School as a Mission Field ?????

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Christ's Ambassadors with School as a Mission Field
As children and teenagers head back to school, as well as young people to college, they have increased opportunity for outreach, to share Jesus Christ with their friends, to be a witness in word and deed. But, do they see school as a mission field? … a place to reach out and share Jesus Christ as His ambassador?

Difficulty Seeing School as a Mission Field

It isn’t easy for kids to take a stand unpopular with so many of their peer. (Let’s be honest: It isn’t easy for adults either!) We live in a volatile world that doesn’t look favorably upon what Christians believe. Fear of ridicule and rejection makes witnessing seem overwhelming and stressful. Then, on top of that, we have government regulations and school policies setting limitations on what they can do.

How Can We Help Kids Reach Out in Their Schools?

Recognizing the difficulties of viewing school as their mission field, we need to come alongside of students with the support they need. Here are six ways we can do that:

1) Disciple, or train, them on how to reach out.

Feeling better equipped in knowing how and where to start can alleviate some of the insecurities they might feel.

Resource: Discipling Students in Outreach Worksheet

2) Prepare them by including apologetics in your Bible teaching plan.

Having a better understanding of some of the hard to understand issues, will enable them to be more ready to answer questions and objections they will undoubtedly face. (1 Pet. 3:15)

For Help, Go To: Apologetics Resources

3) Pray for them consistently and let them know you’re standing with them in prayer.

Sensing this kind of support from others encourages them.

4) Pray with them, not just for them.

Taking them to the throne of grace where they’ll find the help they need (Heb. 4:16) serves as a reminder of God’s power available to them.

5) Be a role model, letting them see the adults in their lives sharing Jesus with others in their mission fields (i.e., neighborhood, workplace, unsaved family).

Hearing reports of God’s activity as we witness in our spheres of influence helps them gain a realistic perspective of how life in Christ infiltrates all we do as believers.

To Read: Making an Eternal Difference in the Workplace?

6) Encourage them to get involved in some sort of on-going campus ministry.

Knowing they’re not alone can give them added boldness.

For some popular campus ministries, go to: Back to School Resources

7) Provide tools and resources to help them.

Having something in their hands can help them feel more ready when opportunities come:

Ideas: Tools for Teachers to Share the Gospel (same tools listed in this article could be good for students to use)

The bottom line?
Don’t just tell kids they should be witnesses at school. Help them in practical ways to be ready.

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How Can We Teach Children to Serve?

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Teach Children to Serve - They're Part of the Body

Since the only qualification the Bible puts on who gets spiritual gifts is that they are a follower of Jesus, it’s important to teach children to serve. They are part of today’s church, not merely the church of tomorrow.

Also Read: What about Children and Spiritual Gifts?

Ways to Teach Children to Serve God Using Their Spiritual Gifts

You may want to implement the following ideas before considering the use of a spiritual gifts test with children since their experience-base is so limited.

  1. Provide teaching about spiritual gifts and God’s design for the church.

Help young people to understand God’s purposes for the Church and for their lives which include serving. Help them realize that they have a part to do right now, not just when they’re older.

  1. Provide opportunities for children to serve.

Children need to develop a base of experience in ministry so they can begin to identify how they may be gifted. Encourage them to get involved in a variety of ways. Offer a consistent diet of ministry opportunities. Involve them, as you can, in the various aspects of total church life where they can work side by side with adults. Suggest that families serve together as teams. God will use these opportunities to grow passions within their hearts and to surface and develop their spiritual gifts.

  1. Provide children with affirmation and feedback.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to minister, He took the time to discuss how it went with them. Why would we do any less with the children and youth whom we deploy into ministry of any kind? First, they should be included in training opportunities. Second, they should be affirmed in what they are doing. If there seems to be an area in which they do particularly well, tell them. Third, provide feedback afterward. Evaluate with them what happened, both the positive and the negative. Offer suggestions on how they might improve. Or, if they just don’t seem to be suited for a particular type of ministry, help them find something that may be a better fit.

  1. Provide these young believers with role models.

Adults must set a good example for the kids. So many adults, however, do not do their part. This can send a strong message to them contradicting all your verbal teaching about why they should get involved. If you expect young people to get it, you better work at making sure the adults get it.

