4 Approaches to Keeping Small Church Worship and Education Vibrant During the Pandemic
Rebekah Simon-Peter outlines four models small churches have used to survive the pandemic — the church at home model, the shut-in model, the never shut…
Browsing: Children
Articles
Coffee, Kids, and Chaos
Looking for a simple, creative way to engage young families in the life of your congregation? Jessica Anschutz explains how providing a gathering space for…
How Parents Help Children Grow in Faith
New research on how parents pass faith to their children provides strong evidence that talking with children about faith in the context of daily life…
6 Suggestions to Promote Healthy Intergenerational Worship
David Manner says the goal of healthy intergenerational worship is unobtainable unless the different generations within your church are first interacting together outside of worship.…
Why Intergenerational Ministry?
Liz Perraud says bringing generations together is a key aspect of Christian community. She suggests church leaders might approach the need to strengthen intergenerational connections…
4 Tools the Pandemic Has Uncovered for Special-Needs Ministry
Sandra Peoples, a leading voice for the special-needs community, says the modifications churches have made to reach members during the COVID-19 crisis have made special-needs…
Ministering with Families in the Ongoing Pandemic
Emily Peck McClain describes the very real challenges children, youth, and families face during this time of upheaval and distance from physical church. She offers…
Are You Teaching People about Faith? Or How to Practice It?
Johannah Myers describes a paradigm shift in how we form disciples with a move away from Christian education toward an emphasis on forming people in…
Episode 49: “What is Messy Church?” featuring Johannah Myers
Looking for a creative, new way to bring people of all ages into a space where they can meet Jesus? In this episode we speak with Johannah Myers about Messy Church, a global movement born of the desire to reach individuals and families not attracted to traditional Sunday morning services.
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…
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…
