Kids Ministry

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

Bible Study, Devotional, Encouragement, Leadership

Busyness Does Not Equal Godliness

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By Brooke Hill

I’m a big-time planner. In fact, I keep my very filled-out planners from college so that I can look back and reminisce about all the fun things I filled my time with. To this day, whenever I make a plan, I have to add it to my calendar to make sure that I don’t forget about it and that nothing will overlap because there’s just so much to do! 

I’m finding myself in a season of busyness again right now. Summers are always busy with fun and traveling and soaking up the sunshine, and with fall and the start of school comes the time when it feels as if somebody presses the “resume” button and everything picks up again all at once. As leaders, it’s often easy to find ourselves stretched thin between leading our kids, trying to lead/be a part of our own community groups, serving, working, and making time to prioritize relationships in our lives. It’s easy for me to feel filled and accomplished because I’m constantly doing something. But what good is that if I’m so busy that I can’t seem to find thirty minutes of my day to sit in silence with the Lord? How can we lead if we’re too busy to spend time with the Creator that we’re spending most of our time encouraging others to turn to?

There is nothing that will make us more Godly apart from humbly allowing the Lord to sanctify us. It all goes back to Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

God won’t love you any more than He always has just because your schedule is filled. Your busyness doesn’t make you a better Christian or make God love you any more than He already does. Yes, we are certainly called to make disciples and to lead others to Christ. But that call doesn’t negate the call to spend time with the Lord and to rest. God loves the woman who spends most of her nights at home alone being still and finding rest in Him just as much as He loves the leader who spends almost every night at the church or in people’s homes. God set forth the example of rest by taking a Sabbath after creating the universe; so, too, should we set an example for our girls by showing them the importance of taking time to slow down. 

Have you ever noticed the verbage in Psalm 23:1-2? “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.” To me, it sure sounds like God knows that we tend to keep going and not rest. He has to make us do it. It sure is more fun to take the initiative to proactively plan rest before we get so sick or worn out that our bodies literally force us to rest (or God brings something else along to force us to rest). Exhaustion is not God’s best for us. 

What makes you love God more? Appreciating His creation by taking a walk through nature? Playing instruments or singing? Reading a book about Him? Spending time listening to Him while running or exercising? Rest doesn’t have to look like sitting on the couch doing nothing or getting extra hours of sleep. We must be filled so that we can help others be filled. In the midst of the busyness, we must prioritize setting aside time to spend with God. It doesn’t make us any godlier to be so worn out by the end of the weekend that we’re dreading another approaching week. God loves you and He loves your heart for kingdom activities, but He also won’t love you any less for keeping one night a week for yourself.  

Make time for some quietness and calm in your week. Let Him make you lie down and lead you to still waters this week.

Brooke Hill is a recent Baylor University grad who lives in Nashville, TN. She joined the Lifeway Students team as a content specialist after graduating and is excited to contribute to equipping churches with content to help students love Jesus more. She’s led student small groups since she was a freshman in high school and still loves it today! Brooke enjoys finding ways to serve in her community, reading a good book, marveling at God’s creation through traveling, and a cozy night in with some yummy pizza.

This post originally appeared on the Lifeway Girls blog.

Discipleship, Encouragement, Leadership, Prayer

Prayer for the Empty Chair

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As fall arrives, many of our ministries will re-gather, perhaps for the first time in a long time. Maybe you intend to kick things off with a large family event, followed by a fresh introduction to kids gatherings in Sunday school classrooms and in large groups for children’s church. Many of us will have new volunteers and new visitors and new opportunities to engage in ministry. Let’s absolutely make sure to appropriately celebrate those who attend. Greet her warmly, look him in the eye, call them by name, and let them know that they are welcome and wanted and valued. But even as we celebrate those who are present, I want to challenge you to also make an effort to be aware of those who are not there. 

I like to make a practice of praying over an empty chair. You can do this alone, with your volunteers, or even with the children in attendance. By praying over the empty chair we acknowledge that there is always room for one more, and that we want the Lord to bring someone into the group and fill the empty seat. 

The empty chair may represent someone who had been a regular attender who is no longer able to come to gatherings, or it may represent someone new to the area who is looking for a place to belong. It may represent someone who has never attended church before at all. 

