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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...

#51 – Learn From Your Failures (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.

I wrote an article last year called 8 Questions to Determine How Proud You Are.  The fact of the matter is that there is no room for pride for in any ministry, especially in Children’s Ministry.  Our job is to teach kids about our Creator and Savior.  Our ego stands in the way of, and has no place in, that mission.  When we make a mistake, we must be willing to admit it and learn from it.  When that great idea you had to get the kids involved in your lesson strikes out, we have to admit the failure and either improve on the idea or pitch it.

Albert Einstein once said that insanity is:

“…doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

When we refuse to admit our failures in Children’s Ministry and continue on with ideas and methods that do not work, that is the definition of insanity.  When you allow your pride to take over and refuse to admit when you’ve been wrong, your ministry becomes more about you then about God, and it is doomed to fail.  In order to succeed we must admit our mistakes, learn from them and give them up to God.

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

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