LifeWay

Kids Ministry

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

CentriKid, Kids Camp, Parenting, StudentLife for Kids

Help Your Kids Navigate Summer Camp Like a Pro

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There are so many benefits for a child who attends overnight camp. They will enjoy new activities led by the camp staff, visit a fun new place, and break up the routine of normal life. The adventures at summer camp bring life-long memories and help children gain confidence and independence. We want kids to hit the ground running so they can thrive in the camp experience, so here are three skills that parents can build now to help their kids navigate summer camp like a pro.

Train kids to start-up their day. Kids at summer camp need to make good use of their time and know how to get going with their day. Mom doesn’t have to put the daily clothes in a plastic bag. Maybe she could guide the selections while packing for camp, but elementary kids can start their day at camp with picking out clothes, brushing teeth, and getting shoes on. They might need a wake-up call from the adults at camp, but practice during the school year with a start-up routine so kids can pick out clothes and get dressed for the day at camp.

Equip kids to eat responsibly at camp. The food at camp is almost always a punchline, but food issues are no laughing matter. For first time campers, going through the line and making selections at a self-service dining hall can be a challenge. For campers with special dietary allergies, they need to be self-aware about safe foods or problematic ones. For all campers, the temptation to eat a whole box of cheese snacks at bedtime will be real … but that’s never a good idea! Before camp, your kids need to practice making choices for fixing their plate and cleaning up their table area, too. 

Give kids practice with handling money. Most parents send their kids to camp with some spending money, but for some kids it is the first time they have ever handle money that is theirs to make decisions about. Prepare kids for the restaurant stop on the way to camp, the camp store, and considering the missions offering. I’ve seen kids hand a fast food worker their $20 bill for lunch and walk off, and I’ve also heard about kids who spend all their money on the offering and camp store and have nothing left to buy lunch on the way home.  

Parents can role-play scenarios related to each of these at home to set them up for success at summer camp and for normal life. When kids come to camp taking care of these things, the church leaders and camp staff can focus their time and energy on making the amazing camp adventures into life-long memories!  


For more on getting kids ready for summer camp, check out these tips for helping kids who are hesitant to stay away from home, and tips for preparing parents to send kids to camp.

Family, Fun, Games, Parent Helps, Parenting

It’s Cold Outside: 3 Things to Do in Winter with Kids

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Winter is knocking on our doors. As you approach this season of long days stuck inside with bored kids, take some time now to prepare for a little fun. 

Box O’ Fun

Purchase a tub and fill it with tons of creative supplies. At our house this tub contains:

  • Construction Paper
  • Blank Paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Markers
  • Crayons
  • Colored Pencils
  • Coloring Books
  • Play Dough
  • Kinetic Sand
  • Washi Tape
  • Pipe Cleaners
  • Googly Eyes
  • Watercolors
  • Paintbrushes
  • Stamps
  • Ink Pads
  • Glitter
  • Glitter Glue

Make a visit to your local dollar store and load up on any craft supplies you can find. Keep the TV off for a few hours and encourage your kids to craft their hearts away! Make thank-you cards for Christmas gifts, use cardboard boxes to make robots, cars, or homes for stuffed animals. The possibilities are really endless and you will be amazed at the creations your kids will come up with. 

Living Room Slumber Party

Tell your kids to throw on a fresh pair of pajamas and bring their pillows and blankets to the living room. Pile everyone up on the floor and turn on your family’s favorite movie. Make sure to pop some popcorn and grab a sweet snack to share. When the movie is over, let each child pick a board game to play. Everyone gets a turn! Our favorites include Hedbanz®, SushiGo®, and Chutes and Ladders®. Looking to really surprise your kids? Pillow fight! The laughter is sure to ensue.

Indoor Snow Storm

Keep a spare ream of white copy paper and a large bag of cotton balls around the house just for days like this. Give the whole stack of paper to your kids and encourage them to make as many paper snowflakes as they can. When they’ve finished, tape them to the windows and anywhere else you want! Cover the house in snowflakes. You can even string them from light fixtures, stick them to bathroom mirrors, and attach them to your door frames. When the house looks like a snowstorm hit it, divvy up the bag of cotton balls and throw an indoor snowball fight! Let your inner child come out as you play along with your kids!

Nancy Cornwell is the content editor for ParentLife magazine and the mom of three kids. She is always looking for good ideas to keep them entertained at home.This article first appeared in the December 2019 issue of ParentLife.

