Making Sundays Welcoming— My mother has served in children’s ministry for most of her life, leading programs at three different churches in the DC area: one as the volunteer Sunday School Superintendent, and two others as the full-time director of children’s ministry. I asked her to share some thoughts on making Sundays [...]
Lots of Styles: Teaching to Engage a Variety of Learning Styles by Looking to the Master Teacher— This may be obvious, but everyone learns. And we all learn in a lot of different ways. If you studied education in the 1990s and early 2000s, you most likely learned about the three main [...]
Children and Worship: The Conversation of 2 Pastors— Part of our Grow Virtual Conference was a question-and-answer session between Stephen Estock and Josh Johnson. These two pastors discussed children and worship and the character of God seen in His name Yahweh. Please enjoy some of that conversation here. This is not verbatim, [...]
Navigating Grief with Our Children— As parents, we often look forward to and even prepare for all the “firsts” in our children’s lives. Whether it’s first steps, first “big kid” bed, first day at school, or first job, we know those days will come. We anticipate them. We even prepare them for [...]
Missed Opportunities— You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deuteronomy 6:7). About twenty years ago, when I had several young children of my own, I [...]
Advent is Not Only the Beginning In churches across the world, the anticipation of Christmas is an exciting and busy time of year. There are cantatas to sing, children’s pageants to watch, cookie exchanges to bake for, “Secret Santa” to shop for, poinsettias and wreaths and boughs of evergreen galore. It is [...]
The Importance of Children Being Involved in the Church When we think of serving within our churches, what sort of things immediately come to mind? A year ago, I would have given the easy answers. There are pastors, elders, deacons, ushers, greeters, maybe the set-up team, treasurer, secretary, Sunday School teachers, youth [...]
Preparing for Advent “Are we there yet?” my seven-year-old daughter will inevitably ask, a mere fifteen minutes from home in an hours-long trip. No, child, it’s still the beginning of the trip. You will have to wait. In the life of a child, the anticipation of Christmas—parties, presents, and candy—is the ultimate [...]
Reformation Sunday – Plan now to make it a big deal! “Who can tell me something about Martin Luther?” I asked this question in an elementary-age Sunday school class twenty years ago, and I still remember how surprised I was with the answers. Many of the children began to give me facts [...]
The Importance of Involving Kids in Church— My husband Tom and I have 3 college-age and adult kids. A couple of years ago, when it was our son Joshua’s turn for a high school graduation party, we sat down and made a list of folks to invite. We covered family, and friends, [...]