4 Ways A Weekday Childcare Webpage Can Connect Families with Your Church
Church tech expert Will Rice says churches with weekday childcare programs will have people looking for daycare regularly visiting their websites. He outlines ways to…
Browsing: Children
Articles
50 Ways to Strengthen Ministry with Children
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.” Here are 50 Ways your church can demonstrate its love for children and its desire to connect…
50 Ways to Engage Local Schools
Many congregations find that reaching out to their local schools is an important way to serve children and their families and strengthen ties with the…
Room at the Inn
Doug Ruffle, who once served as a missionary in Argentina, shares the heartwarming story of a Christmas pageant that went off script, yet captured the…
Church Childcare Programs: Income Generators or Missional Opportunity?
Nursery schools and childcare programs are more to churches than a source of rental income. Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says they offer important missional…
8 Things Your Christian Educator Wants You to Know
The work of faith formation leaders in a congregation is expansive and vital, yet often undervalued and misunderstood. Virginia Callegary lifts up the need to…
4 Tips for Launching a Church-School Partnership
Ann Michel of the Lewis Center Staff outlines four ways a church can lay a solid foundation for a church-school partnership before jumping in headfirst.…
Episode 17: “The Transformative Power of Church-School Partnerships” featuring Jake McGlothin
Thinking of launching a church-school partnership? Or looking to strengthen an existing partnership? In this episode Jake McGlothin, author of The Mission-Minded Guide to Church and School Partnerships, speaks with Lewis Center Associate Director Ann A. Michel about how churches can build effective, transformative relationships with children and teachers in their community.
Building Congregational Engagement in a Church-School Partnership
Jake McGlothin, author of The Mission-Minded Guide to Church and School Partnerships, explains how compelling messages that align your congregation’s vision to the task of…
A Birthday Party for Jesus
Margie Briggs, pastor of two small churches in Missouri, describes how the annual tradition of hosting a “birthday party for Jesus” has attracted children and…
Church Bell Calls Kids to Summer Food and Fun
Pastor Daniel Kerlin’s Pennsylvania church hosts a free summer lunch program. When kids who were on their own or couldn’t tell time were having difficulty…
Too Few Sunday School Teachers? Try a Team Approach
John Wimberly reports how creating a team of four teachers for each children’s Sunday school classroom had the paradoxical effect of easing the burden of…
Christmas Carols in Advent? Yes!
This year, worshipers at the Washington, DC, church where I serve will be hearing Christmas carols on November 29, the first Sunday of Advent. In…
The New Church Family
Given the title of Linda Ranson Jacobs’s new book, Attract Families to Your Church and Keep Them Coming Back (Abingdon Press, 2014), one might assume…
Worship from the Eyes of a Child
To make worship more family friendly, you might look at it through the eyes of a child. Ask other ministers and church leaders what they…
Effective Church-School Partnerships
Effective church-school partnerships take a true commitment and willingness to build long-term, sacrificial relationships. Learning from the many congregations that have begun partnerships with low-income…
Educating All God’s Children
Any church leader looking to be convinced that the state of public education in America is a Christian concern need look no further than Nicole…
The One Room (Church) Schoolhouse
My mother attended a one room schoolhouse for all but the last two years of her public education. As a Baby Boomer, I grew up…
Teaching Children to Tithe
Teaching children to tithe is an important part of their faith education that we often overlook. Giving to God is a core value of our…
Families Remain Important as Their Makeup Changes
While generational differences receive much attention, it is remarkable how people’s highest values tend to stay relatively constant from one generation to another. However, the…
Nursery Lessons: A Better Way of Recruiting Volunteers
Recently we have been focused on revitalizing the nursery at our church. We put in rigorous safety measures. We organized a committee to support the…
Choosing Church … or Soccer, or Work, or Family Time, or …
Sunday morning has become a popular time for youth sports. Weekends are for some families the only opportunity to share quality, sustained time together. And…
Making Your Church Kid and Family Friendly
The start of the school year is a great time to roll out the welcome mat for families and children. The following tips come from…
Effective Ministry with Children
One of the most important challenges facing our society today is the moral and spiritual development of our children. The questions for the church are…
Helping Our Children Become Worshipful Givers
Children and youth are typically given little attention in relation to worship through giving. The reasons range from, “They are only children,” to “They don’t…
Is Outreach to Young Families with Children Still Enough?
“What we really need is more young families with children.” How many times have we heard those familiar words spoken in churches? The image of…
Multicultural Church Offers a Distinctive Gift for Children
A small membership church finds a distinctive gift in offering a multicultural environment for children and learning. I have found an important starting point for…