By praying for the empty chair we make it known to all involved that our desire is to invite, welcome and celebrate those that God wants to bring to himself. It also lets children know that we pray for them even when they are not with us. 

As you return to gathering for ministry this week, consider starting a new practice of prayer for the empty chair. And ask God to bring newcomers into belonging in your church and in His family.

Chuck Peters is Director of Lifeway Kids. Before his role at Lifeway, Chuck had a prolific career in television and video production. He is a 3-time Emmy Award Winning producer, director, writer and on-screen talent. A graduate of Columbia Bible College, Chuck, and his wife, Cris, have served in Student and Children’s Ministry for many years.

Discipleship, Encouragement, Evangelism, Kids Ministry

Every Kid Longs to Belong

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At my church on Sunday mornings, I co-lead a class of 15-20 second graders. We are a fairly traditional “Sunday School” model environment. As I have taught over this past year and through some additional ministry conversations, a need rose to the surface that has heightened my sensitivity to the kids in my group and, in my opinion, strengthened our classroom experience. Regardless of what curriculum you use and what model your church is, there are ways we can help remove barriers to learning and feeling like an outsider by leading kids to feel like they belong, like they are not an outsider of your group

Tip #1 – Celebrate each child’s arrival

This may sound either obvious or outlandish to you, but this has proven to be a big deal for the kids in my class. I make great effort to ensure that I am in my room early enough to get any setup completed before kids arrive. I know that, in and of itself, may sound unattainable to some, but for me, it’s imperative that my attention can be focused on the door before my first 2nd grader arrives. 

Upon each child’s entry, I call her name with an excited tone “Gooooood morning, Emalyn! I am so glad you are here today!” as I give her a high-5 or fist bump or sometimes even a foot-5. One little guy likes to bust out in a short dance groove. 

This is a great first step to let each child know that I am genuinely excited to see her. 

If a visitor comes in that I don’t know, it is equally important that I celebrate him. This requires different intentionality. I first have to learn his name, so I’ll get down on a knee and introduce myself. After that, I’ll lead him into the room, introduce him to the others, and invite him to join the group, which is generally having free time or centers for the first 5ish minutes of our time. 

Tip #2 – Introduce names through a fun activity

Since we are generally having free time or free play as kids arrive, the first thing we do is gather in a quick huddle to introduce the day’s teaching point for 1-2 minutes. Any time we have a visitor, the first thing we do after this is a quick, fun “name game.” It might be “say your name and your favorite food” or “say your name and favorite color.” But everyone plays, every time. Even kids who are regular attenders start to realize they have things in common with the other kids in the group. And for visitors, this allows us to start helping them feel like they know the group and the group to know the visitors. They begin to feel like they belong.

Tip #3 – Begin your session with a game

Our first activity, regardless of whether we have visitors or not, is almost always a very active game, something that kids will have fun with. We try to play this for 7-10 minutes each week. Of course, kids love to play games, but playing large group games is another barrier-breaker that helps all kids feel part of the group. 

This is especially the case when we have visitors. Kids move from being an outsider and knowing no one, to starting to know a few names and the things others enjoy. With this active game, visitors are moving towards being part of the group through a shared goal. Maybe it’s a relay or Simon Says or Follow the Leader. Games have a unique way of removing barriers and helping kids feel like they belong to the group.

Tip #4 – Don’t overemphasize “what we learned last week”

This last tip is a little more general. Even though I am teaching through The Gospel Project for Kids and the chronology is important, I have begun to try not to overemphasize previous sessions. We often still talk about the timeline and things that happened before, but instead of saying “remember last week” or “who remembers who Jesus’ mother was?” I now try to phrase it more as “first time” information, such as “Earlier in the Bible we know that when Jesus was born, His mother was Mary and His earthly father was Joseph. At some point after Jesus was born, Mary had more kids so Jesus had siblings. Jude, who wrote the book of Jude was one of Jesus’ half-brothers.”

The reality I’ve seen with my second graders is that they don’t remember the details from week to week and month to month, so phrasing things this way helps me in at least 2 ways.

