Cultivating an Environment Where Kids can Encounter God
A Guideline for Leaders and Parents
In some places, children’s ministry has taken a dangerous turn toward entertainment. We have a better idea. It’s called an encounter with God. It’s true that children want excitement. As you are discovering, however, the real excitement for a child is being on adventure in God’s kingdom! Parents and church leaders can turn the tide of entertainment-driven children’s ministry simply by offering solid, spiritual food to children.
ENTERTAINMENT
- Inspire kids with high energy
- Treat kids like spectators
- Feed kids technology
- Teach kids to be consumers
- Train kids to follow a program
- Ignite passion with temporal rewards
- Create an environment of entertainment
ENCOUNTER
- Inspire kids with worship
- Treat kids like participants
- Feed kids God’s Word
- Teach kids to serve others
- Train kids to pray
- Ignite passion with testimonies of God’s working today
- Create an environment to encounter God
What do you want for your children? When Jesus said, “My house is to be a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:7) and “Let the little children to come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14), He was embracing the Encounter approach to children’s ministry.
How Can Leaders and Parents Do This?
Purpose to find ways that offer the meatier parts of God’s kingdom to your kids. Here are some ideas to start with:
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Teach how to pray Scripture
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Model listening prayer
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Let them serve Jesus inside and outside the walls of the church
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Help kids discover their spiritual gifts and create opportunities to use them
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Find out their personality and God-given purpose
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Bless the children verbally and tell them how you see God using them
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Encourage them to exercise humility and forgiveness in their daily lives
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Teach them warfare prayers to kick Satan out of their lives
Children’s Ministry IS about
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Providing a place for children of all ages and stages of Christianity to encounter God.
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Leading children—and their families—to encounter God together.
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Introducing children to the greatest story and adventure ever told—Jesus and His Kingdom!
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Creating an atmosphere of discovering God’s truth for themselves.
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Activating prayer, spiritual gifts, and servant leadership.
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Creating an environment where kids can practice their gifting, grow from their mistakes, get along with others different from themselves, and love the body of Christ.
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Releasing their creativity outside the walls of the church for evangelism.
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Inter-generational discipleship.
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Families ministering and serving together as a unit.
From Spiritual Milk to Meat
“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:13-14
By the time most infants are one year of age, they have tried some type of solid food. By three years of age, most can eat steak when cut to the right size. Children can grasp the “solid food” of Scripture when we give it to them in pieces they can handle. Unfortunately, the church is often giving kids milk. The idea is to not offer the milk so much that it sours and they turn away from the faith. Our assignment is to equip them to advance God’s kingdom and “distinguish good from evil.” Offering the deeper things of Christianity in a manner kids can understand is the key.
Commit to an Encounter for Children
Lord, teach us to pray. Teach our children to pray. Father, I ask you to make our children’s ministry what you desire it to be. Whatever is in our ministry that is not of you, expose it and remove it now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Show us how to offer our kids a spiritual feast from your Word that will impact their lives, their families, their schools, their neighborhoods, our community, nation, and the ends of the earth. I give you permission to do in me what you must do so our children can encounter the fullness of who You are. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Paige Kolb
SureFire Prayer International Coordinator