kids have tough questions about God and Jesus. and if i truly believe they are the church of today, i need to be sure to make time and a safe place for them to ask these questions and receive direction and answers in God’s Word. this is something that in the past was not a priority for me, but after much conviction we made it happen this october.
on sunday morning october 29 our kids studied about thomas’ doubt. we understand that, like thomas, many of us have hard questions about Jesus. so we asked each 1st – 5th-grade life group to submit three questions and boy did we get some great ones.
we grouped these questions into five categories based on the gospel God’s plan for me. along with answers, this helped us point kids to the Gospel throughout this special night.
then we took a wednesday night in collide and invited our new pastor and his wife to spend some time answering these questions with us. i am sharing these videos in a series of blog posts so that parents can continue the conversation at home. we are hoping these will be a great resource for families to refer to God’s Word together.
kids are the church of today and if we give them a chance to actively participate in prayer we may just be blown away. this is a post from my archives about kids and prayer.
last night our church hosted a night of dedicated prayer to take place in over 40-50 homes all over the city of birmingham. while prayer is probably my weakest spiritual discipline, i was so looking forward to this night for several reasons. the first is that the night was all about prayer; not fellowship and food, which are two things baptist have seemed to master. secondly, these groups were a great mix of people from all ages and walks of life. lastly, the kids weren’t dropped off at a nursery or childcare, they were invited to the night of prayer. it was quite a night. let me just say, we had church!
as a ministry leader, i learned that we are setting the bar too low for kids and prayer. oh i get it and i understand the questions. several people asked me for confirmation that kids were really invited. i immediately exclaimed “yes, we are having church like in Jesus’ day. gather together and hear and seek him and not divide into age groups scattered all over buildings.” then there were those who doubted kids would be able to focus on prayer for a whole hour. to be honest, i wondered that myself. (i don’t sit still well, and let’s just say i may have wiggled more than the kids at my designated home.) and next was the question we all knew was coming (this time from a child, but we can imagine some adults were thinking it, too) “do we have to pray out loud?”
after a solid hour of praising God for who He is, thanking him for all He has done, silent confession, and intercession for others, i was reminded that i would take a house of praying kids over an adult house any day. here are just a couple of things i heard from the mouths of babes:
“God let the lost look to You and bow down to You.”
“may the adults in this room be as bold about sharing Jesus as kids are.” (that one stung a little, but i knew it to be true with the crowd of kids that surrounded me in prayer.)
“thank you for Jesus.” (amen.)
“thank you for butter.” (i mean really, i loved this and wondered when was the last time i thanked God for butter.)
“God help me have the courage to share my faith at school even when others make fun of me.”
“thank you for our sunday school teachers.”
“thank you for clean water.” (obviously they have been listening, as we partner with countries to bring clean water to those in need.)
“help me be kind to others even when they are not nice back.”
prayers for the homeless in need of shelter.
prayers for our new pastor (we are in the search process) and the search team.
i could go on and on, but hopefully you get the point — the kids got it. one of the sweetest things to hear was the kids continually thanking God for things throughout our prayer time. when we changed gears to confession or intercession, they weren’t bound to only these types of prayers. thanksgiving prayers were still being uttered aloud as people were silently confessing or audibly interceding for others. (“thank you for science. thank you for math.) they knew all things were from Him and came prepared to thank Him. these kids boldly approached the throne of grace and not one (from the smallest preschooler) complained about us praying for a solid hour. one child at another home said at the end of their time that “it just felt like 10 minutes.” again, they get it. doesn’t time spent with someone you love and you know loves you, just fly by?
so as a kidmin leader here are my takeaways.
prayer shouldn’t just be something we use as a transition pieces in our lesson/classes. prayer can be the lesson.
we underestimate and often undervalue kids when we limit prayer to a short amount of time because we think kids can’t handle long periods.
kids pray as Jesus taught, to the point without a lot of show for attention. so, how can we intentionally guide them in more prayer times?
kid’s get it. they can boldly and transparently lay their requests before a loving Savior. instead of taking so long for prayer requests, why don’t we simply teach them to pray?
kids are listening to what is being taught. let’s make time for intentional prayer after the lesson and allow kids to talk it over with the Father.
