Yesterday, I announced (via social media) a big secret I’ve been keeping…
I am officially under contract for my second book!! *cue all the confetti*
It’s been in the works for a while now but the deal was finalized last week. This is an incredible opportunity, especially since my publisher (RoseKidz) has recently merged with Tyndale House, so I’m a Tyndale House author now!
This new project is really special to me and I can’t wait to share more details later. The book will be released summer 2022. Like my first book, it will be a resource for Children’s Ministry leaders, homeschool groups, and Christian educators.
Thanks to my editor, Karen McGraw, who helped navigate all of the details!
Now, it’s time to write!!
P.S. If you’d like to check out my first book, you can find out more here.
P.S.S I will have one more special secret to fill you in on next week…stay tuned!
There are so many things that kidmin leaders want said about the ministries they lead. We want ministries that are safe, age-appropriate, growing, engaging, fun, innovative, all-inclusive, reaching families, healthy, dynamic, just to name a few.
Each week, we spend hours in the details – writing/editing curriculum, gathering supplies, emailing lessons, making sure volunteers are in place, and meeting with our teams to ensure we’re all on the same page. This can become second nature to us, almost something we could do with our eyes closed.
But what about the most important stuff? You know, like what we’re teaching the kids? Are we teaching them a list of ‘right things to do’ or are we teaching them how God wants them to live and the why behind it? Are we watering down the Gospel because we think kids aren’t ready for it?
Are kids encouraged to dig deep into Scripture on their own or do they just take our word for it because they aren’t opening up their bibles? Are we encouraging kids to memorize scripture and spend time with God each day? Are we teaching them that God’s Word is one big story vs just a collection of stories?
By teaching kids and showing them how the whole Bible is one entire story, we’re getting them to understand and love Jesus, coming to that place where they’re making decisions to be a Christ follower.
A few weeks ago, I was honored to be part of a round-table discussion with Ed Stetzer, Jeffrey Reed and five other kidmin leaders around the country to talk about this very important topic. Our conversation was converted into a transcript to be made available for Christianity Today readers. I’ve listed the links below for your convenience:
My goal is to not give children in our ministry a faith that they would have to come back to, but a relationship that would keep them connected to him their whole life.
Note from Kathie: Today’s guest post is from my friend Carla Adair Hendricks. I pray you’ll be blessed, inspired and challenged in the second of a two-part post. Read Part 1 here.
Lens #2: View our students from a perspective of hope and love.
A survey of the average school, neighborhood or community center could give a great picture of the state of our nation. We are a nation of brokenness – broken marriages, broken families, broken people.
Today, the image of family has changed much. Our churches are a great representation of this. Most churches are full of single-parent families, families directly impacted by substance abuse and domestic abuse, and families struggling with poverty.
Oftentimes children feel the greatest impact of this. Adoption and foster care are by-products of this brokenness, and each brings its own measure of trauma for a child. A child that has moved from foster home to foster home will struggle with interpersonal relationships and schoolwork. Some children will struggle with trusting the adults in their lives.
And yet, we mustn’t see these precious children in our classrooms as problem children. We mustn’t label them “the foster kid” or the “ADHD kid”. Practically, a better label for these children would be “children from hard places”. This phrase describes where a child comes from, instead of placing a judgment on the child.
Also, we must see these children through the lens of hope and love. We should be aware of tendencies and issues that they may face, but we must believe that each of these children can grow and learn and love.
With God’s intervention – through loving adults like us – they can even learn to love Jesus.
Lens #3: View our classrooms as a refuge of hope and healing.
With a little dose of education and a willingness to adjust, our classrooms can be a place where children receive hope and healing. In order to bring hope and healing, we have to be adaptable.
