Dedicated to helping Kids Ministry leaders in their mission of making disciples
As kids grow, their understanding of foundational truths grows with them. Ages and Stages Levels of Biblical Learning covers 10 biblical concept areas—God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Bible, Salvation, Creation, Church, People, Family, Community & World—that children and students can learn as they study God’s Word.
Get a free download today at www.lifeway.com/agesandstages.
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:
By Kayla Stevens
Think about the last time you noticed a child in your ministry who felt cared for and seen by an adult leader. Introduce me to that leader, and I can guarantee that you will be introducing a leader who knows how to listen. He may not make the best self-portrait out of pasta or arrive fifteen minutes early as requested. But that leader knows how to listen to a child.
The discipline of listening is a much needed and much neglected area of learning in our ministries. In the midst of delivering sound content, sanitizing our classrooms, and reviewing Bible skills, we can often forget that one of our most powerful tools as leaders is the ability to make space for active listening—not merely hear what a child says while simultaneously thinking about our response. As leaders, we must remember that we are called to teach children not lessons.
Consider these opportunities as you leverage a listening culture in your classrooms:
Legitimize Curiosity. Oftentimes, kids don’t want to know the correct answer as much as they want a safe place to ask their questions. When a child comes to you with a question she could have asked Alexa, take notice that she is not just looking for an answer. She is inviting you to help her interpret and make sense of the reality of the world around her. Recognize the gift of that kind of vulnerability and lean into it. Look for opportunities to ask leading questions such as, “Can you tell me more about ______?” Verbally recognize the question and affirm a child’s curiosity. (That is a great question. I have wondered about that, too!)
As leaders, we get to set the tone of creativity and curiosity. When curiosity is stifled, questions are silenced. But, when we give ourselves and the kids in our classrooms the opportunity to be curious, we invite questions that probe into deeper spiritual learning and development.
Lessen Perfection. Allow kids to be wrong sometimes. If kids can’t make mistakes about their faith at church, where can they? As we leverage a culture of listening to deepen connection and growth, we must lessen the ideal of perfection and right answers and lean into the process of learning. Consider responding to kids by asking deeper questions. (I’m really interested in what you have to say and I want to make sure I don’t misunderstand you. Can you help me understand ______. I wonder what our Bibles have to say about that. Let’s see if we can find out.) Be appropriately vulnerable with your class and give yourself, your kids, and your leaders permission to not have all of the answers or get it right all the time.
Learn Together. Get excited about learning with kids in your classroom, not merely learning for them. Remind kids that you love their questions, even if you don’t have the answers. (And give yourself permission not to have all the answers!) As we learn about the Bible alongside the kids in our classrooms, answers should not be our main objective goal of learning. Discovery should be. As we learn alongside children, we communicate that their questions are valued and they are not alone as they discover more about God. Learning together cultivates an active participation for children and gives them appropriate responsibility in owning their faith rather than receiving information from their leader.
If we want to maximize our impact as leaders we must make room for intentional listening. As we cultivate an atmosphere where questions are welcomed, curiosity is encouraged, and mistakes are acceptable, we begin to listen not only to the questions, but also to the very hearts of children.
Kayla Stevens is a Content Editor for Lifeway Kids and a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She has been serving in Kids Ministry for over 10 years and has a deep passion for empowering children to own their faith and grow deeper in the joy of Jesus.
By Sarah Humphrey
One of the best ways to help kids learn something new is by teaching a short lesson and then following through with a practical application. If I were to ask my kids what some of their favorite school days were, they would almost always express their joy over a hands-on art project, a science experiment, or making a snack together! Thankfully, we can add any of these applications to our daily lives without much prep work or complication.
If you take a look in your pantry, you can easily find and follow a recipe that explains a Biblical truth. And when you eat what you’ve made, it’s much easier to remember what you were learning! Connecting our brains to our taste buds always serves as a great way to enhance a child’s sensory experience, create a positive memory, and engage kids in a practical expression they’ll use in years to come.
Here is one of our favorite recipes that fills little bellies with protein, sweetness, and a Bible verse! Based on 2 Timothy 1:7, it’s a great way to remember that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound judgement.” The next time you might find that a little one in your area of influence is struggling to sense God’s peace or power, you can follow these few steps while sharing Scripture and some prayer time with them!
