Teaching from the Overflow of Personal Time with God
Children’s Ministry leaders are busy people. There’s always an event to plan and prepare, curriculum to sort, leaders to enlist and train, counseling sessions to conduct, and – well, you get the idea. Many times it seems that when one item gets marked off the to-do list, three more are added.
And then we add to all of this the fact that – just when we think we have everything covered – someone calls and has to back out of a commitment and we’re faced with finding and equipping last-minute replacements. These tasks don’t include anything from the personal or other areas of our life. Like I said – busy lives!
When Busy Pushes God Aside
One of the many problems that happen when we become so “busy” is that the time we spend alone with God gets shoved aside. It’s not that that things we’re doing are wrong – they are all good things and things that must happen. But it takes the place or shortens the most important thing.
So what are we to do? We must make a commitment to have time every day to spend in His word, to spend talking and listening to God, to spend meditating on how He is working in our lives and how He is guiding us as we move forward. I love talking with effective children’s ministry leaders to see how they make this a priority in their lives. Some of them carve out time early in the morning when they awake, others arrive early at work to have their quiet time, and a few night owls have theirs in the evening. You know your schedule and you know whether you’re an early riser or a night owl and what would work best in your situation.
How can you teach it if you’re not practicing it?
I love teaching kids ministry leaders about different aspects of Children’s Ministry, but I am afraid this is one area that often gets overlooked. We can’t effectively teach preschoolers and children about God’s love and the truths of the Bible if we’re not experiencing it on a daily basis.
If you’re a children’s ministry leader, please put aside the to-do list and spend time in prayer and in Bible study. If you’re not a children’s ministry leader, find someone who serves in kid’s ministry and let them know how much you appreciate them and ask them how you can help lighten their load. Remember, we teach best when we teach from the overflow of our time with God.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me.”
John 15:5
Join the conversation in our Georgia Baptist Kids Facebook group! As always feel free to reach out to our Next Gen consultants.
Published December 28, 2018