The Children's Ministry Blog

Ken Braddy Jr

When my children were little, and among the youngest people in my church’s children’s ministry, they had some great teachers. Serving on the church staff gave me a vantage point to watch these teachers make an impact on my kids. Here are six ways preschool and children’s teachers can make a big impact on the littlest people in our churches.

https://kenbraddy.com/2020/08/24/6-ways-preschool-childrens-teachers-can-make-a-big-impact/

Casey McCoy  Minister of Children Bible Baptist Church, Willington, Ohio.

During this uncertain time, many adults are feeling anxious, depressed, and, quite frankly, scared. Adults assume that children also experience those emotions due to the threat of the Coronavirus. Many experts have reported children feeling anxious or scared. I believe that children typically have more faith than adults (child-like faith). They trust God, and they trust their parents. While most children may not be scared, a significant number of them are bored! With the absence of a stressful school schedule and a lack of extra-curricular activities, children are craving for something to do! To address this issue of boredom and any potential fear, I found it my job to connect with the children of my ministry daily.

I post a daily video on our BBC Kids Faith Factory Facebook page and YouTube channel to encourage and connect with the children. Research suggests that children function best when their lives are predictable and routine. As their children’s pastor, I desire to provide a sense of normalcy during this unpredictable season. In addition to creating a weekly schedule, I attempt to post the videos at the same time every day.

The weekly schedule I created and am following during this time is as follows:

Monday-Music Video and Exercise

I wanted Mondays to be high-energy. During this video, I include a few Faith Factory music video favorites. Using OBS Studio, I can integrate the video into my own video so that the children can see and hear the words to the song. Near the conclusion of my Monday video, I include a brief exercise routine. I understand that many of them probably have an excess of energy, and I want to provide a healthy outlet for them. (I also smacked my hand on the wall and lost my balance and fell over during a couple of the exercises to make the kids laugh.)

Tuesday-Object Lesson and Family Fun

On Tuesdays, I engage the children with an object lesson. For example, I did a devotion on the tongue (James 3) and included an object lesson demonstrating the explosive and destructive nature of our words. I also include a game or activity the children can play with their families and video of me playing them with my family.

Wednesday-Awana

I wanted the children to have the opportunity to continue to learn God’s word and complete sections in their books, so Wednesdays are designated to Awana. I post a typical Awana counsel time video, and the children upload videos reciting their verses.

Thursday-Junior Church Lesson with Puppets and Song

Thursday videos encompass a typical day in junior church. The video includes my weekly lesson, a related puppet skit, and a junior church song.

Friday-Bible Trivia

Bible trivia allows the children and their families to interact with me and each other, which is an important aspect during this time. I host the game by asking Bible trivia questions, and children can respond to the question through the Faith Factory Facebook page.

While I am anxious to return to our typical church routine and form of ministry, I am thankful for the avenues the Lord has given us to stay connected during this season. God Bless!

cmccoy@bbcwilmington.org

Emma DaShiell  Children’s Ministry Coordinator Cherry Street Baptist Church, Springfield, Missouri

If your ministry is anything like ours, we are finally taking a brief exhale after the first week of attempting to digitize everything we do. Our entire staff became a production team in a matter of days. With the first week of COVID-19 precautions under our belts, we are now diligently working to figure out what each ministry looks like. Our number one priority is connection. Children’s ministry is no exception. While we absolutely want to stay connected with the kids in our ministry, we have to remember that we also serve their families as well as our volunteer corps. What does this look like during shelter in place orders and social distancing? It looks like a lot of creativity and “out of the box” ideas. I’ve shared below ideas I’m working on for each facet.

• • Kids
• • • Host Zooms with Sunday School classes/groups of children
  • • Sword drills
    • Bible Trivia games
    • Drawing tutorials
    • Read a story
    • Just let them talk to each other
  • • Challenges (send in pictures to post)
  • • Blanket fort challenge
    • Cleanest bedroom challenge
    • Coloring contest (same picture they can all download from your website)
    • Lego challenge
  • • Snail mail
  • • Postagram (app that allows you to mail picture postcards)
    • Notes of encouragement
    • Coloring/Activity pages
    • Chain letters that make their rounds around the class/ministry
  • • At Home Egg Hunt - modifying our original Egg Hunt plans.  Making take home bags that the kids can do and post pictures of.
• • Parents
• • • Provide Bible lessons weekly
  • • Lifeway has released temporarily all 3 of their Sunday School curricula for at home use.  https://curriculum.lifeway.com/#/search
    • Create your own (Be mindful of copyright restrictions)
  • • Family scripture challenge
    • Share family activities on website and Facebook page
    • Check in on each family weekly (utilizing our volunteers to help)
• • Volunteers
• • Ask for their help to stay connected with the kids in their classes and ministries.
  • Host a Zoom prayer meeting for kids in their ministries
  • Develop trainings you can host on Zoom
  • Utilize tools like Ministry Grid for training at their own pace. It is a self-paced, customizable training platform resource from LifeWay. Trainings for almost all aspects of ministry available (Pastoral care, greeting teams, children’s ministry, youth ministry, etc. https://ministrygrid.com/) 
  • Continue to vision cast for when we can all meet again. Using a collaborative google doc or zoom meeting.
  • Take time to write a personal thank you to each of them (you have plenty of time).

