From the category archives:

Children's Ministry Encouragement & Vision

Make Time for Spiritual Refreshment

08 November | by Kristin Charles
Simple Children's Ministry

As servants in children’s ministry, there are multiple demands placed on us.
Some of those demands are external and include job responsibilities related to our position of leadership.  They may include the need for more volunteers, restructuring Sunday School classes, preparing next week’s Bible lesson, or planning the upcoming Christmas drama.
Some of those demands are internal and [...]

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10 Tips for Finding (and Keeping!) Children’s Ministry Volunteers

06 November | by Nicole VanderMeulen
Ministry Volunteers

Big, small, rich, poor, progressive, conservative, thriving, struggling, traditional, unique, and the list of adjectives could go on and on in an attempt to include the vast array of church characteristics we may be faced with as leaders of children’s ministry.  Each church is so different, with its own strengths and weaknesses, and yet, one [...]

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110 Reasons to Love Children’s Ministry

03 November | by Tony Kummer
Why Do You Love Children's Ministry

A few weeks back, I asked our readers to answer one simple question – why do you love children’s ministry? The response has been amazing and each answer has personally encouraged me. This post is an edited list of those responses, with a few of my own mixed in.  I tried to combine duplicate answers [...]

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Children & Prayer: What are real kids praying about?

21 October | by Tony Kummer
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Prayer is our direct connection with God. As children grow spiritually we teach them to call on their Father in Heaven. Sometimes the honesty of these prayers reminds us what Jesus meant by the faith of a child. Here is an amazing video that features the real prayers that children pray.
This is the kind of [...]

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Do You Have a Children’s Ministry Philosophy?

08 September | by Charlie Wallace
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Children’s ministry can be messy. The main reason that it can be messy is because you, as a children’s ministry leader must deal with parents of young children. Most often that means you deal with young, first-time parents. These parents love their children and will kill for them (not literally…at least I don’t think). One [...]

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Church Decline: Ministry in a Shrinking Church

03 September | by Tony Kummer
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Confession time – my church is shrinking. I would not say that we are dying, but the numbers show a steady 20% downtrend over the past five years. That is an approximate number for both giving and attendance. There are several factors, but without question my church is in a period of decline.
This is not [...]

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Charles Spurgeon’s Encouragement for Children’s Workers

01 September | by Jeri Tanner
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers,” served as Pastor at Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England from 1854-1891. Here are words of wisdom on children’s ministry taken from a chapter in his book “Come, My Children:”
“Nowadays, since the world has in it, alas! so few of Christian mothers and grandmothers, the church has thought [...]

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Is Your Kids Ministry Becoming Spiritually Toxic?

28 August | by Tony Kummer
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Over the last few years, there have been hundreds of toy recalls. Some have been poor design, but many are due to toxic materials. As a parent, I shudder to think of my little ones playing (and chewing) on toys covered in lead paint.
Every church that loves children has been equally careful to remove these [...]

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Developing a Vision for Your Children’s Ministry

05 August | by Mimi Bullock
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No one plants a tree and doesn’t expect it to grow.  You cultivate it.  You protect the tree from the blistering heat and the frigid blasts.  You jealously guard it keeping pests away. When the tree was dry and thirsty you watered it. Lastly you pruned it as it grew, coaxing the sapling with your [...]

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In Pursuit of What Matters

17 June | by Kristin Charles
Serving Others and Following Jesus

Do you ever find yourself forgetting what is most important? I know I do. My keys, my debit card, my license. Yep, they have all been lost this week to my husband’s horror. But at least I haven’t yet forgotten our kids anywhere. Or maybe I have.
Sometimes I beam with [...]

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Funny Job Requirements for Children’s Ministry

02 June | by Tony Kummer
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There was a funny thread on the forums at CM Connect and I thought I would share some of it here. For the whole scoop, check out this comment thread on their site. Basically, they wanted to come up with some funny “job requirements” for children’s ministry. Here are a few of my favorites, feel [...]

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Thank You For Your Sacrifice

25 May | by Kristin Charles

Memorial Day has traditionally been a day set aside to honor brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we hold dear in the United States. As GK Chesteron said, “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness [...]

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1/168: Children’s Ministry Hours Per Week

15 May | by Terry Delaney

I recently attended the Connecting Church and Home conference (read our live blog) back in March.  While there, I saw a man wearing a black t-shirt with white embroidered 1/168.  I was immediately intrigued by the small fraction.  Given the context of the conference, I figured it had something to do with student ministry.  My [...]

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Sending Missionaries To The Future

10 March | by Tony Kummer

Last week I watched a documentary about my city. It included video footage from the early 1930s. Several clips showed children at local elementary schools lining up for school dismissal. These boys and girls had bright eyes and faces full of hope. Many of them looked familiar and I almost expected to see kids from [...]

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