  1. Provide prayer support.

Develop a prayer base for the children and youth of your church that goes beyond praying for only the troubled ones. Pray also for those who seem to be doing well and who want to be a part. They need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit in whatever they do just as much as an adult. Let’s not grow kids who are self-sufficient and self-reliant in their Christian walks, starting their life of service learning to do it in the flesh. Both their motivations and means of serving need to be an outgrowth of abiding in Christ who said “apart from Me you can do nothing.”

  1. Provide a starting point for identifying their spiritual gifts.

While using spiritual gifts tests with children may prove inconclusive due to their lack of experience, a test geared to their age can be a starting point. Using a test would be most beneficial after having provided all of the above first.

Check out Your Gifts for Children: Kid-Friendly Spiritual Gifts Adventure by Church Growth’s Team Ministry as a tool to introduce children to spiritual gifts.

Or, if you’re in youth ministry, you’d be interested in Your Gifts For Teens: The Easy to Use, Self-Guided Spiritual Gifts Survey.

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Should We Really Try to Teach Children Bible Truths?

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The Bible is an adult book, written in adult language with adult concepts. Some therefore question if we can really teach children Bible truths, especially young children.

Scripture Response to Question about Trying to Teach Children Bible Truths

The Apostle Paul answers that question in his words to Timothy:

… from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 3:15)

So, even if you serve in a church nursery, it’s possible to communicate Bible truths even to babies.

Paul goes on to in the very next verse to provide the ways God’s Word helps us.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

What better source to teach, rebuke, correct, and train children of all ages than the Bible. The words of Scripture carry more authority and power than anything a parent or teacher can communicate.

How Children Best Learn the Bible

The question is not “if” children can learn the Bible but HOW.
Teach Children Bible Truths

  1. Begin by understanding their age level traits. Take into account the whole person when planning what to teach and how to teach it — spiritual but also physical, emotional, mental, and social traits.

The PowerPoint presentation, Teaching the Bible to Children, helps you know “how” to teach Bible truths in accordance with their age level characteristics.

Also check out:

  1. Do not underestimate the role of consistency and repetition when teaching children.
  • a consistency between what’s in the parent’s heart and what they say (also true for teachers)

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. (Deut. 6:6)

  • a consistency between what’s taught formally and informally

Impress them on your children. Talk about them when … (Deut. 6:7-9)

  • a repetition of truth in a variety of settings, using a variety of methods, teaching both verbally and visually

Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deut. 6:7-9)

For More: Children’s Ministry Resources

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Scripture Memory: For All Ages

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Scripture Memory for All AgesIn a previous post we looked at how memorizing Scripture is a powerful tool in our walk with God. Look back at the verses used in that post and you will find that the verses have no age for beginning to memorize nor an ending age attached to them. From the youngest among us to the oldest, we all can benefit from having Scripture memorized.

from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 3:15)

Age Appropriate Considerations in Scripture Memory:

1) Think about the length of the verse.

The younger the age, the shorter the length of the verse should be. Preschoolers might only memorize a phrase from a verse as long as it is meaningful.

2) Think about the relevancy of the verse’s content.

Due to life experiences and age level developmental needs at the various ages, certain verses are better for the different ages.

You will find a number of posts on the Train Bible Teachers Blog with verses that fit the different age level brackets. Click on the ages below that fit you or the age you serve.

Preschoolers
Grade School Children
Teenagers
Young Adults
Middle Aged Adults
Senior Adults

All Ages Will Memorize Scripture Similarly:

  • Repetition is required to memorize and retain what has been learned regardless of your age.
  • Using a variety of means can be beneficial in memorizing Bible verses at all ages.

You will find more tips for Bible teachers in this worksheet: Effective Scripture Memorization Requires Getting Beyond

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Just a Nursery Worker? Ouch!

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Nursery Baby

Having had to do a lot of recruiting when I worked in a church, I am well aware of common attitudes toward being a nursery worker. For some it was an easy way to get involved … just babysitting. For others it was viewed as a hardship … they did their time and didn’t want to be stuck in the nursery.

I quickly picked up on three hurtful perceptions about being a nursery worker that needed to be overcome:

1) These young children were not seen as an important age group to serve. Ouch!

Babies can’t learn the Bible, it is argued, so they aren’t an important age to invest into ministry-wise.

