Mr. Mark's Classroom

The millennial generation, people born between 1980 and 2000, encompasses more than 78 million people. The largest generation in fact! Listen with me as Dr. Karen Kennemur divulges riveting information on this generation.  How do they view religion, marriage, and families? The studies and statistics of these 78 million people will help us identify how we can best serve their spiritual needs. Did you know, 2/3 rarely if ever attend church? How do you account for this statistic?  

Kids learn through many experiences and if we provide experiences in the classroom at church, they will better retain the information.  Allison is the Childhood Ministry Specialist for Arkansas Baptist.  She will help us understand teaching with purpose and new ideas to consider so your lessons can come to life.  Tell us some ideas you have used in your classroom.  What was beneficial?

What if a preschooler throws a fit in your classroom? What do you do when a three year old is manipulating the other teacher?  I will answer these questions and tell you my experience.  Guiding the behavior of small children doesn’t have to be so difficult.  I promise!  How do you deal with these outbursts in your classroom?  Share with us some of your successes.  What would you do?

What do you do when a child has separation anxiety from his mom?  What about the mom that has to come back during the morning of church just to check on her little one?  In this episode I discuss my experience with a two year old.  I hope this will encourage you.  Discuss this issue with your teachers.  What solutions or experience would you offer me and the leaders in this community of Kid Ministry?

In this episode I will discuss why discipline is important and how to effectively guide the behavior in your classroom without using time out.  I will give you some examples I use in the classroom and explain why they are needed.  Classroom management is a question I am often asked to explain.  The preschool classroom is different than the classrooms of school age kids.  In the next episode I will go deeper into “Dealing with Tears”.

I had the opportunity to hear Holly speak about counseling kids and I thought you should hear some of these things too.  When kids come and talk to us, what do you say?  What do you avoid?  How can I know if I’m helping or not?  Holly counsels children professionally and I appreciate the advice she shares.  What advice would you add to this?

Many teachers forget that cluttered rooms, tattered curtains and messy walls send a message that teaching kids is not important.  Consider your facial expressions, body language and your voice inflections.  A teacher can be sending out messages without saying a word.  What kind of vibe do kids get from you?  Do you wear colorful clothes or are you straight out of the Adam’s Family always in black?  These questions are important to consider.  God works through relationships so we need to be building relationships not creating distance between us and the children.  I speak candidly about these ideas in this podcast.  What do you need to change?  Is there anything you would add?  

Many churches are operating without Division Directors since they are trying so hard just to cover all the classroom teacher needs.  I totally understand but its time to pray for the leadership that’s missing and enlist that person(s) for the job that will bless you and the teachers your serve.  Your teachers will really appreciate knowing there is someone to go to when they can’t find you or you have a line of people waiting to talk to you.  The question I most often hear is, “What does a Division Director do?”  I have attached the job description for you to see.  When I shared this with my associates, they pushed back and said that was their job description.  There are some similarities but only as it relates to Sunday mornings.  Maybe some people don’t have Division Directors because they would have a job but that’s not true.  You need to be equipping people to do what you do so you can build relationships with families and dream new ideas and do things only you can do in leading this ministry.  In this podcast, I share six tips for Division Directors and six tips for teachers.  I apologize now if my honesty is more than usual.  Just keeping it real.  Division Directors Job Description

There is something about meeting people who are powered by passion.  You just want to listen to what is fanning the flames in their heart.  Shawn and Amber are raising a group of boys to become not only sons who gain respect from a life in Christ but also to become sharp arrows for the Lord.  As ministry leaders are challenged with planning for more family ministry than in years before, we need to hear from people who are focused on equipping and encouraging parents.  I teach the Parents of Preschoolers Sunday School Class at our church and I love it that parents are actually asking for advice and helps in parenting to honor God.  So what do you do?  How can we be effective developing our parents as well as growing a ministry to kids? 