i am done with expecting less of kids because they are younger. really, in my experiences, we should expect more. so no more settling, i am setting the bar high for kids and prayer and i am going to sit back and watch the Lord work.
this picture was form another prayer house, but i love it. just look at how excited and attentive they are.
last night we held our annual vine family worship – grandparent edition. it was such a special night and such a treat to have yancy and jim wideman here with us. here is an outline of what our night looked like as we sought to gather families of multiple generations together to treasure God’s Word.
as families arrived we had a photo booth for them to get a family picture made. we later posted these pictures to our facebook page for families to download. for families that didn’t have a grandparent that was able to attend we recruited some of our amazing adults to serve as “granpals” for the night. i love the idea of “grandpals” because this gave our families another connection in the church and we all know, families need the leadership of seasoned believers as we walk this journey.
after families had their picture made we gave them an early arrival card so they could be intentional about the time we had before the evening began. all of our children received highlighters in their promotion packets in august so we are always looking for ways to help them highlight special scriptures. we thought it would be special if grandparents and parents had a chance to highlight their favorite verses in the children’s Bibles. not only would this be an impacting moment at family worship, but hopefully for years to come as each child grows in their faith. we also had families go ahead and look up and highlight the focus passage for the evening. this helped them locate the night’s scripture and also began a family conversation about the truths this passage shared.
and then, it was time for yancy’s first set. y’all i cannot say enough good things about how wonderful yancy is. not only is she an incredibly easy and organized artist to work with, she is approachable and really sees each event as a time of ministry. i loved how she was walking through the room beforehand engaging our kids and asking them what they were up to that afternoon. she had a perfect mix of upbeat worship songs and hymns that included all ages. she is also so interactive and one of the best artist i have heard to explain the meaning of worship songs before she leads them. if you are in need of a special musical guest and wondering if they are worth spending the money on, let me attest to the fact that yancy is worth every penny. we had here for one of our 24 hours 4 Him events, our preschool ministry had her for waffles and wiggles, and i am sure we will have her back.
next up was yancy’s dad and no secret to the kidmin world, jim wideman. not only did we love pairing yancy with her dad for this event, we loved that he knows ministry and families and he just happens to be a dad and a grandfather. we thought this was a great fit for our special grandparent night. we didn’t give him an easy task either. his job was to speak for 15-20 minutes on our focus passage, psalm 119:9-16, to ages 4 – 75+. how’s that for an age span? he was personable and interactive and we feel super blessed to have had him here to invest into our kids and families with God’s Word. one of the best things is hearing how kids could quote specific truths he shared this morning as they reviewed withi their parents about what they learned.
after jim spoke, we had yancy up for a second set. let me take this time to say you don’t have to bring in big names to make a night like this successful. we don’t always do this, but we felt it was special for our grandparents night. you can purchase amazing video worship tracks at worship house kids or amber sky. you can also bring in your youth praise band for a special night of worship. usually, i or my associate minister to children speak or sometimes we invite another minister in so the families can hear from them. you have to use what works for your context and your budget.
one of my favorite times of each family worship is the interaction between families. since we were talking about treasuring God’s Word we gave each family a treasure chest (we purchased ours by the dozen at oriental trading.) and a scripture sheet. inside each treasure chest, we had 10-15 large sequins we were calling the “coins.” we tried to find blank coins to write on, but this proved too difficult or too expensive, so we just cleaned hobby lobby out of their quarter sized sequins. families were asked to use a sharpie to write one of the provided scripture references on each “coin.” they were also told they could decorate their family treasure box at home to represent their family. our goal in this family time was to create discussion and an experience that continued on as they went home. their challenge was to pull out a “coin” each day and read the passage as a family looking for treasures or truths in that passage. i talk more about our recipe for family worship here.
also here is the scripture sheet that helped families find passages to print on their special treasure “coins.” we provided more scriptures than “coins” they were given and we tried to use scriptures that focused on God’s Word or wer ein some way about treasure.
one other element of the night (which was optional) was that we encouraged families to dress up as a person, place, or thing from God’s Word. we had some very creative family entries. currently, our church staff is voting for their favorite and the winning family will receive a gift card for a family meal to spend some quality time together. again this was optional because we didn’t want to stress families out that wanted to come and didn’t want to think of an outfit.
