Collaborate!!!!

Family + Church

This book truly speaks to the benefit of great thinkers working together. Experts from all over the spectrum of ministry address – from their personal perspective – their tested theories on best practices for discipling the next generation. From parental involvement in student ministries or church-wide celebrations, to programs that seek to bring generations together thru meals or social activities, this book has gems of advice for anyone who works with youth and their families.

For me, the significant take-aways were:
VISION: What our desired end-result? Who do we want children to grow up to be?
MISSION: The Shema! Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength. Impress them upon your children. (Somehow I had never realized that Deut. 6 follows directly after, and is therefore truly a part of the Shema – Hear O Israel: The Lord your God is one.) Can’t have one without the other. This is the mission of the people of God (whether it be Israel of the Old Testament, to the modern day church family) – to pass along the faith of their fathers to the next generation.
PATHWAYS: Collaborate: with Pastors and Church Leadership, with Student Ministry leaders, with parents, with the entire church family.

Special thanks to Minister's Label for the complementary copy of the book. It is a honor to be a part of the book blog tour.
Purchase at Amazon.com

Dreams & Peace Poems

I took my KWLS kids to the local bookstore to host a Celebration of Peace for MLK, Jr. Day. Here are the writings that came out of the event. The children at the event came from church and off the street. I cannot believe how profound kids can be.

Our Dreams for the World

There won’t be any violence.

To have love around the world.

Everyone will be good.

War will stop.

There will be no war and countries have peace.

Playing.

Live in peace.

(The world ) will have the will to stand up for themselves and to love anyone they want.

Everyone will be free to live with peace, and love will be everywhere.

Just to be healthy.

Everyone will have a family.

Wars will stop forever and people will have freedom and can go home to see their families.

I will have a sister that I can play with on weekends and holidays.

That I can save animals someday.

I will be a famous singer and be on stage like Miley.

Peace is like FAIRNESS.

Peace looks like A PEACE SIGN.

It sounds QUIET.

And it can be GRACEFUL,

But peace is always LOVE.

Peace is like LOVE.

Peace looks like A PEACE SIGN.

It sounds LOVING.

And it can be COOL,

But peace is always WITH YOU.

Peace is like A BIG CIRCLE OF LOVE.

Peace looks like A PEACE SIGN.

It sounds LIKE A LOT OF PEOPLE.

And it can be A GARDEN,

But peace is always A GOOD JOY.

Peace is like LOVE.

Peace looks like A PRETTY DOVE.

It sounds LIKE A QUIET POND.

And it can be A LARGE BOND,

But peace is always SAFE AND SOUND.

Peace is like GIVING AND SHARING

Peace looks like HAPPY.

It sounds HAPPY.

Peace is like CALM WATER.

Peace looks like KISSES.

It sounds LIKE RABBITS SINGING.

And it can be FOR EVERYONE,

But peace is always FOR GLENN.

Peace is like FREEDOM.

Peace looks like THERE’S NO WAR.

It sounds like LOVE.

And it can be EVERYONE,

But peace is always LOVING.

Peace is like LOVE.

Peace looks like NOT WAR.

It sounds PEACEFUL.

And it can be AWESOME,

But peace is always NICE.

Peace is like FRIENDSHIP.

Peace looks like CHILDREN PLAYING.

It sounds CHILDREN LAUGHING.

And it can be ANYWHERE,

But peace is always FRIENDSHIP.

Peace sounds PEACEFUL.

And it can be A WONDERFUL FEELING,

But peace is always SILENT.

January Virtue - Discipline

doing what you need to do now so you can grow stronger.

This month, we will be going over the five faith skills every kid needs to know God better. If you want to know God better:

Read His Book. Can you think of a more foundational, first-step way to get to know Him? Plus, "God has breathed life into all of Scripture. It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful for correcting our mistakes. It is useful for making our lives whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right" (2 Timothy 3:16, NIrV). What better example of the importance of engaging in God's Word than Jesus as a 12-year-old in the temple? (Which happens to be the Bible story for week 1.)

