Key 3: Church Skill Set: Part IV

Drum roll, please….

It’s time to talk about ways our children, teens, and families can serve at church. Believe me, the leadership at your church would be absolutely delighted to know you were even reading this devotional blog today. That you even care enough to read this simply rocks!

I do need to frame this for a moment.

• This is not an exhaustive list. There are MANY ways to serve.
• Every church body is different and needs different people to serve differently, so be flexible.
  • If you present ideas of how you and your children or family could serve, realize that there are needs within your church and you need to flow with your church leadership to serve in ways that are needed.
• There are seasons of serving.
  • Some ladies I grew up with were Sunday school teachers all their lives but the church could’ve benefitted from them teaching Women’s or Family Bible Studies with all that teaching experience.
  • Some people have a Church Skill Set that’s like a Tool Belt, they’ve served in many roles so they serve wherever is needed when it’s needed (I LOVE utility servants… most church leaders do! PS That’s the right attitude to serve with. Strive to be and raise your children to be Tool-Belt Servants.)

Where Needed

The first place to start serving if you don’t know where the Spirit is leading you is wherever there is a need. When we serve with no agenda, we bless our church leaders and the people we serve. Simply take your children with you to someone in church leadership (including your church secretary… she knows what’s going on more than most people at church) and ask where there is a need for your family to serve.

Using our Spiritual Gifts

This could be a whole other devotional blog (and maybe it will be someday). There are a couple lists of spiritual gifts in the Bible that can be used as a starting block for serving. All of us are gifted in specific ways and God wants us to use those gifts to serve and encourage other believers in our communities.

You and your children probably use these gifts outside of church, so when you read these lists they’ll be highlighted for you. For instance, my parents were high school teachers so it made a lot of sense that they had the spiritual gift of teaching they could use as Sunday school and Bible Study teachers at church.

Here’s a WARNING, though. I’ve heard this excuse from SO many people when I asked if they could serve in a specific area, “That’s not my gifting.”

Nope.

That’s not having a servant heart like Jesus, friends. If there’s a need, meet it. You may rock at giving or prophesying, but if there’s a need that you can meet through your service, it may be the Holy Spirit trying to help you grow in that area of service, so try it! Help your kids try new ways to serve, too! (Remember… become Tool-Belt Servants!)

Here are the spiritual gifts listed in Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

⁶ In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. ⁷ If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. ⁸ If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Romans 12:6-8

⁷ A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. ⁸ To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice^]; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. ⁹ The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. ¹⁰ He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. ¹¹ It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

With all this in mind, here is a list of practical ways you and your children can serve at your church that you can talk through with your children and church leadership!

• Administrative Assisting
  • Folding or preparing bulletins/programsSending follow-up postcards/letters to visitors or people who have been gone for awhileWriting and sending Birthday and Anniversary cards
  • Calling or visiting shut-ins
• A/V (Audio/Visual)
  • Creating and running Slides/PowerPoint for Music Team, Teaching Team, and AnnouncementsRuning sound systemRunning LightsCreating Announcement VideosRunning video equipment during the announcements and sermonsTaking pictures of or videoing different ministry areas and special events to let people know what is going on around the churchVideoing People’s Testimonies to share to encourage the church body
  • Social Media
    • Creating graphics for slides for Sunday
    • Promoting the church on Social Media with posts, stories, reels, etcs.
• Children’s Ministry
  • Assisting Sunday school, Children’s Church, and AWANAs TeachersTeaching Sunday school, Children’s Church, and AWANAsGreeting Children and Parents and getting them signed inSetting Up/Cleanning Up Preparing and Cleaning Up SnackCurriculum and Supply PreparationPraying for all the Children’s Ministry Staff, volunteers, children, and familiesWriting and Sending Birthday cards*Most churches will have an age limit for when children can start volunteering in Children’s Ministry (often 6^th or 7^th grade), but you could do that last 2 items as a family no matter how old your children are.
  • **Adults will need to have a background check done and go through training to protect all the children.
• Communion Preparation
  • Setting up and cleanning up
  • Handing out communion at the proper time
• Greeting/Ushering
  • Being the first people to greet people as they arrive at church, making sure people get wherever the need to go (focus on the elderly and getting families with small children)Making sure people get and fill out information cards so they can be followed up with
  • Ushering people to their seats
• Missions Team
  • Writing letters/emails to the missionaries your church supportsWriting monthly emails with information about your church’s missionaries to let the church know how to pray for themPraying for your church’s missionaries weekly (our church has a Missions Prayer Team that meets 20 minutes before church meets each week and we pray for a different missionary family each month – most of our Prayer Team are children!)Praying for a different country each week
  • Praying for opportunities people in your church have to reach their neighbors, families, and friends for Jesus
• Music Team
  • Attending practices and playing an instrument and singing
  • Praying for the Music Team
• Prayer Team
  • Praying for the church staff
  • Praying through the church directory
  • Praying for the missionaries your church supports
  • Praying for any prayer requests given from church members

Things to Ponder

• Make a list of ways each of the people in your family could serve at church then talk to them about it.
• Who should you talk to at your church about your children and family serving?

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