  1. Kids who are hearing it for the very first time do not feel like they missed out by this being their first time, and often consequentially, start feeling like the barriers are going back up pushing them outside. 
  2. Kids who were present on a previous Sunday when certain stories were taught do not feel shamed for not remembering specific details.  

In my experience this past year, this tip is a small one but makes a huge impact on helping all kids feel like they belong and are part of our group.

Every kid longs to belong. They all want to feel part of the group, like an insider rather than an outsider. As kids leaders we can help break down barriers allowing kids to move from outsiders to insiders. And when we do, their hearts begin to be more receptive to the gospel.

What are other ways you create an environment for kids to feel like they belong?

Jeremy Carroll  is the Lifeway Kids Ministry Publishing Manager for VBS and Discipleship resources. Before coming to Lifeway, he has been active in local church ministry for nearly 20 years in TN, TX, and AL. Jeremy earned a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. A Middle Tennessee native, he and his family live in Murfreesboro, TN. 

Encouragement, Prayer
Encouragement, Encouraging, Family, Family Ministry, Parent Helps, Parenting

3 OBSTACLES TO FRIENDSHIPS BETWEEN YOUR CHILDREN

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Do you know what your favorite sound in the world is?

I know mine. It’s when I hear our children laughing and playing and talking together in another room. There is nothing that warms my heart quite like hearing those kids enjoying being around each other. And when I hear it, I’m moved to pray for more and more moments like this in the future. That’s because I know there will come a day when the kids move out of the house, when they start their own careers and their own families, and even when Jana and I are gone, when they will have to make the choice to relate to one another.

And I want them to be more than brothers and sisters – I want them to be friends. I want them to enjoy being around each other even without Jana or I as the link that holds them together. It seems like friendships between our children can be fostered and encouraged in these days when they are young, so that when they are old, their relationships continue to hold together. But if those relationships can be fostered, they can also be hindered by certain practices in the home.

If you, like me, want this for your kids – for them to enjoy being together to the extent that they choose to be friends when they are older – then we ought to pay attention to those things which might be obstacles to the formation of those relationships. Here are three such obstacles:

1. Media.

It’s so easy, isn’t it? Just turn on the TV. Or let them play video games. Or allow them to put their noses in their own devices. It’s certainly good for parents who need a break, and it’s also easier than listening to the inevitable squabbling that comes when you have multiple kids in the house. That’s not always a bad thing. We certainly consume our fair share of media in our home, and I don’t feel particularly badly about doing so.

Nevertheless, the amount of media our kids have access to can be a serious obstacle to their friendships with each other. When media is always an option, they are never put in a situation when they have to learn to relate to each other. There is always a retreat in which they don’t have to talk, negotiate, or understand another person. Conversely, when we make the choice to limit the amount of access our kids have to media, they often have no other choice than to learn to play with and enjoy their siblings. This is a rough road to travel as a parent – it’s certainly not the easiest one. But it is, I believe, the road with lasting benefit.

2. Schedule.

Busyness is the plague of the modern family. We stretch ourselves so thin that we fall into bed exhausted every night between ball games, dance practice, homework, school clubs, sleepovers, and everything else. When we overburden the family calendar, one of the effects is that our kids are often participating in different activities that happen at the same time. Parents are split between this thing and that one, and the kids never have the opportunity to actively watch their brothers or sisters do “their” thing.

They can’t go to the band concert because they have a baseball game of their own. They can’t go to the art show because they have a science project due. They can’t applaud, cheer, encourage, and yes, embarrass their siblings at their events because they’re consumed with their own. So the schedule we keep can be a major detriment to the formation of relationships between our kids because they never have the chance to take pride in or console their siblings.

3. You.

Yes you. And me. And this one is hard, because the greatest obstacle to our children being friends with each other might be us. How does that happen?

It happens through the best of intentions. As parents, we feel compelled to step into situations between our kids. We feel the need to regulate, to discipline, to force compromise – we want to bring resolution and peace to arguments and disputes that we think our kids aren’t working out on their own. But if we are constantly in the middle of the relationships between our children we should not be surprised when they don’t have any real relationships with each other.