Remember His words. "By using Scripture, a man of God can be completely prepared to do every good thing" (2 Timothy 3:17, NIrV). Jesus showed us (particularly that time He was tempted in the wilderness) we not only need to (Step 1) read God's Word, we need to (Step 2) memorize it, internalize it, and take it to heart so that we'll be ready for whatever comes our way.

Talk to Him. "Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him" (Philippians 4:6, NIrV). To get to know someone and to strengthen your relationship with that person, you have to talk him or her, right? It's the same way with God. You gotta talk to Him. This week (week 3) will help kids better understand Jesus' answer when one of the disciples asked Him how to pray.

Talk about Him with your friends. "I pray that you will be active in sharing what you believe. Then you will completely understand every good thing we have in Christ" (Philemon 1:6, NIrV). Saying what you believe out loud helps solidify your beliefs. Could this be one reason Jesus asked the disciples, "But who do YOU say I am?" (The story for week 4.)

Make Him more important than anything. "Worship the Lord your God. He is the only one you should serve" (Deuteronomy 6:13a, NIrV). This week (week 5) we'll be taking a look at what Jesus said about "the widow's mite" and how it helps us to worship the only one we should serve.

We will be refering to these as the Five Faith Skills:
5 Faith Skills we think every kid should master:

1. Navigate the Bible (survey and locate)
2. Personalize Scripture (memorize and apply)
3. Dialogue with God (public and private)
4. Articulate faith (share and defend)
5. Worship with your life (praise and give)

What can we provide that parents can't?

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My Sunday School is made up entirely of children who have at least one parent who is a regular attender at our church. Some may only have one parent or a grandparent who brings them, but it is the rare time that a child comes to my programs by themselves. Even the guests that kids bring are often friends who go to another church.

It got me to thinking, "why are we in ministry to children trying to do what parents are capable of doing themselves?' Parents can teach and read bible stories, watch and discuss movies and videos with a message, and serve - all in the context of family.

During the week, howver, the majority of the children in my church go to public or secular private schools. On a day-to-day basis, they are surrounded by children, teachers and coaches from many cultures, faiths, family situations and neighborhoods. People whose worldview sometimes clashes dramatically with what they know to be God's way. They are learning to navigate the environment that is school (the second largest time period of their week), and yet the principals and guidelines they are being taught are not necessarily the ways of Christ.

What parents can't do is create a counter kid-culture that competes with the kid-culture at school. Parents can't - on an ongoing basis - provide large group games, worship time, and mission projects.

Kids need to learn how to navigate their social world with a place to practice the Christian values of love, forgiveness, teachability, humility, self control. etc. What Sunday School can offer is a more than a place where kids come to learn about God, but a place where kids can come and practice living out their faith with Christian friends in a learning and working environment. We can offer opportunities for kids to serve, worship and lead others in a context of a faith community of their peers.

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• Wordle Ideas (slideshare.net)

The New Year

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For most people, the new year begins on January 1. For those of us in ministry or service to kids, the year begins in September. I associate the newness of the year with the crunch of leaves, school supplies and the new dynamics of my classrooms.

And summer is the time for dreaming and planning. As I approach this new year, I am looking to find clear spiritual pathways for growth, build bridges between generations, unite volunteers and align ministries.

The new year is coming ... are you ready??

Toddlers on Mission!

Toddlers on Mission!

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Group Blogging Project: Too Small To Ignore

Group Blogging Project: Too Small To Ignore – Chapter 8 – “Silence of the Lambs”

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Group Blogging Project: Too Small To Ignore

Group Blogging Project: Too Small To Ignore – Chapter 12 – “The Children’s Champion: A Righteous Rage”

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Progressive Education in CM

So I'm thinking maybe this is my philosophy for Children's Ministry. Is there really any better way to have kids grow spiritually than having them develop an active, living dialog with Christ, each other and the world around them? It sounds an awful lot like what Jesus did with the 12 disciples vs. the book learning of the pharisees of his time.

