One of Satan’s most devious strategies is to convince people that today’s issues are just too complex to determine whether something is right or wrong, truth or error. This includes explaining human behavior, which secular professionals have worked overtime to establish as overly complicated. We are all meant to throw up our hands and surrender our…
Welcoming Children with Special Needs into Corporate Worship
On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer that we would welcome children with special needs to the regular worship of God’s people. Don’t we want all men and women, boys and girls to be included in the community of worshipers? Isn’t this what Christianity is all about? But when we dig a bit deeper,…
Teaching Children to Discriminate
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on homosexual marriage and recent efforts to claim certain legal rights for the “transgendered,” states and cities have responded with proposed laws and ordinances of their own. Proponents have argued that these are attempts to protect traditional Christian definitions of marriage, as well as the freedom of religion. Opponents…
How to Provoke Your Children to Anger in Three Easy Lessons
We live in a culture that sends parents multiple, conflicting messages about their children. On the one hand, children are to be the center of our universe—given all they desire, and praised to the hilt (in order to prevent low self-esteem, of course). They are to be protected from all sorts of suffering, doted upon,…
Children’s Ministry 101. Lesson 16: Grounded in Compassion
When you come to firmly believe that a vibrant children’s ministry is essential because of the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ, then you will remain grounded in your purpose and mission. But how will you maintain and sustain the everyday work of the ministry? It will certainly help if you have dedicated covenant parents who understand the…
Children’s Ministry 101. Lesson 15: Grounded in Covenant
“Why do we have a children’s ministry in the first place?” This is a question you must always be prepared to answer. Sometimes it will come even more aggressively, like: “I don’t see children’s ministry in the Bible.” or “The early church didn’t have a Director of Children’s Ministry!” Before you read on, what answer…
Children’s Ministry 101. Lesson 14: Train for Relationships
If we rightly understand that the local church is a covenant community of believers, then we must always prioritize the development of Biblical relationships. So what does this particular task look like in children’s ministry? Do we just wait for our youth ministry associates to do this work, since that’s when children become more interested…
Children’s Ministry 101. Lesson 13: Train for Worship
One critical children’s ministry decision is whether to have some sort of “children’s church” during the Sunday morning worship service, or opt to keep children in worship with their parents. Ultimately, the pastoral leadership and elders of your church are responsible to cast the vision of what biblical corporate worship looks like, including how children are to be…
Children’s Ministry 101. Lesson 12: Protect ALL Children
It’s a sad reality that we need to devote a lesson in this series to the topic of child protection. But, we live in a fallen world. Evil people who want to hurt children. Churches tend to be “soft targets” where predators have plenty of opportunities. So your children’s ministry team must always keep a place on…
Children’s Ministry 101. Lesson 11: Serve ALL Children
After serving just a few weeks at my current post, one of our long-time elders and his wife paid me a visit. After the opening pleasantries, he threw down the gauntlet with this provocative question: “Are you here to minister to ALL the children of our church, or just MOST of them?” All sorts of thoughts…
Children’s Ministry 101. Lesson 10: Teach with Purpose
If the principal activity of Children’s Ministry is teaching, then this essential work must be tied to our overall goals for children. Teaching with passion is useless if you don’t know WHY you are teaching or have in mind WHAT outcome you desire. To put it another way, teaching that doesn’t elicit true learning ends…
Children’s Ministry 101. Lesson 9: Teach with Passion
In a Christ-centered, gospel-driven children’s ministry, teaching is the fundamental activity. Unfortunately, the educational element of ministry to children has gradually receded into the background over the past decades, as more entertainment-styled programming has been thrust into the foreground. Correspondingly, teachers in the local church aren’t typically trained to be effective and productive, since knowledge and wisdom aren’t valued…
One Story Ministries 