Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry

Great Kids’ Lessons Are Text Driven

kids-sermon-1When many Christians think of awesome kids’ sermons or Sunday school lessons, they think back to that gooey craft, or to that really moving illustration, or to that magical moment where half the class came forward to confess Christ as their savior in response to a hip pastor guy’s message.  The power of the lesson is often judged by how kids respond to the words that just rang off their eardrums. While such thinking is common place, it is not helpful;  it’s not even biblical.

In John 4, Jesus told the woman at the well to ask him for, “living water.” She responded to Christ’s message by repenting and believing and leading many others to Christ. A little later in John 6, Jesus told his hearers to embrace him as the “living bread.”The text reports that “From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (John 6:51-66).

In Acts 2, Peter eloquent preaches the whole gospel beginning with the prophet Joel and almost 3000 people repent of their sins. In Acts 7. Stephen presents the whole gospel beginning with Abraham and he gets stoned to death.

If the validity of the message is determined by the response of those who hear it, then Stephen was one of the worst evangelists of all time. When is the last time you saw an American congregation murder an evangelist for a poor sermon?  Even worse, Jesus was an ineffective teacher. The God-man failed to bring men and women to point of crisis needed to push them into the kingdom of heaven. If Jesus can preach an ineffective sermon, there is little hope for us, his followers.

The pragmatic approach to teaching is not the right approach. The examples above reveal that a good sermon and a good gospel presentation have to be based on something more than the fickle reactions of human beings.  As J.I. Packer wrote,

And if we forget that only God can give faith, we shall start to think that the making of converts depends, in the last analysis not on God, but on us, and that the decisive factor is the way in which we evangelize. And this line of thought, consistently followed through will lead us far astray.

The quality of the message is determined by its faithfulness to the message of Jesus, the word who became flesh. Jesus was the greatest preacher and evangelist of all time. Peter and Stephen were also great men of God. What made them remarkable was their message. They preached the Word clearly and powerfully. Because of their faithfulness to Christ, their sermons are included in the Bible. All of them show us how to create a good lesson by focusing . We are to focus on the Word. As Paul told Timothy,

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.

– 2 Timothy 4:2-3.

Men and women can teach really awesome and inspiring lessons and be hated by the kids listening to them. They can teach really bad lessons and be applauded by the whole church. But the judge of our effectiveness is not the men and women that we can see. Our judge is the God above. And he tells us to “preach the word.” To be a great teacher, we have only to do this.

J.I. Packer comments again:

The way to tell whether in fact you are evangelizing is not to ask whether conversions are known to have resulted from your witness. It is to ask whether you are faithfully making known the gospel message.

A great kids’ sermon and/or Sunday school lesson is not the one that evokes an emotional response or the one that connects with a kid’s imagination through an amazing craft. Those things are not wrong but they are not ultimate. The great teacher is the one who presents the gospel clearly relying upon the Scriptures for the ideas. The Bible is the Christian’s one and only message. Are we teaching it?

Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry

Airplane Crashes: Lessons in Church Leadership

airplane“I don’t like this,” were First Officer David Hare’s final words. Six brief seconds the later, the Boeing 737 that he and Captain Blair Rutherford were piloting slammed into the side of a hill killing 12 of the 15 people aboard the aircraft. Prior to the crash, Hare made six statements to Rutherford concerning the planes trajectory. Tragically, Rutherford ignored them all.

Captain Rutherford is not alone. Most airplane crashes result from similar circumstances. Almost all of the planes encounter some kind of small mechanical error while their tired crews navigated through bad weather. These circumstance in and of themselves do not doom the aircraft. Everyday, tired crews land planes safely in less than perfect conditions.  Crashes occur because the Captains flying in the doomed aircraft have a large Power Distance Index.

HL7492-Korean-Air-Lines-Boeing-747-400_PlanespottersNet_296887In 1997, Korean Air Flight 801 infamously slammed into the mountains of Guam. Like Captain Rutherford, the Captain of flight 801 refused to listen to the concerns of both his first officer and his flight engineer. Although the first officer and the flight engineer had quickly realized that the plane was in trouble, they were slow to speak up because the Captain’s authority was rarely challenged. When the crew did finally directly challenge the Captain’s piloting, he ignored them because they were after all subordinate and inferior. By the time the Captain realized that he had misjudged their approach, the time for his 747’s salvation had passed. Less than two minutes later, flight 801 barreled into the jungle hillside killing most everyone on board.

After many crash investigations, researchers have discovered that a crew’s leadership style often determines whether they crash or land peacefully unnoticed by the media. Crews with a strict hierarchy are more prone to crash than crews with first officers and flight engineers who were encouraged to challenge a captain’s authority directly.

