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The weeks after Christmas are some of the toughest in your ministry year. Long winters bring discouragement and dull the passion of even the most devoted.
Let me share a few ways I am preparing my heart to make it through discouragement in the ministry this winter. Feel free to comment and add to the list.
1. Focus on the long term vision
Short term setbacks can really kill my morale. I get discouraged when my teaching falls flat or when I lose a busy volunteer. Ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish in the lives of these children 20 years from now?” Stay faithful to the vision and do the little things well. Then trust God to work things out in the long term.
2. Be thankful for past success
Take the time to step back and see how much has been accomplished this year. Write down five ways that God has touched lives through your children’s ministry. Give thanks to God and trust him to continue his work next year.
3. Pray
Nothing energized me for ministry like getting close to God. Very few real gains have ever come without prayer. Fight discouragement by seeking direct support from your Heavenly Father.
4. Remember that kids matter to Jesus
When God was calling me to work in children’s ministry I was amazed to discover all the Bible verses that spell out God’s love for children. Always remember that his passion to reach the little ones will always exceed your own. All you have to do is get in line with his purpose.
5. Encourage others
One of the best ways to get over discouragement is to become an encouragement to someone else. Look a Sunday school teacher in the eyes and say, “Your work matters to God and is making a difference.” Do this every week.
6. Spend more time with hurting children
Sometimes I forget the pain that many of these children are facing in their own lives. Take time to connect with a child who is suffering from a rocky home life.
7. Visit unchurched families
Few things energize me for ministry like getting into the “rough” homes of some of our kids. Remember, only the Gospel can break the cycles of sin that destroy so many families.
8. Love the unlovable
Identify the child that causes you the most stress, the one that you may have written off as a trouble maker. Then make it your personal project to love that child and become the presence of Christ in their lives. If you succeed, you will never forget it.
Editor’s Note: This post was first published in 2007. We’ve updated it to help you start 2011 off right. Click here to leave your comments.
Related posts:
- 5 Ways To Balance Family and Church Ministry
- 3 Ways to Fill Volunteer Gaps in Kids Ministry
- Watch this Short Video and Rediscover the Joy of Christmas
- 4 Ways I Keep Close To Christ When I’m Busy
- 5 Ways Christians Can Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
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Dear, Thank you, I was blessed when I read and say yes this is what a children minister need to take. I am a trainer for children and teen minister. I always feel contentent ministering to children. Indeed the matter so much to Jesus and the Father.
Doing ministry in Uganda though from South Sudan
Tony
as teachers in church should we alternate sundays maybe once a month or should we be with the children each sunday. the church I attend does not have Sunday school, the children enter church for about 2 hours we have worship and the word and activities, so as teachers we are with the children 2 hours, but I feel that if we are only once a month with them, its hard to set a goal for them. I dont know if I made myself clear
thanks for all you do
God Bless You
Sister Yolanda
For us in Africa especially Uganda where i’m based, we are not affected by seasons but still at one moment the morale is down. This has helped me open up to widen the ministry by reaching out the un churched children. These are many in our area, we have been by passing them doing nothing because most of the parents in this area are moslems, but now with your encouragement and by Gods grace im going to devise ways to make sure i attract these children to Sunday school.
Thank you
Rebecca
Praise the Lord Jesus Christ to Bro. Tony I am realy blessed in our Children Ministry through your guideance by email. Please pray for my ministry and also my family.
Thanks
Your Brother in Christ
David Vipin
You have been a great help in my walk. I feel like its time for changes to happen in my church. But how can you make them when no one wants it but you. I love doing things with the kids but it takes more than one to raise a child in Gods house and show them the way when times get hard and there is nothing that you or i can do. They have got to know that there is a God.
I’m the church nursery director and found this article very useful to share with nursery workers. After making some revisions, I passed it along. Thanks for the uplifting ways to rediscover or discover your passion for the childrens’ ministry/nursery!
Thank you so very much for this post, it is indeed encouraging and very beneficial. God Bless you and yours in all you do, say, and are for the sake of our glorious savior Jesus. You are indeed doing a great work on behalf of His beloved church. May His good gifts of wonderful blessings be overflowing to yourself and your household in ’11. CJK
Thanks Tony for this wonderful and priceless information. All you have written are true. I practise some of them already and will be glad to add the rest. God richly bless you.
Thanks so much for those wonderful ways to revitalize your ministry…easy to apply & very pertinent. I have reposted this link on my website to encourage the teachers that I connect with.
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