Tag Archives: Parents
Training timeliness
Posted on 30. Jun, 2008 by Kenny.
The other day I wrote a post about timeliness here. Some of the comments added to the post in a way that I thought I’d write a little more. Interestingly enough, I wrote about this issue specifically about 14 months ago. Timeliness. It’s something we all struggle with. Kids are late. Volunteers are late. Parents are late. What do we do?
“I’m going to train my parents to be on time.”
Yeah, I’ve said that. Have you?
Unfortunately, I don’t think its necessarily right to think of it that way. It’s not my job to get parents to sign up for stuff on time. However, we all understand the value of timeliness. If we only get an hour a week with these kids, we want the full hour, right?… Read the rest
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Out of our control
Posted on 18. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
The idea I blogged about yesterday is what I’ve been processing the most. I really like this idea a lot. But I naturally have some questions. Perhaps you did too.
1. It’s obvious that only a percentage of the parents will come back with their kids for the class. That isn’t fair to those kids. Wouldn’t it be better to give everyone an opportunity to decide now so that kids who really want this don’t fall through the cracks due to their parent’s unwillingness to participate.
2. Do I really want to trust this opportunity to parents who have absolutely no experience at all? What if they mess it up? What if the kids have questions that the parents can’t answer?
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How about equipping our parents?
Posted on 17. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
A few weeks ago I wrote about “The Essence of Orange” DVD from the reThink group. In this DVD, Reggie Joiner mentioned this very things I’ve been writing about. Since it was Orange, it was in the family ministry context. However, it made more sense to me than anything else I have ever done or heard.
*** Preface **** Now I could have heard this wrong or I could be off, but I think this is the gist of what he was saying.
All of us agree that we want parents to be more involved in the spiritual development of our kids. If asked though, most of us would probably admit that we were doing little to equip parents to spiritually lead their kids.… Read the rest
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Handling decisions with kids
Posted on 15. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Yesterday I talked just a little bit about baptizing kids. Today I want to talk about inviting kids to come to Christ.
My philosophy on this has changed over the years, and even more over recent weeks… maybe. I still have some things to work out.
Earlier in my ministry I served in more traditional churches. They were churches that offered invitations every Sunday (at least almost every Sunday). As a children’s pastor I would do the same. Actually I’d typically offer some kind of invitation every 2-3 weeks. It’s just what we did.
However, as I began serving in churches that didn’t do traditional “alter calls,” I had to evaluate how I approached this with the kids. These churches that didn’t do “alter calls” understood there were many visitors that were still working out their faith.… Read the rest
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Children’s baptism
Posted on 14. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
I won’t deny it. I love praying with a child to receive Christ. It’s one of the things I love most about my job. Yeah, I also love to baptize kids. When I baptize them, I know I’ve had a chance to walk through this decision with the child and his or her parents. But what do I think is even cooler? When I get to stand by a parent as they baptize their own child. Over the years I’ve baptized hundreds of kids. Certainly it has been very special to me. Several of my facebook friends are kids I baptized years ago. Sometimes I’ve seen endorsements for a speaker/evangelist coming to speak somewhere that state the number of kids he’s baptized.… Read the rest
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Mission review (Surge Part 4)
Posted on 14. Mar, 2008 by Kenny.
Typically after every event I do, I make notes for the following year. On the server where we keep all the files, I’ll usually open a folder under “Surge” called 2008. In it will be a single word document with all the recommendations for the next year. I try to do this within the week of the event and then close the file out completely and not think of it for a while. It feels very good to close the file and move on rather than dwelling on it continually. So, here are the things I would do differently (but I must preface… there is very little I would have done differently… it was an amazing experience).… Read the rest
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