Here’s why this perception is hurtful:

  • Infants and toddlers are not too young to learn. They might not be able to do an exegetic study of a Bible verse but they are getting a sense of the kind of God we have and how good it is to be a part of His Church. Why wouldn’t we want to be strategic in making sure they are getting the right impressions?
  • Jesus thought little children were valuable enough to take time for them out of His busy schedule (Matt. 19:13-15). If Jesus viewed them as precious and in need of His touch, why wouldn’t we feel the same today? Some of the attitudes toward serving in the nursery must grieve His heart.

Let’s value infants and toddlers in the Church. Let’s invest not only our time and effort into training these young ones but also our hearts.

2) Being a nursery worker was not seen as an important role to fill. Ouch!

Change a few diapers, play with them a little, feed them a bottle, and put them down for a nap. That doesn’t sound like ministry, some might think, just care-taking.

In part, I believe people feel this way because they don’t understand the role they can have. They view themselves as babysitters, someone to free the parents up to attend classes or services. Even if that is all that’s to it, they would have an important role to fill.

But, nursery workers have a much more important role than that if they see themselves as foundation builders who prepare children for what is to come, affecting their attitudes toward God and His Church. Laying a foundation is extremely important as seen in the construction of a building. Jesus told a parable contrasting the effects of a storm on an edifice built on a firm foundation and one that was not (Matt. 7:24-27).

Lest you think being a foundation builder isn’t important, take a look at Scripture. God’s “own hand laid the foundations of the earth” (Isa. 48:13). The Church was built on a foundation (Eph. 2:19-22). Our future home, the heavenly city, is built on a foundation (Heb. 11:10; Rev. 21:14,19). If God views foundation building as critical, why wouldn’t we see the potential of this kind of role in the nursery as important?

Let’s expect more than mere babysitting. Let’s elevate the role of being in the nursery to true ministry.

3) Serving in the nursery merely fills an immediate need. Ouch!

Somebody has to do it so we don’t have crying babies in the worship service, right? Parents need to go to their own classes so somebody needs to take care of their children, right? While nursery workers do fill an immediate need, this motivation for working in the nursery is hurtful because it is so short-sighted.

As we’ve already seen, nursery workers have the potential of laying a good foundation in the lives of these children which can affect their future relationship with God and His Church. Think of John the Baptist who had the important ministry of preparing the way for the Lord Jesus. He was not the Savior but was used by God to develop pliable hearts ready to be introduced to the One who would save them.

The foundation laid in the nursery will be built upon by teachers to whose classes these young children will eventually be promoted. It’s a similar concept to what we read 1 Corinthians 3:10 — “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.”

Let’s approach the nursery with a view to the future. Let’s “build with care” and lay the foundation in these young lives “as a wise builder.”

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Classroom Discipline Must Get Beyond

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Classroom discipline, as well as disciplining in the home, needs to get . . .

Classroom Discipline

  • beyond merely telling them what to do to solving the problem together
  • beyond merely stopping the misbehavior to helping them become who they should be
  • beyond merely dealing with symptoms to getting to the core of the issue
  • beyond merely confronting the individual to protecting him/her and others from harm (physical, social, psychological, emotional, etc.)

Acrostic to Help Understand What It Takes for Classroom Discipline to Get Beyond

To get beyond, we must have the right focus, purpose, and pursuit in disciplining. This acrostic will help you take discipline beyond mere crowd control to aligning more with God’s intent in disciplining as seen in how He disciplines us as His children (Heb. 12:5-11).

D –  Dignity must be guarded by avoiding tactics that ridicule, demean, or put them down.

I –  Involvement in establishing rules and consequences must be sought to bring a greater sense of ownership.

S –  Spirit of God must be at work to provide motivation and enablement to do good.

C –  Character development must be essential so they become who they should “be” in Christ, not just “do” the right things.

I –  Intrinsic Motivation must be the long-range objective, not mere outward conformity.

P –  Peer Relationships must be protected by dealing with most issues privately as social acceptance and belonging are important.

L –  Learning must be the goal requiring a conducive environment and an instructive purpose in disciplining.

I –  Importance of the individual must be stressed which can eliminate much attention-getting behavior.

N –  Needs must be met which requires discerning the core issues as needs usually motivate behavior.

E –  Expectations must be communicated leaving them without excuse in bearing responsibility for their choices.

Look at the way you discipline in light of the above. Ask God to help you get beyond.

Learn more in the Handbook on the Basics of Classroom Discipline.

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