Ideas - Welcome Children Home
23 November 2012
As leaders of Childrens Ministry it is our aim to be the best influence we can be in connecting kids hearts to Jesus for their life long journey. Over time children come and go from around us. They connect for a while but then sometimes they're not around. Why? ... Moved house, moved church, Didn't fit in, Didn't like it, Experienced hurt, some we don't know. A persons distance from the seats in our building is not the problem, it's the distance of a persons heart from their creator God. We need to own the very real negative influences we can have on our aim. It greives God's heart and it should greive ours too.
Our territory has begun of journey exploring what it means for us to be a people who greive over distant hearts from God. This begins with an inventory of our own hearts and an ownership of the impact of our actions, past, present and future. We want to wreslte with that. We want to do what it will take to love others graciously. It may mean letting go of a hurt, it may mean seeking forgiveness, mending hurt, embracing lovingly, choosing to love beyond differing opinions for example.
Our leaders are urging us to continue to grow as Homes of Welcome. Hearts ready to embrace graciously. It has been said that prodigals are the Jewels of the enemy if thats the case then adopting more of the fathers gracious heart is the beginning of a breathtaking Jewel robbery.To read more about the welcome home project you can read more in the recent Pipeline article. Click here to download a copy (it's on page 9)
In addition each corps was recently issued with a prodigal DVD which contains a series of talks for you to use in your corps.Whith this DVD their is a section called praying for our children, this section runs for about 10 mins Some ideas on how to explore this more:
- Show the "pray for our children clip to your church" either in a meeting or hand it around for people or groups to watch.
- Shape your next kids planning meeting around understanding where kids disappear and explore ways to respond.
- Work out ways to continually explore matters of the heart with those around you.
- Buddy up all your kids with a person who will commit to walk with them through their life journey.
- Use the prodigals teaching DVD in your small group
- Get together a few people and host a prayer and or teaching event
- Hold a prayer event for children
