Use Your Plans As a Springboard, Part II

One of the exciting things about our church is we have frequent non-churched visitors. Our prayer is that these visitors will come back and become regular attenders. This is something we rejoice over, but it creates a leadership challenge for you.

Your small group is most likely comprised of kids who have been raised in the church and kids who have rarely been to church. As you look through the weekly lesson plans, don’t assume the kids in your group are at the same place spiritually and, if you lead groups of older kids, don’t assume they all have a strong knowledge of the Bible. Many of our kids have very little previous spiritual instruction.

To help each child develop spiritually, do an informal assessment of each one. Answer questions like these:

• How effective is this child at connecting the main point in the lesson to his or her life?
• How well can s/he navigate the Bible?
• How comfortable is s/he praying aloud?
• How respectful is s/he of other members in the group?

Once you feel you know these things about the kids in your group, come up with a spiritual development plan for each child. This doesn’t have to be complex or overwhelming.

For example:

• If Billy doesn’t know how to look up verses, make it a goal to teach him how to use the Table of Contents and find verses by the end of the summer.
• If Sarah has never prayed aloud, take advantage of low-risk structured prayer activities like the one in our lesson this week to encourage her to pray aloud.
• If some of the kids in your group have a hard time learning Bible verses but they love physical activity, replace the pen and paper verse activities with activities that involve physical activity, like marching in a circle, while they shout out the verse.

Having specific spiritual goals for each child will help you become a more effective leader. The goals should be individualized and achievable. As you plan your lessons, you should keep these goals in mind and tweak the plans so you can help each kid reach the goal you’ve set for him or her.

The kids don’t need to know you have spiritual goals for them, but they will certainly benefit from them as you adjust your leading to help them achieve the goals.

PLEASE POST: If you have set individual goals for kids in your group before, I encourage you to comment on this message and share one or two goals you've set and how you've helped your kids achieve them.

Thanks for caring about the spiritual development of each kid in your group!