Discipleship, Parenting

From How to Who: Unscrambling the Parent Discipleship Paradox

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One of the greatest ways we can help the kids in our ministries is by helping their parents be better disciplers. But perhaps we usually do that the wrong way: by focusing on tools and techniques rather than on the parents’ own relationship with Christ. In this blog post we use Deut. 6:4-9 as the template showing our greater need to focus on “who” than “how.”

I’m convinced that most of our parents know that they are the primary disciplers of their kids. I’m further convinced that most of our parents want to disciple their kids. But I also know that most (well, perhaps many would be less cynical) of our parents don’t disciple their kids—at least not to a meaningful degree. 

The best impact we can make on our kids is to encourage and equip parents for their role in discipling their kids. What we do with kids matters—a great deal—but if I had just one hour to make a difference in a kid’s life, I would spend those 60 minutes with her parents. But here is what I would not do during that hour: I would not spend all of it talking about how to do family worship or giving the parents resources. Those are really important, but I would reserve only the last few minutes for them. Rather, I would spend the bulk of the time focused on the topic I believe would make the greatest difference—the one which I think we are missing which is why we continue to see a lack of family discipleship. 

Parents don’t need to understand the how of family discipleship as much as they need to understand the who of family discipleship—more specifically, who they, the parents, are in Christ. You anchor that in a parent’s heart, and you give him or her what is needed to disciple. The how must follow this who. 

We see this pattern of “who then how” in the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Notice that as a parent, I don’t see a how action point until verse 7. The first three verses—half of the passage—concern my relationship with God. God is not so subtle in His point here, is He? 

Let me go theological nerd on you for a minute—I trust you will appreciate why shortly. In Hebrew writing there is a literary device called the chiasm. Basically think of a chiasm as a sideways pyramid with the point to the right. Each layer of that pyramid relates to the mirrored one. As I study the Shema, I see a chiasm that amplifies the “who then how” principle of parent discipleship:

  • a1) A parent’s love for God (4-5)
    • b1) A parent’s love of the gospel (6)
      • c1) A parent’s grasp of the gospel (6-7)
      • c2) Repeating the gospel in structured ways (7)
    • b2) Talking about the gospel as you go in unstructured ways (7)
  • a2) Living marked by the gospel (8-9)

Let’s start from the inside, the “c” level, the hinge between who and how, and work back out. In verse 6 God tells parents that His words—the Scriptures, which I have labeled “the gospel” which is what the Scriptures are about—are to be on our hearts. On the surface, that means parents are to love the gospel, but inferred here is our need to know the gospel. You cannot love what you do not know. As a parent then—as a follower of Jesus—I need to be spending time in the Word. I need to grow in my understanding of it, which will fuel my love for it. Notice the parent discipleship action connected with it in verse 7—repeating the gospel to our kids in planned, structured ways. That makes total sense, doesn’t it? The more we know the gospel, the more we will be able and apt to repeat it to our kids. Just as you cannot love what you do not know, neither can you repeat what you do not know. So the first thing parents need to understand in order to disciple their kids is that they need to be immersed in God’s Word themselves. As a parent, I need to be a student of the Bible. That who will drive the how. 


The next level, the “b” level, is also found in verses 6 and 7. As we come to know the gospel more and more, our love for it grows proportionally. This prevailing sense of awe of what God has done through Christ is what will lead us as parents to talk about the gospel as we go—in our normal rhythms of life. When our hearts are saturated with love, joy, and gratitude for God’s kindness to us in Christ, how can we not talk about the gospel with our kids? If Jesus is our greatest treasure, how can we not share that treasure with our children? The question of what we have to do as parents in terms of discipleship becomes meaningless. “Have to” gives way to “want to” and “get to.” We want to share the gospel with our kids as part of our daily lives and we are grateful we get to do that. Once again, we see the who driving the how. 

That takes us to the final level, the “a” level, the coupling of verse 4-5 with 8-9. As we spend time in the Scriptures coming to know and love the gospel more, we will naturally come to love the Author of the Gospel more. The same “who then how” principle is at play here. The how of the gospel is critical, but it is secondary to the who of the gospel: God. The gospel compels us to love God fully—with all of our being (heart, soul, and strength). And when we do, our lives will change. We will want God to change us through the power of the gospel and live it out to bring Him glory. And as we do so, we become people marked by the gospel. The gospel becomes our core identifier, not our nationality, ethnicity, socio-economic level, or anything else. Those are not unimportant descriptors, neither are they necessarily bad. But they are not our core sense of identity. Our who rests squarely in the gospel. This is what is in mind when God says that the gospel is to be bound on our hands and foreheads and it is to be written on our doorposts and city gates. The gospel should inform all that we think and do, and it is to be an identifier of our homes, like a house address, and of our communities. The who of being a parent who loves God drives the how of living on mission for God with our families. 
This is what our parents need to know: it all starts with who they are—people who know the gospel, love the gospel, and love the God of the gospel. The how flows from that.

