My New Blog

[Pastorj]

If anyone is interested, I have been challenged by a friend to start a blog. The first few posts will deal with philosophy of Church Children's ministry.

Creative Church Ministries

[Pastor Matt]

Cool, if you ever blog any sermons please re-post them here in the sermons section. That will help in your SERPs.

[John81]

:thumb:

[Anon]

Good posting....I hate when children come to play games at church instead of learn of God. As it is, our bus kids can hardly stand to sit through my Sunday School class (4th-6th grade) and the kids are hardly manageable in Jr Church right now (I don't teach it...yet) unless they are eating something or playing something.

I remember the Jr Church class in the church I got saved in...it was "fun" but it was fun because it was interesting...it was kept moving...but we all sat in a chair quietly the whole time.....had "quiet seat" but it was like a kids version of adult church. We sang songs with a guy who played guitar and we heard missionary stories and Bible stories and played a few tame games that involved answering questions from the stories, and any extra time was spent reading out loud from a Christian book of some sort.

I think its pathetic that these days people think they have to haul kids to church and then just let them run around in a gym.

As it is, I'm on the fence as to how many "children's ministries" a church really should even have...I realize Jesus wants the children to come to Him, but I also do not think people should be spending their entire day of rest herding bus kids around...but that's another story.

[quinkie]

Our church has a good number of children from one-parent inner-city homes, where the parent does not / will not attend church. Most of these children live with a daily fear of - will we have food today? who will get me up for school / church today? will I have clean clothes to wear? will someone make breakfast for me? They live daily with rapper music, being called filthy names, seeing their parent steal at the stores, they live with no discipline but with plenty of beatings. They act just like little untamed animals.
We have been working with these children for 4 years. They are faithful children. We have seen some progress in some of their lives.
Not as much as we would like, but some. We have lost some adults who could not take their disruptive behaviour. I look forward to reading your blog to see if we can obtain some insights to perhaps help our children's ministry. We do have Sunday School, but no children;s church - everyone stays in the auditorium for the preaching service.

[Pastorj]

Quinkie,

When I pastored in CT, we didn't have a junior church either for a long time. In the beginning, it was just my wife doing the children's SS classes. As our church grew, we were able to train teachers and my wife moved from SS to Junior Church. We never did have anything on Sunday evening or Wednesday. The kids we had coming were very much the same as what you are describing

Keep up the good work and God will bless.

[Anon]

We don't have anything on Sunday pm or Wednesday....however, we don't have a big teen group because we don't have anybody who does a teen Sunday School anymore....and we also have a family that sends their child to another church on Wednesdays (though they are members here) to go to the Kids Club thing the other church has. Oh well.

[John81]

Good posting....I hate when children come to play games at church instead of learn of God. As it is, our bus kids can hardly stand to sit through my Sunday School class (4th-6th grade) and the kids are hardly manageable in Jr Church right now (I don't teach it...yet) unless they are eating something or playing something.

I remember the Jr Church class in the church I got saved in...it was "fun" but it was fun because it was interesting...it was kept moving...but we all sat in a chair quietly the whole time.....had "quiet seat" but it was like a kids version of adult church. We sang songs with a guy who played guitar and we heard missionary stories and Bible stories and played a few tame games that involved answering questions from the stories, and any extra time was spent reading out loud from a Christian book of some sort.

I think its pathetic that these days people think they have to haul kids to church and then just let them run around in a gym.

As it is, I'm on the fence as to how many "children's ministries" a church really should even have...I realize Jesus wants the children to come to Him, but I also do not think people should be spending their entire day of rest herding bus kids around...but that's another story.

Agreed. Outreach is important but so is edification time for Believers and their children. There needs to be a line drawn between the two. The specific purpose of "church" is to build up and edify the Believers, have fellowship and corporate worship. It's this time that should prepare us for doing the work of Christ the rest of the week.

Too often in our zeal to bring in the lost, we lose that much needed time of quiet, rest and edification so necessary and important if we are to grow in Christ and live for Him. It's real easy to get busy doing "good things" while neglecting that which is necessary for the health and growth of Believers.

[Pastorj]

I have updated my blog with Part 3 of the "Philosophy of Children's Ministry" Series.

[Pastor Matt]

Awesome, do you mind if I auto-post it here like I do David Clouds feed?

[John81]

Awesome, do you mind if I auto-post it here like I do David Clouds feed?

I like that idea!

[Pastorj]

I have no problem with that Bro. Matt

[HappyChristian]

Good stuff, Pastorj!

I work in the 3rd grade Sunday School, and we often feel squeezed because we don't have time to do all we want to do!! We do have a review game at the very beginning, while the kids are coming in. But we start as early as we can, so we can pack in as much as possible. Our song time usually only lasts about 10 minutes, which is hard for me (I'm the one who does that part), because I like to teach the kids songs from the Bible that go with our theme. I also teach a practical story, which always comes at the end of class. There have been many times when the Bible lesson has gone over time, and the teacher has apologized to me...I always tell her not to worry about it, because that's the most important. We do need time to teach the memory verse, and the practical story always reinforces the Bible lesson, so we strive to get it all done. It's a job sometimes, though. But one we both love....

I know we've had discussions before as to the appropriateness or not of activities after church, and we all have our opinions, but I am glad that our children's ministry is designed to emphasize the Bible. Kids who ride the bus get a Bible lesson on the way in and home, memory verses on the bus and in Sunday School (the same verse from Sunday School is taught in Jr. church), etc.