Articles for Children's Ministry Leaders

As you may or may not know, Toys R' Us closed down all of their stores in the U.S.  I wrote an article about...

Every good parent wants to make their child happy. But what if as a parent, your good intentions are to bring happiness to your child is actually working against them in the long run?

Your church may have an inspiring vision, outstanding worship services, and strong outreach ministries, etc., but if you don't have a vibrant children’s ministry, families may stop coming.

Do you have behavioral issues in your room? Do you have a hard time getting the kids to sit still and listen to the lesson? Is your classroom noisy and hectic? Do you find yourself getting frustrated because the kids aren't listening to the lesson? Good news.  I've got something you can do to change that.

I can remember that especially through those early years we had to put some boundaries and practices in place to make sure that our intentional plans were succeeding in public, rather than our children’s impromptu plans. Here are a few of the things we learned about how to parent in public.

If we were to change our expectations about kids in church, what would that look like?  What expectations could we have instead?

Kids follow celebrities. Kids have always liked celebrities, and celebrities have always had influence… but never to the extent they do today.

I’m not a parent, so I’m always hesitant to write about parenting. On the other hand, I pay attention when I meet young people who have a strong relationship with strong Christian parents. In fact, I often ask them what made a difference in the way their parents raised them.