LifeWay

Kids Ministry

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

Family, Family Ministry, Kids Ministry

Crossing the Checkpoints for Life’s Race

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“Let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus…” Hebrews 12:1-2

Back in 2013, the highly-respected late Jerry Vogel wrote about a few of the spiritual mile markers to be celebrated in families’ lives (post). As many of us are planning for a new ministry year with kids transitioning to new classes, this seems like a good time to review these mile markers or checkpoints as I like to call them and consider how our ministries can partner with parents in anticipating and celebrating these spiritual mile markers. 

In long-distance races, checkpoints are short stops along the path for runners to regain their strength for the next part of the race. It’s also a place where runners can be encouraged to continue on, nurse any injuries, reevaluate their strategy, and plan for adjustments as the race resumes. Checkpoints are places to revitalize runners and then send them back to the race. These life checkpoints provide natural opportunities to partner with parents to recoup, reevaluate, and realign strategies for moving forward.

Checkpoint #1 – Welcome to the Family

  • Birth/Adoption – Whether it’s a family’s first child, second, or fifth, each new child adds new rhythms to a family’s life, celebrations and joys along with potential anxiety and challenges. 
    • “New Addition” Gift Bag – Consider creating a small gift bag to give to new families when a new baby is born or a child is adopted.
    • Parenting classes/conference – A great idea for expectant parents is to offer them dedicated training on children’s spiritual growth. Such training should include theology of biblical parenting, trust development, and looking ahead toward future checkpoints.
  • Baby/Parent/Family Dedication – This is a great checkpoint to provide additional training, like a class mentioned above, to young parents on God’s expectations for Christian parents, showing them how you desire to partner with them in their parenting journey.

Checkpoint #2 – First Steps

  • Moving up to “Big Church” – Consider preparing “welcome to worship” bags for preschoolers who are transitioning into big church. Offering specific training to help parents/caregivers prepare for this change can help to soothe their nerves and remind them that children will learn how to worship best by watching adults worship. 
  • Learning to Read – Consider celebrating this checkpoint with a meaningful Bible presentation. If your budget allows, your church may purchase an age-appropriate Bible for each kindergartner or first grader. If your budget doesn’t allow or if you prefer to help parents choose their own Bible to give, be sure to guide parents in knowing what kind of Bible would be best for their child. LifeWay offers several options of age-appropriate Bibles at lifeway.com.

Checkpoint #3 – Growing in Faith

  • “What Is a Christian?” class – Often times kids who regularly attend church will start asking questions about salvation and/or baptism, and parents will immediately jump to trying to schedule a child’s baptism. Having a checkpoint in your ministry to equip parents to ask good questions of their child will give them greater confidence in talking with their children about salvation and baptism.
  • New Christian Class – An effective New Christian class can give children an opportunity to validate their response to Jesus, as well as give each child and parent confidence they are on a path that is firmly rooted in Scripture. LifeWay Kids’ “I’m a Christian Now” resources can lend structure this checkpoint.
  • Baptism – Here are a few ideas for developing a strategy to partner with parents in celebrating this checkpoint: 
    • Provide parents with a one-sheet overview of your church’s theology of believer’s baptism. 
    • Create a “baptism checklist” to help guide families. Include items like meeting with you or your pastor (according to the practices of your church), mail/email invitations, plan a family meal, provide a “next steps” devotional to each child to guide them in developing healthy spiritual habits.\
  • First Lord’s Supper – A child who is a new Christian will likely be very excited to finally participate in this church ordinance. 
    • Help parents anticipate this moment with a dedicated family conversation. Provide a one-sheet overview of your church’s beliefs about the Lord’s Supper, including who is allowed to participate and why, how often it is observed, etc. 

