JCISONLINE

I have the wonderful opportunity to teach kids on a weekly basis. I desire to teach them truths about God each and every time that I get the chance. I often remember how my faith has grown over my life. I continually think what are some things that I wish that I had known about God when I was 6-13 years old.

A couple that I have come up with are these:

• God is not angry with me.
• God wants the best for my life
• God loves me more than I love myself.

If we could get a generation of kids to understand these three truths about God, I think it would do wonders for their entire lives. Imagine grasping the truth that God is not angry with you at age 10 and living your entire life with that truth in tow.

So with that said, what are some truths that you wish you had known as a kid about God?

Sorry for the ridiculous alliteration there but first read this post by Pudge. Then think about this. Number one what is our goal in #kidmin or any ministry for that matter.

My goal as a teacher is 1 Timothy 1:5 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” [NASB]

1. So basically, I want to teach kids to love purely out of a result of their overflowing relationship with God
2. Sound doctrine or (a good conscience)that comes directly from their personal relationship with God and reading and study of the word of God. Very interesting to do a study on the word conscience in this passage check it out;)
3. And last sincere faith (deeds, works, acts of service, etc.)

Now with these goals in mind we have been pondering how do we push kids to their Bibles? How do we push them closer to Christ? Are there hurdles that we can remove in order for kids to get in the Bible?

We have pondered so many things:

• Graphic Bibles
• Sorta a baseball/Yu-Gi-oH (culturally relevant)card to get kids to read passages
• Bible Hero Action Figures
• Videos
• Online readers

I am wondering if the thing Pudge is talking about is doable. Hulu is an incredible tool but more so imagine how much kids are on the computer. Webkins, Dragonball Z reruns, Webisodes, etc.

How can we put something tangible together that will grab kids attention and get them to come back again and again? Can it be done? Should it be done? Is there another way to do something like this?

Let me hear your thoughts.

Well since I do programming for Children’s Ministry thought I would give you the four things that we are always implementing at Brookwood Kids. It’s in a little acronym called FITE.

F-Fun. It’s really simple and yet difficult to achieve across different ages. Kids make a job out of having fun. If they aren’t having fun they aren’t interested in what you are offering to them. Simple yet very hard to achieve on a consistent basis. (fun for 3rd grade girls and 5th grade boys looks a little different!)

I-Interactivity. The kids need to interact with their environment and with the lesson. With the attention spans of children and the need to fit strong Biblical teaching in to your only one hour of connection with the kids during the week, it must be important to allow the kids to participate in what is happening. And when you honestly look at your Christian life, one of the greatest things that you get to do is PARTICIPATE! We don’t want to program into our kids that Jesus, and the life that He calls us to is one where you sit and soak.

T-Timing. This is where for most of you’re programming it could be different. For us at Brookwood Kids, we have about 30 minutes of large group teaching. We use centralized teaching and so it is imperative for us to give our small group leaders as much time to connect with them as possible. This is the part that I struggle with the most because I want the kids to get “it” everytime that I teach and so I embellish a bit Preacher in me I guess. But I understand that while the lesson is extremely important, the connections they make with their SGL’s on a weekly basis is even more important. Do you remember a lesson that taught you more and pushed you further in your walk with Christ or a person that invested in you? Sorry tangent- We make it a priority to time out all of our media elements and make sure that we try as hard as we can to give our SGL’s as much connection time with the kids as possible. And you must consistently work at doing this. (especially me)

E-Excellence. This one might sound very simple to those of you in the programming world, but this is the hardest thing for those of us in CM (or #kidmin ) to get. Why? Because often times you have to battle this “O it’s only kids, attitude”, “They won’t notice, they’re just kids” Those statements kill me. Luckily for us at Brookwood we have incredible support from everyone on our staff. It is unbelievably important to show the kids that you care about what you put in front of them. Be excellent in what you do.

Hope this helps some of you. I’m no expert but thought it would be really beneficial for any of you involved in CM Production!

What would you add to this list?

Alright if you are in CM you need to do this right now. Go to this link #kidmin this is a hashtags link. Basically the people that subscribe to this link will get updates from people that are doing things in Children’s Ministry. It’s an awesome idea and I can’t wait to what is being shared on this thing.

It works in an RSS feed, Bloglines or anything like that! Check it out right now. You still aren’t there… what’s taking you so long.

I have had alot of stuff to do and so not a lot of time to put into the blog. And with some links from some awesome people in CM I feel like I have let them down a bit… Sorry Pudge and Dave

So for this post I want to know what do you think the next program look is in children’s ministry? Are there any trends that you are seeing in Children’s Ministry Programming? Puppets, Drama, Worship, Large Group, Small Group yes or no?

What do you guys think? What are you doing currently that kids are diggin on and what do you think CM will look like in 5 years? Remember open forum.

You guys rock can’t wait to see what you think!!!