The Children’s Pastor part 4
“Two are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NLT
One of the responsibilities of a CP is to help kids make friends at church. If kids do not make friends at church during their grade school years then they will not make the jump to youth ministry. Teenagers want to hang with their friends and if they don’t have friends at church they won’t hang out at church. One of the best ways to insure that 'your kids' will not fall away during their teen years is to help them make friends at church.
You cannot choose their friends for them, but you can create environments that will help them make friends. I do this in three ways:
- Small groups. One of the hardest decisions I ever made was to take 30 minutes out of my preaching and dedicate it to small group ministry. The primary reason I did this was I noticed the bigger the church got, the less connected the kids were. Church is not just about the relationship between the pastor and his sheep. The glue that holds the church together is the love we have for one another.
- Create opportunities for kids to serve in ministry. When kids get involved in a ministry they are spending time with other kids who love the Lord and want to give of their time to help others. The payback that my leadership kids get is the lifelong relationships they develop at worship rehearsal and drama practice.
- Plan social activities for families. I try to plan one social activity for families with grade school age children. Most of these are not drop off events but opportunities where families can hang together. Here is a list of the activities I have done:
- Sledding party – January
- Lock IN – February
- Roller Skating Party - March
- Easter Egg Hunt – April
- Gym and Swim night at YMCA – May
- Vacation Family Adventure – June
- World’s Largest Squirt Gun Fight - July
- Summer Camp – July
- Zoo Trip – August
- 100 Foot Banana Split - September
- Hay Ride and Apple Orchard - October
- Halloween Alternative – November
- Christmas Party and Gift Exchange -December
No comments:
Post a Comment