Children's Ministry from the Inside
- Mike Magargee
- Sep 7, 2008
I know some guy that's a Cubmaster (an adult Cub Scout leader) as well as a third-fifth grade Sunday school teacher. What's different is that he never thought he was equipped to work with six to eleven year olds, having preferred the interaction with adults rather than children. It turns out that I'm that guy-surprise!
I'm writing to encourage and recommend your involvement in the children's ministry. First of all, that seems to be where the need is. There are lots of fine teachers of adults at our church, but the field thins out with the children. I'm glad to tell you that this last couple of years has been a wonderful learning opportunity for teacher and students alike. I had no idea that you could successfully get children to memorize a half dozen versus AND learn the order of the books of the Bible in addition to relating standard old and new testament event lessons during the year. How does this help the children? It's all part of their gaining familiarity with the Bible as well as learning about God and prayer. How does the experience benefit the teacher? Beyond the obvious idea of participating as a fellow laborer in the life of our church and having something positive to show for the use of your time, the discipline of thinking a couple of steps ahead of the students and then directing their thinking to point of the lesson is a handy skill. I have watched these students learn concepts and share prayer requests and have carried those requests home into my own prayer time as God directs. The continued work is amazing as lesson concepts come together during a classroom presentation. I think most people agree that amount of learning that happens to the teacher exceeds what gets passed to the students.
Our church has had some talented teachers in children's ministry for years that have put a strong foundation in place. This is evident in the students coming through the classes. I haven't meet a third grader that wasn't somewhat reluctant to give up access to the treasure box and leave behind the fun projects of Susan and Sandy's first grade class. Most all of the students have played Zonk about a billion times in both Dennis Kiggin's and Mark Robb's classes. Former two and three year olds chase Lynn Reece down the hall to say hello as they fondly recall her class. They even greet her "helper" Randy.
Looking back on two years of teaching third-fifth graders, I grew into the role. I gained skills, developed a classroom rapport, and presented techniques to coach children with memorization skills. I'm sure that there are many other people much better trained (perhaps even vocationally) in this task than I was. However, there is a wonderful blessing that occurs when responding to a need. I can't recommend children's ministry enough. How about you?
Mike Magargee