But somehow, I'm just not convinced that this is the key to learning math, however.

Progressive Education - From Wikipedia -

Most progressive education programs have these qualities in common:

* Emphasis on learning by doing – hands-on projects, experiential learning
* Integrated curriculum focused on thematic units
* Strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking
* Group work and development of social skills
* Understanding and action as the goals of learning as opposed to rote knowledge
* Collaborative and cooperative learning projects
* Education for social responsibility and democracy
* Integration of community service and service learning projects into the daily curriculum
* Selection of subject content by looking forward to ask what skills will be needed in future society
* De-emphasis on textbooks in favor of varied learning resources
* Emphasis on life-long learning and social skills
* Assessment by evaluation of child’s projects and productions

KWLS - Kids in Worship, Leadership and Service

Here's how my year is going. Again our group is comprised of 4th through 8th graders. We have around 15 kids who rotate through serving, depending on their schedules. We rehearse/meet once a week and the kids lead a brief children's church service on Sunday mornings. The kids have also started rotating through the classrooms as helpers, and KWLS has become the umbrella for processing other kids/teens for serving in the classrooms.

Positives:
1. The KWLS kids have grown to appreciate their role in the church as leaders. They know they are valued and their opinions matter.
2. The kids and families are excited about the music and are using it in their homes.
3. I have fourth graders chomping at the bit to join this year.
4. Parents are supportive of the commitment to KWLS.
5. Partnership with the other leader has meant we've never had to cancel.
6. Possibilities for outreach have grown.
7. Younger kids are seeing KWLS as caring leaders in their community.
8. Continued desire to add more to what we are doing (new songs, skits, collections, etc).
9. Requests from the adult worship team to involve the kids.

Negatives:
1. Getting some complaints about some 'fairness' issues.
2. Focus has shifted somewhat from wanting to 'serve' - to wanting to do 'what I like.'
3. Having trouble maintaining interest from boys.
4. Burnout on rehearsals.
5. Difficulty with inconsistency in attendance.
6. Still struggling with how to attract older teens and kids who don't want to 'sing and dance.'
7. Still trying to balance performance and worship.

On Thursday, we hope to do a year-end review and tweak some of our procedures for the coming year. In September we will be including the next generation of KWLS by adding the upcoming 4th graders.I am praying that the kids will be open to expressing their opinions and respectful of those who disagree. I am praying that the kids will be able to see how much they have grown over the last year. I am praying that we devise an effective mentoring system for the younger kids coming into the group. I am praying for those who desire to step down to feel accepted and respected for doing so. We will close out the year by having a KWLS & family picnic in August.

God, you are amazing!

Image by courambel via Flickr

This summer we are running the 10 lessons from an old VeggieTales VBS. For the past couple of Sundays, our pastor was out of town - first at a conference, then with family. While I would have had very little luck trying to line up our pre-written curriculum with his sermon, sometimes I try. This week, though, I couldn't even find the order of service. In fact, I'm not quite sure there was one. Unusual to say the least.

Our theme of the day in VeggieTown was 'being thankful for the gifts that God has given us.' We talked about how we could use our gifts to glorify and help God.

In the adult service, our pastor, Vincent, talked about how God had put him right next to a hurting, angry, teenaged boy on a plane and had used him to minister to the boy. While the boy and his father had no idea who Vincent was (or who he worked for), the boy pointed him out and the father made a point of thanking Vincent for the time he had spent with his son.

