How parents can benefit by helping their child's classroom on Sunday
Parents; Have you ever considered helping out in your child’s classroom on Sunday morning? Here are a few ways serving in children’s ministry can benefit you and your family: Relationship with your child: First, children overall are more excited and interested when you take a part in what they are doing. Being in the classroom is a great way to spend time with your child. It also affords you the opportunity to meet other parents and develop relationships with them. It gives you the opportunity to observe the friendships your child has built at church, and possibly see an opportunity to foster relationships outside of Sunday morning. After all, relationships with families that have similar values as yours help kids to grow up with confidence and confidants!
Relationships with other adults: In the Sunday morning setting, there are seasoned and brand new volunteers, volunteers of all ages, parents and non-parents. It takes all kinds to make the ministry run well. You can learn a lot from one another, and it is a great place to get ideas from experienced leaders on how to teach your own child. You don’t need special skills or experience, just be a caring person that treats the kids in the group the way you would want an adult leader to love and mentor your own child. It’s about relationship building! It is a perfect place to get to know other adults and parents, and to build a network of adults to lean on. Serving the church on Sunday mornings allows you to fill the role of being a contributor to the body of CCC.
Your Child: Having the opportunity to see how your child interacts with others in the classroom allows you to see where your child might need encouragement, course correction or other avenues to express themselves and succeed. Do you know your child’s top three character traits? We all know what our children are good at, like being polite or funny, or listening well in class, but we don’t often think about their deeper character strengths like wisdom, kindness, perseverance and curiosity. However, these traits are what really make our children tick and what motivates them.
Spiritual Parenting: Reality is you, as a parent, function as the spiritual leader in your home, whether you want to or not. Having a greater awareness of the Sunday morning lesson content can help you, as a parent, take the learning one step further during the week. Opportunities to make connections between real life and the spiritual truth discussed on Sunday morning are less likely to get passed over. This will give you a place to start, in order to get into better Biblical conversations at home. Also, understanding the foundation being laid during the grade school years will help prepare you for the teachings in middle school and high school, and allow you to help your child transition to Student Ministries.
Spiritual Growth: Spiritual truths and learning are valuable to all of us. Whether you are coming in at ground level or a seasoned believer, the lessons taught help you get on the same page with your child. You can learn right along with your child, or you can get a better awareness of your child’s level of spiritual understanding by observing them and their peers in the classroom (and in many cases, you might be pleasantly surprised!)
4/14 Window: Statistics show high percentages of teens and young adults ages 15 to 24 are departing from the Christian values they were raised with, so it becomes critical to aim lower at the 4 to 14 [age] as the beginning place for significant concentration. We are looking for leaders to come alongside kids to build a strong faith, and help them to take it on as their own.
Authors: Darla Bair, Dawn Belknap, Shelley Brooks
