How to Start Children's Bible Study Ministries
A children's Bible study ministry is a meaningful way to contribute to the spiritual needs of your local church. Many congregations lack a successful children's ministry that nurtures to the age-appropriate spiritual questions many young kids have. Realize that you don't need to have a seminary degree or a lengthy spiritual background to start a children's ministry in your church; rather, all you need is commitment and dedication to helping the children in your congregation.
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Instructions
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Meet with your pastor or board of elders to discuss the dynamics of your ministry. Find out which rooms, if any, your church will allow you to use for your children's ministry. If your church cannot dedicate an entire room to you on Sunday, consider holding your children's Bible study on an alternate morning or evening. For example, perhaps you could have your Bible study meet on Wednesday nights while parents attend their own Bible study, or your children's ministry could meet on a Tuesday morning while older kids are in school.
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Let the parents and children who attend your church know about the Bible study. Hand out fliers on Sunday morning, put an announcement in the bulletin and send out an email to all church members. Reach out into your community and put fliers on local bulletin boards, put an ad in your newspaper or hand out information sheets to people you meet while running errands.
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Plan a lesson before each Bible study meeting. You can choose to study a specific topic or book of the Bible for several classes, or maybe you prefer to talk about a different topic in each class. Prepare several passages from scripture to share with your students, pick a memory verse to help your children learn, try to arrange a related snack and plan a short and simple craft for your students to do. For example, if you plan to discuss the life of Jesus, you can ask children to memorize a short verse from the scripture passage you read. If the story you study focuses on Jesus feeding the multitudes, you can eat snack goldfish and bread sticks. Your craft could be a drawing or painting of Jesus feeding the hungry.
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Plan for the unexpected. Make sure you get an emergency phone number for each child's parents, have paper towels and wet wipes on hand and understand that some kids may miss their parents and feel sad or lonely during class. Be ready to give hugs and demonstrate extreme patience while you learn with and teach your class.
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