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.

Peter Witkowski Book Reviews

Your Kids Should Read: “The Radical Book For Kids”

radical-book-for-kidsAre your kids interested in the Christian faith? Do they regularly want to discuss what happens at church? Are they starting to ask the big Why Questions of life? If this is your child, I encourage you to get them a copy of The Radical Book For Kids.

Written by Camp Thorton for children between the ages of 8-14, The Radical Book For Kids tackles 67 important issues in the Christian faith in an immensely fun, highly practical, and beautifully theological fashion. Discussions about how to tie cool knots develop into lessons about original sin and salvation. The 253 colorful pages also cover things like “Fun and Games in Bible Times, The Weapons of the Bible, The Passion Week, Women Who Gave Their Lives for Christ, and How to Make Good Decisions.” Each 2-5 page chapter begins in kid friendly way and ends with biblically precise language. Thow-to-grow-as-a-christianhe book does a wonderful job of explaining complicated truths in both a simplistic and yet fully biblical manner. If your kids love to read. They will love this book.

As a grade schooler and junior higher, I would have loved this book. The book allows kids to explore the theological doctrines, practical methodologies, and important stories that have shaped our faith at their own pace. I would have enjoyed being able to slowly skip around this book as I wrestled with questions about my sin nature, the purpose of the church, and why we follow the Bible. And although I was not a particularly great reader as a kid, the illustrations, diagrams, and artwork would have kept me engaged. I highly encourage all parents to grab a copy of this book. Your kids will benefit from it. And I suspect, you may even benefit from it.

Word Of Caution

This book is not a devotional. For example, chapter 16 focuses on the Hebrew Alphabet. It is a great chapter. I think it is great for kids to understand that the Hebrew language is not radical-book-for-kids-2our language and has its own nuances. How about reading from left to right?

But if chapter 16 is your kids, or your family devotion, you will not be encouraged by the Scriptures.

However, that is not the purpose of the book. While many of the sections do call for radical actions based on obedience to the Scriptures, this book is not a devotional. As Thorton wrote in the introduction, “Parents and Teachers may also find it helpful as a supplement for devotions or discussions.” Please do not make it your main discipleship tool.

The book is more a fun theological textbook for children (But please do not think boring when you think textbook). Though I have many adult theology textbooks on my shelf, I do not use them for my devotions. I encourage all to follow the author’s advice. Use the book to make children, “more curious and more thirsty to know God and the good news of his Word.”

radical-book-for-kids-3And when you or your kids are curious to know more about a doctrine, story, or person mentioned in The Radical Book For Kids,  you can grab the books Thorton mentions in his “more to explore” sections.

Overall, book is an amazing resource filled! I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

I encourage you to get your own copy. Keep discipling your children. Keep teaching your children the Word. Keeping encouraging them to study the Bible on their own. And then hand them a copy of The Radical Book For Kids. Give them this amazing tool that will help them explore their faith even more. And then get ready to have some awesome discussions. Who’s ready to get radical?

Click Here To Purchase Your Copy

Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry, Discipleship

There Are No Professional Kid’s Ministry Workers

no-professionalsIf we want to reach the children in our homes or at our church, we have to be with them. We have to spend time driving toy cars on the furniture, hosting tea-parties, and celebrating the good grades on their report cards. In short, we have to do life with these precious little souls.

There are no professional parents or professional kids’ ministry leaders. True and effective parenting and ministry happens via life on life. Organizing programs and showing up for Sunday morning services will not produce life change by themselves. Our Wednesday night programs are only worth the time and effort it takes to get them going each week when the Bible is being taught and relationships are being formed. Our programs should be laying a groundwork that is needed to facilitate communication, care, encouragement and reproof. Our activities are not the sum total of the Christian life.

This is the crux of New Testament ministry.

Think of the apostle Paul. He repeatedly encouraged believers, to “imitate me, just as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1, 4:6; Phil. 3:17; Phi. 4:9; 2 Thess. 3:9). The pastoral letters clearly indicate that Paul diligently taught people the word of God. He was a great preacher. But Paul did not just preach once a week and consider his job done. No. He lived with the people he taught. He invested in them. He heard about their messy and complicated lives and showed them how the Scriptures could answer all of their problems. Paul knew the people he ministered to.

To be effective parents and kids’ ministry teachers, we must do the same thing. We must know what make our kids tick. We need to listen to their concerns, celebrate their triumphs, and note their weaknesses. We need to learn their hearts.

Moreover, we need to model the Christian faith for our children. We need to depend on God, make much of our savior, and be quick to repent of our sins. If we hope to reach the next generation with the gospel, we must be able to legitimately call our kids to follow us as we follow Christ.

If our parenting and ministry never extends beyond a prefabbed lesson, if we protect ourselves from getting to close to others, and if we turn our faith on and off each Sunday, we will be able to do many things. We may have great programs, we may have huge budgets, and we may have grand feelings of accomplishment. But we will not have reached and discipled anyone. We will not have cultivated the very relationships that facilitate gospel growth.

You and me are by definition needy. Unfortunately, the same is true of our kids. We are all needy. Such is life until Christ returns! If we get to know our kids and invest in us needy people, we know what will happen. Those sweet kids and their families will begin to consume our time, our energy and our money. (And yes, we should install boundaries to protect our families and our own spiritual lives.) We must be willing to sacrifice our lunch hour, to answer a midnight phone calls, and to redirect our movie budget to the local mission center. How else will people see the gospel in action? How else can we call people to follow us as we follow Christ?