Articles Zone

Practical and insightful articles about Children's Ministry.

Looking for some expert advice? This Zone is a treasury of Children's Ministry expertise from the Kidologist and other veterans in children's ministry.

Some of the most popular articles are:

Getting into the Home | Mailbox Ministry | Discipline that Disciples | Entering the World of Kids | First Steps for a New Children's Pastor | The Great KID Mission |

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Plus Monkey See, Monkey Do: Growing Christ-like kids.

Learning to imitate the charecter of Christ and leading others to do the same.

Example, Character, Discipleship
Free More Positive Classroom Ideas (2 of 2)

Almost every teacher in a church's children's ministry is looking for help to manage the classroom. Pastor Trisha Peach shares her best and time-tested discipline ideas. Part 2 of Pastor Trisha's articles on Discipline.

Discipline
Plus More Than Just a Chocolate Bunny

Kids travel through four different rooms to meet important people in Jesus' life and to experience the reality of what Easter is really about.

Easter
Free Mother's Day Service in Children's Ministry

It’s time to talk about Mother’s Day! Make moms feel special by incorporating these ideas into your ministry time.

Ideas for Mother's Day
Plus Mother's Day Skit

A skit about the best gift you can give Mom for Mother's Day!

Mother's Day, Puppet Skit, Skit
Plus My Buddy Noah

Realizing the importance of patience when serving kids who struggle with profound difficulties.

Special Needs, Patience
Free My Favorite Productivity Tools

Read these short reviews on some newer apps that can help you take control of your life.

Simplifying with Apps
Plus My Heavenly Da Da

How do you address God the Father?

Relationship with God
Plus My Ministry Is Bigger Than Yours

The longer I am a children’s pastor, the more I realize that we won’t impact a generation by pointing to our size.

Leadership
Free My Top Five Parenting Failures

Every parent makes mistakes. Every parent feels like a failure at times. Here are some helpful tips to improve the way you communicate with and raise your kids. 

Parenting, Relationships
Starter Navigating the Pandemic with Your Kids

Honestly and openly help kids deal with the fallout of the pandemic we face. 

Dealing with Change and Fear
Plus New Life for Dying Programs

When the time comes for a program to end, you should end it. However, there may be a program that is faltering that still has life in it and could still be effective for the kingdom. Here are some things that can be done to breath new life into a program that might be struggling.

Church Programs
Plus Next Generation Partnership

See this vast study of church partnership with missions organizations and get practical ideas that you can apply in your ministry.

Missions
Plus No Budget? No Problem!

In these challenging economic times, children’s ministry budgets often get cut, sometimes eliminated. I read often online about ideas for fund raising and saving money. I’d like to take a different approach on this topic – while I AM sympathetic to leaders facing budget cuts and the challenges of ministering with less money, I’d like to pose a sincere question you are welcome to answer in the comments below -  my question is simply, “What do you need money FOR?”

Ministry Budget
Free No More Making Time for Family

Why I will NEVER make time for my family ever again!

Family
Plus No More Manic Mondays!

Whether you love Mondays or dread them, here are ways to make the first workday of the week work for you. 

Organization, Monday Manic
Plus No R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for anyone or anything. What do you do?

Should you expect respect from all kids? What about kids who have been through trauma? 

Respect, Divorce Care
Plus Noah's Ark Walk

A nighttime ark walk that will have kids glowing with excitement.

How Big Was Noah's Ark
Free Nothing Else Like This

It is not about what we do for God but about what God has done for us through Jesus.

Nothing Like Jesus
Plus Numbers on the Dice

This object lesson uses dice to demonstrate how we need Jesus in order to get to heaven!

Object Lesson, Heaven
Plus Nurturing the Childish Out of Leadership

When you look at a strong-willed child, do you ever think, "That's great leadership potential! All you have to do is nurture it!"

Leadership, Parenting, Strong-willed Child
Plus Object Lessons and Props Are Biblical

Don't let your props take the place of your message.

Props in Ministry
Plus Object Lessons Can Make an Impact!

What is an object lesson? Here are several basic instructions that you need to know for giving one!

Object Lesson Instructions
Starter Offering the Gospel to Children

This review is considers the work of an Anglican writer, mining insights which might be helpful in other theological contexts, particularly in the evangelical setting.

Book Review
Plus On Halloween

You may be offended by this, but every Halloween, the same silly thing happens. This is the only night of the entire year when most of your neighbors and mine are going to come knocking on our doors. The only night.

Halloween Outreach
Plus One Bird Alone is Like a Single Parent Alone

Is your church caring for the single parents in your community?