So consider, well-meaning parent, stepping back and forcing them to work things out on their own. Consider making this your first question whenever a child presents an issue to you about their brother or sister: “Have you talked to him or her about it?”

These are obstacles. Think through them. And then, by God’s grace, take some active measures to try and facilitate these relationships. Pray for your kids to grow in their relationships with one another so that when you’re not there any more, they will still want to be with each other.

Michael Kelley lives in Nashville, Tenn., with his wife, Jana, and three children: Joshua, Andi, and Christian. He serves as the Sr. Vice President of Church Ministries for Lifeway Christian Resources. He is the author of Growing Down: Unlearning the Patterns of Adulthood that Keep Us from Jesus, Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God; Transformational Discipleship; and Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life.

This post originally appeared on michaelkelley.co.

Encouragement, Encouraging, Teacher Appreciation
Encouragement, Gospel-Centered, Parent Helps

HOW JOHN 3:16 ANSWERS THE 3 BIG QUESTIONS OF LIFE

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A person can define the seasons of their lives in many different ways. You might, for example, define a life season based on your living arrangements. There is the season in which you live in a home owned by your parents, then you live in a dorm or apartment, and then eventually in your own home (and then maybe after that again in an apartment or someone else’s house). Or you might define life seasons by the main way you spend your time. First, the bulk of your time is spent in school. Then career. Then in an advanced career, and then finally in retirement.

Perhaps another way you can define the seasons of life is by the nature of the questions you are asking – because each stage of life is really about asking and answering a different set of questions. Initially, these questions are more informational in nature:

  • Why is the sky blue?
  • What are mosquitos for?
  • Why do I have to eat vegetables?

Then the questions change to be more personal:

  • Who should I be in a relationship with?
  • What kind of work will I engage in?
  • Where do I want to live for this period of life?

And at some point, all of us enter a stage in life when these questions become even more meaningful. We come to a point when we start asking real questions about meaning and purpose and identity. These are the real shaping questions; these are the answers, if we get them, that determine not only the kind of questions we ask in the future, but also the way we choose to answer those questions. And though these questions are many, you could make the argument that they all really boil down to these three fundamental ones:

  • Who are we?
  • Where are we from?
  • Where are we going?

Yes, these are the real questions, aren’t they? These are the questions behind the other ones – the questions that get at the core of the meaning of all of life and the way it ought to be spent. Indeed, these are really the questions behind every philosophy, every religion, every educational and economical system. And though a person might look to many sources of truth to find the answer, as Christians, we believe that the real truth can only be found in one place: the Bible. And though the Bible addresses these questions in many ways and in many places, there is a single verse in which we find the answer to all three:

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

1. Who are we?

Simply put, we are the dearly loved creation of Almighty God. How do we know that God loves us so? It is not because of our bank balances, the size of our homes, or the success we have in careers. Our circumstances are not a trustworthy indicator of the love of God, for God has already proven just how much He loves us. He loves us enough to sacrifice His own Son for us.

But that begs the question of why such a sacrifice would need to be made, doesn’t it? And here, too, we find part of the answer to the question of who we are: Though we are the dearly loved creation of God, we all have rejected Him as our rightful King. We have, in our own pride, determined to be our own gods. We are sinners, and as such, we are separated from this God who loves us.

Though it might be hard for us to accept, this is indeed who we are.

2. Where are we from?

Again, simply put, we are from God. We are not cosmic accidents; we are not the result of random chance. We are created beings, created in love in order to relate to God and to glorify Him forever. In His love, God has made us with this unique relational capacity – we were made to love God, and to know beyond a shadow of a doubt we are loved by Him.

Until we know our origin – until we know where, and whom, we are from – we will always be wanderers. We will seek to find our worth, value, and substance in transitory things. We will be like children building our little sand castles too close to the water, only to find them washed away again and again. But when we accept and believe this, our true origin story, then we are actually starting to build on the rock.

3. Where are we going?

This question is unique, because there are actually two options, and this verse gives us both. We are either bound to perish, or bound for eternal life. If we believe that we are loved and created by God, but that we have rejected His authority over us and now must be made right with Him, then in His love God has provided a way.

