Author Archives: Tamera Lynn Kraft

Saturated by the Holy Spirit Kidmin Free Object Lesson

Posted on April 9, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here is a great object lesson to illustrate why we need to be filled and saturated by the Holy Spirit.

Supplies Needed: flat sponge, bowl of water

Ephesians 5:18 Do not be drunk with wine. That will ruin you spiritually. But be filled with the Spirit.

The Bible talks a lot about being filled with the Holy Spirit. The word used in this verse for filled means being continually filled. That means being filled, and filled, and filled again. It means to keep being filled with the Holy Spirit.

(show flat sponge) Can anyone tell me what this is? (If the children don’t know, let them know it’s a sponge that has never been wet. It’s called a flat sponge. Talk about how useless this sponge is without water just as the Christian is useless unless he’s filled with the Holy Spirit.

The sponge is hard. God doesn’t want us to have a hard heart toward Him. He wants to fill our hearts with the Holy Spirit.

Ezekiel 36:26  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

This sponge is dry. Without the Holy Spirit filling us, our lives and passion for God can be dry. God wants to fill us with His Holy Spirit so that rivers of living water can flow out of us.

John 7:37-39 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

This sponge can’t wash or clean anything. Being filled with the Holy Spirit keeps us cleansed from sin.

John 7:38  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’

Romans 8:2 Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Object Lesson Experiment:

(Dip the sponge in the bowl of water so it is a little wet. Let the children make observations on how the sponge has changed. It is wetter, bigger, softer, more useful. Dip the sponge again until it gets saturated.)

The more this sponge gets saturated with water, the more useful it is. The more we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the more useful we are to the Kingdom of God.

If I were to leave this wet sponge on the shelf, what would happen to it? It would get dried out and hard again. That’s the way we will get if we don’t continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

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Posted in Children's Church, Kids and the Holy Spirit, Object Lessons, Revival/Praise and Worship

How Universalism Has Crept into Children’s Ministry

Posted on April 4, 2018 | Leave a comment

Universalism is one of the greatest threats to Christianity in our time. Basically it is hypergrace that states you don’t really need to accept Jesus as your Savior. Almost everyone is going to Heaven. Hell either only exists for people like Hitler, or it doesn’t exist at all.

The way universalism gets away with this even though the Bible clearly teaches the truth, that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no-one goes to the Father except through Him, is to declare the Bible is not really God’s Word. Parts of it are good like loving your neighbor, but those parts about Hell and immorality are old concepts. The people who wrote the Bible were a part of their culture and didn’t know better.

Here are some of the ways it has crept into children’s ministry and the church.

We don’t teach doctrine. Children grow up not knowing doctrinal truths or why they believe what they believe. We teach cool lesson and play fun games instead of teaching what the Bible says. They are taught they should love God and others, but without doctrinal truths to build their faith on, they will be swayed by any lie. It’s not that we can’t ever have fun games or teach the Bible in cool ways, but we need to teach doctrine.

We teach children to be good. There’s nothing wrong with teaching children our values, but if we teach them the goal is to be good or good enough, we’re teaching them another way of salvation other than through Jesus Christ. If we introduce them to Christ, He will convict and convince them when it comes to morality.

We don’t require children to memorize the Bible. Remember in the old days during Sunday School where we would get prizes for memorizing Scripture. Teachers drilled the Word of God into the hearts of children so they would know the truth when a lie was presented. We don’t expect children to read of memorize Bible verses when teachers expect hours of homework every night from them.

We teach children success is more important than God. When we keep children home from church to do their homework or to play a sport, aren’t we doing that? The church community used to be important to Christians. It was what the early church was built upon. Now we teach children church isn’t that important.

We teach children evangelism isn’t important. The martyrs of the early church died to share the Gospel of Christ. It is sometimes said the church was built on the blood of the saints. Now, we teach children not to talk about Christianity. We don’t want to offend anyone.

We don’t teach children to pray. It used to be children were included when a church had a prayer meeting. They were taught how to pray and expected to pray. Now, they never have the opportunity in church to pray for anyone.

These are some of the ways children’s ministries and the church have failed children. Is it any wonder they fall away when they’re older. They never knew the real Christ to begin with. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Posted in Discipling Children, Encouragement For Children's Ministers, Leadership

3 Things for Kidmin Pastors to Remember Easter Sunday

Posted on March 26, 2018 | 2 comments

Many times, children’s pastors stress about Easter Sunday. The idea is more children will be there that Sunday, and they need to be at their best if they want to win those children into the Kingdom. Here are 3 things to remember to make your life easier on Easter Sunday.

1. Most of the effective ministry you do will be the day in and day out discipling of children. Ministry on one day out of the year is not as important as ministry throughout the year.

2. Your job is to convey the Good News of the Gospel. Don’t worry about all the gimmicks and circus tricks that are promoted in children’s ministry. The important thing has always been the Gospel.

3. It is not your job to save children. It is your job to preach the Gospel in a way children can understand and respond to. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict and convince children to be saved.

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Posted in Easter, Holidays

Free Palm Sunday Kidmin Lesson

Posted on March 21, 2018 | 1 comment

Palm Sunday is this Sunday. Here’s a lesson that you can use to make the day powerful.

Theme: God Wants Children To Praise Him

Verse: Matthew 21:16 (NIV) … From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise

Game: Pin the Tail on the Donkey

You can buy this at most party supply stores.

