about the hope, love, joy, and peace that Jesus brings to us.
Christmas, Evangelism, Family, Gospel-Centered

Family Christmas Traditions That Celebrate Jesus

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Christmas is finally here – a warm and welcome sight in a year where the ‘weary world’ is truly ready to usher in the season with eager and open hearts. Because this year has been so difficult for many of us for various reasons, it might be tempting to tilt our focus on things that don’t point to why we celebrate Christmas. We might want to buy even MORE toys for our kids, put up MORE lights around the house and yard, and bake even MORE cookies to devour while watching even MORE Christmas movies!  While I am wrestling with doing more of these inevitable traditions, I want to share some ideas for how families can wrap around favorite traditions to truly help celebrate our Savior, Jesus—now more than ever. 

  1. Celebrate with scripture:  Many families read the “Christmas story” from one of the gospels on Christmas eve or morning.  While this is a beautiful tradition, let me encourage you to maximize it by reading scripture each day leading up to the BIG day!  This can be done through an Advent reading plan or by creating a Jesse tree that highlights stories throughout scripture that have prophecies and promises of the Savior to come. A quick google or pinterest search will lead you to numerous choices for these kinds of reading plans. My family has enjoyed making a Jesse tree for many years by coloring simple ornaments that represent each story and hanging them on a tree made with sticks in a flower vase! 
  2. Celebrate with symbols: Help children of all ages learn about Jesus by calling attention to the Christmas symbols that surround us during the season.  Here are a few ideas:
    1. Hot chocolate with candy canes: As you enjoy a hot cup of cocoa, add a candy cane treat to stir up the goodness! Candy canes represent the shepherds who came to visit Jesus who, no doubt, carried a staff. Even better, they represent that Jesus is our shepherd and we are his sheep. The red represents his blood shed for us and white reflects how he washes our sins away.  
    2. Decorating the tree: Most of us put up Christmas trees (either a real one carefully chosen at a farm or tree lot; or an artificial one put together each year).  As your family places ornaments on the tree, talk about the meaning of an evergreen tree (even if yours is artificial!) and focus on how Jesus gives us everlasting life.  Place a star on top or as an ornament and talk about not only the star of Bethlehem that guided the wise men, but also how Jesus is the light of the world! 
    3. Three gifts: Some families choose to give their children three gifts that represent the three kings who brought Jesus gold, frankincense and Myrrh. While the wise men brought Jesus gifts, Jesus himself is the ultimate gift to us! Don’t miss the opportunity to talk about the gift of salvation this season as you unwrap gifts under the tree. 
  3. Celebrate with service: Jesus came to seek and save the lost, heal the sick, and serve the poor. His last command to us was, “go make disciples.” Christmas is a wonderful time to be the hands and feet of Jesus through serving others.  Help your family find ways to serve in the community around you such as gathering items for a food bank, donating to a homeless shelter or writing letters to those in nursing homes. Even though it may be difficult to serve in person this year, we can still show the love of Jesus through our resources, talents and prayers.

Though many of these traditions are nothing new to us, perhaps this is the year we slow down and truly rest in the simple things in order to prepare our hearts for celebrating Jesus in all that we do for Christmas.  Let this be the year we don’t miss a single opportunity to count every blessing and every trial as pure joy. Afterall, this unspeakable joy comes from Jesus himself. 

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 1 Peter 1:8 KJV

Christmas

5 Ways to Help Kids Give at Christmas

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Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year. Or is it?

When you’re a kid, it can quickly become the hardest time of the year. Lists are made, hopes are high, sugar is abundant, sleep is scarce, nerves are on edge, and meltdowns abound.

We want the very best for our kids. Sadly though, in an attempt to give our kids the very best, we can unintentionally teach that Christmas revolves around them. Greediness and selfishness can creep their ugly heads into the sweetest of hearts. 

There is no better time than right now to remind kids, and ourselves, of what Christmas is all about – what God demonstrated that first Christmas – giving the purest of love with an unselfish heart that can never be matched.  

This year, let’s commit to help our kids follow God’s example. Let’s bring it all back to His intent—to show love. Here are a few ideas to get you started on this path.

  1. Bring joy to someone who has had a tough year. (That shouldn’t be too hard this year!) Make cards and handmade ornaments to give to neighbors, people living in nursing homes, and others who might feel forgotten. 
  2. Encourage kids to shop for a child who might not otherwise receive gifts. As you shop, challenge your child not to point out things that he wants. If this happens, and it probably will, steer your child back onto the path of giving.
  3. Let your child do chores to earn money to buy gifts. She’ll discover the joy of giving from her own money can be even greater than receiving!
  4. Take your child grocery shopping for food to donate to a food pantry or to take to a family in need.
  5. Challenge your child to secretly do good deeds for family members during the month of December (and beyond)! Teach them that the truest gifts of love are done without praise or the expectation of receiving something in return. 