Brian Dembowczyk is the managing editor for The Gospel Project. He served in local church ministry for over 16 years before coming to LifeWay. 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.

Family Ministry, Kids Ministry, Parenting

Guiding kids and parents from Kids Ministry to Student Ministry

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Guest Blogger Kimberly Wells shares tips to help kids and parents navigate the transition between kids ministry and student ministry.

Every year around this time, kids and parents make the transition from kids ministry to youth ministry. This may seem like a normal, expected move, but it can make significant waves in the life of a child. This is the moment where they move out of comfort into uncertainty, away from trusted teachers and systems to something new, and being on the top to back to the bottom. Not to mention all of the emotional, physical, and mental changes kids are experiencing. As a kidmin leader, I cannot take a lackadaisical approach to this epic moment in our kids’ lives. 

We know kids ministry is more directed to working with parents whereas student ministry works more with the students attending. Because of this, it is crucial to guide both parents and kids effectively into student ministry. In my time on church staff, this movement requires more thought and preparation than almost anything else.

Here are three tips that I have found to be helpful for this transition: 

  1. Communicate!  Both parents and kids struggle in today’s time to balance school, work, extracurriculars and the like. It is even more imperative than ever to communicate effectively. In our ministry, we communicate in various mediums: written, weekly emails, social media, announcement TVs, and info kiosks. We want our parents to have multiple avenues to knowing what is going on in each ministry. In order to help parents and kids transition to student ministry, communicating what major dates are happening as far as promotion, events, and other important details, will mean a lot.
  2. Give space to discover. Schedule out time to give the kids space to discover who will lead them the next several years in a fun and engaging way. This requires kid and student ministers to work together to meet the kids moving up, like attending small groups, camps, VBS, and so forth. Start planning early, the summer is a great time to give the student ministry staff facetime in front of the preteen kids. Invite their current leaders to be a part and a source of encouragement to kids while also passing information to the new leaders.
  3. Provide intentional opportunities to belong. The junior high small group leaders play a vital role in allowing kids to feel like they belong. Cast vision to new small group leaders to spend time investing in the new students, knowing their extracurricular schedule, and making time to attend and support their small group kids. Invite them to begin praying over their new kids, especially if they know their names in advance. Plan fun events where kids and parents can meet the new staff like a breakfast before church or fun game nights. 

We know kids have a choice when they move into student ministry if they are going to continue deepening their walk with Jesus or move away. If kids and student ministers work together to help communicate effectively to parents, give space for kids to discover the next ministry, and offer intentional opportunities, we can not only help kids move to a new ministry, but also grow deeper in their walk with Jesus and the local church. 

Kimberly Wells has over 17 years of kid min experience, serving churches in England, Wisconsin, and Texas for the last 10 years. She and her husband, Tim, currently serve on staff at First Baptist Wylie, Tx.  She enjoys a good cup of coffee, board games and traveling. She has a deep desire for kids to know Jesus, own their faith, and change their world for the Gospel.

Kids Ministry, Leadership, Parenting

Camp Creates Courageous Parents

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As a leader in kids ministry, you’ve seen kids “grow up” at camp, but did you know camp creates courageous parents too?

Camp is an amazing environment for kids to get out of their normal routine, try something new, explore a new place, and make lifelong memories. Every summer we see kids do brave things like trying a zip line, jump off the diving board, or in some cases, their courage is tested by just traveling on the bus and staying away from home for a few nights.  

While the kids are away at camp, some parents breathe a sigh of relief … but most parents wonder, worry, and have to face fears of their own! Will my child like any of the food in the dining hall? Will my daughter make new friends? Will my son shower at some point during the week?

