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Do you ever get crazy ideas? I love crazy ideas. I love to think outside the box and challenge the status quo.

Two weeks ago I got a crazy idea. I was invited to speak at the Transform Conference in Denver. (Actually, I invited myself, but don’t tell anybody) In one of my workshops I said something I had never said before.

I looked at the Children’s Pastor, Jessica Wontor, and said, “Jessica, can you imagine what would happen if every parent in your church gave up their Saturday and came to the conference today? It would change their parenting forever. It would change how they view their kids.”

After I said it I realized I was preaching to myself. I caught a vision of myself training thousands of parents to minister to their own children.

Why is it that we only have children’s ministry conferences for children’s ministry people? How come we don’t train parents to preach to their own children?

I made a decision right then. I am going to start equipping parents to preach to their kids. I may not be able to get them to come to a kidmin conference, but I can bring the kidmin conference to them on Sunday Morning.

This past Sunday at Covenant Church International was my first experiment. I preached a sermon in the main service on “How to Preach to Children.”

Here is a quick summary of my sermon:

I am preaching today on “How to Preach to Children.” Some of you may be thinking “This is not for me.” Before you pull out your I-phones and start checking your email allow me challenge your thinking.

You are called to preach to kids!

Every one is called to preach to kids!

Mark 16:15 says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, over 12 years of age.” (Insert laughter here.)

In the American Church culture we tend to limit our ministry by our titles. We say I’m called to kids ministry or youth ministry or singles ministry, but Jesus called everyone to preach to every creature.

Millions of people will say they are not called to kids ministry, but I say who says?

Why should you limit yourself to one segment of the population?

Some of you may think you are not spiritually mature enough to preach, but don’t let the enemy stop you. I find that when I preach on something my own word holds me accountable and it causes me to grow.

Trust me, God wants you to preach to your kids. I don’t care if you are totally backslid, preach to your kids.

So, Pastor Mark, how do I preach to my kids? I’m glad you asked. Here are seven practical steps for preaching to kids.

1) Be Visual. Whenever you preach to kids have the Bible in one hand and a prop in the other. (I demonstrated several object lessons using common household items)

2) Be Transparent. Your kids know you’re not perfect so you might as well fess up.

3) Send everything through the kid filter. Your kids could care less about believing God for the house payment. If you talk to them about praying for a I-Pad they will hook up with that.

4) Don’t violate their attention spans. Devotions should be 5 – 10 minutes in length.

5) Target the older kids and teens. We tend to target the younger kids in family devotions, but if you lose older kids you lose the group. Let the older kids lead devotions from time to time.

6) Be Funny. Use the sandwich method. Funny, serious, funny.

7) Tell Stories. Think of funny stories from your teen years or childhood. I demonstrated by telling one of my favorite stories – The Refrigerator Story. I took all the food out the fridge to hide inside it. Every generation loves a good story.

I have some good news for you. You don’t have to do this by yourself. The Holy Ghost will help you preach to your kids.

Jesus Said in Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses.” If the Holy Ghost will help you witness to lost people, don’t you think He will help you witness to your kids?”

Then I challenged the parents, “If you want to make a commitment to today to preach to you kids, I want you stand up and come forward.” There was an unbelievable response as the altar filled with of hundreds parents.

This confirmed what I have always believed. Most parents want to minister to their own children, but they are just waiting for someone to show them how.

I love it when I get crazy ideas. What are some your crazy ideas?

Copyright ©  Mark Harper Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Mark Harper
Web site: Mark Harper Ministries
 
Pastor and Leadership Coach, Mark Harper has 35 years of experience in the local church. He is the creator of the Super Church 2.0 Curriculum, which is used in over 5,000 churches worldwide. The focus of Mark's ministry is helping leaders build strong churches and helping parents build strong families. Not only has Mark served in the local church as pastor, associate pastor, and family ministry pastor but he is also a certified coach with the John Maxwell Team. He also recently released the Amazon Best Selling book The Red Book: The Lifeblood of Children's Ministry.
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