Tips and lessons on improving your children’s church order of service.
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I was going through my very own storage area and happened upon some old puppets. I realized they were standing up on their own which was odd. It turned out they were being supported by toilet plungers! Genius!
So if you need a super simple, super cheap option for keeping your puppets vertical and clean, go pick up a cheap toilet plunger!
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I’ve been trying to start children’s church service preparation on Mondays. We have staff most of the morning and then a late lunch. By the time I get my workday started there isn’t much time left so I’ve been cracking open the curriculum and attempting to put my service together and done.
This has been working very well. First, I’m accomplishing something on a day that that otherwise wouldn’t allow me to. It allows me plenty of time to collect props, object lessons and recruit actors and even give away parts of the sermon to up-and-coming future children’s pastors in my volunteer staff. It also frees up the entire rest of your week to focus on other non-service stuff like policy, organization, brochures and (God forbid) planning.
I highly suggest doing service prep as early in the week as possible. It’s a little tough to want to jump into the next week just after getting done with a Sunday… but the payoff is worth it. The only negative I’ve found, if it can even be called negative, is that I find that I’ve got to add a couple of review times to my week so that I can keep the content fresh in my mind. The balance of it is that I’m giving more thought to the topic and scriptures over all then when I started on Thursday.
When do you do service prep? Do you have any tips to share? Add them to the comments!
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Have you ever had a “Full Moon Sunday”? That’s what I call those Sunday morning services where everything should have gone perfectly… but for some random reason the kids are totally wound up. You feel like every bit of your preparation was pointless. And for me it always seems to be a service topic that I really thought would otherwise have made a huge impact. We’re not talking about a few kids causing problems. It’s more of a general restless din of noise and movement. It’s most frustrating because since it’s everyone and it’s nothing you can exactly put your finger on it’s all but impossible to change the behavior. Short of putting the entire group in time-out or marching them all in to their parents you just have to put your head down and just charge through. It’ll be 1pm soon.
I call these happenings “Full-Moon Sundays” because I’ve had friends who are nurses tell me that every full moon all kinds of crazy things start going down at the hospitals. Tons of extra babies are born and lots or weird injuries come walking into the emergency rooms. There seems to be no other explanation other than the phase of the moon. So when I have a weird Sunday where everything goes right but the kids, I have to blame something… so I blame the moon. I know the moon has no inherent power. I know it’s not really its fault. But it gets the blame anyway. As Milli Vanilli once said, “You gotta blame it on something”.
I don’t know that I have any advice or tips for this particular situation. I mostly just want to know if anyone else experiences this and if you do that you’re not alone. Here are a few thoughts on Full-Moon Sundays.
1. Don’t take it personally. If you were properly prepared you can’t blame yourself.
2. Don’t change anything. You’ll be tempted to rewrite policy or at very least change your program. Don’t ever make a permanent decision to fix a temporary problem.
3. Put your head down and charge through. Honestly, I believe the more potential your service has to change a life, the more your enemy will attempt to cause problems in your service. So don’t quit! Keep speaking, keep following that schedule! Sure, be open to what God may want to do, but don’t make a change based on how you feel in the moment.
Am I the only one who has “Full-Moon Sundays”? Maybe so. Either way I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Both your experiences and tips for dealing and getting through are welcomed.
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I did this little rap video to “Wrap Up” our BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge) service on the Canary Islands. Enjoy!
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This month we’re talking about the importance of children’s praise & worship with Jean Thomason, aka Miss Pattycake. I hope you enjoy listening to her as much as I loved recording her.
Visit Miss. Pattycake online at http://www.misspattycake.com
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I found a link to this excellent article on ChildrensMinistry.com via a buddy on Facebook. I was sure I’d be listed as one of the top ten things that would ruin a good kids ministry… but I guess I’m number 11 or 12.
Number 1 on the list is communication.
1. Lack of communication — If people don’t know what’s happening in your ministry they assume nothing of consequence is happening. Refuse to communicate, and your children’s ministry will never be a priority to the church and community. People vital to your ministry need to know what’s going on in order to support the work. If they don’t know about it, they can’t support it.
Talk about your ministry with your pastor, other staff members, volunteers, parents, the community and children. Promote your ministry in church publications, community advertising, and best yet, word of mouth from satisfied participants.
If I had an 11 or 12 to add they would be:
11. Lack of Personal Spiritual Growth – It can be easy to get disconnected from the “Big Church” and miss the worship, sermons and fellowship that nurture and grow most Christians. It’s also easy to fall into the habit of only reading the Bible and studying in order to create lessons and sermons for ministry. Make sure some of it is just for you! Make time in your schedule to go to an Adult Service at least once a month.
12. A Bad Attitude – Children’s Ministers are often tempted to be huge complainers. Often they’re under the impression they’re just being visionary… but vision needs to be balanced with being completely grateful and content with the resources God has given you already. There’s a spiritual principal here… if you’re faithful over the little (even a little budget or a little team), God will make you master over much.
Read the article here: 10 Things That Can Ruin Your Children’s Ministry
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