Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 5: Eli! Eli! I’m Calling You to Children’s Ministry!

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

The main thrust of this chapter is two-fold:
1. To encourage the senior pastor of a church to take interest and get involved in the children’s ministry. Becky has noticed that when the spiritual father of the house is mentally and emotionally engaged with the children of his church, the children are more spiritual healthy, on fire, and secure in who they are in Christ. When the spiritual leader of the house is absent, then the opposite can usually be observed.

2. To recognize the call to children’s ministry. Becky was “tricked” into doing children’s ministry because there was simply no one else who wanted to do it. With a kind of righteous indignation, she took on the task and stumbled upon her destiny. Becky also openly wonders if some senior pastors, missionaries, and five-fold ministers might have missed the call to children’s ministry considering 1/3 of the world population is less than 19 years of age (I’m assuming she has noticed less than 1/3 of five-fold ministers are ministering to children). Lastly, she discusses what many churches would look for in hiring the ideal children’s pastor. Many churches tend to look for clowns, puppeteers, good entertainers, or great administrators who like kids. She challenges churches to hire a person that walks in some type of five-fold ministry. Her reasoning is that children need to be equipped for ministry, not just entertained and managed.

Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 4: Determining Our Purpose

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

Chapter 4 – Determining Our Purpose
The origin of Sunday School has an interesting story. In the 18th century, Great Britain was going through an economic downturn. Children were being put to work full-time in factories. Since children were being pulled out of school, they never learned how to read and write, and it resulted in generational poverty. Robert Raikes saw this injustice and organized adult volunteers to teach these kids on the only day the children had off: Sunday. The churches of England took note of his success and decided they too would have Sunday School, but with a Biblical curriculum. Today, churches have a classroom setting for teaching children the Bible because, “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Becky suggests that traditional Sunday School is a 200 year-old wineskin. She believes that God is doing something new in our time, and in our specific situation.

Becky asserts that establishing a vision for a Children’s Ministry is paramount. Everything flows from the vision. In order to determine our vision, two questions must be asked: “What does a child who is a committed ‘follower of Jesus’ look like?” and “What will it take to get him to that level?” Once we know the end result, we can put in place an effective strategy.

For instance, if your vision is to equip children for ministry then the traditional Sunday School model (Bible stories, snack, and coloring pages) would not be enough. Becky suggests that we model our ministry around the passions and gifting of the adult volunteers. Instead of shoving a curriculum book into the hands of a reluctant adult, why not find out what’s on their heart and the gifts that God has graced them with. For 2-3 months, our children could be *passionately* mentored in intercessory prayer, evangelism, mercy, healing, prophecy, altar ministry, and the list goes on. Once our children have been equipped in these areas, they could activity minister in the adult service or even go on a field trip to minister outside of the church.

Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 3: True Discipling & Mentoring of Children

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

Chapter 3 – True Discipling & Mentoring of Children
Becky Fischer reflects on faith practices of the Shiites that she learned about while on a missions trip to India. She was shocked to find the father of a household demonstrating to their sons how to self brutalize themselves with sharp razors one day a year as an act of penance for the sins of their forefathers. This teaching process would begin at the ripe age of 3-years old. Becky realized that an immersion into their faith at such a young age has created boys who will never be neutral about their faith and will most likely never have a desire to leave their faith.

Becky asserts that the discipling process for our children begins at a young age too. She reflects on Isaiah 28:9-10 which says that little-by-little the teaching process begins from the time a child is weaned from the breast.

She defines discipleship as “doing what Jesus did” not just having another Bible study mid-week. In order for our children to do what Jesus did, she suggests that our classrooms need to be setup in such a way to facilitate active participation in the learning process. She gleans wisdom from two subjects in school that got it right: Home Economics and Shop. She suggests hand-on learning is the best way to disciple children in doing what Jesus did. She promotes the following methodology: 1. I do… you watch. 2. I do… you help. 3. You do… I help. 4. You do… I watch.

Becky is encouraged to see many churches using this methodology in the gift of helps. That is, allowing children to serve in every facet of the Sunday service. However, she encourages us to not limit our imagination to just discipling children how to do church on Sunday. Christianity must be taken outside of the four walls of the church, and skills like puppetry, audio/video, and drama are probably not skills that children (or even adults) will use in everyday ministry. She suggests that training and releasing our children to be evangelists, prayer warriors, intercessors, worshipers, healers, and to know God’s voice are life skills that will take them farther and deeper in their relationship with God, as well as, make a greater impact in the people they come across in their everyday life.

Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 2: What to Teach Children and Why

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

Chapter 2 – What to Teach Children and Why
Becky Fischer agrees that the Sunday School curriculums produced for churches today are much better than in years past. Many publishers are now addressing moral, relational, and social issues. However, she believes that despite our advances in the curriculum, what’s really needed in a Children’s Ministry, and what children are *really hungry* for, is a true encounter with the Living God.

She reflects on Psalms 103:7 which talks about how Moses was revealed the Ways of God. Likewise, children must be taught *how* they can interact with the Most High God and become daily participants in His glory and power. In order to achieve this goal, we must rethink the topics we teach our children.

Many conventional Sunday School curriculums will simply tell the Bible stories in such a way that children will only learn about God. However, we should not be content with helping children *know about God*; we need teaching topics that help children to *know God* personally and intimately.

Will our children turn the world upside down if their spiritual diet never moves beyond VeggieTales?

Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 1: Kids Need to Experience God

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

Chapter 1
We have tried better programs, better curriculums, better technology, bigger budgets, and made it more entertaining. Yet, something is still missing. Becky Fischer asserts that Jesus Christ is seldom made real in their lives. Sunday School classrooms feel dry, dull, and boring because we have not invited the presence of Jesus Christ. Our classrooms should be the place where children experience the throne room of God.

One of the errors we have made is assuming that children are not capable of understanding or acting on the deep things of God. We have underestimated the spiritual potential of our children. All around us are children who are future prophets, preachers, and prayer warriors. We cannot wait until our children are adults to spiritually disciple them.

Kids are hungry for the “real thing”. Children want to really experience His presence, really hear His voice, and really experience His power. If we, as the teachers and volunteers, consider the class boring or a waste of our time (after all, we could be spending our time in the adult service where all the “real” action is taking place), why would we expect our children to feel any different?