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2020-02-26 to 28 Pictures: Charleston, South Carolina

One of the few upsides of having to cancel our Spring Break trip last March at the onset of the pandemic is that we are "stuck" with a rather large voucher from one of those discount airlines. Last autumn, Tricia and I spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia and had a...

A John 3:16 Craft for Kids

John 3:16 is one of the most well known and reassuring verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16 (NIV) The following is a little craft I threw...

2020-03-01 Pictures: Lyndsey’s College Signing Day

This afternoon Lyndsey made it official, signing her letter of intent to play college basketball for the Hiram College Terriers starting next year. While she made the decision and committed to Hiram before Christmas, she has been looking forward to this day since her...

2020-02-13 Pictures: Lyndsey’s 18th Birthday

I am little behind on posting photos. These are some of my favorites from a couple of weekends ago when we got a chance to celebrate Lyndsey's 18th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is officially an adult. It was nice to have the family all back...

What is DOCTRINE?

Introduction I love working with kids, and I love teaching them hard concepts in ways they can understand. To that end, for years I have been working on a dictionary of theological terms for kids and teens. In sharing those definitions, there seemed no better place to...

If You Want It Done Right

In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends: If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF! This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk.  In theory, this is easy to accept. ...

What Does God Hate?

This is the little and humble post that started it all. I happened to be reading through my Bible, and this passage impacted me so much that I posted a little blurb about it on Facebook. That was July 28, 2008, and I've been writing and sharing ever since. (Maybe...

#3 – Don't Think More Highly of Yourself Than You Ought (Tips for Large Group Teaching)


Welcome to a continuing series of tips on working with large groups of children. I hope that you will find these tips useful and be able to implement them in your dealings with large groups of kids. If you do, please leave a comment and let us know. For a complete list of posts in this series, please see the index page. So, without further introduction, here is today’s installment.

It’s not about you!  I repeat – it is not about you!  It’s not even about the kids.  It’s about God.  Free yourself from your pride and from the burden of thinking that it all depends on you.  Even if you are very very good at teaching kids (and you should try your hardest to be just that), always remember that God is in control.  When you really strike out with the latest lesson, do not succumb to the arrogant thought that you have somehow kept the children you are teaching out of the kingdom of God through your failure.  God always has been, and always will be, in complete control.  He wants to work through you, but he is certainly capable of working in your children’s lives in spite of you.  If you let yourself think for even a moment that you are the key to any part of your Children’s Ministry, you have given the devil a foothold.  Take that attitude to the cross right now, and repent of that way of thinking.

On a practical level, remember that you will mess up!  We all do.  If you can’t learn to laugh at yourself, you will slowly drive yourself (and everyone around you) insane.  If there is one thing you learn very early on working with kids it’s that working with kids requires humility.

Return to the Tips for Large Group Teaching in Children’s Ministry index page.

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