That singular way is Jesus. The singular issue that determines where we are going is what we do with Him. Someone is going to pay for our rebellion, and the price is enormously high. Either it will be us, or it will be Jesus. In His love, God has provided this moment for us, and has opened His arms to whosoever that comes and believes.

Yes indeed, life is about questions. Some are more important than others to answer. But none are more important than these three. Whether we know it or not, your life and mine – both now and into eternity – is really determined by how these questions are answered. By God’s grace, He has told us the truth, and even now He implores with us to come and believe.

Michael Kelley lives in Nashville, Tenn., with his wife, Jana, and three children: Joshua, Andi, and Christian. He serves as the Sr. Vice President of Church Ministries for Lifeway Christian Resources. He is the author of Growing Down: Unlearning the Patterns of Adulthood that Keep Us from Jesus, Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God; Transformational Discipleship; and Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life.

This post originally appeared on michaelkelley.co.

Encouragement, Events, Family Ministry, Kids Ministry, Ministry, Reaching, Resources

Ready, Reset, Go!

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Summer is here, and kids ministry leaders everywhere find themselves re-entering into the joys and challenges of conducting busy summer ministries like VBS, attending summer camps, and creating summer programming to re-engage kids and families. It has been encouraging to see so much momentum around vacation bible school this summer. If there was any question as to whether kids would return to at-church events, the answer is a resounding, yes!

The good news is that the positive response we have seen to summer ministry events would seem to indicate that kids and parents are ready to come back to church. Ready or not, kids are coming back, and we need to make sure we are ready to go when they arrive. It may be tempting to take a break and relax with a major vacation getaway and let ourselves let down after camp and VBS are over, it would be wiser to take a brief respite and quickly reset our sights on fall. The reality is that the calendar is not our friend. Time is short, and, if we are honest, many of us are not really ready. If you feel like you have been running late and making a lot of last-minute decisions you are far from alone. We have all been functioning in a reactive mode, shrouded in uncertainty, without the ability to plan as far ahead as we would prefer. 

Although we don’t have eons of time to regroup, we do have a window of opportunity to make preparations over the next few weeks so we can get out in front of what we hope will be a significant fall influx. But we cannot afford to delay. Now is the time to make key decisions and take important actions as we anticipate the restart of our kids ministries, some or all of which may have been on mothballs for the last 18 months. 

We cannot afford to simply return to what we did a year and a half ago. This is time to reassess, reevaluate, regroup, reenlist, reengage, and possibly reinvent our kids ministry strategies, programs, and personnel. We need to re-design our ministries to make sure that they are well informed by the current state of our culture and make adjustments where necessary. In many regions churches have already returned to ministry as usual where they no longer require leaders or kids to wear masks or to enforce strong guidelines on social distancing, however it is wise for us to continue to implement standards and practices that minimize contact and maximize space for everyone in attendance. If you have not already reviewed and updated your guidelines, now is the time. 

The Lifeway kids team has created two important and helpful e-books that you can find at lifeway.com/kmfa. 6 Considerations for Reopening your Kids Ministry gives insight in regards to standards of practice for safety, cleanliness and volunteer preparation and 10 Attributes of an Unshakable Kids Ministry helps you reevaluate your priorities so you can best serve kids and families as we emerge into a new post Covid season. 

We anticipate what may be the largest fall kick off for kids ministries anywhere, ever, so we would all be wise to create strategies specific for re-engaging kids and families who have not attended regularly over the last 18 months, and to welcome and invite new families from the community to visit our churches this fall. Summer is a great time to offer fun family events in your fellowship hall or parking lot to attract and connect with kids and their families. This is a great opportunity to proclaim that your kids ministry will be back in a big way this fall. Starting this conversation early will help kids and families prepare now to be back then. To help you host a successful relaunch event, the Lifeway kids team has also provided a handy kit for creating your own fall relaunch celebration. The Go Time Kit is a printable download that will help you outline an experience for families that will reestablish relational connection between your church and the community you serve and restart momentum as we get ready to press go. 

