Category: Wisdom for Children’s Ministry

Wisdom for Children’s Ministry is a collection of blogs containing wisdom gained over many years in Christian ministry to children.

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Rest | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Rest | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Based on a Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price (You can view full video at youtube.com)

 

Habit #5  Rest

 

Andrew says,  “Take a break from your work then go back and take a look at it with fresh eyes.”

 

He uses the example of the writer, Stephen King who after he writes a novel, packs it away for 6 months and doesn’t look at it.  When he later re-reads it, he sees it with fresh eyes and sees things he did not see the first time.

 

I can attest to the fact that when you have been working on something for so long, with so many re-do’s, you don’t see it objectively anymore.

 

Also when you take rest times your mind somehow sorts out your problems as you rest.  Make sure you bring a recording device or paper and pen, so you can write things down if you get a brilliant idea.

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

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Conscious Learning | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Conscious Learning | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Based on Blender Foundation speech by Andrew Price (view full videos on youtube.com)

Habit #4 Conscious learning – not practice, practice, practice

 

I heard a saying “It is  not practice that makes perfect, but perfect practice that makes perfect.”

 

Andrew uses the example of a time when he was drawing but he was in a rut, not improving – just redrawing the same pictures over and over again.  He realized he needed more training.  He started to re-learn the old things and he realized he hadn’t adopted everything he had learned.

 

How I found this applied to me in my cartooning of the bible was that I recognized pretty quickly my limitations and I enrolled in a night school course for cartooning once per week at my local college.  I totally enjoyed the experience and enjoyed getting out each week with other people who had like interests.

 

If you feel like you need more training in the area you are called to, go and get the training.  Look outside the box so to speak, to see how you could make it happen.

 

Consciously always be improving your skills.  Try not to plateau.

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources

 

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Stealing | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Stealing | 7 Habits of a Good Artist |  Based on Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price (video series can be viewed on youtube.com)

Habit 3 – Get good at stealing

Andrew says that we build on the stuff we have learned from others.  Find your idols, copy the stuff you love and put them into a file.

He says, “If you steal from one person you are plagiarizing but if you are stealing ideas from 100 people you are not doing plagiarism.”

When I was first learning to cartoon for the bible stories, I had very little background knowledge to draw from.  I had enjoyed the Saturday morning cartoons I watched on television as a child and I drew inspiration from them.  I also started to look at the cartoon section of our local newspaper and even advertising flyers that came in my daily mail.  My eyes were suddenly open to all the cartoons that were around me.

I started to recognize that there are certain styles of cartoons that I like and I started to try to copy them.  My limited drawing experience required me to rely on reference material.  I would cut out from the newspaper all of the cartoons with unusual facial expressions and make files of various things I felt I might need to use as inspiration.  Now of course with the internet, you have it all at your fingertips.

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

 

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Volume Not Perfection | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Habit #2  Work on Volume not Perfection

7 HABITS OF A GOOD ARTIST based on Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price
(You can find the series on Youtube.com)

Habit #2 is to work on Volume of pieces and not perfection of each piece of art that you do.  Andrew Price uses the example of Picasso and how he did a huge volume of artwork, thousands and thousands of pieces, but only a few pieces became famous.

Apparently the more compositions you make in 5 years, the higher your chances become in making a “hit”.

How I found this related to me in my cartooning of the bible is that, because each story required 10 to 15 pictures, I couldn’t afford to do “perfect”  artwork, as the upcoming Sunday service only allowed me a certain amount of time to get the story presentable. Fortunately since kids are so forgiving, I just made the pictures as best as I could and over time my art work started to improve.   Probably most stories have been done 2 to 3 times to get them to their current level.  I can attest that volume of work makes a difference.  You get better as you do it.  Don’t slow yourself down trying to be perfect.  Just keep on moving.

