Category: KidMin Leadership

Guest Post: Three Last-Minute Christmas Lesson Ideas

Kathie Phillips

Today’s guest post is written by Steven Knight.  Steven has been serving in children’s ministry for almost 10 years. He loves working with kids & families, both evangelizing and discipling them. He is currently serving as a children’s ministry leader in Chicago while studying at Moody Bible Institute. He is blessed to have a wonderful wife, Katie. Steven blogs regularly at Kidmintools.com, which is a website dedicated to providing Family and Children’s Ministry resources and articles. You can also follow him on Twitter at @StevenKnight09.

Hey everyone! Since the holidays are such a busy time, we all get behind in something. For this Christmas season, I wanted to provide you with three last-minute Christmas lesson ideas to help you, if you are in need of a quick children’s ministry lesson!

candycaneCandy Cane Time: For this lesson, you will need to write on small pieces of paper and tape them to the candy canes. On the pieces of paper, write things that you believe are important to children (family, friends, Xbox, toys, dolls, etc.) Hide the candy canes around the room and have the children search for them. After the game is over, have several of the children say which candy canes are most important to them. Using the candy canes as an illustration, link the things written on the paper to a story about what is most important in your life, which is God. You can share how important these things are during the holiday season, but God is way more important than all of them. You can then share the story of the birth of Jesus Christ in Luke 2.

The Ultimate Present:This lesson is based around an object lesson using a Christmas present. You can talk about how excitedchristmaspresent you are to give away a gift today. Pretend to give your present to one of your volunteers, but don’t let go of the present when you start to hand it to them. Act surprised and then ask them to pay you $50 for the gift first. After the volunteer has acted surprised at this outrageous demand, give the gift to him for free. Explain to the kids that every present has a cost, but there is no cost to someone when they receive a free gift, because it has been paid for by someone else. Use this analogy to then explain the free gift of salvation, and the purpose for Jesus’ birth.

nativityNativity Narrative: For this lesson idea, simply read the story of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2. While many children have heard about the story of Jesus’ birth, some children might not have ever heard the Scripture account of His birth, and definitely not an exciting narrative! To make this lesson have more of an impact, simply add emphasis to the story where appropriate. For example, “I cannot even pretend to imagine what it must have been like for the shepherds, who were out in their fields with their sheep at night, when suddenly an angel appeared with the heavenly host, all praising God while His glory shone around them!” If you need extra tips on how to make this re-telling of the Nativity story more impactful, you can check out this recent article on Reteaching a Story.

Have any other last-minute Christmas lesson ideas? Feel free to share them below!

 

Our Ministry’s Response to the Newtown Tragedy

Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

blessed are those who mournLike most Americans, I watched the news in horror as the tragic events that took place this past Friday in Newtown, Connecticut unfolded.  I don’t think many of us can wrap our minds around the fact that someone could take the lives of innocent children and adults in such a brazen manner.

As Sunday approached, many of us in Children’s Ministry began to ponder how–and if–our ministries would respond.  Should we address the issue with the kids OR leave it up to the parents?  Should we address the issue AND leave it up to the parents?  I asked my fellow kidmin colleagues for their opinion, as I was unsure what to do.  After praying about what it, I felt God lead me to respond in the following ways:

We decided NOT to mention it in our large group worship.  We made this decision for the following reasons:

  • Our Pre-K through 5th Grade children have been together as a large group during our kids’ worship time for the past few weeks in preparation of our Family Christmas Eve services.  Therefore, we didn’t think it was appropriate for children as young as 4 to hear this news from us.
  • Many of our parents do not allow their children to watch television.  We didn’t want children to hear this horrible news for the first time from us and put our parents in an awkward situation.

We emailed our parents, informing them of our decision to NOT mention it up front.  We explained our reasons why but also directed them to websites that could equip them to facilitate hard conversations and raw emotions.  We wanted them to be the primary means of unpacking and discussions this event.

We decided to place the ball in the court of our teachers and small group leaders.  They know the climate of their classroom better than anyone, so we wanted to allow space for the Holy Spirit to direct each individual teacher or small group leader as to how to respond.  However…

We equipped our teachers by giving them tips to guide conversations that might take place.  We provided a hard copy in class for them as well in the event that they needed to refer back to it.  While there were several tips mentioned in the handout, I encourage them to listen to the children and what was on their hearts and pray for those who were hurting.  One of our 2nd and 3rd grade teachers did a great job with this by having her class circle up on the floor for prayer time (which occurs every week, so the children were very comfortable with this) and asking them to share what was on their hearts.  Some children mentioned the Newtown tragedy; others mentioned everyday events.  One of our preteen boys’ leaders mentioned that the boys prayed for the affected families during their prayer time.

I am so proud of our team.  They did a great job in being available to shepherd our children by listening to them and praying for and with them.  I am so blessed by them and their humble service.

If you are looking for resources to pass on to families in your ministry, here are two that I recommend:

http://www.biblicalparenting.org/pr-tip7.asp

http://lindaransonjacobs.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/school-shooting-in-newton-school-advice-for-parents/

How did your ministry respond to the Newtown tragedy?  How did your family process it?

S-T-R-E-T-C-H Your Ministry Dollars

Kathie Phillips 10 Comments

People all across America waited in long lines this past Thursday and Friday to snatch up good deals for Black Friday.  And today, Cyber Monday is in full effect.  The bottom line is that we are looking for great deals to stretch our dollars a little further.

This is nothing new for those of us in Children’s Ministry.  It really doesn’t matter how big or small our churches are…Children’s Ministry leaders want to get the most bang for our limited bucks.

Here are a few tips for stretching your ministry dollars in three of the biggest expense areas:  curriculum, snacks, and crafts.

Curriculum

  • Order enough materials for children who attend 75% of the time, plus 2 or 3 more.
  • Better yet, consider switching over to digital curriculum.  While you will spend time printing and purchasing paper, this will help reduce overall costs for take home pages and in-class activity sheets.
  • Search for free lessons online.  Check out Ministry-to-Children to get started.
  • Invest in reproducible books.

Snacks

  • Have your congregation or parents donate frequently used items, such as napkins/paper towels, cups, crackers and O-shaped cereal.
  • Serve water instead of juice.
  • Buy in bulk from a membership warehouse.
  • Find people who love to bake and ask them to bake cupcakes, cookies, brownies, etc.
  • Purchase generic brand snacks.

Crafts/Craft Supplies

  • Shop end-of-season and post-holiday sales for seasonal items.
  • Alert your church of needed items and allow them the privilege of donating.
  • Shop early enough to avoid rushed or overnight shipping costs.
  • Buy crayons, glue sticks, and scissors before the school year starts (when school supplies are dirt cheap.)
  • Again, reproducible craft books are a good investment.

General Money-Saving Tips

  • Use email, your website and social media for publicity.
  • Swap items with another church.
  • Save money on DVD’s by borrowing them from your local library.
  • Ask professionals in your church to teach their specialty to your children, parents and volunteers.
  • Maintain your resources.  For example, keep caps on craft supplies and properly wrap food.
  • Print your own brochures, handbooks, business cards, flyers, etc.
  • Make black and white copies instead of color.
  • Use white paper instead of colored.
  • When photocopying, use both sides of the paper if you can.
  • Consider using 1/2 sheets of paper to get your message out.  That way, you get 2-for-1 sheet of paper!

How do you stretch your ministry dollars?  Share your ideas below!