Enjoy this time teaching your kids and reminding yourself about what makes this truly “the most wonderful time of year!”

Blessings my friends!

Christmas, Volunteers
Christmas, Fun, Uncategorized

Front Porch Secret Santa

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By Ravin McKelvy

For many of us, we have found ourselves having to get creative with our Christmas traditions. With COVID numbers rising and the weather getting cooler, it can be difficult to find new ways to connect with our kids. While there are many things that may not happen, we can still make this a special time filled with good memories. One way your ministry can do this is by having a front porch Secret Santa.

You may not be able to do an in-person Secret Santa, so this is the perfect way to let your kids know you’re thinking of them. Here’s how you do it:

Pull together some fun, small gifts. These can be stuffed animals, fidget spinners, etc. You could also include a pocket Bible or meaningful book.
Wrap your gifts and include a note that says something like, “Merry Christmas from your Secret Santa at [insert church/ministry name].” It may be fun to also add a memory verse or the verse from that week’s sunday school lesson.
Drop the gifts on the front porch of the kids in your class. Be sure not to be seen when you’re dropping them off. You can ring the doorbell or simply leave the gift on the porch to be found.

Although this season may not look like what we’re used to, we can still create special memories for our kids ministries. Have fun with this front porch Secret Santa and reminding kids about the true gift of this season.

Christmas, Evangelism, Uncategorized

A Greater Gift: Talking with Kids About the Meaning of Christmas in a Materialistic World

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by Alyssa Jones

As I worked from the table in the formal-dining-room-turned-pandemic-home-office, I spied my daughter tiptoe into the kitchen. She had paper, glue sticks, and safety scissors we picked up from her preschool teacher in a drive-through procession, and the 2020 Walmart toy catalog. Nearly an hour later, she came to me.

“Mommy, I want these. All of them,” she said, presenting three pages of pictures she cut out from products related to animals, the color pink, and/or baby dolls.

As the weather cools and leaves change, my 4- and 6-year-olds have both had Christmas on their minds. They frequently tell me what they want on their wish lists.

“Hey, you guys,” I stopped them one day. “Christmas isn’t all about presents. Do you remember why we celebrate Christmas?”

My first-grade son stared at me blankly. My daughter shouted, “No! It is about PRESENTS!”

OK, this is not looking good for someone who has spent the last decade writing resources for teaching children about Jesus. In my defense, they are not ignorant to the story of the nativity. Every year since they were born, we’ve talked about the true meaning of Christmas. But this important message is easily lost in a materialistic world. Here’s how I’m planning to help reorient my own kids this year. Maybe these ideas will help you too.

  1. Use repetition.
    Kids learn best from repetition. If my kids see a commercial for a toy, they decide they want it—even more so if they see it multiple times. The world is sending them messages about what is most important, so I want to guide and point them to the most important message of all: Jesus saves sinners. God came into the world as a baby. He is the reason we celebrate. We will talk about this as we make dinner, as we pick up toys, as we get ready for bed. I want them to know that Jesus is my greatest treasure, and I hope they will come to know Him as theirs as well.
  2. Observe Advent.
    Waiting is hard for kids, but we use Lifeway Kids’ Advent Guide leading up to Christmas as a daily reminder of why we celebrate. We prepare our home and our hearts to remember Jesus’ birth and its glorious implications for our lives. We have a small paper Advent tree for hanging ornaments and set aside a special time after dinner for reading the Bible, answering our kids’ questions, and anticipating Christmas.
  3. Give.
    When my daughter finished her three-page wish list, my husband gently suggested, “Wow, those are some neat toys. Do you see any on there we could buy to give to someone else? What gifts do you think your cousins would like?” We talk a lot in our house about thinking of others. “Why are you fighting with your sister? Are you thinking of her or yourself right now?” Every person’s natural bent as a sinner is an inward one, and selflessness must be practiced and learned. We readily see it in our children, but it’s a struggle for us as adults too. Make generosity a family priority and remind kids of our generous God who sent His Son for us.

We give good gifts to our children, remembering that God has given us the greatest gift in Jesus. We will intentionally talk with our kids about the meaning of Christmas in a materialistic world that tells them Christmas is all about family, presents, food, or decorations. At just the right time, God sent His Son into the world. (See Galatians 4:4.) This is good news of peace and joy for a world that so desperately needs it. I’m praying for your kids—and my own—to hear about, remember, and treasure Jesus above all else. He is God with us.

Alyssa Jones worships and serves with her husband at Refuge Franklin, a church plant outside of Nashville, Tennessee. They have three children.

Christmas

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