Checkpoint #4 – Next Steps

  • Discipleship – Many parents feel uncertain how to help children grow in their newfound faith by developing healthy spiritual habits (spiritual disciplines). LifeWay Kids’ Growing in My Faith 90-day Devotional can be a helpful resource for families.
  • Moving into the next age group in your ministry – A final checkpoint that would fall under your ministry would likely be to guide kids and families as they transition into student ministry. Many parents and preteens feel inadequately prepared to move through this checkpoint. Some options here might be: host a parent panel Q&A session with more seasoned parents, connect seasoned parents with parents of preteens in an informal mentor-type setting to allow for more intimate questions, training classes and resources for equipping parents to talk with their kids about all that is changing in their lives, and preteen weekend retreat. 

There are other checkpoints that you may choose to include, but hopefully, this has helped you start or continue thinking about ways you can partner and celebrate with parents as the kids in your ministry cross each of life’s checkpoints. I encourage you to “run with endurance the race that lies before [you], keeping [your] eyes on Jesus… ” as you “pursue as [your] goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” (Hebrews 12:1-2; Philippians 3:13-14)

Click here for a downloadable Checkpoints PDF to help you share your vision with families. There are 2 pages in this document. One with the checkpoints we’ve listed in this post, and one with blank boxes for your to write in your own.

Jeremy Carroll is the team leader for LifeWay Kids 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.

Kids Ministry, Leadership

Celebrate Children’s Ministry Day

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Churches throughout the Southern Baptist Convention will celebrate children’s ministry (ages birth-preteen) on Sunday, July 21, 2019. The special day was added to the Southern Baptist Convention calendar after the Executive Committee approved the motion made by a nine-year-old at the 2018 Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas. This is a great day to thank God for the ministry to kids, their families and their volunteers your church provides. 

Use this day to remind kids of their importance in the church and how they can tell others about Jesus. Recognize and honor kids ministry volunteers who invest in the lives of children and their families. A variety of resources have been created for leaders to use in their church. Click here to find the downloadable items. Select and use the resources that best meet the needs of your church. How do you plan to celebrate Children’s Ministry Day in your church?

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 and is passionate about developing, equipping and encouraging leaders.

Encouragement, Fun, Kids Ministry, Sunday School
Kids Ministry, Leadership, Ministry

Helping Kids who Deal with Anxiety Issues

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Anxiety!! Sometimes even the word brings a flutter to our hearts. For anyone who has experienced an anxious child, you know that this is something that has become more pervasive in the past few years. Kids today have a lot more external stressors that bring anxiety. Social media influences and an increase in peer pressure are all piling up on kids. Anxiety can take many forms, and, all of us deal with anxiety in some form almost every day. How we handle our anxiety, and how we guide kids to handle their anxiety, may sometimes be different. As adults, we have coping mechanisms that are better developed, however, these same mechanisms may not be as developed in kids. Here are a few things to think about as you help kids deal with this issue.

  1. Acknowledge that the anxiety is real. Many times kids seem to be anxious over things that we as adults view as “non-essential” or “no big deal.” If you are going to help a kid deal with his anxiety, you must acknowledge that he is genuinely anxious about something that is real to him.
  2. Don’t avoid activities that might cause anxiety. Kids can learn that things that may make them anxious, most often, won’t actually harm them. By avoiding situations that may cause anxiety, you may inadvertently create a situation where a child will never learn to deal with her anxiety.
  3. Communicate. When talking about anxiety, really listen, and really talk. Make sure you ask questions that will help the child think through what is causing the anxiety and suggest possible solutions respecting the child’s feelings. Ask open-ended questions that aren’t leading. Share experiences you may have had with the same kind of stressor and how you handled the experience.
  4. Model appropriate responses. One of the best ways to help a child deal with anxiety is to model for them appropriate responses to stressors. By modeling calm responses, kids can copy your behavior when they discover their anxiousness might not really be a threat to their safety.
  5. Pray with the child. Pray for God’s peace in the situation. Prayer is important and by letting kids hear you pray for them by name, sometimes the anxious feelings they have will lessen.

I recently chatted with a child whom I know struggles with anxiety and asked what advice she could offer to kids struggling with anxiety. The answer I received was, “Trust that God is in control. When I start thinking about things that cause me stress, I try to pray and ask God to help me know that most of what I stress about never even happens.” Taking this advice, let kids know that God is in control and kids (and adults) can always turn to Him when struggling with anxious feelings.

