Children’s Ministry and Service

At Brookwood, I have been learning so much not just about Children’s Ministry but also about ministry in general and really have grown to have some real concrete thoughts about ministry. I will share a few of them with you. The first is really built on Ephesians 4:12:

“to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”

A couple of things:

1. God’s people: everyone, everywhere who claims the name of Christ is called to serve. Our job as people in the ministry is to prepare them for those works of service. However, I would also suggest this as well, sometimes we overlook this as an excuse in ministry not to serve. God calls us to serve not just to prepare those for service. We are “God’s People” and that means that we are called to serve others.One more thing to mention about this phrase is this. There is no qualifying age or level of experience.The only qualification is that they belong to God through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
2. Prepare: How are you training your people in their area of service? Do they receive training or preparation in order to minister to their utmost effectiveness? Are they serving at all? The reality for some of us is that people aren’t serving at all in some ways. Our job to prepare them for works of service is to get them to do works of service. Pray, fast, and teach in a way to promote the joy that comes from Christ made available in service.
3. Works of Service: These are things done to build the body of Christ up, as the end of the verse says. Ephesians 4:11, the verse before gives a few examples of the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us. These are the gifts that we should be preparing and training our people in.

This verse is one of the few that has been really cemented in my mind as something that I have been living with and trying to figure out how I can:

• Better Prepare my peeps
• Help them to figure out their gifts
• Serve my God in the most effective way
• God’s People! (more on that tomorrow or maybe in the afternoon.

Anyway just my thoughts on a verse that we really live by in our ministry. Tell me what you think about how church can most effectively do these things. Or maybe how you do them where you are at?