Single Parenting
Plus One Way Sunday School Teachers Can Encourage Active Participation in Class

Keep your class actively participating with these simple tips. 

Participation
Plus Out of Bounds - No Boundary Between "Church Work" and Home?

Without clear boundaries, a pastor and their family suffer “boundary ambiguity” and become completely enmeshed in their parishioner’s lives and problems.

Boundaries
Starter Out of the Basement: A Holistic Approach to Children's Ministry

A book review of Out of the Basement: A Holistic Approach to Children’s Ministry by Diane C. Olson.

Book Review
Starter Overcoming Spiritual Apathy in Parents at Home

Last year I began a new initiative in my church which developed into a form of parent coaching. It is very loosely based on Karl Bastian’s VIP strategy, which can be found in the Leadership Lab 4, Partnering with Parents. This post suggests one possible scenario which can lead a family toward participating in parent coaching. Although it is fictitious and the names are not meant to represent any real person, I believe it is a plausible situation. In future posts I will explore in more detail the possible opportunities of parent coaching, as well as potential pitfalls.

Parent Coaching
Plus Pajamarama: Mother-Daughter Event Idea

Here's a great idea for a mother-daughter event that you can host at your church. 

Mother's Day, Mother-Daughter Event
Plus Paper Gospel Illusion for Easter

This is a great Gospel Illusion and Object Lesson for Easter to show how Jesus was killed and rose three days later! It uses a paper and pen to visually demonstrate this important truth.

Easter Object Lesson
Plus Parent Meetings + Talking about Technology

In this episode, Sean Sweet talks about 2 different things that can give anxiety when it comes to preteen ministry. First he talks about how to have percent meetings, and then he talks about Technology and how we can help parents understand what their kids are dealing with.

Partnering Parents
Plus Parents, What Message are You Preaching to Your Kids?

Do your kids understand the relentlessness of God?

God's Relentlessness
Plus Pastor Appreciation Project

What are YOU doing to celebrate your pastor this October?

Pastor Appreciation
Free Pastor as Leader

 Pastor, Your Leadership Matters More Than You Think.

Pastoral Leadership
Plus Pastors and the Power Problem

To avoid falling victim to the dark sides, each pastor must have the emotional maturity to recognize and confront their dark side.

Abuse of Power
Plus Performance Skills 101

There is one specific skill that is absolutely essential for every speaker to learn and to master in order for them to elevate their speaking to a whole new level. That skill is: Truth by Vibration!

Speaking, Performance Skills
Plus Pizza, Pornography and Meeting New People: A Look Inside Our Kids Digital World

Our kids live in a digital age. To say that times have changed since we were kids is a gross understatement. But how are we doing at keeping up with those changes? How can we stay ahead of the digital curve and keep our kids safe?

Online Safety
Plus Plastic Army Men - Memorial Day Lesson

Remember all the men and women who have served our nation, some who even died serving the cause of freedom.

Teaching via Memorial Day
Plus Plate-Spinning Management

A fun spin on management techniques with simple suggestions that can help your children's ministry take a big step forward.

Management, Volunteers
Plus Play The Ball Where The Monkey Drops It

Some things are beyond our control. You have to start with what you have. You never get to start with what you wish you had.

Ministry Upsets
Plus Pop 10

A Super Bible School Activity for Learning the 10 Commandments

10 Commandments
Plus Praxis of Nurture in Small Churches

Glen Woods is well known as thoughtful practitioner of children's ministry. Here he offers his doctoral dissertation on family ministry especially as it relates to small church ministry. For those willing to dive into the topic seriously, they will find this engaging, challenging and thought provoking.  

Partnering with Parents
Plus PreachersNSneakers Should Concern You

Ask yourself: is there anything I am doing that is a hindrance to the gospel of Christ?

Public Image
Plus Preparing for Special Needs Kids

Are you prepared for special needs kids in your ministry? Here are 10 tips to help you!

Special Needs
Free Preparing Your Ministry for Growth

Once your ministry is discipling mature believers who are evangelizing others, you then need to prepare your ministry for growth. Are you ready for growth?

Growing Your Children's Ministry
Plus Prepping Your Team for Success

What are you doing to help your team succeed? Leader, your role is to equip and prepare people to serve the work of the ministry.

Equipping Leaders
Plus Pressing In

Stop trying to do life without Jesus. 

Jesus is all we need
Free Pretzel Object Lessons

Still a powerful teaching tool today, pretzels are the perfect object lesson/treat to share with your class that will teach them about prayer.  

Prayer
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