Tips for Children’s Ministry | Part 1 | Having a Burden for What You Are Doing

Why do we do what we do?  Why do you want to be a Teacher?

Does our Sunday school JUST EXIST because we feel that we are SUPPOSED to have one or is there a deeper motivation?

WHY do you want to be a Teacher? It seems that nowadays everyone and everything is reaching for the kids! They are having to deal with outlandish and ungodly opinions from unsaved school teachers, friends, increasingly crazy video games, TV, movies, and sadly even their own families.

Advertisers and media experts know that the earlier you reach the kids the better because once they are established in life it is MUCH more difficult to change their opinions and lifestyles.

We also have got to reach for the kids and teach them important doctrinal truths while they are still malleable and moldable.

You shouldn’t be a teacher just because there is a vacancy or just because someone else is asking you to be (unless you are temporarily helping out in a pinch).  Not everyone is meant to be a teacher.

James 3:1 – My friends, not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others. (GNT)

Maybe you already know that you should not be a teacher.  Perhaps you already realize that you are not meant to teach, or that perhaps do not have the best interest of your students as your primary motivating factor or that it is simply something you do not enjoy.  If so, then it’s time to walk away.  Do something else with your talents. God has something planned just for you that you WILL enjoy!

But… if in your heart you know that you are meant to be a teacher… if the idea of leaving makes more than a little sad… THEN STICK AROUND BECAUSE THIS SITE IS MEANT FOR YOU!!!!

To many of the kids that we pick up on our buses or that someone brings to church, we are the only bright spot in their week. We are the sanity in their world. There is nothing like pulling up to some of the corners on Sunday morning and seeing the kids waiting for us.

We do outreach every Saturday and one day, due to circumstances beyond our control we had no choice but to skip outreach that day. On Sunday when we picked the kids up, one little girl came up to me and with accusation in her eyes she asked, “Where were you yesterday?” When I tried to explain what had happened, she cut me off and told me that she and her sister had waited “ALL DAY” for us to come by. As you can imagine, this really burned into me the significance that these kids place on our visiting them and even more so on Sunday school.

We have got to realize just how important what we are doing is! If we don’t reach for them, there will be someone else that will. It may be their “friends” at school or the drug pusher but someone is going to reach out to them. LET IT BE US INSTEAD!

To be a REAL Sunday School teacher you MUST have a burden. You absolutely must think about your kids and your class throughout the week and not only on Sunday mornings or perhaps Saturday night as you frantically search for something to teach.

If you don’t have a REAL burden for the kids you teach, find something else to do!

You should not only think of them constantly, you should be praying DAILY for them and each time you pray you should call out the names of the students in your class one by one (use a list if you need to). If you can’t cry over them during your prayer time then pray that God helps you develop a real burden and passion for what you are doing.

Check your motivation. WHY are you a teacher?

Are you doing it for your ego or so others will talk or think good about you? Is it all about YOU or all about the kids? If you examine yourself and find that it is really all about you, do everything in your power to change or quit immediately.

Remember that your teaching effects far more than just the immediate kids you are teaching. One little girl that we had would go home so excited and share what she had just learned with her entire family. Her grandfather was fascinated that his little granddaughter was so full of enthusiasm about church and would listen attentively to everything she had to say. Sadly, the little girl’s mother moved herself and all of her kids more than 6 hours away and the little girl could not attend any longer but the grandfather never forgot and one day as he drove past our church and saw the parking lot full of cars for a special service we were having he suddenly made the decision and pulled in. He loved what he felt and soon was telling one of the ushers who so “happened” to be his granddaughter’s teacher (God seems to work these things out ahead of time) about her excitement and love for our church. He said that since she was this excited he just HAD to come and see what it was all about!

What will YOUR kids remember from your class? Leave a legacy when you are done. Make a permanent stamp in your students’ lives by showing them how much both God and you care about them.

Part 1 – Have a Burden For Your Students 
Part 2 – Get More Kids To Come To Sunday School
Part 3 – Make Them Want To Come Back
Part 4 – Teach Them How To Be Saved
Part 5 – Give Them the Opportunity to be Saved
Part 6 – Disciple Them Until They Get it For Themselves