Helping Children See God’s Gracious Mission–

If you have ever baked with a small child, you know how messy that process can be. So messy in fact, that you might vow to never bake with small children again! But how rewarding is it when you take time to sit in the mess with small children, to model for them how to bake those cookies? Serving in church is similar. When we invite children into serving from a young age, when we sit in the mess as they learn, they ultimately grow in their understanding of serving humbly wherever the need.

I walked through the Fellowship Hall last week to find one of our youth tinkering with the sound system. “Hey Miss Saralyn, I thought I’d help set this up!” I was thrilled. He saw the need and jumped in. Every Sunday there are a handful of youth who appear downstairs at church, and they ask where they can help. These are the youth who were young children when we planted our church. They have seen a serving heart modelled by their parents and other adults. They understand that church is a group of people learning to know, love, and serve the Lord. It’s not always easy to find an age- appropriate way for the children and youth who ask to serve to get involved.

Here are a few ideas for getting young children involved in serving at church:

• Invite families to hand out bulletins for worship together.
• Invite families to greet congregants together and hold the front doors open.
• Invite children to help make a sample Sunday school craft.
• Invite children to help check the markers and crayons. Any dried-out markers, or crayons broken too small, can get tossed.
• Invite children to help volunteers get their name tags.
• Invite children to help deliver snacks to classrooms.
• Invite children to help flip PowerPoint slides for Large Group.
• Invite children to help hand out Bibles for SWORD drills.
• Invite children to help return library books to shelves.
• Invite children to help tape class signs to the walls.
• Invite families to consider creating actions for the monthly Bible verse memory work.

Recently, as our Sunday school class discussed the Great Commission (Matthew 28) and it clicked with the children being taught. Christ died for us, but His resurrection is good news that needs to be shared around the world! The children in our church reflected on the different languages spoken in their homes and marveled at the gospel being shared in these different languages in our backyards and around the world. While in Sunday school we often reflect on serving in our local church, we wanted to give students an opportunity to serve outside our church.

Here are a few ways to consider helping children to think missionally:

• Post a large world map on the wall. Talk about what church looks like around the world.
• Place photos of any missionaries your church supports on the world map. Pray for these people and their ministries. Invite families to consider a few prayer prompts for these missionaries at home too.
• Consider what local or global missions project your church could get involved with. Could you fill new backpacks for neighboring families? Raise money for a Bible camp abroad?
• One fundraiser that has been fun to do with our church is a bake sale for missions. Children and youth donate their baked goods. Congregants then “donate what they wish” and fill a treat box of goodies. Proceeds from the bake sale go to the missionary selected. This is a wonderful way for families to serve together as parents help bake and volunteer alongside their children.

Children are never too little to hear the gospel nor be given opportunities to serve in God’s gracious mission. Christ gave us the gift of redemption (Ephesians 2:8). We are given the beautiful challenge to help families around us live missionally both in our local communities and in supporting missions abroad. I hope even in the mess that can come with small children learning and serving, we will invite children around us into opportunities to serve.