Interestingly, at group tonight, one of our group, Cheryl, gained insight into what she had never realized was a gift. The previous day she spent quite a bit of time at a BarBQ talking with a partially deaf woman, and thought nothing of it. Since it was within her comfort zone and she was having fun doing it, since she didn't have to give anything up to do it, and since didn't put her in any danger, she didn't realize that she was working for God. Later in the day, the deaf woman's mother came up to Cheryl and thanked her profusely for spending time with her daughter. This morning, during an illustration in the sermon, Cheryl came to the realization that sometimes God uses us through the gifts he has given us, and sometimes it comes quite easily.

We can't talk our strengths, skills or spiritual gifts too lightly, however, it doesn't have to always be painful or difficult to make an awesome impact for the kingdom.

Don't forget to be thankful this week!

Caught not Taught

So I've been looking at the benefits and barriers to what I've been calling "family life groups." My regular group consists of 4 adults and three children. This week, however, the group extended to include 2 teenagers. So we ranged in age from 5 years old to 51. For the first time, the kids opted to stay with us instead of bolting outside to run around, and the discussion turned to 'hearing God speak.'

While several of the adults and teens discussed their experiences with hearing from God, the kids continued to play with lego on the other side of the room, interjecting at will. When the older children were prompted to give their input, they didn't really have anything to say.

At first glance, my reaction would be to say that the kids didn't really get anything out of group tonight. We didn't elicit deep responses or teach them anything specific. And therein lies the barrier to family life groups and the place where faith comes in to the picture. We can't see God working in the hearts of those in a group who choose not to talk, those who we deem are 'too young' to understand the discussion.

In our group the children are like flies on the wall, seeing, hearing, feeling and occasionally participating in our discussions. Had they been relegated to another room in the house or sent outside to play with a babysitter, they would not have heard the adults and teens talking about the different ways God had spoken to them. They would not have seen teenagers - role models - discussing the place of faith in their lives. We would have hindered them from seeing the ways in which Christ works in people's lives.

The FAITH 5 (Faith Acts In The Home)

Faith Inkubators + The FAITH 5 Method
The FAITH 5

Care to have some fun, keep your family communicating every night, and grow in your understanding of yourself and God? Try this simple five-step process for the next six weeks and see if it doesn’t help!

Here’s how you do it: Whoever is going to bed first in your home calls “FAITH 5” or “Huddle Up!” Everyone must drop what they’re doing, turn off the television, put down the newspaper or their homework, set the cell phone on silence and gather in a room of the convener’s choice. Then take turns going through these five simple steps:

1. SHARE highs & lows of the day

2. READ and highlight a verse of Scripture in your Bible

3. TALK about how the verse relates to your highs & lows

4. PRAY for your highs & lows, for your family, and for the world

5. BLESS one another

You want a great relationship with your kids? You want openness, honesty, caring and sharing in your family? You want to raise a child to be a strong, thoughtful, empathetic, positive, healthy adult out in the world some day? You can’t buy that. You have to invest in it. And the investment is the most expensive currency you own – your TIME – aimed at that most precious young person in your life.

Kids spell love TIME. Be intentional. Be consistent. Be caring. Be the parent. Every night. Every home.

No one else can do that for you.

Four Questions

1. For Parents of Young Children: What would it be worth to you to have a teenager some day who won’t go to sleep without talking to you about their day? Praying with you? Blessing you? Would it be worth five minutes? Tonight? Every night?

2. For Parents of Pre-Teens: What would happen to your family over time if you were able to keep this open, caring communication going every night throughout adolescence?

3. For Parents of Teenagers: Once the teen years begin and drivers’ licences come into play, communication between parents and teens can become a challenge. How might this type of five-minute conversation change a family if they were intentional and consistent about it? Would the benefits outweigh the hassle of trying to invest this time of care, listening, and prayer each night in your home? Why or why not?

4. For Church Leaders: What would happen to a family over time if they made an intentional point of doing the Faith 5 most every night? What would happen to your church five years from today if the majority of your households were doing active listening, scripture, faith talk, prayer, and blessings every night?

K-12 What are we aiming for???

