Children’s ministry “Typically is the largest single group in the church being served,” writes Greg Baird. It has the largest need of volunteers to recruit, train, and manage. It deals with the most treasured part of a family’s life – children. The rewards are great, but the demands are great. It is sometimes viewed as the least valuable ministry in the church. Many children’s pastors are overwhelmed, overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. Anger can arise from frustration, bitterness, and resentment.
We all struggle with anger at times. In this article, Dr. Scott Turansky, co-founder of the National Center for Biblical Parenting, provides a few timely tips on how to manage anger.
When the emotion starts increasing in your interactions, it’s time to slow down the process. One teacher said, “I feel a lot of intensity and tend to react without thinking. It’s as if my emotions have the ability to bypass my brain. It takes work to understand what’s actually going on. I’m learning to slow down and think more about what I’m feeling. I’m making progress and I’m gaining some insight into how I relate to my kids. They’re seeing some changes in me too. I’m becoming less afraid of emotions and more eager to understand them and make the most of them in our family.”
By stopping each time you get angry and evaluating the situation, you can use anger to point out problems and then choose another strategy for your response. Some people believe that the only way to deal with anger is to drain it by venting. In fact, common advice from some psychologists suggests that anger must somehow be released. They say that you have the right to yell, scream, kick, and throw a temper tantrum because anger is an energy sweltering deep inside you and you need a way to express it.
We don’t believe that repressing emotions is good, but that doesn’t mean that venting them is helpful either. When people feel the freedom to vent anger, they often end up hurting others and damaging relationships.
The Bible takes a different approach. Proverbs 29:11 says, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” Control is better than venting. Control allows us to use anger as a tool rather than a weapon. When teachers, parents and children recognize the complexity of emotions and how to wisely respond to them, they will feel anger less intensely and less often.
If you’re struggling with anger in yourself or your children, then every time you see the intensity rising, slow things down, take a break, and resist the temptation to turn up the heat. That’s the first step toward managing conflict in a healthy way.
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About
DiscipleLand’s family of resources can help you equip kids to reach their peak potential as Jesus’ disciples. Kids need to build a firm foundation in God’s Word. They need help to grow into rock-solid disciples of Jesus Christ: Disciples For Life!
Through the Bible Publishers launched DiscipleLand in 1999 to champion children’s discipleship around the globe. DiscipleLand’s family of resources helps equip kids to reach their peak potential as Jesus’ disciples. DiscipleLand partners with parents and teachers to build lifelong disciples who:
- Know God intimately. They develop a reservoir of knowledge based on a Biblical worldview.
- Love God passionately. They display Christ-like character in every area of life.
- Serve God selflessly. They demonstrate faithful conduct that honors God and helps people.
DiscipleLand’s Complete Children’s Ministry Curriculum is a proven blueprint to disciple kids. This all-inclusive Children’s Discipleship System ensures that children achieve balanced growth in Bible knowledge, Christ-like character, and faithful conduct—everything kids need to live as devout Christians. Not sure where to being, take a look at the article How To Choose Curriculum or download the free Children’s ministry curriculum finder.
Nursery Big Bible Curriculum: Big Bible Nursery Curriculum for birth to 36 months includes everything you and your volunteers need to provide spiritual nourishment to infants, toddlers, and 2-3 year-olds. Every Bible-based lesson is simple, self-contained, and easy to teach—nursery workers will be ready to go in minutes!
Preschool Discovery Curriculum: Discovery Preschool invites children ages 3–5 to begin walking with God. 200 different Bible stories acquaint them with God’s power and His holy Word.
Kindergarten Bible Heroes Curriculum: Bible Heroes Kindergarten is a Bible curriculum for children ages 5-6. Your children will meet more than 48 different Bible personalities as they discover that Jesus is the special Hero who fulfilled God’s plan to rescue them from sin.
Elementary Curriculum
DiscipleLand provides five unsurpassed lines of Bible curriculum that offer what elementary-age kids need to live as devout Christians.
- Core Bible Curriculum: Challenges children to become victorious disciples.
- SUMMIT Curriculum: Digital large-group/small-Group Curriculum. 6-year scope and sequence provides a solid Biblical foundation for children.
- Pro2gé Summit Series: Equips families and teachers with the tools needed for discipleship.
- Adventure Curriculum: Motivates kids to pursue their discipleship journey.
- DiscipleTown Kids Church: Equips kids with essential discipleship skills. Children enjoy group learning in a creative Kids Church format.
Raising Godly Children: Parents and children use toolkits at home to build relationships and foster spiritual growth.
Training
Tools to help you evaluate, plan, and motivate your children’s ministry team: Training videos, onsite training workshops, free Webinars, parent videos, and training resources, and more.
You should never use the word Volunteer. We are SERVANTS of Jesus Christ.
Volunteer looks upon preparation as another commitment. Someone called of God looks upon preparation as another opportunity to serve God. A volunteer is oblivious to the needs of their ministry, someone called of God prays over the needs of their ministry. A volunteer is more prone to jealousy and feelings threatened by the talent of others, someone called of God praises God for distributing gifts and talents as He chooses. The list goes on and on. I feel like more Children’s ministries guilt their congregation into “volunteering” verses waiting on the calling from God. THUS no Spirit filled fits of anger. There is something to be said for NO forcing people to volunteer, rather be faithful for GOD to call those HE has prepared in advance to do HIS good will.