Enjoy the sweetness, and savor the time well spent.
Powerballs
1 1/2 cup instant oats
1/2 cup organic peanut (almond or sunflower) butter
1/2 cup organic, local honey
Chia seeds, flax seed, mini chocolate chips, and a pinch of cinnamon (to taste)
Mix together.
Roll into balls.
Roll in unsweetened coconut.
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!
A few years ago we had a possum problem at our house. We decided to set a small animal trap so we could capture and then safely release the critter into a nice wooded area far enough away that he would not find his way back to our yard. So, we placed our trap and went to bed. The next day we discovered that we didn’t have an opossum problem at all. We had a skunk problem. If you have ever set out to catch an opossum but instead snagged a skunk, you know it’s a stinky situation to be in.
I fear that many of our kids are being baited into the traps that have been set by a secular and ungodly world, and the outcome really stinks.
Statistics and anecdotal evidence both suggest that the lives, values, and pursuits of “Christian” kids and families are largely indistinguishable from those of their unbelieving neighbors.
Research gathered in a partnership between Lifeway Kids and Lifeway Research and reported in the book, Nothing Less by Jana Magruder, shows that 25% of Christian parents said that their top goal was for their kids to grow up to be happy. 22% said their top desire was for their kids to be successful. 19% said they wanted their kids to be “good people.” 17% said their emphasis was on their kids’ education.
Only 9% of the Christian parents surveyed said that their top priority was for their kids to grow up to be godly.
Don’t miss that stat. Less than 10% of 2000 “Christian” parents surveyed have the goal of godliness as the top priority for their children. That answer is both sad and revealing. Is it truly a surprise that so many kids from believing families walk away from their faith when they leave home?
Please hear me, there is nothing wrong with wanting happiness and success and education and good-ness for our kids—I want all of those things for my own children—but each of those things must be defined and pursued in the context of the preeminent goal of godliness.
The Word warns us of the stink we will experience if we do not train our children to be godly. In the absence of a top-level pursuit of godliness the world will teach our kids to be something entirely the opposite.
In his second letter to Timothy, Paul cautions his protege that, “Hard times will come in the last days. People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness but denying its power.” 2 Timothy 3:1-9
Read that list again.
It could have been written yesterday to describe people today. It outlines the characteristics that our culture commends, and that our kids are being conditioned to seek and celebrate.
We need to be careful what narratives our ministries perpetuate. Our children do not need to be taught how important they are; they need to be shown how holy God is. They don’t need to be taught how to fit-in with a godless culture; they need to understand that they are not of this world. They do not need to be taught how to blend in; they need to be equipped with courage to stand up and to stand out.
As ministers of the gospel we have a responsibility to push against the priorities of our culture and spur-on kids and parents to chase after godliness before anything else. The chief goals of a child’s life must not be his happiness, success, popularity, fame, education, health, wealth, or social status. The chief goals must always be his redemption and right-relationship with God.
Mark asks a very pertinent question in Mark 8:36. “what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Thankfully, I did not trap a skunk in my cage. Once I was aware of the real situation, I was able to remove the trap before I caught a living stink bomb. My prayer is that we, as ministry leaders, will have the courage and foresight to identify and disarm the traps that Satan has set against our children. May we help them to have eyes to see the dangers of running after the wrong things, and direct them to instead chase after Jesus with all of their strength.
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.
What would I talk about if I had only one hour to talk with a group of parents? The dangers of failing to disciple their kids? Techniques, methods, and tools for home discipleship? Marriage?
As important as each of those is, I wouldn’t hit on any of them if I had only one hour. Instead, here is what I would do.
I would spend the first 55 minutes talking about loving God.
You read that right. I would spend almost all of my time talking about loving God, without even mentioning parenting. Why? Because it is what God Himself focused on, in what is widely considered the most important home discipleship passage in the Bible:
4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates. — Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (CSB)
This passage is six verses long. Half of them address the parents’ relationship with God without reference to kids. The prerequisite for home discipleship is that the parent recognizes the unique glory of God (v. 4), loves God fully (v. 5), and cherishes Scripture (v. 6). Without this, nothing else matters. A parent can have the greatest techniques, methods, tools, and be consistent from day one. But if love for God is not driving discipleship, it is not discipleship. It is information transfer. And that is not what we are after. The devil knows doctrine. Discipleship is helping someone else love God as we have come to love Him. This is why Jesus said that Deuteronomy 6:5 is the greatest commandment in Scripture (see Matthew 22:34-40).