We love to encourage kids to grow through the camp experience, but parents can grow too. Here are some challenges that a Kids Ministry leader can give parents in your pre-camp information meetings. Encourage parents to grow, and give them support as you challenge them to:

  1. Send your child to an overnight camp without you. This is a huge step for some parents and not as big a deal for others. As a kidmin leader, you must discern where the parent/child readiness is here.
  2. Invest in your child spiritually at home, even if you don’t know all the answers. Your kids ministry teaching is wonderful, but a parent investing at home is so much more valuable than what we can do at camp or at church.
  3. Trust other people like a church leader or summer staff to pour into your child spiritually. It takes a team, and sometimes a new face or new place at camp will uncover a wonderful discipleship conversation where camp staffers and church leaders contribute to a child’s spiritual growth.
  4. Allow your child some independence. Give parents a packing list, but encourage them to allow their kids to make their own clothes selections and eating selection in a stay away situation like camp.  
  5. Make the necessary sacrifices. For some families, it means sacrificing time at the beach or the pool. For other families, they have to make financial sacrifices to afford to send a child (or children) to camp. Help parents see the importance of camp and be courageous to trust God with their time and finances because of the powerful spiritual impact camp can have on kids.

For parents who are not sending their kids away for the very first time, there may be different opportunities for growth. It could be that going to camp and investing in the whole group, eating camp food, and staying in the dorm is the courageous move. For parents who cannot go away to camp, they may need to be courageous enough to allow some distance and NOT call their child every day at camp. This might help the child be more courageous with leaving home and grow through the feelings of homesickness.

Jeremy Echols leads the camps area for LifeWay Kids. He, his wife Emily, and their precious daughter love their church, their neighborhood, and spending time together. Jeremy enjoys reading, watching sports, and all of his daughter’s after-school activities.

Family, Family Ministry, Parenting, Podcasts

Ministering to Families with Kids From Hard Places with Jamie Ivey

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Jamie Ivey shares practical ways that you can love families that are parenting kids from hard places. How does the church come alongside them and serve them well? 

Jamie Ivey is a podcaster, writer, and speaker from Austin, Texas. She is the proud mama to four kids and the wife to Aaron, worship pastor of The Austin Stone Community Church. Jamie loves to encourage women to passionately follow Jesus through any stage of life. She does this through writing and her weekly podcast, The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey. Jamie‘s debut book “If You Only Knew: My Unlikely, Unavoidable Story of Becoming Free,” released in January.

Kids Ministry, Parenting, Podcasts

Bullying and Your Kids: What Would Jesus Do?

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Dr. Jennifer Garrison shares how families can navigate bullying with age-appropriate conflict resolution.

Dr. Garrison is a professor of marriage and family in the Campbellsville University School of Theology. She is a wife, mother of two sons, and advocate for healthy, God-honoring families.

Parent Helps, Parenting, Podcasts

Equipping Parents to be Spiritual Leaders in the Home

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Parents should be the spiritual leaders in their homes, and we can equip them. Delanee Williams, Kids Ministry Special, shares ways to equip and partner with parents.

Delanee Williams serves as a Ministry Specialist with LifeWay Kids. She is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Delanee has served in kids ministry for over twenty years.

 

 

Family, Family Ministry, Parent Helps, Parenting

Making Memories

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Kids Ministry 101 welcomes this article written by Wynter Pitts. Wynter lived with a passion to introduce young girls to Christian values in a way that they’re able to understand, so they can walk passionately and boldly in who God has created them to be. Wynter authored For Girls Like You Tween Devotionals and founded For Girls Like You Magazine. We are honored to continue her legacy! #wynterslegacy

I imagine the conversation will go something like this:

“Mom, remember that time you wanted us to do a craft together and you looked on Pinterest?”

Silence – immediately followed by an uproar of contagious giggles and uncontrollable laughter.

You see, I am not the craftiest of girls, but God blessed me with four sequin-wearing, glitter-paint-splattering, and sugar-loving darlings, so I try.

The reality is, I am actually the mom who …

  • Has an entry-level Pinterest board named, “Projects I think I Can Handle.”
  • Buys a kit to create your own gum, only to burn it in the microwave.
  • Takes three days and a dozen YouTube videos to figure out how to turn rubber bands into a beautiful work of art and a colorful accessory using a “Rainbow Loom.”
  • Tries to bake an edible cookie bowl … I can’t even think of the proper words to describe how horrifically this ended. It was pure pandemonium as a party of 10 girls tried to scoop ice-cream into a pile of burnt crumbs.
  • Paints nails. And cuticles.
  • Always has to double the amount of suggested flour in order to stop the homemade play dough from becoming a permanent placemat.
  • Forgets to turn on the oven light when making a “Shrinky Dink.” Causing us to entirely miss the point—the shrinking.
  • Successfully bakes reindeer cupcakes (from Pinterest!) but then arrives too late to the class party … missing the unveiling and enjoyment of my labor.

