Welcome Parents

Why do we do what we do?Many parents want to know why we do what we do. Some just want to know what we do. The foundation of our ministry is that it is not really possible to “educate” people about Jesus, especially kids. Although, we have tried over the years. I think mainly because they were a captive audience and could not leave the church until they entered youth, which they do, at an alarming rate of 80%.This led us to concentrate less on teaching and more on how kids learn. My goal for these kids from the very beginning is spiritual growth instead of education and I feel strongly that one has little to do with the other. So our programing reflects our core beliefs about learning and spiritual interaction with God.Kids learn from experience! So we created a rotational teaching model called The Hands-on Bible Workshop. In this Workshop kids interact with the Bible story in a hands-on environment.Kids learn from repetition! So we concentrate on one value and one Bible story for one month. We also connect all of our services together so that Wednesdays and Sundays are spent communicating one thing rather than multiple or competing lessons. This allows application to become strong and communication between the church and home to increase.Kids learn through media! The church is usually 10 years behind the culture. This can make ministries like ours seem irrelevant to the everyday lives of the kids we are intending to reach. So we use multiple media applications like video and music that are high quality and highly relevant.Kids learn through interaction! The truth is kids learn from kids! So we not only involve kids in parts of our programing, we involve them in all of our programming. We also use small groups frequently as we interact with one another.Kids learn through empowerment! Nothing impacts the potential of a child more than positive (or negative) reinforcement. So we use “I can” statements to communicate with the kids. For example, instead of saying “You should tell the truth.” we say, “I can avoid trouble by telling the truth.” This not only gives the kids a specific objective that they can understand it also puts everyone in the ministry on the same level. Both leaders and kids share a common goal. We all can “avoid trouble by telling the truth.”This is certainly not the classical approach to children’s ministry. Although, all of these learning models are well known (just not well used) in the field of classical education. Our approach applies a variety of ministry approaches that increase learning and moves toward the goal of sharing Christ with those that need him and entering into relationships with one another.If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to comment.

Welcome Kids!

Welcome,I would like to welcome all to lighthouse kids blog. This page is a place where we can communicate about the value we are learning about this month. Ironically, that value is friendship this month.As you go through the month check back in to see if any of our friends have logged on and made a comment.Add a comment (below) about how you have dealt with choosing or struggled with who to choose (or not to choose) to be friends with.What qualities do you look for in a friend?How many best friends can one person have?What makes the difference between a friend and a best friend?Is it important that your friend believe in God? Why or why not?