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Looking for Ideas and Inspiration?

You’ve come to the right spot! This blog is FULL of both. Just scroll down and you’ll see a loooong list of topics on the left side of the screen. Click on one that sounds helpful to you and read on. Then post a comment of your own to add to the conversation!

I won’t be adding new KC blogs to this site—we’re getting ready to launch a new interactive website that will take the place of this one.

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Prayer Talk

I don’t remember the course content, the final exam, or the other students in my favorite university course at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. What I do remember and what I looked forward to most each day was the professor’s opening prayer. He’d look at us all with this big smile on his face, say “Let’s talk to God,” and then start praying a prayer like this:

Hi, God. What an awesome day you made today. The raindrops fed all the flowers and the puddles are perfect for jumping in. Thanks for shady trees and yoyo strings. Thanks for giving us elbows so we could bend our arms in so many ways. How do you think of such cool things, Lord? Please watch over our friends who aren’t here today. The ones with runny noses, the ones who are feeling sad and those who are far away. And God, we’re sorry for hurting people’s feelings and not doing the stuff we’re supposed to do. Thanks for loving us even when we mess up. We love you, Lord. Amen.
My teacher modeled prayer to me in a powerful way. We model prayer each week to the kids we lead at church. For some of your kids it may be the only time they hear someone talking out loud to God. For others it might be their only opportunity to hear prayer as conversation instead of memorization.

We all have different “comfort zones” when it comes to prayer. I feel more comfortable praying with a group of kids than I do leading adults. My friend Nancy is a prayer warrior who once led me in prayer in the parking lot at the YMCA. My fifteen-year-old has been leading our suppertime prayers since she was in preschool and my seventeen-year-old has always refused to pray out loud. No matter how you’re wired when it comes to prayer, it’s important to invite kids into your conversations with God. Like my teacher’s prayers, your prayers may be the thing they remember most! Use these prayer pointers to expand your comfort zone:

Prayer doesn’t have to be perfect. God isn’t grading your prayers and neither are your kids. All God asks is that your prayer be heartfelt. Remember how my teacher thanked God for strings and elbows? Include thanks for the everyday blessings your kids enjoy—things like backpacks and wheels on school busses, ice cream and shoelaces. And praise God in ways that connect with your kids—thank God for eyelashes that blink out dust, noses that drip down instead of up, and all the shades of blue. How did God think of all those cool things?

Tea with the Queen should be fancy, not conversations with God. Pray for the things that matter to the kids you are praying for—new siblings, tests, fights with friends, missing pets, scary things, birthdays—in language your kids can understand. Be specific, use words your kids can understand, and leave the flowery language in the garden where it belongs.

Prayers are like medicine—use when needed. Stop, drop, and pray anytime with your kids. Its okay to interrupt a session and say, “Hey guys, let’s talk to God!” and then tell God together about something great that just happened in your class or pray for someone you notice is missing or the sick cat someone just told you about. Tip: Avoid the temptation to use prayer to send a message to your kids about classroom behavior!

Prayers don’t need comments. When you tell a kid that they did a “good job” with their prayer you’re telling them that you were evaluating how they did. When you laugh at a child’s prayer you make them self-conscious and aware that someone is listening. Prayer is a conversation with God. The best way you encourage kids to pray out loud is by letting them pray without your praise—a simple “thanks” will do just fine.

Prayer comes in many forms. There are all kinds of ways you and your kids can pray together. Here are a few to try in the coming months:

• Popcorn prayers. Invite kids to jump in and pray a word or a sentence whenever they’re ready—just like popcorn kernels popping in the pan! Tip: Give kids a topic like “things to thank God for” or “words that describe God” and let them know that you’ll begin and end the prayer.
• Prayer walks. Head outdoors with your kids and pray for the things you see on your walk around the building. You can make a list together and pray your list when you get back inside, you can encourage kids to pray silently as you walk, or you can pause on your route and pray aloud together.
• Prayer requests. Ask your kids if there is anything they’d like you to pray about and then either stop and pray after each request, take notes and pray for them all at once, or invite other kids in the group to pray for a specific request.
• Prayer journals. Bring a simple dollar store notebook to class and record your prayer requests inside. Make notes when prayers are answered and thank God together for those answers. Tip: Post requests and answers to prayer on a designated “Prayer Wall” in your room—write them on paper hearts in February, print them on a large paper cross in March and April, write them on paper flower petals in May and June.
• Prayer buddies. Encourage kids to pray for others by assigning each child a prayer buddy for half or all of the education year. Keep it simple—print off a sheet for each child in a cool shape like a handprint and write something like “I’m praying for ______ and ______ is praying for me!” Fill in the name, give each child a copy, let their families know, and let the praying begin!

Have some other great ideas for praying with kids or stories to share? I’d love to hear them! Email me. In the meantime, be sure that we at Faith Alive are keeping you, your ministry, and the kids you are blessing in our prayers!

