CentriKid

culture

Taking Camp Lessons to School

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The new school year has started and you are already taking your kids 100 different directions making it hard to remember the lessons that they learned this summer. How can you help your kids remember to be a disciple of Christ when they can’t even remember their lunch? I have been hugely blessed to grow up in a Christian home, so here are a few ways that my parents reminded me and my sisters how to be disciples of Christ. Try applying some of these to your family’s life as you grow in your faith.

1. A Disciple Encounters God Through His Word
My 8th grade sister’s favorite part of the day is lunch because she gets to talk to her friends and also see if mom packed her any surprises! At camp, we learned that a disciple encounters God through His word and that we are supposed to ingest it like food. Every once in a while slip a surprise snack into the lunch bag and write on a simple verse and note on a napkin that your child can read and be encouraged. On the ride home, talk to your child about how they used that verse during the day or how they were able to share it. Make this into a fun game and you will be surprised how fast your kids look forward to getting a Bible verse in their lunch box.

2. A Disciple Embraces God Through Prayer
Getting to school can sometimes be a hectic production of grabbing homework, packing lunches, and being sure all the kids are in the car. Once you are in the car, take time to say a prayer before dropping them off. The peace that comes from praying before you open the doors and start another crazy day will create a firm foundation for your kids. I still remember my dad praying for my oldest sister and I before we jumped out of the car for school and knowing that God was there with me no matter what happened that day.

3. A Disciple Engages with God Through Giving 
As the kids go back to school, be sure that you are staying plugged into your church. We talked about how a disciple can give both their time and talents to Christ. Show your child that Christ is a priority in your life by being at church. You are the example that your kids will follow and when they see you giving your time to God, they will follow.

4. A Disciple Engages with God Through a Christian Community
Friends are a huge part of school and your children’s lives! Be intentional with those friends and their families. The friends your kids have will shape them and it is important that you invest in their friends.Creating a community of families that would hang out together has been a huge part of my walk with Christ. Having that group of Christian men that I could look up to and the support of so many people has encouraged me to grow as a disciple of Christ.

Parents, you are the number one example that your kids will be following. Starting school can be just as daunting a task for you as it is for them. Be sure to take some time to invest in your kids and their spiritual growth as you both grow as disciples of Christ.

Branding Your Kids Ministry

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When you think about excellent customer experiences, what companies come to mind? Chick-fil-a, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and Amazon are always on my list. In addition to the products and services these companies offer, they work hard to make customer service a part of their brand experience.

Whether you know it or not, your kids ministry also has a brand. I’m not necessarily talking about logos, graphics, or font treatments (although those things can be very helpful tools); instead, I’m talking about how others view your ministry. You are known for the services and experiences you provide to kids and families, whether good or bad. If you have never thought about your brand, you may want to take some time to reflect on how people currently perceive your ministry and how you want them to perceive it. Check out these tips for branding your kids ministry.

  1. Think About It
    What are those “big picture” ideas that you want to permeate throughout your entire ministry? Maybe you want your kidmin to be focused on Jesus, or maybe you want to emphasize making intentional connections with families. Take some time to think about these concepts. Make a list if you don’t already have one, or review your current list to make sure it still aligns with your ministry goals. Ask for input from other leaders in your ministry.
  2. Communicate
    It does no good if you create a mission statement or list of values in isolation and never share it with others. You need to talk about the important things in your ministry regularly! Call a meeting with your volunteers and teachers to help cast your vision for ministry, and re-cast vision regularly. Communicate to parents and families the things they can expect from you and your ministry. Make sure your messaging is consistent in your various media outlets (bulletins, announcements, website, Facebook, etc.).
  3. Live it Out
    You cannot stand on empty promises. If Chick-fil-a simply talked about being focused on their customers but they consistently provided a terrible experience, their business would fail. Make sure your ministry is actually in line with your mission and goals! Provide regular training for your teachers, volunteers, and leaders. Give honest feedback, and ask for personal feedback, too. Ask friends or mentors to hold you accountable and lovingly point out when you aren’t delivering on your promises or goals.
  4. Be Consistent
    The real key to branding your kids ministry is consistency. If you change your message or goals every month, or if you provide a quality experience for a special event but neglect your ministry on Sundays or throughout the week, people will wonder whether they can trust you. You must be consistent in your messaging, and you must consistently deliver on your promises.

 

Try this!

As an exercise in branding, ask 5-10 church members, “If a visitor asked you to describe our kids ministry, what would you tell them?”

You may be surprised by what you hear. If you get inconsistent results, or if the responses do not reflect your ministry goals, it may be time to hone your skills in branding your kids ministry.

 

Looking for more?

