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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Hi Kids Staff!
Just wanted to share this with you all...thank you so much for everything you do!!!

From Robin Deitch:
 "I am so impressed by the detail at which my grandaughters leave church and share the bible stories to us on the way home! I am so thankful for the childrens ministry at Freedom Valley. Having served for 8 years or more in childrens ministry I PRAISE YOU MUCH for what you are doing in bringing the word of God into the childrens hearts. [My granddaughters] have went through a lot in the past year. God and church have been the one stable thing in their lives."

Thanks for serving with me and helping kids see Jesus through you!!

Candace

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Effective Evangelism

Hi Kids Staff!
I am starting a new CMUO.com (Children's Ministry University Online) class today, called "Evangelizing Children", and hope to be updating this blog more often with everything I'm learning!  I hope to bring you all alongside me, so that we can learn and grow together as a team!

Today was the very first day of class, and I'm already learning so much!  One nugget, from George Barna, really hit me though: "The most effective evangelists are the most obedient and committed Christians.".  Here's what I know to be true: you cannot fully convince anyone - much less a kid - of something that you are not fully convinced of yourself!  So, the most important thing to remember about teaching children is not really about teaching children at all!  It's about you.  Your personal life between you and Jesus.  It affects your teaching, it affect the kids, it affects everything!

So, here's the reminder for the week: Spend time with Jesus!  Get into the Word, find some quiet time with Him.  Isaiah 55:11 says, "It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it."  In other words, NOTHING bad could possibly come from reading the word! It always produces fruit!  What do you have to lose?

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Preschool Teachers!

Along the same lines as my last post, there is another critical window of time in a child's life.  A time that we have the change to influence for good!  The preschool years are also VERY important!  According to Hohmann's book, Kids Making A Difference, crucial attitudes are developed in these years that are very hard to change once the child gets older.  "These attitudes include how a child feels about God, the church, and authority."

Our relationships with the kids make the difference!  You can try teach them facts about God and the Bible all day long, but if you don't KNOW that child, they are less likely to receive from you. We need to love those kids like crazy for the short amounts of time that they are with us!  We are their models of God, authority, and the church! That's a big responsibility that we shouldn't take lightly!

56ers especially, but for all teachers!

Hey 56ers teachers!
I am going through a "Kids In Ministry" course right now through Valley Forge, and I'm learning so much great stuff! One thing I am learning is how important it is to train kids to DO ministry, not just be ministered TO.  It's especially important with the age group that you are working with this very weekend!  The follow excerpts are from a book called Kids Making a Difference, by Pete Hohmann.

"The preteen years (ages 10-12) are our second critical window.... They are no longer little children, but not quite teenagers.  You probably noticed that the flannel graph stories and secret code word searches in Sunday School just don't seem to have the same impacts as they did with the younger children. In fact, many of the age group have grown bored with Christianity and are just going through the motions of memorizing material, only to quickly forget it the following week."

"Because of this boredom...many are lost at the age, even though their parents may faithfully bring them to church each Sunday....  Could it be that they are bored with Christianity because they have not been given opportunities to personally prove that the promises of God are true? Their ideas and beliefs remain untested, and therefore are not integrated into their own faith in a meaningful way."

"Children of all ages in the Millennial Generation want to make a difference, but it is CRITICAL that PRETEEN Millennials be given opportunities to ministry to others!"

In light of this information, I'd like you to hit hard a few things with the kids this weekend.  Whether it has ANYTHING to do with the lesson or not, emphasize the fact that giving back is important, and ministry to others is what Jesus called us to do, and they are not too young to do it! Let them know that we have a Jr. Helpers program that they can get involved in (I'll make sure to have applications ready for you this weekend), and we have a Kids Worship Band that they can get involved in!    Ask them how we could make Kids Connect better, and what their gifts and talents are that they could be using!  Write down their ideas (with names!) and make sure that information gets to me, and that you follow up with them the next time you see them as well!

Challenge them to get involved and to use their gifts and talents for God!  That's the only way we're going to keep their hearts and their faith through their teenage years! 

Thank you all!