Our children’s ministries physical environments tell a story. When you walk through our environments you’ll get a feeling of airport hangars, vintage travel agencies, global adventure, etc. We’re called “Go Kids” because as our pastor would say, “We’re about the GO!” One of our strategy pillars states that we want to “Be a World Changer.” This challenged us on thinking about what type of kids we want. There is so much we want to teach our kids, but what is something we can continue to revisit on an annual basis that we can integrate into who we are and our theme?
We landed on a teaching series called PILOT.
We want all our kids to become PILOTs. PILOT stands for:
Prepared—I will always be ready to serve God.
Involved—I will give God my best.
Loving—I will love God and others.
Open to God—I will be open to the ways of God.
Team Player—I will focus on the team.
Not only will this become an annual teaching for our kids, but it will become a staple of our weekly children’s ministry by us using this in our services. We will constantly remind kids that we want them to become a PILOT. This will replace our “rules” segment of the service. This helps us focus on what we want them to become instead of what we don’t want them to do—positive reinforcement!
I thought I would attach the lessons for you in case you wanted to do a similar five-week series. Plus, you can see the artwork we used and a few other special things we made up.
PILOT Lesson 1 Large Group
PILOT Lesson 1 Small Group
PILOT Lesson 2 Large Group
PILOT Lesson 2 Small Group
PILOT Lesson 3 Large Group
PILOT Lesson 2 Small Group
PILOT Lesson 4 Large Group
PILOT Lesson 4 Small Group
PILOT Lesson 5 Large Group
PILOT Lesson 5 Small Group
Placemats—Each teaching series we create a placemat that has SOAP on the back, which is what our church uses for a daily devotional life.
Pins—We give our volunteers pins throughout the year as a way of saying “thank you” and it adds some nice bling to their lanyards. Since this series and what it represents is a big deal to our ministry, we felt it warranted a pin.
Pilot Wings—On the last week of the series we handed out pilot wings to the kids to remind them they are on a daily journey to become the best PILOT they can be.
We would love to hear if this series is helpful to you in any way! Thanks for serving kids!
This article originally appeared here.
