As a small group leader, you may be wondering how this applies to you and the kids you lead. Here are a few ways:
- Include a Bible memory activity each week instead of spending 15 minutes one week of the month on Bible memory. Kids will learn the verse better if they review it each week.
- Provide prayer time each week for kids and encourage them to pray aloud, even if it’s just one sentence. The act of praying a bit each week will teach them to pray more confidently than if you try to get them to pray a longer pray once a month.
- Have them open their Bibles, even if it’s just to one verse, regularly. The more they use a Bible and the Table of Contents, the easier it will become. Don’t think that they can wait until they are older and learn to navigate the word of God.
- Repetition is an aid to learning; it’s not a hindrance. The fact that kids have four weeks to learn a virtue and a verse doesn’t mean that what we are doing is “watered down;” it means that we are teaching toward mastery. If we hopped from topic to topic each week, kids would have much less of a chance of learning anything. The repetition enhances their ability to learn so…
Capitalize on opportunities to have kids repeat. Provide them with short opportunities to practice spiritual disciplines (like prayer, Bible memory, finding verses in the Bible and service over and over). This approach will change their lives!
1 comment:
I started having my group pray out loud over a year ago. At the time the motivation on my part was not just teaching them to pray out loud but at the time I had the then 3rd & 4th grade girls in one big group and it was cumbersome to keep track of everyone's prayer requests.
Changing prayer time in my group has been amazing. I've gotten to witness the change in my girls from being hesitant to pray to be eager to pray. I've gotten to witness the content of their prayer change. It has helped me as a small group leader because I can better gauge where some of them are on their spiritual journey.
I've also found that leading by example during out praying out loud has been helpful to my group. Last fall my stepfather was hospitalized for pneumonia for a month. And before I closed prayer time, I prayed for my stepfather's health. The next week, all of my girls prayed for my stepfather when it was their turn to pray out loud. They still ask about my stepfather and how he's doing months after the fact. It made an impact because it was at that point that the prayer content began to change. So don't be afraid to lead with your own prayers.
Milisa
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