Leadership Connexion FALL 2023

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CHILDREN AND DISCIPLESHIP | Jeremiah Gruber | 717.795.5921 | jeremiah@penndel.org 20 “ALMOST EVERYTHING WILL WORK AGAIN IF YOU UNPLUG IT FOR A FEW MINUTES, INCLUDING YOU.” —ANNE LAMOTT As a computer needs rebooted from time to time, you also need a way to recalibrate so your connection with God, yourself, and others remains clear. The same is true for the way your church serves kids and families. If you desire lifelong discipleship to be the result of your KidMin, taking time to recalibrate toward this end is vital. It is biblical and beneficial to renew, reboot and recalibrate, to make certain we are aligning with God’s purposes (Romans 12:1-2). Here are questions to ask yourself and evaluate if your children’s ministry might need a reboot and recalibration: • Is the disciple-making mission of your church and children’s ministry clear? • Are you 100% certain a foundation for lifelong discipleship is being laid? • How strong is the bridge between church and home in your ministry? • Have you established a core leadership team to multiply your KidMin impact? • Are the pastors and leaders advocating for intergenerational disciple making? • How well are kids and families knowing God’s Word and applying it to their lives? • Is relational discipleship valued more highly than keeping programs running? Do you need to RECALIBRATE? Enacting the following steps on a regular basis will help you reconnect with what matters most in ministry – disciple making. Your kids, families and leaders deserve and desire true discipleship. 1: Rise Above Status Quo It’s easy to get accustomed to what’s familiar – for better or worse. When you started out serving kids and families, you probably dreamed of making an eternal difference in their lives. You prayed, prepared, planned and put programming in place for this to happen. But, over time, you’ve found your heart disconnected from what matters most because your hands are so busy keeping the ministry running. You hope it’s moving forward, but when you lay your head down at night, you’re not completely sure. You’re not alone. Awana surveyed 1,000 children’s ministry leaders across the U.S. and discovered a common issue: there’s a discipleship disconnect in today’s KidMin. If you are willing to face the facts about your work with kids and families, you can recalibrate your approach in a way that will result in lifelong discipleship. 2: Relate Intentionally Who was the most spiritually influential person in your life? That person’s face is probably at the forefront of your mind and his or her name is probably on the tip of your tongue. If you’ve never taken time to thank them, I encourage you to contact them and let them know how much you appreciate the way God used them in your discipleship journey. Just as God used someone to impact you, relationships are the most promising way children will come face to face with Christ in your ministry. The Bible is also a key factor, but how does God’s Word come to life most relevantly for people? It’s through life-tolife relationship. We watch other people to see how they make sense of truth and apply it. The leaders in your ministry need you to be intentional about your interactions with them. This will spill over into the way they influence the kids and families in their care. Try this: spend time in the back of every room where KidMin happens in your church. Watch for how strong or weak heartto-heart connections are. Then, recalibrate. Take the necessary steps to increase relational intentionality so that kids and families will be impacted more deeply. 3: Realign Your KidMin for a New Trajectory Now it’s time to do the hard strategic work. Make sure the heart of your children’s ministry is aligned with the heart of Christ and His church. That means if the heart of your church and your children’s ministry isn’t in alignment, then some significant discussions need to happen at a leadership level. You want to be certain that making disciples is what matters most across the board. You’re not responsible for all the areas of ministry, but you are called to press toward unity. KidMin has the potential to influence everyone toward disciple making that lasts. Christ-centered discipleship is central to your own life and leadership, and you can naturally steer others in this direction. The more Christ is at the center, the more likely people will become His fully devoted followers. Recalibration doesn’t always mean pulling the plug to reboot, but that might be required if disciple making is an afterthought in your ministry philosophy and programming. True discipleship is relational. Do whatever you can do to strengthen relational connections with God and others. During the THRIVE Conference, we will host a breakout focused on: RECALIBRATING YOUR CHILDREN’S MINISTRY. We invite you to join us as our panel of presenters will give practical insight on how to reboot your children’s ministry, no matter the size of your church! Until then if our KidMin team can help your church recalibrate your children’s ministry please contact us at: Jeremiah@penndel.org.
THE NEW ROYAL RANGERS The Best Boys Mentoring Program for Your Church This is the best discipleship or mentoring program for the boys in your church and helps men develop their leadership skills, challenging them to be better godly leaders. Royal Rangers incorporates friendship, activities, identity, achievement, discipleship, leadership and service to help boys on their path to Christlike manhood. EXPANDED As the interests of boys changed and expanded, so has the Ranger curriculum and activities - adding many new opportunities and adventures for boys found in sports, computers, aviation, leadership, academics, home repair, energy, plant science, international service - just to name a few. CUSTOMIZABLE Today, churches can customize the Royal Ranger program to fit their needs. They may wish to teach the materials and not track merits. They may wish to take part in sectional or district events, or not. Although Outposts still can have uniforms, they can also customize them - perhaps a T-shirt with their church and outpost printed on it and jeans or shorts. This can save a lot of cost. Of course, they can get the full utility uniform if they wish. Recognizing that not all boys (and leaders) like camping, there are more and more activities to accommodate those not wishing to camp. RELATIONAL In the past, the Royal Rangers had more of a military structure with leaders referred to as commanders. Now leaders are generally referred to as coordinators or group leaders. The goal is to develop boys into godly leaders so the adult men mentor boys and help facilitate, while having the boys do as much of the program as possible. The Royal Ranger method of teaching is Hear, See, Do, Teach – helping the boys to retain what they are learning. CONNECTED Royal Rangers has excellent training for leaders, both online and taught in the classroom. There are sectional, as well as district wide events, that leaders can take boys to, where they will not only have fun, but also be challenged in their walk with the Lord. Even churches without Royal Rangers can bring their boys. FUN PennDel is blessed with a Royal Ranger camp in Honey Grove, PA. New features are being added all the time. There is a climbing wall, zip line, large water slide, creek to swim in, shooting range, archery, paint ball, children’s playground and much more. A shower house is also under construction. LIFE CHANGING At the District PowWow, many boys came forward to follow Jesus and seek the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Eighteen boys were water baptized this year. Subscribe to the PennDel District Royal Rangers YouTube Channel to check out PowWow videos and testimonies from some of the Royal Rangers. ROYAL RANGERS | Steve Steffel | 302.379.1580 | rrdirector@penndel.org | pdrangers.org | Facebook: PennDel District Royal Rangers If you are interested in a starting a Royal Rangers program, we are here to help! Feel free to contact me at rrdirector@penndel.org. LEADERSHIPconnexion | Fall <strong>2023</strong> 21
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Leadership Connexion FALL 2023

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