The fact that you picked up this book in the first place says a lot about you. You’re committed to children, and you’re committed to God. You obviously care about pursuing the most effective, trend-sensitive, need-meeting children’s ministry possible—or you wouldn’t be reading this book. You care about making the gospel relevant to kids and connecting with them in ways that are culturally relevant—ways they’ll understand and hear so God can invade their lives.
Everything around us is changing. Culture. Kids. Families. Ministry methods. How can we keep up?
You’ve most likely heard the tongue-in-cheek use of the verse “We shall not all sleep for we shall be changed” in the nursery. It’s highly likely that verse could be used throughout our entire children’s ministries! Change. We’re moving at what seems like the speed of light at times, and it affects our ministry today and tomorrow.
That’s what this book is about. We asked top children’s ministers to dive into the information you need, to flesh it out with their years of experience, and to guide us s we move into the 21st century. So, in the next pages of this book, you’ll hear from experts such as Pat Verbal, Craig Jutila, Jim Wideman, Rick Chromey, and more. The people whose words and ideas appear in this book are wise students of kids, their culture, and making the gospel relevant for today.
We believe that God passionately loves children and has a special place in his heart for them. We believe that children are the church of today and deserve every attention and effort that’s possible in order to share with them the love of God. We believe kids can have a thriving, wonderful relationship with Jesus and that they need Jesus’ friends like you to help them...