The way we learned about God decades ago may not be the best method to teach our children today. – Tweet That
For example, having children take turns reading from the Bible is a great way to promote Bible-learning and also literacy. However, what happens when one of your students has missed weeks of school and has just been placed in her fifth foster home? She’s probably not going to be able to read on grade level. An easy solution would be to have children raise their hands and volunteer to read out loud, instead of having each child read in order. This way, the challenged reader doesn’t feel shamed or exposed.
Last year I had a 6-year-old boy come to my classroom after being placed in a new foster home. Despite his squirminess, I had him sit close to me and allowed him to be my special helper. Although he asked for his foster mommy twice, he hung in there and I made sure he got the extra attention he needed. I knew I probably had a short window of time to reach this child with the love of Christ, but that didn’t stop me.
And it shouldn’t stop any of us from sharing His love with a child who may come from a background very different from yours and mine. If we can change our teaching “lenses”, we can impact the Kingdom of God – one precious child at a time.
How can you change your teaching “lens” to advocate for children from hard places? Please share with our community by leaving a comment below.
Carla Adair Hendricks is a pastor’s wife, mother of four, writer, speaker and orphan advocate. Two of her four children are biological, one was adopted from Russia and one was adopted domestically. Her husband Anthony leads the Conway campus of the ethnically-diverse Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, where she serves the Mo Kids Children’s ministry as a teacher and teacher-coordinator for the K through 1st grade class. She also serves two orphan care ministries: The CALL and the African-American Church Initiative of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. A published journalist, Carla’s shares her heart at adoptionfostercareadvocate.blogspot.com and carlaadairhendricks.blogspot.com.
Note from Kathie: Today’s guest post is from my friend Carla Adair Hendricks. I pray you’ll be blessed, inspired and challenged in the first of a two-part post.
Photo Credit: duoduoflower.com
As an adoptive momma, an advocate for adoptive and foster children and a Children’s Ministry leader, I love when my passions collide. A few weeks ago, my passions collided when I had the opportunity to train the Children’s Ministry volunteers at my church, Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, on the topic “Teaching Children from Hard Places.”
My main point? If we as Children’s Ministry teachers are going to impact the children that we serve – even those who come from challenging environments and backgrounds – we must remove the old lenses we’ve been wearing in our classrooms and replace them with new ones.
Lens #1: View yourself as an advocate for children.
Becoming a teacher – even an occasional teacher in Children’s Ministry – is a high calling. It’s a calling that involves more than teaching Bible verses and leading “sword drills”.
Don’t misunderstand me. Yes, we want our students to memorize Bible verses and learn to recite all 66 books of the Bible. Yes, we want them to know the difference between King Saul in the Old Testament and Saul-who-became-Paul in the New Testament. And of course, we’d love for them to be able to retell the great Bible stories of Esther and David and Moses.
Yet teaching children in Children’s Ministry involves more than filling their heads with information – even the great information from the Bible. Actually it involves much more than teaching. It’s really about reaching the child. Reaching deep down into the heart of the child – touching him or her with the love of Christ.
So yes, we teach the children in our classes, but we also seek to reach these young ones with the message of Christ – that they are valuable and precious. That they were created by a loving God who wants a relationship with them.
In order to reach the children that enter our church’s classrooms, we must view ourselves as more than teachers. We are advocates for our children, encouraging them to be their best selves and encouraging them to love Jesus, themselves and others.
Please come back tomorrow for Part 2.
How does your ministry advocate for children from hard places? Please share with our community by leaving a comment below.
Carla Adair Hendricks is a pastor’s wife, mother of four, writer, speaker and orphan advocate. Two of her four children are biological, one was adopted from Russia, and one was adopted domestically. Her husband Anthony leads the Conway campus of the ethnically-diverse Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, where she serves the Mo Kids Children’s ministry as a teacher and teacher-coordinator for the K through 1st grade class. She also serves two orphan care ministries: The CALL and the African-American Church Initiative of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. A published journalist, Carla’s shares her heart at adoptionfostercareadvocate.blogspot.com and carlaadairhendricks.blogspot.com.
