RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY: praying for kids

Showing posts with label praying for kids. Show all posts

Relational Children's Ministry

10:03 AM Dale Hudson

What is the best way to grow your children's ministry?

Is it...

Cool videos?

Crazy Games?

A big budget?

Fantastic lessons?

Contemporary worship songs?

Amazing facilities?

All of these things certainly won't hinder you from growing. I am not against them and would encourage you to incorporate as many as you can.

But these things alone will not grow your children's ministry. They may get kids and families inside your church doors. But they certainly won't help you keep them long term.

If your ministry is going to maintain substantial grow, then you must have "relational children's ministry." What does that mean?

It means every single child that walks in your church doors has someone who knows who they are. Someone who knows them by name. Someone who calls their name in prayer. Someone who knows what they like and don't like. Someone who knows when they are absent. Someone who knows their parents and partners with them in discipleship.

There are several things that will help you have a relational children's ministry.

1. Work hard to have good ratios. Relational children's ministry is not going to happen when you have a room of 30 kids with only 2 leaders.

The better your ratios are, the better opportunity you have to see relational children's ministry happen.

You can read more about ratios for each age at this link.

2. Use curriculum that has relational children's ministry built in. Curriculum that focuses primarily on large group, will not be as effective as curriculum that has a good balance between large group and small group discussions.

I created a curriculum that focuses on relationships. It uses small group discussions, ice breakers, team activities and more while also having the big group fun and games mixed in. You can check it out at this link.

3. Train and equip your volunteers to be relational. Relational children's ministry doesn't just happen by accident. You must be intentional with it. Help your volunteers see and live out relational children's ministry.

Provide them with the tools they need to be relational. Ice breakers. Get-to-know-you activities and games. Discussion questions about the lesson.

How relational is your children's ministry? Take a look around this week and see how many relational conversations are taking place. Look at your curriculum. Is it built to encourage relational connections? Listen for relational conversations.

Your turn. What are your thoughts about relational children's ministry? How do you encourage it in your ministry? Would love to hear your thoughts, insight and ideas. You can leave them in the comment section below.

Nursery Ministry Matters

12:00 PM Dale Hudson

If there's one area of children's ministry that is considered "babysitting" the most often, it is nursery ministry. Since babies can't talk, many people assume they can't be impacted with God's truth. As a result of this line of thinking, many nurseries skip out on trying to do some type of "lesson."

I want to encourage you not to assume this about nursery ministry. Here's why. Nursery ministry matters...a lot. And if you serve in nursery ministry, you matter and what you are doing in the nursery matters.

Studies show that even before babies talk, they have a basic understanding of other people's intentions. And by the age of 1, they can start predicting the actions of others. Thousands of brain connections are being made during this time period. Babies brains can form over 1,000 neural connections every second. And these connections are the building blocks of their future. Children who are read to from the Bible, talked to about God, sing worship songs to and given personal attention in the nursery will have better cognitive capacity.

"What children experience in the earliest days and years of life shapes and defines their futures."

Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director

If you serve in the nursery, you are serving in one of the most important ministries in the church. When you serve in the nursery, you are laying a faith foundation that will help children grow in their faith for the rest of their life.

Pray over the children in your nursery. As you hold them or rock them, interact with them and pray for them. Pray for Gods protection on their life. Pray that one day, when they are older, they will hear the Gospel and respond. Pray for the child's parents, that they will have wisdom and understanding as they raise the child.

Speak God's Word over the children in your nursery. Have a verse in each room that you pray over the children in that room. There are many prayer promises that you can use for this.

Look in their eyes and talk to them. They understand much more than you realize. Speak words of affirmation, kindness and truth.

When you serve in the nursery, God is using you to prepare the next leaders of the church. You see, you are sending messengers to a day that you will never see. When your generation has passed on to heaven, the children you invested in while serving in the nursery, will carry the message you passed down to them. You are influencing future generations.

If you are reading this and you serve in the nursery, you matter. And what you do matters. You are planting spiritual seeds that will blossom for years to come. You are influencing the future of your church.

Let's keep spreading the word about the value and importance of nursery ministry.

20 Things I Love About Children's Ministry

11:34 AM Dale Hudson

I believe children's ministry is the best ministry to serve in. There's nothing like it! People that aren't serving in children's ministry don't know what they are missing out on. Here's 20 things I love about it.

Seeing babies dressed up in cute outfits for child dedication.

Watching kids raise their hands in worship to God.

Knowing the investment I'm making will outlive me.

Hearing giggles and laughter in the hallways.

Writing God's truth in the wet cement of a child's heart.

Watching an entire family get baptized together and knowing it started with God working in the child's heart.

Seeing a new family walk through the doors and knowing you have the opportunity to see God change the trajectory of their lives.

Listening to a preschooler explain a Bible picture they drew.

Seeing a child come out of the waters of baptism and knowing they have their whole life to serve Jesus and impact the world.

Watching a volunteer grow in their gifts and talents.

Stepping back and watching empowered volunteers "run the show."

Sharing God's Word with kids and seeing them "get it."

Watching small group leaders pour into the lives of the kids in their group.

Listening to the faith-filled prayer of a child as they talk to God.

Talking with a new family as you walk them to their classroom.

Speaking words of encouragement to a child and seeing their face light up.

Watching volunteers pray with kids.

We get to use puppets.

Watching a family worship together during Christmas services.

Taking a picture for a family at Easter as they stand in front of an Easter backdrop.

Your turn. What do you love about children's ministry? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Making Prayer a Priority in Your Children's Ministry

12:29 PM Dale Hudson

In the busyness of children's ministry it's easy to forget what matters most and makes the biggest impact...prayer.

I'll never forget this quote I heard years ago.

"Nothing of eternal value happens without prayer."

Isn't that so true? We must make prayer a priority in our ministries. Here are some practical ways we can do this.

Pray with your volunteers before the service. Gather together and spend time praying for the kids and the service. Pray for God's anointing to be upon every leader and in every classroom. Pray for hearts to be opened and for lives to be changed.

Give the kids opportunity to pray during the service. Be intentional about carving out time each week during class for the kids to pray. Give them quiet time to talk with God and to listen to His voice.

Pray for the kids in class and during the week. Give kids the opportunity to write down prayer requests and pray for them. You can also have your teachers and leaders take the prayer requests home and pray for the kids during the week.

In nursery and preschool, place prayer promises on the classroom walls and have your leaders pray those prayers over the kids each week.

Partner with parents in prayer. Let parents know you are praying for their kids and ask how you can partner with them in this. Create a prayer calendar and partner with parents in praying each day for their kids. Give nursery and preschool parents a copy of the prayer promises mentioned above and partner with them in praying the verses over their children.

Pray for the lost in your community. God's heart is for every boy, girl, mom and dad in your community to know Him and experience His forgiveness. Keep them on your heart and pray for them. Pray for divine appointments. Pray for God to draw them to Himself. Pray for God to use you and your team to reach them.

Prayer and Fasting. Want to see extraordinary things? This comes through prayer and fasting. Lead your ministry in times of prayer and fasting and watch God move.

Pray for your volunteers and their needs. Children's ministry is about ministering and shepherding volunteers as well. Know what's going on in the lives of your volunteers. Know what their prayer needs are. Pray for them when they are with you and during the week. Be their prayer warrior.

Prayer is the key that will unlock the door of God's blessings upon your ministry.