In much the same way, Christians can determine the future of their church and the children’s ministry by looking at their leaders. All leaders fly through the storms of life. But, leaders who distance themselves from accountability and from their church members during their flight are destined for disaster. Their mountain could be a whole host of things including sexual immorality, drunkenness, pride, or theological error. But, it is coming. To have a healthy church and children’s ministry, pastors and leaders must invite others to speak into their lives.

In Mark 10:42-44, Jesus says,

You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them, and their great ones exercises authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever who be first among you must be the slave of all.

Christians cannot lead well if they have created a hierarchical structure that prevents people from challenging their authority. To be the servant of all, Christians leaders must being willing to pour coffee and stack chairs. But servant leadership also means that pastors, elders, and directors must be willing to listen to the concerns of those around them. Think about Paul, Peter and the church at Antioch. The early church leaders constantly listened and responded to the concerns of their people They had a low level Power Distance Index. Like Jesus, the early church fathers were approachable and humble. The church today is not captivated by legalism because Paul spoke up and corrected Peter when he started building additions on the the gospel. Christian leaders must continue to model these qualities. If they do not, they will depart from Christ’s example and will slam into failure. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer correctly noted,

He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either… This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words”

As the first officers and flight engineers of God, church members also must be willing to speak up and express their concerns when they sense disaster approaching. When members care enough about their pastors to talk to them, the church functions better. As Gabe Lyons said, “Our friendships and personal growth opportunities come when we step into the uncomfortable space of conflict, not when we evade it.”  “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” (Prov. 27:6a).

Christian leaders are not meant to function alone exhausted by the cares of ministry. They are called to equip others by teaching and modeling the gospel, inviting others to be a part of their life. As they do so and as church members join them in the cockpit of ministry, our churches will experience unprecedented safety and success.

Are you ready to be part of your church’s flight crew? Are you ready to advocate for small Power Distance Index?

Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry

5 Things Habits Of Effective Nursery Workers:

nursery-workers1. Listen To Your Leaders:

To be a great servant, we must be a great listener and doer. We must make every effort to listen to our pastor. If he ask us to arrive 15 minutes early, we make every effort to arrive on time. If our nursery director tells us not to pull out the blocks today, we follow her advice and leave the blocks put up. To be a great nursery worker, we must listen to and follow our leader’s directions.

2. Listen to the Parents:

To be a great nursery worker, we must listen to the parents. If they ask us to give junior a bottle at 9:15AM, we should do everything we can to give him the bottle then. If they ask us to get them quickly if their child will not stop crying, we go get them. If they tell us that little Sally will be fine, we let little Sally cry it out until it becomes obvious she needs mom or until her crying become so disruptive that the wellbeing of necessitates her removal. Again, we may not always agree with the parents. But if the child is not being harmed, we need to die to ourselves and our pride and listen to the child’s mom and dad. After all they (and not us) have been charged with caring for the child. We need to respect the parents. We should listen to them.

3. Listen to the Kids

When we come to nursery, we need to arrive with a kid focus; our goal should not be to catchup with the other adults in the room. Our mission should be to learn and to play with the kids in our room. We should talk to them about preschool. Learn about their favorite colors. Play dragons, farm, and restaurant with them. And if they are too small to talk, we should study the babies, seeing what makes them happy or upset. As we learn which babies like the swing and which ones like the bouncy seat, we will be better equipped to care for the children. And as the babies become happier, we demonstrate the love of Christ to both the little people and their parents. We show the onesie wearing souls that we love them. And we show the parents that we care about them enough to keep their kid happy so that they can make it through a sermon.

4. Talk To Your Leaders

After listening well, we should seek to speak well. We should seek to mention concerns and problems to our leaders. For example, our church has restroom signs above our restrooms because a nursery worker noticed that those signs were missing. All the rooms, had nice big signs jutting out from the wall. But the bathrooms did not. By speaking to me, he made our church better. No children’s pastor or nursery director can anticipate or catch every problem. By speaking well and with love, you can make your nursery and your church more welcoming, safe, and friendly. A good worker is willing to address concerns.

5. Talk To The Parents:

When parents come to the door to pick up their child, capture the moment. Tell them something their child did well. Brag about how well the slept or about how well they shared. My wife and I love hearing how our kids did in nursery. All parents do. And as we talk to the parents about their children, we begin to build relationships with them. We begin to lay a foundation from which to share the gospel or from which to talk about church membership. By reaching out to parents with hospitable speech we have a chance to make much of God.