And this is just the beginning! I am serious—this list could go on and on! Regardless of my many failed attempts, my ultimate goal is to never stop adding bullet points.

Let’s just call it a work in progress.

The specific activities may not be my proudest parenting acts, but combined they are what define the most significant contribution I give to my girls.

My time.

So, I imagine my girls will have endless stories from their childhood … and I am prepared to be the punchline for most of them! However, it’s the first few words of their stories that are the most important to me, “Mom, remember …”

Memories are not defined by perfect scenarios. It’s the present—the daily and the quality time we spend with our children that will guide and provide the substance of future conversations.  

Enjoy the activities, but focus your best efforts on the memory.

 

Family, Kids Ministry, Parenting

A Father’s Bucket List: 15 Things Every Believing Dad Must Do

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Welcome Guest Blogger, Aaron Wilson. Aaron is husband to Jennifer, father to 4-year-old twins, and serves as an associate editor in LifeWay Corporate Communications. He enjoys spending time with his family and writing about God’s glory. You’ll find other great parenting tips and encouragement in LifeWay’s  ParentLife Magazine.

A Father’s Bucket List!

  1. CHEER FOR HIS CHILDREN — Fathers breed godly confidence in their kids by being their biggest supporters, not just on the playing field, but wherever God calls young hearts to bring Him glory.
  2. ESTABLISH A REPERTOIRE of at least five character voices for story-time.
  3. DISCIPLINE IN LOVE — Faithful dads aren’t lazy when it comes to engaging sin in their children’s lives. Dads are prepared to stand up to the real enemy (even when it temporarily makes them out to be the “bad guy” in their children’s eyes).
  4. BE WILLING to get his hands dirty (drool, runny noses, diapers … yeah, you get the idea).
  5. BECOME A SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTOR — A father doesn’t delegate the principal role of teacher to Sunday School workers or YouTube channels. He takes the lead in forging a spiritual path of knowledge and wisdom for his children.
  6. KNOW HIS PLACE — Men who bow low before Jesus are the ones who stand tall as leaders of their families. They kneel in humility when the world says to bask in pride and rise up for their families when the world says to shrug with indifference.
  7. MAINTAIN A STRAIGHT FACE when he discovers his bag lunch for the office meeting contains a juice box and cartoon character fruit snacks.
  8. MODEL GOD THE FATHER — Dads have the unique privilege and responsibility of reflecting the first person of the Trinity to their kids. Often, a person’s most ingrained perception of God will come from memories of his or her own father.
  9. BE ABLE to turn an old cardboard box into a rocket ship or princess castle.
  10. CHARACTERIZE LOVE FOR HIS KIDS — Children in today’s culture are hungry to know what real love looks like. By demonstrating how to put the good of others first, fathers emulate the servant nature of Jesus (and the Biblical meaning of love) to their kids.
  11. POST WITH PARENTAL INTENT — Fathers leave a legacy of words for their children when they choose to post on social media. Dads can steward social networking for the good of their kids, who will grow up needing godly examples of how to navigate the digital realm.
  12. ASSEMBLE a bike or play kitchen in the living room at 1:00 am on Christmas morning.
  13. LOOK BEYOND THE MESS — Dads who have a heavenly perspective look past broken furniture and scratched walls to see the eternal investment found in parenting.
  14. CHERISH THE CHURCH — One of the greatest blessings a dad can give his children is to demonstrate a love for Christ’s bride, the church. Dads who lead their families to be involved in a local church are at an advantage when it comes to shepherding the home.
  15. RELY ON JESUS (NOT A CHECKLIST) FOR STRENGTH — Every dad who reads this list knows he doesn’t measure up (at least, not to the serious entries). That’s actually the point! Christian fathers succeed in life, not because they knock it out of the park as parents, but because they admit they’re sinners who need forgiveness and the enabling grace of Jesus. Biblical manhood doesn’t come from a performance checklist found in a Christian magazine; it comes from confidence in the finished work of Christ.

While there are many more things a dad might do, in the words of Jesus, only “one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42). Take time this month to celebrate the fathers in your life who stand tall for their families by necessarily sitting at the feet of their Savior!

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