Charlie Wallace

Handling Conflict in Children’s Ministry: Biblical Principles and Practical Advice

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Raise your hand if you’ve ever received an angry complaint via email or text message. Now, think about that incident and imagine what the “conversation” may have sounded like if it had happened over the phone. What about in person? The fact of the matter is that when dealing with conflict or complaints a good rule of thumb is to deal with them in person, face-to-face. Here are some guidelines that I’ve learned (mostly by mistake) through

The Gospel for Children: The Importance of Jesus in Every Kids Church Lesson

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I took part in a roundtable discussion yesterday with pastors and staff from churches around the area. The topic and reason for the conference was the subject of evangelism.  It was a great time of church leaders sharing different ways that they try to reach people for Jesus. I was the lone children’s pastor in attendance so I gave my thoughts on my strategies for reaching children and their families. When it came to evangelism methods and

Kids Ministry Game: Captain Midnight

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Here is another “backpocket” game that you can play if you have a large group of kids and a large area where they can run.  This can be a game that you can play to fill up time at an Easter Egg Hunt, Backyard Bible Club, or whatever the situation. Like Quiet Ball and Silent Football, the point of a “backpocket” game is that it is a game that you can figuratively pull out of your backpocket

Book Review: Family-Integrated Church

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One of the current buzzwords in churchlife today is the phrase, “family-integrated.” However, what looks to the casual observer as simply a “fad” is more than that: it is a theological, methodological, and philosophical conviction for those leaders in churches who are truly family-integrated. Family-Integrated Church, by J. Mark Fox, (Xulon, 2006) is one church’s story of how it transformed over the years from a typical program-driven church to one that became purely family-driven. It is the

Avoid Ministry Burnout & Do More Through Delegation

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Those that lead in children’s ministry are typically expected to “do everything” – even if they are not gifted in certain areas. In fact, a common notion is that a “good” Children’s Pastor is one that teaches, administrates, leads, takes out the trash, trains teachers often, is at the church 6 days a week (at least) and still has quality family time. Unfortunately, this type of standard is just impossible to uphold. What happens is that many

Do You Have a Children's Ministry Philosophy?

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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 of the areas where children’s pastors may experience some conflict is philosophy. Do you have a leadership philosophy when it comes to

What About Promotion Sunday?

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At the church where I serve, Promotion Sunday, that day when kids move up to the next grade/class in Sunday School and other activities, for years occurred the first Sunday of September. However, by the time I arrived the date had been pushed back to the first Sunday in June. This was done primarily for one reason: by the time the summer had arrived our 5th graders were ready to promote into our middle school ministry (for

"Silent Football" Game for Kids

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Here is another great “backpocket” game to play with kids when you need them to settle down and/or kill time. The game is called Silent Football. Many of you have perhaps heard of this game. Here is how it works: – Have the kids sit in a tight circle – Explain that the point of the game is to pass around an invisible football. – The way you pass the ball is to slap your leg with

AWANA Games for Children's Ministry: Quiet Ball

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Sometimes as a leader in children’s ministry you may find yourself in a most inevitable and unfortunate position: downtime. What do you do when you have 30 kids and 5-10 minutes to kill? When I worked at the YMCA we had a stash of ideas that we called “backpocket games.” These games were a way for us to kill time that way the children wouldn’t kill themselves. Most of these games have nothing to do about Jesus,

Facilities: Do You Have Room For Your Children's Ministry?

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If you were to poll 100 children’s ministers, pastors, and directors, you’d probably find that a vast majority of them would love to have “better” Children’s Ministry facilities. For those that work with children week in and week out there is always a temptation to dream about how great it would be to have ______. For the small church, some leaders would love to have a multi-purpose children’s ministry room or a place that they can play

Sunday School Teacher Appreciation

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It’s that time of year again. Depending on when your children promote to their new classes (I’ve heard of promotion occuring anywhere between June and September) your church is likely winding the current Sunday school year down. Your teachers are starting to reflect on the year that was – all of the good times, the hard times, and the crazy times with children that they get to see, teach, and know once a week every week for