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 learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Later, they added read/write [...]

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, but represents the dialogue held that day. Stephen: I like [...]

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 these “firsts,” coaching them through what to expect in kindergarten [...]

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 beautiful and hectic and, here in Michigan, cold and snowy. [...]

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 volunteers—a mix of staff members and the consistent volunteers needed [...]

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 are we there yet? In the life of a Christian, [...]

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 about Martin Luther King. They had studied about him in [...]