Energized and Organized

January is a month of extremes. The weather goes from cold to freezing, packed shopping malls become empty, rooms once decorated for Christmas look bare again. And children's ministry leaders? We're exhausted from the busyness of December and exhilarated because we made it this far! Read on for a few ideas designed to get you and your program energized and organized for the remainder of the church school year.

Please Pass the Kudos
First, lift your hands from the keyboard and place one over each shoulder. Ready? Good. Now give yourself a really big pat on the back from us. December was a full month and we tip our hat to all those leaders who showed up each week ready and rarin' to go! Make it a goal this week to acknowledge the efforts of another member of your children's ministry team with an email, a handwritten note, or a personal pat on the back.

Serve Up Some Excitement
Snap a few photos to help get your kids, their families, and other church members pumped up about your program again. Take pictures of kids in large and small group action, mount them on posterboard, and display them outside your room. Encourage kids to show and tell their families what's going on in the pictures. Fun photos featuring teaching staff are a great way to promote the program to folks who are checking out your church and to members who are thinking about teaching. So pop on a tiara, slip on some quirky sunglasses, hold up your favorite candy bar or favorite piece of sports equipment, and snap few candid shots. Tip: Post them on your church website along with a fun leader bio so that everyone can see what a friendly place your Kid Connection program is!

Clear the Room
Now's the time to go through the supplies and get prepared for the months ahead. Here's how to do it:

• Toss out the dried-up markers and empty glue sticks. Tip: Take a moment at the end of class and ask your kids to serve as Supply Testers!
• Update your paper supplies. Tip: It's much easier to prepare things at home when each leader has his or her own package of colored cardstock and printer paper.
• If your budget allows, order a wheeled storage cart for each small group. Label the drawers ("markers and crayons," "glue sticks," "scissors," "CD player," "paper") and you're ready to roll!

Move those chairs out of your large group area and pick up some carpet mats. Sitting on the floor make it simple for kids to stand up, sing and dance, and provide story sound effects. It will also save you loads of set-up time! Tip: Most carpet dealers will give you a stack of carpet samples for free or for a very minimal cost.

Kick the Habit
Make a New Year's resolution (or two). First, plan to be prepared. If you've ever painted a room you know that the most important part of the job is preparation. Same goes with teaching. I'm a procrastinator by nature, and I've done the "night-before" prep routine more times than I'd like to admit. Well, fellow last-minute folks, here's the problem with that game plan: while the session may still go OK with my last-minute prep, it could have been even better. Set a goal this year to flip through your lesson one week before you teach it; then watch and listen as the Holy Spirit prepares your heart in amazing ways.

Get Fed
Make spending time with God a personal priority this year. One simple way to do that is to be sure to read the Get Connected devotions found at the beginning of KC lesson. Each one is easy and enjoyable to read and will give you a deeper understanding of the story you're about to teach.

How Did It Go?
We consider YOU part of our Kid Connection team and we'd love to hear from you! E-mail us your comments, questions, or suggestions and let us know how things are going in your program.

What if...?

I bought an extra Mother’s Day card this year and gave it to myself. Now framed and hanging in my office, the card reads, You are hip and cool, no matter what your teenagers tell you. I need this card for a little extra encouragement because even though the teens in my house no longer plead “Mom you can just wait in the car. Please—wait—in—the—car” when I pick them up from events, they still don’t see me as a person with, well, feelings. That’s not always fun when you’re a mom (hence the card), but having already raised one teen to adulthood I try to remind myself that part of being a teen is putting space between you and your parents as you try to navigate the world by yourself.

Problem is, the world is not an easy place to navigate when you don’t want your parents to join you on the journey. At a recent conference in Atlanta, Chap Clark, PhD, author of Hurt and Founder of ParenTeen and HURT Seminars, shared research indicating how critical it is for adolescents to have the guidance and support of five caring adults in their lives. Parents are encouraged to seek out adult role models who can invest in the lives of their kids by being “accessible, available, and encouraging” to them.

What does all of this have to do with those of us in children’s ministry? We have them first. At one time the adolescents in your church family were five-year-olds in a Sunday school class. You formed relationships with them during the year they were part of your small group. You knew that Danielle liked to bring her stuffed unicorn to class and that Isaac cheered for the Lakers. You hugged Patrick when his parents split up and you and Megan gave thanks to God when she finally lost her first tooth. For one year you had the privilege of sharing in the details of their lives. We have them first.

What if your relationship with the kids in your small group didn’t end with the church school year next month? What if you continued to smile and use their name when you passed them in the church halls over the next 15 years? What if you bought one of those nifty bathroom birthday calendars and began writing down their birth dates so you could send them a card each year? (Even when they moved away for university.) What if you traced their hand on the last day of class and had them sign it, tucked that page into a special binder, and told them, “I’ll be placing my hand on it and praying for you,” and then sought them out over the years to retrace their growing hands and remind them that you were still praying? What would change in the lives of the teens in your church family if the church became filled with the “accessible, available and encouraging” faces of former Sunday school teachers?

I can’t wait to find out.