Grow Blog
CDM’s Children’s Ministry with Purpose Grow Blog connects you with people and resources to disciple the children in your church. Read as we write about children’s ministry opportunities and challenges, connecting with leadership, how to cast vision, and many more important topics.
Creating Safe Spaces: Why Protecting Our Children Is Essential
Creating Safe Spaces: Why Protecting our Children is Essential- One particularly hectic Sunday morning, I found myself crouched over the children’s check-in station, wrestling with a jammed nametag printer and failed wi-fi connection, while a line began to bottleneck our church’s main entry. Parents were lining up, toddlers were pulling away from them, and a volunteer was asking me where the glue sticks were kept. In [...]
Meet William Tyndale: Bringing the Reformation Home Stories, Resources, and Activities to Share with Your Children
Meet William Tyndale: Bringing the Reformation Home: Stories, Resources, and Activities to Share with Your Children My interest in the Reformation—and especially in how we can share this important part of church history with our children—grew after I had the opportunity to take a Reformation trip with my church two years ago. My trip helped me see the Reformation as a much bigger story than I [...]
Starting Fresh: Building Rhythms for a Thriving Children’s Ministry
Starting Fresh: Building Rhythms for a Thriving Children’s Ministry- The start of a new school year is so much fun. In our ministry, it’s also the start of our new year. Promotion Sunday falls when school is starting back, and it’s such a joy to start fresh with clean classrooms and organized curriculum binders! Throughout the summer, you’ve probably spent time evaluating the last year. Whether [...]
Beyond Drop Off: Building Meaningful Partnerships with Parents to Disciple Our Children –
Beyond Drop Off: Building Meaningful Partnerships with Parents to Disciple Our Children - The first day of school is one of the coolest days of the year. Yes, I said it. In my area, there are some schools that start mid-July and some that start mid-August. And some start somewhere in between. Needless to say, my socials—for a month—have a bevy of first-day-of-school posts. Some of [...]
From Good to Great: How to Use Your Curriculum Effectively in Children’s Ministry
From Good to Great: How to Use Your Curriculum Effectively in Children’s Ministry— I am a self-proclaimed nonplanner. After being a foster parent for fifteen years, I developed a mantra: Why make a plan when you know it’s going to change? Just roll with it. However, as a new children’s ministry director, I quickly learned this approach was essentially a plan to fail. When I first [...]
Family Worship: A Guide to Help Our Families Create a Rhythm of Worship at Home
Family Worship: A Guide to Help Our Families Create a Rhythm of Worship at Home- When you hear the words “family worship,” what feelings arise? A parent with young children may smile, remembering a sweet prayer their child offered just yesterday. Another may feel guilty because family worship hasn’t happened at home in a long time. Still another may feel frustrated because, despite their efforts to [...]
Faithful or Flashy? Discerning Curriculum for Your Children’s Ministry-
Faithful or Flashy? Discerning Curriculum for Your Children’s Ministry- Any time I feel and think I am unequipped to do this job as children’s ministry director, the Lord is unbelievably kind to show me how He has prepared me for this job over the last twenty years. Unbeknownst to me, I’ve been discerning curriculum for a very small ministry my whole adult life. Our family is [...]
Beyond the Family: Why Covenant Parenting Requires the Whole Church
Beyond the Family: Why Covenant Parenting Requires the Whole Church— My sons are not being discipled by my husband and me alone. Their spiritual inheritance is being shaped by a whole community of believers. They are loved by “Aunties” and “Uncles,” our friends who love our boys as their own. While we are rooted first and foremost in the gospel, our family also draws from a [...]