Team-Up...Parents & You

About the Children's Department

resources for effective children's ministry

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION PAGE
  2. LYNDA'S CORNER
  3. SEASONAL IDEAS
  4. RESOURCE REVIEWS
  5. BRIGHT IDEA!
  6. HELP LINE
  7. TEAM-UP...PARENTS & YOU
  8. AWARDS & CONTESTS
  9. LINKS
  10. TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

TEAM-UP...PARENTS & YOU

Teaching Your Child About God

    If you were to ask the parents in your church if they were consistently teaching their children about God, most of them would likely say "no". If you were to then ask the same parents if they would teach their children if they knew what to do, most of them would say "Yes!". In Teaching of Children About Our Lord, I suggested simple ways to begin to help your parents teach their kids that can form a base to build a parenting ministry from. We in children's ministry have limited time each week with the kids, so involving the parents will help all of us be much more effective in teaching our kids. One thing we can do to further help the parents in our church is to provide classes and resources for them, so from time to time I will review effective parenting resources in this section for you.

Teaching your Child About God
Authors: Wes & Sheryl Haystead
Publisher: Gospel Light Publications
Price: Group Study Guide - $16.99 Book - $10.99
Available from Gospel Light Publications by calling 1-800-4GOSPEL, or at your local Christian Book Store

    Teaching your Child about God Group Study Guide is a reproducible course that provides you with 6 - 10 sessions designed to help you give parents the resources and tools they need to teach their children about God at home.

    • Session 1 helps the parents learn about children
      • how they think
      • why they should teach

    • Session 2 concentrates on the child's view of themselves and others by
      • learning what the Bible says about self and others
      • the power of the child's self image
      • what is a positive self-image
      • principles for healthy attitudes about self and others

    • Session 3 teaches about the child and church by
      • helping parents see church from a child's perspective
      • the child's experiences at church
      • activities for learning at church

    • Session 4 focus' on the child, Bible and prayer with studies about
      • the child, Bible stories and verses
      • activities for learning about the Bible
      • the child and prayer
      • activities for learning about prayer

    • Session 5 concentrates on the child, Jesus and God and helps parents learn
      • about the child's view of God
      • Christmas & Easter
      • Activities for learning about Jesus and God

    • Session 6 ends up with learning that makes a difference
      • principles for guiding Spiritual development
      • the child's salvation
      • the effects of love and discipline

    • Clip Art

    This book gives great ideas on how to promote the course to the parents in your church, is extremely well laid out, and gives lots of reproducible flyers and outlines for the parents to use to help them really think about how it all applies to their children and family. I especially like the activity worksheets as they give simple do-able ways for parents to begin teaching their children and the page on "getting the most out of church" - very practical.

    The book goes along with the study guide and for the parents to get the most out of the class I would recommend that they read it.

    I highly recommend this study - it is an excellent tool to help parents understand their children and how and why they need to teach them and then provides the resources to help them do so. This course should be offered frequently as part of an over-all ministry outreach to parents. Well done Wes & Sheryl and Gospel Light!

Table of Contents

TEAM-UP...PARENTS & YOU

Teaching of Children About Our Lord

   Deuteronomy 6 plainly teaches that God has entrusted parents with the primary privilege of teaching their children about Him. What an awesome honor we have to be able to share in the teaching of children about our Lord. We have children for just a couple of hours a week and while we can have effective ministry in that time, we will find that teaming up with the parents will result in the children learning and applying so much more.

   Some parents in your church are already teaching their children, some do not teach their children at all, but most would teach if they knew what to do and how to do it. We can help the parents by providing training and resources, but one easy way to begin would be to start a parent teams ministry, following these simple steps:

  • Pray, Pray, Pray! Pray for the parents and children.

    • Consider asking parents in the church who have grown kids to be prayer partners with each parent team.

  • Team parents with children the same ages to pray for each other and to encourage each other in the training of their kids.

    • Parents would begin by using their children's take-home papers from Sunday School to teach their children and to help them with the application of their Sunday School lessons.

    • Plan for a portion of each weeks adult Sunday School class to be given for the parent teams to get together to pray and encourage each other to stick with it.

    • Encourage teams to get together outside of church as well.

   If you keep it simple and plan for encouragement and accountability by providing the prayer partner and team members, you should find that this will work. Keep on top of how things are progressing and make adjustments where needed.

Table of Contents

About The Children's Department - Team-Up...Parents & You
Copyright © Lynda Freeman
Last Updated April 20, 1997
Web Page by Lynda Freeman
Send an e-mail to Lynda at dfreemansr@earthlink.net

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