When I started at the church, there was this wonder senior adult man named Neil standing at his post faithfully every Sunday morning.  He always had a wonderful smile and said good morning to everyone with a handshake and a nod.  Sounds like the perfect greeter to me.  It is always terrific that someone is serving in their place on time and looking like they enjoy it.  The problem was soon discovered.  As I approached Neil for my greeting and handshake I asked him a question to which he replied, “What?” and turned his head so I could speak clearly into his ear.  He was unsure what I was yelling into his ear and simply replied with, “I don’t know.”  The happened to be his response to all questions. I knew there had to be a greeter partner who could hear or we were not going to make a good impression on our visitors and families entering our children’s division.  In this episode I discuss my greeter training and give you 10 tips that every greeter must know.  I also attached my training sheet created for the meeting if you would like to use it.Enlist more people to be greeters and train them so they can be terrific.

In a world with technology is better and more sophisticated than ever before, communication is still our most difficult barrier to overcome in the church.  I have three different devices to get email, tweets, notifications and even voice conversations and so do most people in my ministry.  Then why do people still say, “We didn’t know.”  (Makes me want to pull out my last remaining six hairs.)  How can we communicate information if people don’t pay attention?  Does it make you wanna smack ‘em!  What I have discovered is God works through relationships.  He doesn’t write it in the sky or send an email.  He works through you and me.  So it makes perfect sense that Satan also works through relationships in effort to interrupt what God is doing.  Communication is a huge part of building relationships and when that is broken, our progress is slowed.  Seems we have to invest lots of time just getting the word out.  In this episode I will cover many ideas for getting the word out and supporting the focus in our ministry to kids and their families.  There is an idea for each letter of the alphabet. Our community of ministers can really learn from each other.  What other ideas would say work too? 

I love talking to people who have dedicated their lives to children’s ministry and Clara Mae has served her entire career in only a couple of churches.  First Baptist Church, Atlanta offered many opportunities for her to impact lives but it also comes with challenges that every ministry leader experiences.  Clara Mae openly shares how to deal with those moments of struggle and what to keep focused on and still be a mom and wife.  Her wisdom will bless you and you might find yourself revisiting this podcast for encouragement again.  

Do you ever wonder if you are serving just to do all the grunt work of enlisting workers and finding subs?  It can feel like Kid’s Ministry is just a thankless complaint department with no real meaning.  I have struggled with this too.  In this podcast, I want to discuss 11 steps away from the thankless scenario and into a vibrant ministry to kids and their families.  I share honestly what I’m doing today in my kid’s ministry and how it fits into the big picture.  It all begins with building relationships.  From your relationship with Jesus to your relationships with kids and parents, you are an agent of rescue and hope. Relationships Show your face Early planning Pray Play Know children develop spiritually Bible Application Stay current Free yourself You are the Jesus example Ask God to take care of you  What other steps or ideas would you add?

In this podcast Mr. Mark discusses holiday outreach ideas with three other children’s ministers.  How can we take natural high attendance days like Christmas and Easter and attract more of our community to attend?  What are you doing for a Halloween alternative and what other times of year are you reaching into the community?  Here we discuss three simple elements to every successful children’s event.  Careful planning and team leadership is a must. You can find the spec sheet here! What are some ideas you have used and would recommend to me and other children’s ministers?

Your sitting in your office and in walks a mother with her child asking, “Mr. Mark, tell my kid how to be a Christian.”  What do you do?  What do you say? How can you tell if the child is ready?  Why is the mom answering all the questions?  I have been there and I bet you have too (or will be soon).  In this episode, I will walk you through what I do when I lead a child to Christ.  This illustrated, one-verse evangelism approach is simple and visual for any unbeliever to follow. Download these evangelism helps for yourself or other workers: Children and Salvation. Check out this evangelism plan in video format. Train your parents and teachers with the video too. What evangelism resource do you prefer?  What is the craziest meeting you have had during a witnessing encounter?