Tim Pollard is passionate about helping kids dig deep into Scripture, which he pursues through his daily work as leader of the Explore the Bible: Kids team. Tim lives with his wife and daughters in Mount Juliet, TN.

Kids Ministry, Sunday School
Fun, Kids Ministry, Vacation Bible School
Kids Ministry, Vacation Bible School

VBS 2020 Clue #5

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Your final clue for LifeWay’s 2020 VBS is hidden in the illustration above (hint: click here to view it fullscreen!). Find the five items and then use your findings to help you sleuth out next year’s VBS theme.

Think you’ve figured everything out? Post your guess on our LifeWay VBS Facebook page.

Make sure you tune in next week for the big reveal on June 5 at 1:00 p.m. CT. RSVP here.

Bible Skills, Discipleship, Kids Ministry

Not On Our Watch

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Recently, a colleague in children’s ministry reached out to me after she read Nothing Less: Engaging Kids in a Lifetime of Faith.  She was encouraged to see that the book touches on themes she had implemented in her church in Texas.  I invited Erin Woodfin to share her story with you.

I began reading the book of Judges in my quiet time and kept coming across the fact that it only took a generation for the Israelites to forget about the glorious deeds of the Lord. Judges 2:10 says, “And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” This verse spoke to me and I began to think about my own child and the children who come to our church. I began to realize that the reason a generation arose who did not know the Lord was because the parents and teachers had failed to do what God had called them to do. They did not carry out the verse in Psalm 78:4. They did not tell to the coming generation the things the Lord had done. I began to be convicted and committed that this would not happen on our watch. So the phrase “NOT ON OUR WATCH” kept playing over and over in my head. “NOT ON OUR WATCH” will a generation arise that does not know the glorious deeds of the Lord. Together we will raise up a generation who knows the Lord and the glorious things he has done. I never want families to forget, I never want children to forget the glorious deeds of the Lord. Practically for our church, we did this in three ways:

Volunteer Vision

When we launched the NOT ON OUR WATCH vision to our Kids Ministry Volunteers, we went all out. We got shirts, cups, bracelets, you name it we had it. I wanted my volunteers to know that this was something I wanted them to push hard. I wanted them to know the time they spent with children was not just glorified babysitting but that it was Kingdom work. I used Psalm 78:4 in almost every conversation I had with a volunteer and wanted them to have that verse memorized by the time the year was over. I saw so much excitement in the lives of my volunteers because, for the first time, they felt as though their position mattered and was playing a huge roll in the spiritual development of children. If I wanted the “NOT ON OUR WATCH” vision to take off, I knew my volunteers were going to have to sell it for me.

Volunteer Training

Training of volunteers is the largest part of what we do in Children’s Ministry. A well-trained volunteer is the lifeblood of your ministry. The year we ran with the “NOT ON OUR WATCH” vision, I had several other children’s leaders who I trusted come in and help me with training. Sometimes we as children’s ministers say the same thing over and over again, but bringing in someone with the same passions can excite the volunteers in your ministry.

One of the other things we incorporated that year was a time for me to meet with all my volunteers. While my small group leaders were with the children, I would meet with my ministry team leaders. In these meetings, we would pray together, take care of any housekeeping matters, dream together, and talk about ways we could improve things. This was also a time I would use to train and encourage my volunteers. I would also let them tell me things that were working for them or things that were frustrating. It allowed me time to be able to minister to my precious volunteers. A well trained and loved on volunteer will take your ministry to a whole new level.

Parent Involvement

When we launched the “NOT ON OUR WATCH” vision I knew I would need better parent involvement. Parent involvement is always something that is challenging for ministers. However, I believe there are changes that can be made to increase parent involvement in your ministry. Curriculum choice is one of the main ways to get parents involved. Choosing a curriculum that has multiple ways of getting parents involved is the way to go. We use the Gospel Project, which has several ways of connecting with parents. They have take-home sheets, information for weekly emails, and even an app to make things even easier for parents on-the-go.

