|
|
Christian Indie Radio
GetChristianMusic
Solid Walnut Music
|
|
|
|
|
|
Devotionals
|
|
Cartoons
Culture
Family
Games
Health
Homeschooling
Humor
Inspiration
Kids
Men
Ministry
Parenting
Poetry
Teens
Women
|
|
Statement of Faith
Contact Us
|
|
|
|
Showers for the Tender Harvest--"Let my teaching fall like showers on tender plants." - Deuteronomy 32:2
Write the Vision
by Jill Nelson (Jill's bio)
Send this page to a friend
Have we gotten our children's ministries into sync with God's vision and goals? Have we made our vision plain on paper so those in our sphere of influence may join with us? In performing this simple act, we hold a major key to victory in our lives and ministries. Let us not neglect so basic a task.
Over all the centuries that God worked with humankind before bringing Christ into the world, everything He said or did had one goal born of His vision for people. He wanted them redeemed. He wanted His family back. Nothing that we or the devil did in all those centuries caused our God to waver one iota from his plan.
Now that Christ has come, God's plans are all about expanding His family and bringing us into maturity as sons and daughters, heirs according to the promise. Nothing that we or the devil have done in the centuries after Christ's atonement will ever change God's purposes. His Word is immutable. Set in stone long before stone existed. And He has written it plainly so that we all may read it and run. (Habakuk 2: 2)
What is your God-given vision for children's ministry? If you cannot say it in plain speech within a sentence or two, then you have no vision. If you have not written your vision down for yourself and others to read, then you still have no vision . . . and your ministry will perish. God guarantees it. Without a vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29: 18)
Another translation says that without vision the people become undisciplined or unruly. That's what happens when human beings have no direction—no lodestone for their souls. A lodestone is a magnetized piece of rock that draws objects to itself. Vision provides the lodestone, which provides direction.
When a goal is clearly in sight, then people can walk confidently. If they have no goal, they tend to wander aimlessly. Ever been frustrated by involvement in a project that seems to have no target? Just busyness for the sake of looking busy? Have you begun to feel like you are “spinning your wheels” in children's ministry? Then it's time to either refresh yourself in your vision and goals, or to get on your face before God and receive new ones from Him.
Every children's ministry vision will be unique to time and place and culture, and yet contain common elements because the church universal is under the same Head with a shared goal. Even if your sphere of influence is a single classroom, get a vision for what you are doing. Make sure it dovetails with your pastor's God-given vision for the entire fellowship, then run with your vision.
At my local church, the vision is written, framed, and hung in the foyer, in the nursery, in the Sunday School rooms, and in the Children's Church. Every year, the entire church fellowship is refreshed in those goals from the pulpit, and the children are taught them again in their classrooms.
At Word Fellowship, our vision is to:
Train up an army of children equipped to carry on the work of Jesus in every area of life—their families, their churches, their neighborhoods, their schools, their communities, their country, and their world.
Our goal is that:
Every child develops and maintains a close personal relationship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
We plan to accomplish this by targeting specific areas for instruction and development. These are also listed on the plaques planted around the church.
Word Fellowship Children's Ministry, where kids are encouraged to . . .
* know Jesus personally
* respect and obey God's Word
* be sensitive to the Holy Spirit
* participate in praise and worship
* give according to God's laws of sowing and reaping
* help others to know Jesus personally
* pray regularly
We have no copyright on these statements. If any of it resonates with you, feel free to adopt it. If not, find out the words God would have you use to express the vision He has sown in your heart. Once you get the focus out in the open, then your ministry can grow and blossom and bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. We are truly blessed when we bear much fruit. Be blessed in your ministry today--write the vision and make it plain.
Copyright 2002, Jill Nelson. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
| About Jill Nelson: Children have been the focus of Jill Nelson's ministry for twenty years. She and her husband have four--two boys, two girls--all teenagers. (Prayers, please.) Jill supervises the children's ministry at her local church and delights in writing her own material. Her heart is to glorify God by guiding children into a powerful personal relationship with Him. E-mail Jill |
Send this page to a friend: