Children were born to wonder, to discover, and to be passionate.
w o n d e r, d i s c o v e r y a n d p a s s i o n.
What are the children you are ministering to going to give their heart to?
When they walk away, what do you want to be in them?
When Jesus was asked: Of all the commandments, which is the greatest? He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He then added: Love your neighbour as yourself. Everything is pointing to loving God and loving others, and understanding enough to have a known identity in Christ.
Lead with an end in mind. That children will...
Have a relationship with God. Love others. Know their identity in Christ.
Wonder
Wonder aids faith in a God that can't be seen. A God who is bigger than anything we can face. He is uncontainable. Allow children to know how big He is and how much they can trust Him, without putting Him into an explainable box.
Wonder - Bethel Music
Discovery
Treasure hunt. Children discovering who God is and how He is relevant to them and knowing who they are in Him. Investigating.
Good, Good Father - HouseFiresII
Passion
Links with purpose. They know who they are, what they can do with God and now they want to find purpose in making a difference in the lives of others.
Going On A Journey - Vineyard Records
There is some style of formula that goes with this. A different combination of wonder, discovery, and passion for each age group.
Pre-schoolers: Wonder.
They need to know that God loves them and wants to be their friend. They need to know that they are significant and that God has a plan for them.
Children's ministry: Turn up discovery and add a bit of passion.
Primary school aged children are discovering for the first time what it means to be a Christian through studying stories in the Bible. They are searching deeper for a relationship with God from the wonder they've had since they were small. They are exploring their identity, and we want that identity to be in Christ.
Student ministry: Turn up the passion.
Enabling students to discover their own gifts helps them to grasp their passion to serve and help others. Students won't feel significant unless they have something significant to do: becoming involved in the lives of others, not just knowing the Bible stories well. Everybody is going to give their hearts to something. If we don't establish giving their hearts to serving Jesus then they will give their hearts to something else. We can strive to encourage Jesus-centred worship.
Everyone is searching for a hero. Children and adults alike. That hero is Jesus, the creator. We long to know our creator and, as a human race, we find earthly heroes to step in. These earthly heroes don't even begin to satisfy our hunger for Jesus. Read more here.
We're wired for adventure.
It is up to us as leaders, to look to scripture and God's principles to help children discover their identity in Christ, instead of searching for it in other adventures.
Lots of people believe:
But the bible says:
We long for romance.
The key to satisfying a longing for romance is a relationship with God. Once we have a relationship with God then we have the capacity to love others.
Wonder, discovery, and passion. When we have these leading our children's ministry we impact the message and the way we teach.
When we see children moving in the right direction, not using a bounded model but a centred model, we know we're on the right track. Pushing every child and teenager to a similar destination:
insight wonder
provoke discovery
fuel passion
God the Father | Wonder
God the Spirit | Invading Hearts - Discover
God the Son | Give His Life For All People - We Should Do The Same
Challenge: How much wonder, discovery, and passion is in your heart as a leader?
Do the children see you pursuing the truth? Do they see your passion? Do they see you serve out of duty or relationship with God?
Your relationship with God is linked to how you connect with the children in their lives.
What about having a vision for each children's ministry age group in a church?
What would your vision statements be?
- Helps all ministries to know how they are working together -
w o n d e r, d i s c o v e r y a n d p a s s i o n.
No comments:
Post a Comment