As we anticipate a massive return of kids and families to our churches this fall nationwide, we as kids ministry leaders need to not only gear up to re-open our doors and prepare our spaces for kids to be back, but also reevaluate our strategies in light of a world that has changed. Whether we are ready or not, fall is coming, and it is coming fast. Now is the time to get ready, and to reset, so that we can be all-systems-go as we near September and the relaunch of our kids ministries.

Chuck Peters is Director of Operations for Lifeway Kids. Before his role at Lifeway, Chuck had an extensive career in television and video production. He is a 3-time Emmy Award Winning producer, director, writer and host. A graduate of Columbia Bible College, Chuck, and his wife, Cris, have served vocationally & voluntarily in Student and Children’s Ministry for many years. They have four amazing children: Tally (21), Tristen (20), Tyson (14) and Tate (11). 

Encouragement, Kids Ministry, Leadership, Volunteers

The Really Good Reason I Serve in Kids Ministry

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By Aaron Armstrong

Let me tell you about why I serve in kids ministry. Correction: let me tell you about the one really good reason I serve in kids ministry. I’ve been serving in kids ministry more or less from the time I started following Jesus right to the day I’m typing this, with only a few small breaks in between (so, give or take, about 14 years).

That’s hundreds of lessons taught to hundreds of children, all with particular needs. It’s hundreds of times being asked for a snack or a drink of water. Hundreds of times being asked for a trip to the bathroom. And, of course, hundreds of times being interrupted with a non sequitur about a pet, sibling, or something fun that happened that weekend.

For a lot of us, kids ministry is exhausting. It’s the place where we work the hardest to find volunteers and always come up short. It’s the place where we are never sure if kids are actually getting anything from our teaching. It is so often seen as little more than an add-on, as childcare at best—glorified babysitting where kids do a craft, hear a story, and maybe get a snack, too.

So why do I serve there? Simple: I serve in kids ministry because it is valuable—it matters! Kids ministry matters because it is all about making disciples of Jesus! It’s a place to make sure kids are getting the same things we all need to grow.

THEY MUST BE FED

Spiritually speaking, children need all the same things we do in order to grow: they need to know the Bible, too, and sometimes in even greater abundance! But we must remember the command Jesus gave to Peter, to feed His lambs (John 21:15).

Like Peter, we are commanded to instruct people in the faith. We are to teach them the truth; to “feed” them from God’s inspired Word. And that necessarily includes children.

WHAT KIDS NEED MOST

Kids need the truth in order to grow, just as much as adults do. No truth, no matter how big or small, should be excluded from their understanding. They need to know:

How God judges the world

How He demonstrates His love through the sending of His Son Jesus to die for us

That all stand before God guilty of sin, and only Jesus can take it away

That Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead, and bring about the new creation

That God sends His Spirit to live within all who believe, giving them new life and desires that please God

Kids need to know all these truths and many more besides. But whether kids realize this need or not isn’t the point. It also doesn’t matter if they respond right away or not.

And while we should never make the gospel or the Bible seem boring, our goal isn’t to be entertainers when we teach. The children in our ministries aren’t here simply to have a good time—they’re here for good news. Just as children need healthy food in order to grow physically, they need sound teaching to grow spiritually. Teach “the little ones the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” as Spurgeon wrote. That’s what kids need most.

And here’s the good news: they can handle it! Taught in an age-appropriate way, they can handle the tough truths of the Bible. They can handle the big story of Scripture. They can handle the passages that sometimes make us adults uncomfortable. What God has revealed, kids are capable of grasping.

INSTANT GRATIFICATION

But what kids need often challenges what we desire. We are shaped by an instant gratification culture where social media, important leadership wisdom, and, let’s be honest, our own sin, have transformed us into dopamine junkies, itching to get the next hit of temporary satisfaction.

But kids ministry, properly understood, is opposed to the quick hit or the easy win. Kids ministry is intentional, relational evangelism and discipleship. It is a slow burn, with a capital S-L-O-W, where we truly do live in light of the parable of the sower, scattering the seed of the gospel indiscriminately, not knowing what sort of soil it will ultimately fall upon.

GETTING A GLIMPSE

Nevertheless, even though instant gratification isn’t a thing in this ministry, it doesn’t change the goal. And it doesn’t mean we don’t get little glimpses of what God is doing in the hearts and minds of the kids we serve. Sometimes, God, in His kindness, does exactly that.