Check out A Director’s Vision or Tell Your Team What is Most Important

 

Youth Development: Scaffolding

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Dr. Crompton started my last collegiate semester by telling me I was the producer of my own education. How much was he being paid for me to teach myself? Of course, what he said was 100% true. Dr. Crompton helped me learn my education was on me. I chose to study, I chose to work hard, I chose to come to class, I chose to learn, or I didn’t.

Dr. Crompton’s posture is what the youth development community calls scaffolding. Educators, for example, will give their students just as much support as he or she needs to equip their students to learn. You teach them the formula, you show them problem solving techniques, and you diagram a sentence with them. Students then may choose to solve the problem or write persuasively.

Just as scaffolding is built around a structure to help construction, so too, youth developers work to support youth in their development. Scaffolding is built, knowing it will not be there forever. Children ministry workers, parents, and the aunts and uncles in our world your goal is to support. The youth we love succeed when we accept our role as their support and not as their producer. Dr. Crompton was right, I needed him to guide me and not to provide me the answer.

As a youth development principle this has to be transferrable to a discussion in your kids ministry. Start with these ideas.

  • Pray for your kids’ growth and spiritual development. Simply said, our God does the growth, you do not. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)
  • Focus on the process. Instead of saying our kids do not know enough scripture, ask yourself how can I help our kids learn scripture.
  • Foster mentor relationships. Scaffolding works best in one-on-one scenarios. Mentors can understand individual youth and tailor support to the youth’s specific needs.
  • Ask kids what they want. Youth voice is paramount. Scaffolding means you give the kids ownership of their growth, which is impossible without listening.
  • Learn from a scaffolding rockstar. You know someone who great at this. Learn from what they do. Ask this rockstar to help you help your kids.

Special thanks to Dr. Crompton, Odis Luper, Wade Graves, Scotty Voight, Dr. Edwards, Derek Sutt, David and Beth Spindle, and countless others who could fill this page as my scaffolding rockstars.

CentriKid Culture: Building Life Changing Relationships

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As a CentriKid staffer, we have the amazing opportunity to create relationships with people from all over the country; whether it is the people on your team, the kids at camp, or the adult leaders, we believe that ministry is best done in the context of relationships. At CentriKid, we want every kid to have an encounter with the gospel and we believe that it is best done through relationships. By creating that relationship, we are able to do more than just preach to them, we are able to invest in a child’s life by listening to their stories, caring about their needs, and by showing them the amazing love that God has for them.

Here at CentriKid, life changing relationships are something that we strive to create with everyone involved with camp. These relationships also translate to the group leaders and adults who are at camp. We know that you work hard all year to minister to these children and we want camp to be a time where you can grow in your relationship with Christ. Sitting with adult leaders and hearing how God has been faithful in their ministry or listening and praying with leaders who are struggling is

Building personal relationships is vital to creating a team that is unified in sharing the gospel. I have been blessed to have people on my camp teams who have created relationships with me and spiritually invested in me. Even though I was at camp to minister to kids, my relationship with Christ grew more in that time than it had ever before.

Life changing relationships is not something that is simply preached but it is a cultural element that transcends throughout every part of camp. The first time that I ever saw members of the Nashville CentriKid office interact was at a conference and I immediately noticed the intentional relationships that helped them succeed as a team. Life changing relationships are a major part of the CentriKid culture and it is through these relationships that ministry occurs.

Check out the other aspects of CentriKid culture here:

Make It Fun

Strive for Excellence

Your Kids Ministry’s Mindset

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Published in 2006, Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success started a conversation. This conversation is important to consider in kids ministry. In her research Dweck breaks down two different mindsets:

  • Fixed mindset: people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply traits. They spend time documenting their intelligence instead of developing it.
  • Growth mindset: people believe their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work – brains and talent are just a starting point. This mindset creates a love of learning and resilience.

Growth mindset is the advantageous disposition, and we would all love to believe this is where we are, but how many times have you said, “I’m just no good at math,” or, “as long as I do not get in last”. The latter was my personal goal whenever I ran track in middle school. As much as I want to believe I have a growth mindset, there are certainly times like my short track career where I lived in a fixed mindset.

Mindsets are taught early in life. Consider a kid in your ministry who memorizes a verse; do you say to this kid, “wow, you are so smart to have memorized such a difficult verse,” or, “your hard work definitely paid off memorizing that verse, great job”? The former keys in on the kid’s natural ability. It seems innocuous, but it can influence a kid’s mindset making them believe their intelligence is static.

This all matters to us as kid ministry leaders. We want to influence a growth mindset in our kids. The only fixed aspect of our lives is the gospel message. We are all sinners, we are all require a savior in Christ, he has accomplished our salvation, and we just need to respond. Beyond that our christian living thrives on a growth mindset. We want to encourage kids to grow in their relationship with God through prayer, reading His Word, sacrificial giving and the like. Reinforcing a growth mindset can help kids accomplish spiritual growth.