The Big D Word

The Big D word; it’s the word no child wants to hear, but the word more and more are hearing every day: Divorce. It happened to my parents when I was 4 years old and it had a negative effect on my life. Before the divorce, I was a daddy’s girl. I loved spending time with my dad, and he was my hero. After the divorce, he became an ‘every other weekend dad’, and wasn’t available as often. In many ways, my mom became my mom and dad. But because my mom was busy working and supporting her family of 4 children, there was not often time for church. Thankfully our next door neighbors started taking us to church. While at church, seeds of life were planted in my life and even though I have gone through many ups and downs in my faith, the seeds that were planted and watered long ago by church volunteers have remained. The Bible says, in proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Because there were volunteers from church in my life that trained me up in the way I should go, as I got older, I did not depart from it, I grew closer to God. I may have strayed along the way, but in the end, I came back to the only truth that mattered in my life.

So what does my story have to do with you as a volunteer? Well here at VFC, we exist so people get it! People include the children we serve! We want to see children ‘get’ that God loves them! Whether you volunteer at Valley Family Church or you are volunteering at another church, every time you serve you are coming into contact with kids just like I was. Most of the kids we are serving are lost and hurting, they are looking for love and acceptance, and they may be acting out for attention.  As a volunteer we may never know what each child’s home life is like. So many children are living in a single parent home, and they need seeds of life planted in their life. As volunteers we get to do that every time we serve. We get to be the love of Jesus to each child that comes into our classrooms. You don’t have to be the volunteer giving the message or Bible Story to plant a seed; all you have to do is be the love of Jesus! Every time you serve and you take the time to talk to a child, play with a child or just give them that welcoming hug, you are sharing God’s love with them. You are training them in the way they should go, and when they are older, they will not depart from it! Be encouraged knowing that every time you serve in a kid’s classroom you are planting seeds and showing children how much God loves them no matter what is happening at home!

- Jodi

Raising the Bar

In kids ministry, we endeavor to reach kids with the love of Jesus Christ. As leaders, it is easy to get in the rut of thinking that we need to do this on our own. It is time to raise the bar and teach our kids to be the leaders and evangelists God calls them to be. We have the responsibility to equip them for the mission field.

Proverbs 22:6 says "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart." The Word says that they will not depart and it does not say they can't use the training while they are still young. It is our vision to teach kids how to love others, serve others and give back to the Lord and others. When the kids get it, they are able to minister to their friends and help grow the Kingdom, taking the pressure off of the adult leaders to reach kids on their own. Instead, we form a team by feeding the sheep and together sharing the love of Christ!

Shon

We're Not Church as Usual

Change is never easy, but it is always required for growth. Throughout history, nothing has ever stayed the same other than the Lord. This is also true in our approach to kids ministry. There have been some great ideas to minister to kids, from flannel graphs to father Abraham. These tools were successful in communicating the gospel of Jesus in their season.

Mark 2:18-22 talks about the old and new wine skins. Simply put, it doesn't make sense to put the new wine into the old skins; they won't work. The old wine skins were successful in their season, but in order to receive the new wine, you need skins capable of holding it. We are currently taking a look at the methods we are using that could, metaphorically speaking, use new wine skins. This can sometimes require you to abandon ideas that you're personally attached to and transition to something new.

This generation of kids has only known one thing: technology. I'm fairly young, but I can still remember writing papers on an electric typewriter. That is not where these kids come from, so our approach in ministering to them needs to change as well. I'm excited about the opportunity to challenge what I've known with what could be. We are working diligently to incorporate new, fresh, culturally relevant elements into our kids ministry in order to not be kids church as usual.