I am personally so encouraged by the abundance of resources that have become available whether it’s being able to eat breakfast with otters or listen to worship concerts in artist’s living rooms.  Everyone is trying to offer what they can in attempts to make a difficult time sweeter. While we want to offer every resource possible to our families during this time, remember that we are all trying to figure this out. We still want to figure out how to provide continuity in our ministries like Awana, Good News Club, and Bus Ministry. We are working on this one step at a time.  More than ever, we need each other as resources. What are ways you are staying connected to your kids, families, and volunteers?  

emma@mycsbc.com

Matt Galvan Evangelist

As seen previously, having the most profitable VBS that you can have starts with having the right mentality about the whole program. Church members must see their church’s VBS as Gospel work, not the church’s alternative summer program, and they must see VBS as their church’s team effort to reach the lost. If the church members’ mentality is in the right place, your church’s VBS will be on the right track. Here are a few other quick tips for making your VBS the most profitable that it can be:

1. Have an after-action plan following the Friday night program. I know one church in Michigan where the pastor taught his people that their VBS was three weeks long.

• Week 1: Door knocking and flyer distribution
• Week 2: The actual week of VBS activities
• Week 3: Follow-up, visitation, invitation to church, and signup for the bus

VBS must be seen as the launching pad for the real work of…

• Discipling the kids who made salvation decisions
• Evangelizing the kids who came but did not trust Christ
• Reaching the homes with the Gospel

If your church doesn’t have an after-action plan for the weeks following VBS, I encourage you to make one. Help church members stop asking, “What must go into this?” and start asking, “What will grow out of this?”

2. Include everyone in the VBS work. If you can’t teach, can you assist? If you can’t assist, can you clean? If you can’t clean, can you place door-hangers? If you can’t canvass, can you drive for pickups/drop-offs? If you can’t drive, can you make snacks? If you can’t bake, can you do phone calls? If you can’t do phone calls, can you give money? If you can’t give money, can you pray through the list of workers and attendees?

3. Bring in the right speaker. My dad, who pastored for over 35 years, said, “Just because someone is a missionary doesn’t mean that they are the best speaker for a VBS.” If you bring in a main speaker, be sure he is skilled at preaching/teaching children as well as skilled at Gospel invitations for children.

4. Have everyone pursue one. Once the VBS is over, a church body can be overwhelmed seeing all the attendance and decision cards and think, “We’ll never get all of these kids to come back.” They’re probably right. But every family unit can seek to bring one. Have every family unit choose one child and pursue him/her and his/her family. Pray for them. Invite them to church. Ask them to sit with you. Visit their home. Ask them to dinner at your house or a restaurant. Give them gifts. Be their ride to church. The numbers are much less intimidating when everyone pursues one.

More could be said, but start with these principles included in your church’s summer youth outreach. We’re all included in the local church’s Great Commission, so let’s pull together to make this summer’s VBS as profitable as can be!

mattdgalvan@gmail.com

Matt Galvan Evangelist

Part I

Vacation Bible School (VBS) is one of those programs that probably every Baptist church in our circles has, and for good reason! VBS gives churches one of the easiest ways to reach dozens, maybe hundreds of local children with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Bringing that many souls under the sound of the Gospel is a big deal and requires time, money, work, and people. And, people are limited in all those things. Whether your church runs 30 or 300, what can be done to make a church’s VBS the most profitable that it can be?

Start with the church members’ mentality towards VBS.

1. Help them see VBS as Gospel work, not the church’s summer program. Oftentimes, the church becomes lulled into just doing what has always been done. Doesn’t your church have some form of VBS every summer? Mine does. In fact, if a Baptist church in our circles didn’t have some kind of summer outreach program for youth, we’d wonder what was wrong. Because VBS is usually an annual event, church members can start to have feelings of, “Well, I’ve done my time” or “It’s time for someone else to step up and do the work” or “We have other things to get done with our summers.” People who decline volunteering at your VBS need to remember that this program is not just an alternative to the YMCA’s summer events. This is the church’s cooperative effort to see children reconciled to God! And since when is the ministry of the Gospel something where “I’ve done my time?” II Corinthians 5 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature…and [God] hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” Church members may have lost the vision of their “ministry of reconciliation to children” in the time-consuming stress of decorating, baking snacks, and googling craft ideas. Bring them back to seeing the urgency of reaching children and their families with the Gospel.

2. Help them see VBS as your church’s team effort to reach the lost. Which member of a 22-man starter squad on a football team is dispensable? None of them—if you want to win a championship. I guess if you’re content with an okay/decent season, some of them aren’t vital to your team. When it comes to VBS, every member of the church team is vital. Each church team member has different gifts, talents, health limits, time availability, and money. Every church member (including the pastor) is inadequate in some way; but every church member has something to give (I Cor. 12:12-31). Church members’ mentalities need to be changed from “Mmm, yeah, that’s not going to work with my schedule/talents/health problems” and start thinking, “Mmm, I don’t see yet how this will work with my schedule/talents/health problems, but I’ll do whatever I can, Mr. VBS Director.” VBS is not about a preacher coming in and doing something big; it’s about everyone getting together and seeing that God can use them.

If the church members’ mentality is in the right place, your church’s VBS will be on the right track.

mattdgalvan@gmail.com