Well, let's just take a look at the young Jesus. At 12 he voluntarily ran off to talk to adults about God and scripture. This is a picture of a boy who has a role in the spiritual community. Despite a young person's naturally impulsive tendency (running off without telling his parents), he does not hesitate to get into a spiritual repartee with his elders. In fact, he feels called to do so.

How blessed we would be in our faith communities if our tweens and teens were seeking truth, had a working knowledge of God's word, were open to teach and be taught, willing to voice their opinion and found readily engaging in spiritual dialog with adults! Against this there can be no law!

Zechariah 8:3-5

Image by State Library of New South Wales collection via Flickr

God's Vision for Life in the New Jerusalem

This is what the LORD says: "I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain."

This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there."

Intergenerational Ministry

Some great excerpts from the Building Church Leaders download:

- Scripture presents coming to know God as a family and community-based process.

- A relational community where the children were to grow up participating in the culture.

- Children were not just included, they were drawn in and assimilated into the whole community.

- For children to experience authentic Christian community, they must be present with the worshiping community.

- As children are assimilated with a deep sense of belonging into the body of Christ, they will make sense of their experiences with God. They will see their parents and others worship, pray with and for each other, minister to others, and be ministered to. They will come to see that all things in their lives are under God. They will be privy to the normal Christian life as lived by the significant adults in their lives. And they will come to know God better.

1. What opportunities do children have to engage withthe life of our church?
2. Why do we separate people by age group in our church?
3. How has focusing on age-specific ministries strengthened our church? How has it created challenge?

Bringin' it to the table...

Thanks to Craig U:

Here's a great SIMPLE idea for families. I know how complicated it is to gather everyone around the dinner table each night. Girl Scouts, board meetings, soccer practice, birthday parties, business dinners, parent/teacher conferences and on, and on, throughout your year.

But you can probably find 5-10 minutes a day (set a time) and gather everyone in your family around the table (kitchen, coffee or other gathering place). Bring your highs and lows of the day to each other and then to the Lord in prayer. Amazing how something this simple can be so effective.

Then choose one day a week that you know for sure you've got everyone home, and have a special family dinner night.

Blessings.

Filling in the Blanks

So we are about to host another Baby Dedication. It's a wonderful celebration where we, as a church family, stand up and say that we'll stand by the parents in encouraging, equipping and supporting them as they direct the spiritual life of their young child....

And then we don't connect with them - as a family, in our church family - until the child is ready to be baptized. Sometime about 10 years in the future!

What about all the milestones in between? How can we possibly keep our promises if we don't invite families to gather again at various times during their child's spiritual journey? What about worshiping together, learning about communion, serving, giving, discovering spiritual gifts?

The first step toward partnering with parents is to fill in the blanks by developing some shared spiritual experiences for parents and kids:
Family Worship Services
Family Bible Study and Small Groups
Family Dinners

And connect them with resources ... and create avenues where we can check back in with families and find out how they are doing.

So then, we as the extended family, can truly celebrate baptism knowing the joy of planting seeds along the spiritual pathways in each child's life.

Fishing for Chaperones

Image via Wikipedia

How do we reach the heart of boys? Being a girl, I don't know the answer. I like talking, and reading and crafts. Ewwey stuff if you are a boy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Stilts_fishermen_Sri_Lanka_02.jpg/75px-Stilts_fishermen_Sri_Lanka_02.jpg
But I think it's action, motion, adventure that drives them. As in a fishing trip. Then I look at the disiples ... all MEN I might add ... and there sure was a heck of a lot of fishing going on. And outdoor dining, and hiking, and eating. So maybe we take our cues from the ancients, and reach our boys this way. And maybe that's the way to get men to reach boys.

It's looking like there may be some fishing expeditions in the offing for our boys, and I pray that God meets each and everyone of these boys - however mature they may be - through the interaction with nature, motors and each other.

Seeing Orange - check out this video