Another way parents are encouraged to be involved is by my volunteers reaching out to families each week. My volunteers reach out in the form of handwritten cards, texts, or phone calls. This constant communication with parents shows them they are not alone in the discipleship process. We want them to know we are in the trenches with them.

Children’s ministry is the best and most exhausting job on the planet. However, with the right vision for your volunteers who are trained and loved on well, and good parent involvement, your ministry will become something that is life-giving. Remember, “NOT ON OUR WATCH” will there come a generation that does not know the Lord. We will stop at nothing to make sure children know the glorious deeds of the Lord. We are equipped to do what God has called us to do. Let’s face this challenge head-on and refuse to fail. Children will be discipled, families will be changed, and the Kingdom will grow.

“We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.” Psalm 78:4

Erin is the children’s minister at Immanuel Baptist Church in Marshall, TX. She is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Erin is passionate about finding ways to creatively engage children and help point them to Jesus. She also enjoys writing, running, a hot cup of coffee, and watching baseball with her husband Michael and their two precious daughters.

Events, Fun, Kids Ministry, Resources

VBS 2020 Clue #4

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Need a quick break from your work day? Spend a few minutes doing this word scramble.

But wait! This isn’t just a fun activity. There’s a clue about the 2020 VBS theme hidden in here somewhere. Download it here!

Good luck!

Think you missed a clue along the way? Look back through past blog posts for an up-close photo, a Sudoku puzzle, and a noise related to next year’s VBS. Then post your best theme guess on our LifeWay VBS Facebook page.

Check back next week for our fifth and final clue before the big reveal on June 5 at 1:00 p.m. CT.

Bible Study, Kids Ministry, Kids Ministry Curriculum

How Do I Use My Take-Home Page?

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God chose parents to be the spiritual leaders in their child’s life. Our churches have the privilege of partnering with parents to lay spiritual foundations for salvation and transformation. Together, we lead kids to learn about Jesus, come to know Him personally and glorify God through obedience to His Word.

Each week in Bible Studies for Life: Kids, we have “Take-Home Pages” for parents and kids to review together what was learned on Sunday morning. Let’s take a look at how the “Take-Home Pages” show ways to continue learning at home throughout the week.

First, take a look at the front side of the “Take-Home Page”:

  • Notice across the top left is the unit, session number, and title of that week’s session.
  • On the top right corner, you will see that unit’s memory verse. Practice saying this verse together so your child learns it by heart.
  • The rest of the front of the page contains two fun Bible-learning activities your child will often complete as part of Bible study. They can also be extra activities for you to complete together at home. Ask your child to explain the answer to these activities to help reinforce Bible learning.

 

On the back of your “Take-Home Page” we call this the One Conversation page.

  • We emphasize One Conversation because it is a tool you can use, no matter the age of your child, to talk about what she learned in Bible study that week.
  • Notice that the largest section on this page is your child’s Bible story. You can choose to tell this story again with your child, then ask your child to tell you the story.
  • You can also look up the passage in God’s Word together to show your child where the story comes from in the Bible you use at home.
  • You can do the same for your weekly unit verse and review it together from your personal Bible.

There are several other pieces of information on the page that are important for you to know.

  • The Life Point is the primary learning point through that week’s study for your child to connect with and apply to her life.
  • The Bible Meets Life connects the Bible Story with your child’s life at his age and stage.
  • Live It Out! gives one specific way to put the week’s Bible truth into action.
  • The Level of Biblical Learning is the Biblical concept taught from that week’s study. This specific statement is part of the larger Levels of Biblical Learning discipleship plan that children build upon in their learning from birth to high school.
  • The Daily Bible Reading gives other Bible verses you can read together with your kids. They go deeper into either the Life Point or Level of Biblical Learning.

We hope you will find our “Take-Home Pages” useful for talking with your kids about Bible content, theological truths, and how to apply the Bible to your child’s everyday life—so that from the youngest age and stage, kids can grow in their personal relationships with God.

William Summey is the Publishing Team Leader for Bible Studies for Life: Kids. He is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Vanderbilt University. William lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Christy, and their two sons.

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