Tag Archives: Baptism
Handling decisions with kids
Posted on15. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Yesterday I talked just a little bit about baptizing kids. Today I want to talk about inviting kids to come to Christ.
My philosophy on this has changed over the years, and even more over recent weeks… maybe. I still have some things to work out.
Earlier in my ministry I served in more traditional churches. They were churches that offered invitations every Sunday (at least almost every Sunday). As a children’s pastor I would do the same. Actually I’d typically offer some kind of invitation every 2-3 weeks. It’s just what we did.
However, as I began serving in churches that didn’t do traditional “alter calls,” I had to evaluate how I approached this with the kids. These churches that didn’t do “alter calls” understood there were many visitors that were still working out their faith. They were giving opportunities to fill out a card where someone could follow up face-to-face. I’m okay with that. Just because they did alter calls at the church I grew up at doesn’t mean they have to do it here. As long as people are coming to Christ, I’m on board.
I had to meet with my supervisor and ask what he expected. I understood that the ministry to kids needs to reflect ministry to adults… but we’re not going to have kids fill out decision cards… that’s just silly. We decided that we would give invitations on a regular basis. When a child made a decision, we’d celebrate that but then send information home with that child that day. We wanted parents to know of the decision right away so they could be involved in the next steps. After this, the child and the parents would either meet with a staff member or in a baptism class where they’d review this decision and explain what it meant as well was what baptism was all about.
This seemed to work pretty well, but it has it flaws. I’m not quite sure I’d do it exactly like this again… like I said, I’m still working this out.
More to come.
Technorati Tags: Childrens Ministry
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Children’s baptism
Posted on14. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
I won’t deny it. I love praying with a child to receive Christ. It’s one of the things I love most about my job. Yeah, I also love to baptize kids. When I baptize them, I know I’ve had a chance to walk through this decision with the child and his or her parents. But what do I think is even cooler? When I get to stand by a parent as they baptize their own child. Over the years I’ve baptized hundreds of kids. Certainly it has been very special to me. Several of my facebook friends are kids I baptized years ago. Sometimes I’ve seen endorsements for a speaker/evangelist coming to speak somewhere that state the number of kids he’s baptized. “Brother Mark has baptized 4,000 kids.”
What does that tell me? No, I don’t initially think it’s bragging. It tells me that Brother Mark has likely had a powerful and effective ministry. Praise God! But how do I want to be known (not that I really need to want to be know)? How many kids has Kenny Conley baptized? Maybe by the number of times I’ve enabled parents to baptize their own kid. Now that’s cool. I’ve got some more thoughts on this I’d like to share with you.
Technorati Tags: baptism,parents,Childrens Ministry
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I’ve been known to baptize anything that breaths…
Posted on24. Apr, 2007 by Kenny.
I just had to share this one. I’ve requested the media team to rip this portion of the video so I can put it on this site… it’s just too funny.
I have hold children’s baptism services three times a year we’re we’ll baptized 20-40 kids each day. Outside of that, I usually get the honor of baptizing 2-4 kids a month. This last Sunday I was scheduled to baptize two girls and their mom. I met with them about 3 weeks earlier and had so much fun. This 6 and 8 year old loved Jesus so, so much. I don’t know if a person could love him more than they did. Mom and Dad were really doing a great job. [...]
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