A few years ago, the Christmas before I moved to the U.S. from Canada, one of the girls I taught stopped me in the hall. She handed me a little card she had made. Inside it simply said, “Thank you for teaching God’s Word to us.” At the time, she hadn’t professed faith in Jesus, but she understood at least one thing: that I cared enough to teach her about Him.

And that’s enough. It has to be.

Aaron Armstrong is the Brand Manager of The Gospel Project, and the author of several books including Epic: The Story that Changed the World, Awaiting a Savior, and the screenwriter of the documentary Luther: the Life and Legacy of the German Reformer. Follow him on Twitter.

Encouragement, Kids Ministry, Leadership, Ministry, Reaching, Teaching Kids

3 Reasons Kids Returning to Church Need Extra Care

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Disclaimer: I am neither a licensed counselor nor a psychologist, just an untrained observer of human behavior.  However, over the past few months—as  preschoolers, elementary kids, and preteens have returned in-person to church gatherings—I either have noticed first-hand,  heard from others, or just sensed personally that something is different. 

I truly believe that our communities and churches have yet to see the lasting impact of lockdowns, long-term online learning, lengthy hospital stays,  deaths of friends and family members, cancellations of extracurricular activities, lack of appropriate physical touch, shortage of kidmin volunteers, and constant mask-wearing. If present realities are any indication, we’ll experience a continuation of these three issues: anxiety, anger, and antisocial behavior.

  1. Anxious. Kids have a lot to be anxious about: losing loved ones to COVID-19, completing school work, maintaining their lifestyle with one or both parents out of work, etc. 
  2. Angry. Kids are angry that they can’t play team sports, go to parties, be with friends, go on vacation, or eat at their favorite restaurant.
  3. Antisocial. Kids have spent a lot of time at home. They have lost the skills necessary to “play nice” with others. They haven’t had opportunities to share their stuff, and they haven’t been challenged to resolve interpersonal conflicts.

Lest we believe that only children are anxious, angry, and antisocial, think about the adults you come in contact with. Many of them probably have these same issues. Adults have learned how to cope, and in some cases, mask their feelings. Kids, however, are more transparent. And, these issues may seem to be amplified in kids because children are external processors. In other words, as a kidmin leader or volunteer, you will most likely be the recipient of that anxiety, anger, and antisocial behavior.

The question then is, “How do we provide extra care for preschoolers, elementary kids, and preteens who are anxious, angry, anad antisocial?” Among possible solutions, I suggest the following:

  1. Take care of yourself mentally and physically. Dealing with kids who are struggling behaviorally will be less reactionary and more lovingly responsive if we as adults get adequate rest, eat healthy foods, exercise, and nurture our minds.
  2. Take care of yourself spiritually. Spending time in God’s Word and prayer prepares us to love and care for kids. The more we are in tune with the Holy Spirit, the more we will exhibit “the fruit of the Spirit [which] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
  3. Take care of yourself socially. This may sound antithetical, but we as adults need to spend time with other adults in order to sharpen our social skills. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.” After over a year of attending church online, working from home, having our groceries and other purchases delivered to our homes, and consuming all forms of entertainment at home, our social skills are rusty at best and non-existent at worst. How can we expect to care for kids if we ourselves don’t know how to relate to people outside of our households?

I truly believe most of us are anxious, angry, and antisocial to some extent. If we take care of ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit, then we can provide extra care to kids who have these same behavioral challenges. Paul said it best when he wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) Let’s receive God’s comfort and then give comfort to the kids in our ministries, in the name of Jesus.

_________________________

Landry Holmes is the Manager of Lifeway Kids Ongoing Bible Studies and Network Partnerships, Nashville, TN, and is a graduate of Howard Payne University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The author of It’s Worth It: Uncovering How One Week Can Transform Your Church and a general editor of the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids, Landry is a church leader, writer, workshop facilitator, and publisher. He teaches kids at his church in Middle Tennessee, where his wife Janetta is the Preschool Minister. They enjoy spending time with their two adult sons and their wives, and spoiling their five grandchildren.

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