My goal, then, would be to draw the attention of every parent in that room to how amazing God is. Maybe some are newer to the faith and still coming to understand God’s glory. Maybe others have been Christians for decades and perhaps have become “too familiar” with God. I would want to help everyone, including me, take a step back and sit amazed in the presence of our holy God. To recall that the Creator knows us and loves us. That He slaughtered His own Son so that we might be forgiven of our sins. That in Christ, we are fully accepted by Him. That we will spend eternity worshiping, serving, and delighting in God. Like the church at Ephesus, I would want everyone to remember our first love (see Revelation 2:1-7).
I would spend the last 5 minutes talking about home discipleship being a gift.
Then, with our affections stirred anew for God, I would want to reposition home discipleship in those hearts and minds of the parents. While home discipleship is a responsibility, that is not how we should see it. It is a duty, but it is also a privilege. It’s a gift.
Home discipleship is more simple than we make it out to be: it is a parent sharing what he or she loves with a child he or she loves. I would want the parents to grasp the simplicity and beauty of home discipleship. We don’t have to share the gospel with our kids, we get to. We get to point our kids to the greatest good, God, Himself. Sharing a love for sports, or movies, or foods, or hobbies, or anything else with our kids is great. None of these are seen as chores. But they all pale in comparison to sharing God with our kids.
So when the clock rolls from 0:59 to 1:00, my hope would be that every parent leaves in awe of God and eager to talk with his or her kids about Him. Those other details are important, but they will all work out. If the parent is motivated.
Brian Dembowczyk served in the local church ministry for over 16 years. Brian earned an M.Div. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a D.Min. from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his family live in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
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.
Download your free Go Time Kit to help relaunch your ministry!
The kit contains:
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).
By Alyssa Jones
As summer winds to a close and your family prepares for a new school year, create opportunities to intentionally engage your kids. Whether you have 5 minutes or 50 minutes, you can make your time together count. Here are four activities to make memories with your kids and spark spiritual conversations.
Babies and Toddlers: Sing a Bible story song
Sing to the tune of “London Bridge Is Falling Down” :
“Is there anything God can’t do*, God can’t do, God can’t do? Is there anything God can’t do? God can do anything!”
*Substitute “God can save His people” in subsequent rounds.
Read it: Exodus 2:1-3,5-6,10
Think about it: Who did God use to rescue His people from Egypt? Who did God send to rescue us from sin?
Preschool: Take a dip
Fill a wading pool with water or complete this activity at bath time. Provide people figures and encourage kids to dip the figures into the water as you count together to seven. If your kids are comfortable in the water, let them dip their faces into the water and blow bubbles.
Read it: Read aloud 2 Kings 5:1,10,14-15.
Think about it: Who made our bodies and can heal them? How can we take care of our bodies? Why do you think God wants us to take care of ourselves?
Younger Kids: Servant relay
Position a chair across the room from your child. Give your child a serving tray with five empty plastic cups. Explain that when you say go, she should carry the tray to the other side of the room, around the chair, and back. Then she will pass the tray to a family member who will do the same. Continue for each family member. If the cups fall off the tray, the player must stop and reposition them before continuing. For an added challenge, put silverware on the chair for the player to add to her tray as she passes by. How quickly can kids move the tray without losing the cups?
Read it: Read aloud or choose a kid to read Isaiah 53:1-6.
Think about it: What does it mean to be a servant? How was Jesus a servant on earth? How can we serve others?
Older Kids: Four corners obstacle course
Create an indoor obstacle course by using tape to mark a path through the room. Use chairs or furniture as obstacles for kids to go around, under, or over.
Guide two to four family members to hold the corners of a small towel or floor mat and balance a foam ball in the center of each mat.
Challenge family members to transport the ball through the obstacle course without letting go of the mat. If the ball rolls off the mat, players should start over.
Read it: Read aloud or choose a kid to read Matthew 9:1-8.
Think about it: What did the paralyzed man need? What did Jesus give him? How can we receive forgiveness from God?
Alyssa Jones worships and serves with her husband at Refuge Franklin, a church plant outside of Nashville, Tennessee. They have three children.
