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    The Ultimate Survival Guide for Children's Ministry Workers
    The Ultimate Survival Guide for Children's Ministry Workers
    The Ultimate Survival Guide for Children's Ministry Workers
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    The Ultimate Survival Guide for Children's Ministry Workers

    By Ivy Beckwith and Tim Conder

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    About this ebook

    Too often, children's ministry volunteers say yes to helping out and then are confused about what to do. How do I use curriculum? What if the kids get rowdy? How do I build relationships? This valuable, easy-to-use resource will give every children's volunteer a solid foundation as they begin working in ministry. From basic ideas for getting started, practical tips on classroom management techniques, to help with understanding different age levels, everything a volunteer needs is outlined in these pages. There are also ideas for working with children with special needs, understanding the current tech-savvy generation, keeping kids safe at church, the role of a volunteer in the child's spiritual development, and ideas for self-evaluation. Every church will want a copy of this terrific guide to ensure their children's ministry volunteers get off to the right start, have a successful year, and finish their term of service with passion and enthusiasm.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBaker Publishing Group
    Release dateMay 7, 2007
    ISBN9781441223678
    The Ultimate Survival Guide for Children's Ministry Workers
    Author

    Ivy Beckwith

    Ivy Beckwith is a graduate of Gordon College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and holds a PhD in education from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. Born and raised in new England, Ivy has been children's minister of Colonial Church in Edina, Minnesota, since July 2000. Her primary responsibility is preschool and children's education, where her focus is the spiritual formation of Colonial's children and families.

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      Book preview

      The Ultimate Survival Guide for Children's Ministry Workers - Ivy Beckwith

      Carolina

      INTRODUCTION

      Today’s church is full of dedicated volunteers working in children’s educational programming. They are enthusiastic. They genuinely love being with kids. And they are dedicated to helping children learn to love Jesus.

      But I’ve seen something happen with these eager, committed servants. Because they don’t have the basic skills needed for working successfully with children, or because they don’t understand this generation of children and how they learn, they get bogged down, frenzied, discouraged and— ultimately—burnt out. My prayer is that this book can give volunteers some simple, practical tools for working with children of all ages, and help them understand the eternal importance of their jobs.

      A few years ago, a certain politician endured a lot of ridicule when she quoted the old African proverb It takes a village to raise a child. She was criticized by some who thought she was downplaying the importance of the nuclear family. While I can’t speak to her intentions, I think it’s deeply important to acknowledge that God never created the nuclear family to go it alone. The dependence on the nuclear family for a child’s welfare is a relatively new occurrence—in Bible times, it was the extended family and the entire tribe that took the responsibility for raising the children. It did, indeed, take a village.

      Things are no different today. Hundreds of studies have shown that kids grow to emotional and spiritual health when they have the advantage of positive relationships with many adults, rather than just a few.1 As a children’s ministry volunteer, you now have the opportunity to be one of those people to the kids in your faith community.

      Faith doesn’t grow in a vacuum. God designed faith to be communal and relational, and kids need a faith community as much as adults do . . . maybe more. Kids need to know there are adults at their church who know them by name, enjoy being with them and think they’re special. These healthy, unique relationships with adults go further to help kids learn to love God and follow Jesus than any lesson on the structure of the Tabernacle ever will . . . as fascinating as that might be to some people!

      Some people who volunteer to work with kids in children’s ministry believe that the best way to help kids learn to love God and follow Jesus is through teaching Bible facts and moral applications of those Bible facts. Now, there is nothing wrong with Bible facts and good values—I’m a big fan of both!— but I’m not convinced that facts and values fully nurture and care for the souls of children. What kids ultimately need for their healthy spiritual development is time, attention and tender guidance. (Think about how Jesus cultivated relationships with the disciples.) By simply being with the kids at your church—by getting to know them and building relationships with them—you can positively affect their spiritual formation.

      In this book, you’ll find practical advice and guidelines for volunteering in your church’s children’s ministry. Practical and hands-on tips are vital—that’s why I wrote this handbook, after all!— but I’d like to challenge you not to lose sight of the big picture: helping kids learn to love God and follow Jesus. Whether or not you choose to follow this book’s suggestions about how to teach with curriculum or how to keep the attention of preschoolers (and I hope you do), I urge you to do the following:

      Be a good model of a person who follows Jesus. This means that you need to love and care about kids, and your love and care need to come through even on days when they drive you crazy. It means that you need to show integrity by upholding the commitment you have made to them and to the volunteer responsibilities you have undertaken. It means that you need to treat kids with courtesy and respect, and set boundaries for them as you help them develop their own self-discipline. It means that you need to share your faith story when you have an opportunity. You can talk with them about times God has comforted you and times when you’ve not acted as a Christian should. Kids need to see authentic Christian living and will appreciate hearing that sometimes you don’t always make the best choices.

      Sometimes when I teach workshops for children’s ministry volunteers, I ask the participants what they remember about their childhood church experiences. They never remember specific Bible lessons, but they do remember—for good or ill—the people who taught those lessons to them. If you love kids and come prepared each week to be present with them, you’re modeling positive characteristics of a person of faith.

      Pray for kids and with kids. Put them on your daily prayer list. Think about and pray for each child in your group as you prepare for your volunteer responsibilities. Pray for their families, too. When you are with them—especially if you work with a small group of children—pray with them. Ask them to share their prayer requests with the group, and share the things you’d like them to pray about for you. Even young children can and want to do this for you and each other.

      Connect what you’re teaching to kids’ lives. Help them explore ways they can realistically apply God’s story to their own story. Challenge them to try living God’s way, and then be sure you talk with them about what happened when you see them next. Kids need to experience what they’re learning to make it real in their lives. Encourage them to talk about their life experiences with you, and brainstorm ways to make what you’re teaching relevant and meaningful to their

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