I also have come to ACCEPT that my work WON’T be perfect.  Before I even started the project of cartooning the bible, I was at a church and the pastor called me out and said that he felt God had a message for me.  He said God was going to give me a work to do and that I was not to compare myself to others and say that others could have done this job better.  I accept the job given to me and I am doing my best to develop the talent given to me.  I encourage the same for you.

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Teaching Children to be Grateful

Teaching Children to be Grateful

Here is an article from a blog at Focus on the Family about gratitude – teaching children to be grateful.

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/spiritual-growth-for-kids/training-kids-to-be-grateful

The part I most liked is the exercise of actually counting your blessings.

In Children’s Church, you might actually have children count their blessings and make a contest to see which group could come up with the most common everyday blessings that we often take for granted.

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

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Do A Little Every Day | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Do a Little Every Day | SEVEN HABITS OF A GOOD ARTIST based on Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price.  (You should be able to view the full series on Youtube.com)

Habit #1 is “Do a little bit every day”.

If you are reading this blog, you most likely know that I am attempting to cartoon the entire bible (at least all the parts that have a story to illustrate).  A few times I have felt overwhelmed to the point of tears at how massive this project was, but I have learned that doing a little bit everyday does add up.   I am amazed at how much I do get accomplished when I block a certain amount of time each business day of the week, and stick to my schedule.

The old Chinese proverb is true that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single footstep.

Use your little moments that you do get.  Use the technology you have.  Record ideas on your cell phone.  Don’t lose time.  Don’t lose a thought.  Even if you don’t have time to develop your thoughts at this moment, at least they are recorded for the future when you do have time.

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

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DEVELOP YOUR TALENT

DEVELOP YOUR TALENT:  It took me some time to accept all the “re-do’s” that I had to do in my cartoon drawings and bible story writing. All the early stories that I did, I had to re-do at least 3 times and at first I used to get so frustrated and angry at myself.  “Like why do I have to learn SO slowly and why do I have to re-do all this?”  As things start to click in, you get a little wiser, but through all this, I have come to realize that God has allowed time in his plan for us to develop our skills.

 

Keep on walking.  Don’t get discouraged if you have “re-do’s” in life.  You will always be under construction until the day you go home.

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

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Secrets Adults Keep and How they Affect Children

Recently I read a book called, “My Secret Sister”.  The picture of the book is below.

The book is a page turner and shows clearly how the secrets adult keep affect children.  The book is not directly related to children’s ministry, other than the chapter where the abused twin gets invited to a Sunday School and experiences the love of God.  This experience with God greatly helped her through the troubled years to come.

I recommend the book because we don’t always know from what backgrounds kids come to us, but also because I think you might enjoy a good book to read this summer.

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

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THE FUNNY THINGS KIDS SAY

CHILD CHUCKLES (The Funny Things Kids Say)

A Blog by Rev. Grace Verrier

 

Today my stomach hurt.  I used every muscle in it trying to control my laughter.  I was teaching on Adam and Eve and I had a little boy in my class who comes from a family of nine.

My question to the class was, “What did God tell Adam and Eve to do after they ate the forbidden fruit in the garden?”  I expected the answer to be, “God told them to leave the garden.”

The little boy from the large family started shaking his hand wildly shouting, “I know!  I know!  I know!”  When I asked him what his answer was, he said, “God told them to be fruitful and multiply just like my mom and dad say.

Later, I told his parents what he had said and they explained how he had taken their words totally out of context.  I then told the parents, “I’ll believe only one-half of what they tell me about you if you will believe only one-half of what they tell you about me.”  When you serve in children’s ministry that is very good advice.

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

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HOW DOES A CHILDREN’S MINISTER RETIRE?

RETIRE OR REFIRE! (on Retirement)

A Blog by Rev. Grace Verrier

When I turned 65 I retired from full time ministry.  Ministry can be an exacting calling requiring long hours and an unending commitment to fulfill it.  (Remember, our “Boss” neither slumbers nor does He sleep).