we ended the night with a family meal of hamburgers, tater tots, and make your own smores at your table. we are so blessed with an amazing kitchen crew that really goes above and beyond to make our meals fun and interactive. 🙂 (fire at the tables, sure it was a little crazy, but what a fun family experience. 🙂 )
y’all i wish i could say we had a packed house and there was standing room only for all the families that wanted to attend, but i want to be transparent with you on ministry struggles. sadly, a packed house for this special night was not the case. we had around 250 there (which is a great number but not near what we could have reached) and while i was happy for each person that came, i grieved a bit for the empty seats. i know it is a sunday night and families are busy and i am wrestling with why many just don’t come back. i never want to be caught up in numbers, but also want to make sure we offer ministry events that enable all families to be confident in Christ and grow in their faith as a family. before our spring event, i will be praying through our process and confessing my sin as i often place my expectations above God’s plans. ultimately our vine family worship night was a success, based on truth, pointed to Jesus, and allowed families to begin and continue conversations about the treasure of God’s Word.
what are you doing to gather families together around the truth of God’s Word? comment and share. i would love to hear all your creative ideas.
#kidmintrenchtalk – the more i strive to help kids the be the church of today, the more convicted that my lack of effort can be because i am afraid to expect more of myself. i know, ouch! anyone else?
maybe we don’t expect more from kids, because we would have to expect more from ourselves.
if you’ve been in ministry for even just 5 years, that adds up to 1,825 days. how many of those days have been spent on going through curriculum? volunteer training? vbs planning? shopping for crafts or object lesson supplies? haven’t we all been there. the math only goes higher the more years you have been in ministry. (don’t do the math, it only make syou feel old. 😉 )
here’s another question. how many of those days have been spent on investing in YOU as the leader? as the one who is championing the discipleship of kids and families in your church community?
because in the scope of 1,825 days (or however many days are under your belt), 3 days is worth it.
these 3 days could mean you return home for the next 365 with a renewed vision for discipleship, a firm confidence in your calling, and new skills and tools that will help you push past the roadblocks in your way. these 3 days could mean you return home with a bunch of new friends who know exactly what it’s like to be in your shoes… friends who will be there to share ideas, hear you out, call you out, and encourage you in your leadership.
that’s what could happen if you join me at #CPC18 in Orlando on january 16-18. the children’s pastors conference is a national event for anyone who serves in children’s and family ministry. this year, the theme is “made for this”. speakers like louie giglio, lisa harper, john ortberg, christine yount jones, beth guckenberger and more will be guiding us deep into psalm 139… a common passage that we often fail to believe the truths of for ourselves.
not only will you experience inspiring general sessions and dynamic worship, but you’re going to have over 130 breakouts to choose from! i’m excited to share that i will be presenting the following breakouts at CPC18 with my dear friend christine yount jones.
Branding a Christ-Centered KidMin Why does your children’s ministry exist? If everyone on your team isn’t sure, it’s time for a new direction. In this session, we will look at ministry’s unique strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, in making Jesus the center of all you do. We will dream and develop a unique signature for your ministry and help you strategically brand, filter, and cast vision for your ministry. Great for your entire team! Speaker: Christine Yount Jones and Danielle Bell Category: Leadership
The Gospel in Every Spiritual Marker There are many spiritual markers that dot the timeline during the 18 years a child is in the family’s immediate care. Let’s discover how to be intentional about applying a Gospel-centered approach during special times from birth to high school graduation. Speaker: Christine Yount Jones and Danielle Bell Category: Spiritual Formation
in addition, you have the opportunity to get free coaching, and you have access to an incredible resource center (it’s like a giant candy store for children’s ministry leaders).
the future of your ministry is worth 3 days. i hope to see you there! Learn more here.
us have hard questions about Jesus. so we asked each 1st – 5th-grade life group to submit three questions and boy did we get some great ones.
not only will you experience inspiring general sessions and dynamic worship, but you’re going to have over 130 breakouts to choose from! i’m excited to share that i will be presenting the following breakouts at CPC18 with my dear friend christine yount jones. 