Why Bibles?

I've noticed a trend in Children's ministry that I think is a problem. Providing bibles for you children. Every year I go to visit churches to see how they do ministry and many of them have stacks of bibles in every room for children to use when they come. Some churches never even have their child open a bible during service.

And there's a problem with this.

Yes, if you provide bibles they will use them at church, but how do you know that is going on at home. I don't have bibles laying out anywhere in any of my rooms. All of our students are requried to bring their own bibles, for a couple of large reasons.

1. I want to know they have a bible of their own at home that they can read and underline in. If I am always providing a bible for the students, we never have the opportunity to know if a student needs one at home. We have a large supply of bibles in a drawer that if a student doesn't have one and mom and dad can't afford to get them one, then we will provide one for them.

2. I want them to get used to using their own bible. If the church has NIrV's for them to use at church, but their bible at home is an NIV, there's is enough of a difference to confuse the kids when they sit down to use their bibles at home, possible enough that they give up using it. I want students to have a bible they are comfortable with so they can look up answers on their own.

3. We use our bibles. In our preschool area, Students are given a sticker if they bring whatever they consider their bible to church. And hopefully, by they time they are in elementary, it's a habit and they continue to bring it. All of our lessons for Elementary students are in a Large group format. And during this teach time we always have the students use their bibles to look up a scripture, whether it's the story or the memory verse. We also have sword drills, which are races to see who can look up different scriptures for this.

For all these reasons, I believe it's a detriment to Children's ministry to provide bibles for you children. But what about you, what do you think?

Why We?

Here is one you may never had thought about before. In fact I didn't think about it really until a couple months ago. Do you use I or We when referring to the ministry. I always call it OUR ministry, what WE'RE doing in the ministry. This is because two things start to creep into everyone's mind: 1) Leaders know that their needed 2) I don't do everything my self, and I know it. When you continually use the inclusive language, people know they are included. Even when I talk to people outside the church, I use "us," "we," "our." Letting people know that the success of the ministry depends on others goes further in your endeavors. When the congregation hears what our ministry is doing they here that It is not just you that is working, it's all the other leaders in your ministry as well. Then when you tell people you need more leaders, it doesn't come as a surprise that you don't do everything and need additional workers. The inclusive language also gives credit where credit is due. Every time you say we, you're leaders will hear, "look what we've done."

The other benefit to this is when you need to convey authority, "I" stands out more when used sparingly. When I need to emphasis boundaries, talk to parents, or give praise or thanks, I is the language. No matter how much you lay the ground work for the "we" language, you have the final authority on all things concerning the ministry, and it's your name that first comes up in a crisis mode. Not to mention the sign of a great leader is accept responsibility and sharing the praise.

Although, I might be overlooking a type of language. What Kind of languages do you use in your ministry?

Why Facebook?

Oh pages of people, what shall we do with you. Facebook can be a tool wielded or ignored by a children's minister, but it largely depends on your church dynamics as to whether it is worth your time. My church members stalk Facebook, and therefore make Facebook a wonderful communication tool for me. Here are some ways that I utilize Facebook that seem to work best:

1. Event Advertising- Just put all your information on an event, and invite you people. I have a lot of parents respond to these, which at least gives me an idea how many to expect.

2. Building Community- People comment back and forth on status updates and various other things on the site. I hope people are connecting off-line as well.

3. Picture Sharing- I when children check in for the first time in our area, we have the parents tell us what arena's we can use their child's photo. We have the option of Facebook open (which let's anyone that's our friend view) and Facebook closed (which is only by select people such as parents and volunteers.)

I've thought about using Facebook to send out newsletter or other types of information, but haven't ventured into that so far. And for those of you wondering, we have a site and a page, but use the site mostly. I like the site better because it has more ways to interact with people.

I'm sure there are much more Facebook posts to come, but Why do you use Facebook?

Why children's ministry?

Have you ever really sat down and thought about why children's ministry exists? There is no scripture that talks about children's ministry specifically. And it's only really been a focus in the past 20 years or so, so why is it important? Why are you in? Is it a job that pays the bills, or do you just like hanging around with kids? For me it's because I know that more than any age in the existence, Kids get it. They trust God without a second guess, they understand that God loves them, and they want that most of all. They just get it. That's why Jesus told us to be like a child. Maybe that's enough of a reason to have children's ministry be the flag ship of the church, but is there more to it than that?

If you haven't read "Transforming Children into Spiritual champions" by Barna, stop everything your doing to go read that book. It validates everything we do, both scientifically and biblically. But warning: it might scare you a little. The power that we can wield in the world through a child can be terrifying when you understand the fullness of the impact we have. And part of our job is to help others realize it to. The other part of our job, and I think this is more important than anything else we could ever teach them, is that they are Loved by God, and the church loves them too. If they graduate from the ministry with no other understanding than that I have done my job, because from the Love of God, a lifetime of understanding can follow.

And that's why I do I do Children's Ministry, Why do you?

Why?

I don't know about you, but sometimes God just kicks you in the butt and says do this; that's what this blog is. Right now I feel very much like a Timothy, trying to give advice on something I'm still very green at, but never the less, here I am, letting you know what I think and feel about everything in the world of Children's ministry.

That's what the title is about as well. WhyCM (children's ministry). Preschooler's ask why all the time. They want to get at the root of everything, see how the world works, and that's the same thing here. I want you to question WHY to everything you do. Because when you question it, not only do you have an answer when someone else asks, but you also will always be looking for a better way of doing things.

So Why are you doing children's ministry?