At first I tried activity and hobbies using interaction with people to justify continuing ministry through life style outreach.  It just wasn’t me.  Also, my husband and I wanted to travel and see some of God’s great creation like the Grand Canyon for example.

However, when there is a call on your life and you know it is to minister to children, there doesn’t seem to be that much opportunity to reach that demographic when you are over 70.  I asked God if He would show me how to use my gifting so I could be just as fruitful as when I worked full time for him.  This is what He told me to do.  I went to our home church (the first one we had NOT pastored) and asked if they could use some help in Children’s Ministry.  They were starting two services on Sunday morning and it was the right time.  When they found out I had my own curriculum they were even happier.  This worked really well for me as my curriculum was embedded in my heart and I did not have to study to present it – just pray.

Because we now spend several months in Florida yearly we asked our home church there if they could use some help in Children’s Ministry.  They also were delighted and I could reuse the teaching from my home church in Niagara Falls.  I had enough room in my fifth wheel trailer to bring a few puppets and props that I needed.  Then my husband asked if he could help me teach using my methods (not just sermonizing as he did over the years) and he developed a strong call to help me.

Then Patti asked me to participate in this blog so I could continue to teach children’s teachers by using my own ministry experience.  So now I haven’t retired – just refired and I feel just as fulfilled as I did with full time ministry.  God is so faithful!

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

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CROWD CONTROL

HELP!  THEY GOT AWAY! (Need Crowd Control)

A Blog by Rev. Grace Verrier

 

Last Sunday I ministered to a class of eight children, ages from Kindergarten to Grade 5.  It was so easy compared to the times I have ministered to 150 to 300 children in grade school assemblies.

I remember at one school session I decided to teach on worship and to help illustrate it I had brought approximately 40 puppets to the auditorium.  My plan was to play a jumpy contemporary Christian song and have the children move the puppets in time with the music.  I asked the children who would want to volunteer and of course they all wanted to.  I quickly pointed to children and told them to come up and put on a puppet.  However, the children grabbed the puppets, put them on their hands and began to run around the gymnasium completely out of control.  The teachers looked dumbfounded and I cried out to God, “Help!”

God told me to ask the children to stop and hold their breath.  It worked.  As they were quiet I told them to all come forward and listen to the music and do what I had originally asked.  Teachers told me later that the idea definitely came from God because they had never heard of it.  Needless to say, I thanked God all the way home.

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.

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WE CANNOT DO IT WITHOUT THE LORD

WE CANNOT DO IT WITHOUT THE LORD

A Blog by Rev. Grace Verrier

After many years of ministry, and having my “congregations” change every six years (I taught children 6-12 years old) I became very familiar with the curriculum I taught.  My goal in presenting the six-year curriculum was to familiarize children with the layout of the Bible and teach them how God used individuals and groups of people to accomplish his purposes.   I also wanted to show the children how all of this information is still relevant today and we can use it in our own lives.

After many years of “working” at fulfilling my writing and teaching goals, I felt that I had accomplished what I had set out to do and I began to get rather complacent.  One morning with only minimal preparation and a hurried prayer I stood before the children fully convinced I was ready to teach.  (During worship time the Lord seemed to say to me, “Do you really think that you are that good that you can minister to children without me?”  I heard what He said, but I really didn’t take it to heart.)

We left the sanctuary and went to class and it was as if the children had been given a pound of chocolate and had an extreme “sugar high”.  It took me about 15 minutes to get them settled.  Then they became complacent, staring off into space and taking no part in the program.   Finally one said out loud, “This is boring!”  That is when I quickly repented and asked God to “take over” the class.  Needless to say I learned my lesson and appropriated the scripture, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build it.”  (Ps 127:1)

When I was a new Christian I thought, “I am doing a really good job for God.”  After about five years of knowing Christ, I thought, “God and I are really doing a good job together.”  Now I know that, “God is doing a good job and I am just along for the ride.”

 

Click here for Children’s Ministry Resources.