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MentorNet #26 Anne Thiessen, George
Patterson and Galen Currah, November 2004. Before Jesus fed thousands in the wilderness, He asked his
disciples what resources they had. Andrew replied that a boy had five loaves
and two fish. Jesus took this boy’s offering and fed the crowd (John 6:9-10).
Early church writers reported that this boy later became a Christian leader.
Children who take an active part in God’s work develop spiritually
more readily than those who merely listen passively to teachers. A wise
Christian leader will recognize what children have to offer. If a leader lets
children become bored and passive during worship and other weekly activities,
then many will fail to grow up using the gifts and resources that the Master
has given them. Guidelines to Mobilize Children 1. Children benefit from working and playing with adults and
with children of different ages. · Children of every culture desire the friendship of older
youths. · To develop socially, children should balance time spent with
children of their age with time spent playing and working with persons of
different ages. · Traditional public schools and Sunday Schools often deny
children such opportunities, segregating them abnormally by age. · We should free children from the stifling,
socially-damaging practice of consistently clustering children of the same
age. 2. Children love to act out Bible stories for adults during
weekly worship. · Before the worship time, children can meet with a teacher and
prepare a short dramatization of a Bible story that relates to the adults’
study topic. · Keep the children’s dramas very brief and simple. Avoid
long productions and elaborate costumes; employ only the
simplest of props. Such dramas do not need much preparation. The children
will enjoy looking around the meeting place to find props such as rocks,
sticks, chairs, tables, papers and baskets. · Coach the children to speak loudly. To help them do so,
have them talk to those who are standing on the other side of the room. · The dramas are more effective when children of different
ages and adults do them together. Very young children can play the parts of
spectators in crowds, other members of a family, animals, and even trees. · Normally children do better if they do not memorize lines
word for word, but rather the general ideas. Their teacher can give them
ideas for short dialogues and can prompt them if they forget. For example,
tell ‘Philistines’ to laugh at little David and remark in their own words how
silly it is for him to fight a giant. 3. Children enjoy being creative. God has given them good
imaginations. · Let older, energetic children write poems, skits and short
songs to present to the other children and, if they do it well, to the
adults, too. Such compositions should illustrate the topic that the adults
are learning that week. Let musicians occasionally set children’s poems to
music. · Children enjoy drawing symbols and pictures of Bible
stories. Let them show their pictures during worship and explain how the
pictures illustrate the teaching. 4. Children enjoy teaching and discipling others. · It is extremely valuable for older children to help teach
and disciple younger ones. · Teachers can help children to prepare questions beforehand
about details in a Bible story. When the congregation meets, the children can
ask these questions, after acting out a story. Children can give the correct
answers to their own questions, if the adults do not remember the details
well. · Children enjoy memorizing Psalms and other Scriptures and
reciting them for the adults. 5. Children learn well from non-verbal teaching. · Younger children enjoy singing songs to lively music while
making hand motions. They should practice songs with hand motions and sing
them for the whole congregation. · Children love lessons presented with objects that they can
see, touch and handle. A wise teacher uses physical objects to illustrate
topics, allowing the children to handle them and explain what they mean. · A teacher can prepare objects beforehand, coaching the
children how to explain them during congregational worship. Most church planting movements multiply congregations that
are strongly family-oriented. Many such churches are small and have no
nursery, accepting the presence of children as normal. When children
take an active part in worship, they know that they are an important part of
the church body. When children help others understand the truths that they
themselves have just learned, the truths take root in their hearts. Children
will also recall the teaching better and be more eager to participate in
worship. They are also more likely to grow up loving the church instead of
thinking of it as a boring ordeal forced on them by their parents. Jesus
welcomed children and found ways for them to participate in His ministry. He
made use of their gifts and resources. We should do the same. To view or download earlier MentorNet
messages, visit <http://www.MentorNet.ws>. To obtain free, reproducible training
materials, visit <http://www.Paul-Timothy.net>. To
find mentoring tools visit <http://www.MentorAndMultiply.com>. To obtain Train &Multiply®,
visit <http://www.TrainAndMultiply.com>. To download or purchase
“Come, Let Us Disciple the Nations” (CD-ROM), visit <http://www.AcquireWisdom.com>. Order Church
Multiplication Guide from a bookshop or <http://www.WCLbooks.com>. |