After playing the game a few times, talk to the children about how Jesus rode to Jerusalem on a donkey.

Activity: Palm Branch Limbo

To play “Palm Branch Limbo,” you will need a few palm branches. These branches are easily found in department stores and floral shops weeks leading up to Palm Sunday. The children will have to limbo under the palm branches while the other children around them cheer them on.

Remind the children of how palm branches were placed in front of Jesus as the crowd around Him cheered Him on and shouted praises to Him.

Bible Story: Jesus Enters Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-17)

You can assign children parts and have them act out this story.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he rode in on a colt like a king. A colt is a young donkey. That means a child donkey held the full glory of God on his back. Child can have the full glory of God in them. You don’t have to wait until you’re grown up.

Everyone heard that Jesus was coming and ran out to meet Him. Some laid palm branches on the ground for Him to ride on. Others waved palm branches and shouted Hosanna, Son of David. They called Him Son of David because that was what they called the Messiah. They knew that the Messiah would have King David as an ancestor in His family tree. Hosanna means “save us” or “rescue us”. They were recognizing that Jesus is the Son of God who had come to save them. Imagine being in the crowd that day and waving palm branches to Jesus and shouting “Hosanna”.

After Jesus rode into Jerusalem, He went to the temple. There were men outside selling and cheating people. This made Jesus angry that these men would cheat people in the Temple of God. He knocked over their tables and said, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer. You have made it into a den of thieves.”

This made the religious leaders angry. They made money off these men who cheated the people.

At that point, children ran up to Jesus and waved palm shouting “Hosanna, Son of David.” Children, let’s use our hands to praise Jesus the way these children did. (Encourage the children to shout praises.)

Some of the religious leaders were angry that the children were praising Jesus. They said, “Do you hear what those children are saying? Tell them to be quiet.”

Jesus defended the children. He said, ““Have you never read,“‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise?”

Jesus wants children to praise Him. (Encourage children to shout praises to God.)

Girl shows five fingers.Object Lesson: Wave Your Palms

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, children and adult grabbed palm branches to praise him with. We don’t always have palm branches around, but we can still praise Jesus with our palms. (Hold up your hands.) God created us with two palms we can always use to praise Him with. Let’s hold up our palms now and shout “Praise the Lord”.

Object Lesson: The Rocks Will Cry Out

Supplies Needed: rocks

If you have enough rocks, give a rock or pebble to each child to take home. Tell them to put it out some place to remind them to Praise the Lord.

Have any of you ever heard a rock talk? After the Pharisees tried to get Jesus to stop the children from praising Him, Jesus said something very interesting. He said if we don’t praise Him, the rocks will cry out praise.

(Show the rocks) Have any of you ever heard a rock speak? That was amazing what Jesus said. But if children hadn’t praised Him as the Messiah the day he entered Jerusalem, that’s just what would have happened. Rocks not only would have spoke, they would have cried out praises to God.

God still wants His children to praise Him. I don’t want the rocks to cry out my praise. I want to praise God with my own mouth.

Let’s do that right now. On the count of three, let’s all shout “Praise the Lord”.

child, kid, joy, faith, praise and happinessLesson: God Wants Children to Praise

Quote the memory verse for today’s lesson. Matthew 21:16 … From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise

When Jesus said this, He said it in Hebrew. It was written down in Greek. And we quote the verse in English. What the verse really meant in the original language is that God taught children and babies to lead praise. That means that Jesus not only wants children to praise Him, He wants children to lead praise.

Have you ever seen a church that had children lead praise and worship in Big Church. Most churches normally have adults leading praise, but God wants children to lead praise. That doesn’t mean you have to join the adult praise team. But it does mean if you praise God with your whole heart, adults will see it and want to praise God too.

Ask the children to make a decision to praise God with their whole hearts. If you have time, lead them in another praise song and encourage them to praise God with their whole hearts while they sing it.

Craft Activity: Hand Palms

Supplies Needed: construction paper, craft (Popsicle) sticks, scissors

Have children trace their hand prints onto construction paper. Have them cut out the hand prints and glue them onto the craft sticks.

Remind the children that we made these palm branches to remind us that we all have palms to wave when we praise the Lord.

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Posted in Uncategorized

St. Patrick for Kidmin

Posted on March 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, is a day everyone loves to celebrate by wearing green and having parades. But most don’t know the spiritual significance of the man named Patrick. The story of St. Patrick would be a great story to tell the children in your ministry. You could use the story for a missions or evangelism emphasis.

Patrick was born in Kilpatrick, Scotland in the year, 387. His parents were Romans living in Britain. At the age of fourteen, Patrick was captured by a raiding party and taken to Ireland to herd sheep. Ireland, at that time, was populated by pagans and druids. Patrick, during his captivity, learned the language and culture of Ireland. He also used his captivity to grow closer to God.

Six years later, at the age of twenty, Patrick had a dream from God to leave Ireland. In the dream, he was told to escape to the coast. When he arrived at the coast, a ship from Britain was waiting for him. He returned home to his family.

Later Patrick studied for the priesthood, became a bishop, and returned to Ireland as a missionary. Patrick preached the Gospel throughout Ireland, and many were converted. He died on March 17th, 461.

The reason the shamrock is used to represent St. Patrick is because he used the shamrock to illustrate the trinity. Since the shamrock is green, that color is also used to represent Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day.

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Posted in Holidays, St. Patrick's Day