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All posts for the month January, 2012

Making KidMin Teaching Better – Part 3

Posted by Jamie Doyle on January 25, 2012
Posted in: Encouragement. Tagged: , , , , . 2 comments
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Did you know that God has faith in you?

That may sound kind of out of line with God’s Word – but it’s not. God, having faith in us, is the reason He keeps on giving us opportunities to serve Him. It’s the reason why He called YOU to Children’s Ministries – He knew that: YOU CAN DO THIS! Whether you think you have the know-how, experience, expertise or you feel completely inadequate – God called you… YOU CAN DO THIS!

Now, don’t get me wrong – we will all face days where we don’t know what to do, or days when trial and error leans more toward the error. We will mess-up, make mistakes, tick-off parents and ruin the craft idea… And yet, in the midst of all those errors – God called YOU!

As a matter of fact, when you are succeeding or failing at the opportunity that God has called you to DO – you are in the middle of the “DO” part – Right where God wants you!  Don’t think that because something didn’t go as planned that you have somehow stepped out of God’s Will.  You are right in the middle of the “DO” part that God called you to do.

And that’s no surprise to God.  God doesn’t sit up in heaven and say, “Whoa – I didn’t see that one coming!” He doesn’t suddenly call Gabriel over to his side and ask, “Hey, Gabe, what do you reckon we do about the ‘craft-disaster’ down there?”

The Good Lord doesn’t say or think these things because He knew YOU CAN DO THIS! So, clean up the messes as best as you can, meet with a few angry parents and plan some new crafts and know that “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion…” (Philippians 1:6)

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Making KidMin Teaching Better – Part 2

Posted by Jamie Doyle on January 17, 2012
Posted in: Excellence, Ideas, Pastoring Children, Quality, Teaching Tips, The World of Kids. Tagged: , , , , , , . 3 comments
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Everything a kid tells you is important.

You may not think it’s important, but to that kid, at that moment, it’s the most important thing in their world.

We as adults have, over time, developed a filter called: “THE STUFF IMPORTANT TO ME” filter.  And we react accordingly.  If someone tells you something that is interesting to YOU or in some way creates a commonality – YOU naturally react with genuine interest.  YOU react with attention.  YOU react because YOU actually care.

But when someone tells you something that you have no interest in, you may try to react as though you care – because you don’t really want to offend the person trying to tell you something.  But you’re not really listening, are you?

When that child walks up to you and shows you his loose tooth… this is a big deal – no wait! It’s a BIG DEAL!  When she tells you that it was her birthday yesterday… it’s a BIG DEAL!  When a kids tells you that his family is taking him on vacation to “Happy World”, it’s a BIG DEAL!  When she explains that her dog is lost… it’s a BIG DEAL!  When they point to their new shoes… it’s a BIG DEAL!  You all know what I’m talking about. It happens all weekend long… and that’s a good thing!

But, how many times have you had one of these experiences only to usher that child to his seat and tell him politely that he can tell you later? After all, it’s time to start class, right.

To a child, you may be the most important person in their world at that moment that needs to know this information.  Your reaction will determine their significance at that very moment in THEIR WORLD. And if you’re the one who made them feel significant at that moment, you have earned their attention from that moment on.  Try it – I promise, it works!

Turn on your listening ears the next time you’re with kids and Be blessed

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Making KidMin Teaching Better – Part 1

Posted by Jamie Doyle on January 11, 2012
Posted in: Excellence, Pastoring Children, Teaching Tips, visual teaching. Tagged: , , , , . 4 comments
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If you’re like me (and I know I am), you put a lot of emphasis on teaching kids the Word of God every week – and in some cases, several times or venues a week. For me, I have 4 Kids’ Church large groups on a weekend (one on Saturday Night, 2 on our main campus and I travel between those 2 services to teach/preach at our second campus most weeks) Add to that a Sunday School hour, Wednesday night large groups (of which I’m involved) and Wednesday night small groups.  We also have a myriad of classes and services for toddlers and preschoolers and even some teaching time for infants that our wonderful staff on directors and volunteers oversee and participate in.

THERE’S A WHOLE LOT OF TEACHING GOING ON!

That’s why I’ve started a simple “training by e-mail” campaign for our lead teaching staff.  Each week I will send out an e-mail to our teaching staff with an encouragement and a tip that just might help them reach new heights.  I would like to share those e-mails with you in blog-format each week… if you follow me on twitter, you saw that I did a series of around 15 tips for teaching in kidmin a few weeks ago – these coming blog posts are those tweets elaborated. So, here we go:

Let me encourage you this week as you plan for the upcoming Wednesday or Weekend and give you a pointer that I just know will give you the confidence and in some cases the “know-how”… and if there’s anything I’ve learned in the last few years: INFORMATION is POWERFUL when you APPLY IT.

THIS WEEKS TIP:

Start preparing early in the week for the upcoming lesson or class time. In other words, if your ministry time was over the weekend, crack open that lesson book or materials on Monday… if your ministry time was on Wednesday; then make Thursday your day to start studying.  You don’t have to plan your entire lesson on that day, but at least:

  • Read over the lesson
  • Know and memorize the key verse
  • Look up and read any supporting verses
  • And know the main point of the lesson.

Why should you do this? I’m glad you asked!
…When you start early in the week, it gives the Holy Spirit time to be your helper… instead of (gulp) having to work in spite of you.  Think about it: all week long as you pray over the materials you’ve read, the Lord will reveal unique teaching ideas, stories you’ve heard or events in your life that you could work into your lesson.  As the day of ministry gets closer and you are planning what that class time should look like, instead of saying, “Lord, what am I going to teach?” …you’ll be able to say “Lord, how do I fit all of these ideas into the lesson?”

Try it – I promise it will work. And as always, if you ever need a teaching idea, I’m just an e-mail away and I’m happy to brainstorm with you! I’d better let you go – some of you need to start studying!

Be blessed,
Jamie

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