Any well-planned church event is just an event unless there is intentional discipleship before and after. Effective event planning at church must serve a discipleship purpose or it’s no different than the great events planned at your kid’s local school or the local YMCA.

What if you could extend the event into something more with just a little forethought and preparation by asking more questions?

Someone asked in the staff meeting last week if the event I’d planned the following Sunday afternoon was a one-and-done. Someone else piped in and shared, “DeDe never does a one-and-done event.” I smiled. They’re right!

I’m a disciple-maker, not an event planner. Yes, I plan events, but there is intentional discipleship before and after which makes a world of difference in what is planned and how resources (what’s at hand) are stewarded.

Discipleship BEFORE might look like….

• Setting the WHY and up to THREE MEASURABLE GOALS to help the event stay within the navigational beacons and purposeful when add-ons come alongside disappointments. Story: As the Children’s Ministry Lead AND the Women’s Ministry Lead of my church, it’s important to me to bridge the high school girls into the women’s ministry and set the table to begin and deepen relationships between women of all ages and generations. When it was discovered that several of the older women decided not to go on the Women’s Retreat because, “we only want to go if there are grown women there”, the design team was disappointed. Yet, one of the goals of the retreat was to set the table for intergenerational relationships and we had to let it go. An event can’t be all things to all people all the time. Other measurable goals could include the percentage of first time participants, percentage of second step folks in attendance, setting a critical mass number for the space, number of generations in attendance, percentage of grandparents in attendance, lingering space before and after, base line for ages in attendance, anticipating trouble spots and addressing before, when to address trouble spots going forward, answering three main questions for next time, etc.
• Determine the WHERE – this helps those who are new or still finding their way around your campus. Logistics and how we communicate those logistics matters as we try to remove as many awkward-moment possibilities as possible. Logistics and spaces can make for distractions, confusion, and an awkward start. Intentional hospitality through communication, registration, personal invites, and room reservations can set a good table for discipleship. 
• Story: Last Easter there were so many families attending the Sunday morning children’s ministry Egg Scramble there were kids with families (new parents want to do everything, especially church, together as a family) opening eggs on stairs, hallways, and more rooms than I had planned. The spaces were also nearer their cars in the parking lot than the sanctuary (up one floor) to leave afterwards where we’d hoped they’d attend the second service. This year, we are moving it to a larger space, nearest the sanctuary, still adjacent to the kid’s Sunday morning check-in entrance, but critical mass will be seen and enjoyed. If there are less in attendance, it won’t look like it. If there are more in attendance the space can now accommodate them. I’ve invited the men’s ministry to offer a biscuit bar to follow the Egg Scramble to make sure the entire floor smells like bread and folks will linger hopefully to support and attend the second service.
• Story: Wonderfully Made requires the hanging of vocabulary words I would not want included or remembered for being said or hung up on the walls in our kid’s worship space. It just needs to be different, but in a location that our community knows well. Mission accomplished by moving two buildings over where the community votes, enjoys scouts, and near an outdoor playground for big kids to remember they are still little kids in lots of ways when the information gets to be too much, and it does. 
• Story: Due to a database upgrade that dropped an event, another event was approved two months prior overlapping my original event time. That’s how I discovered several of my events had been dropped in the upgrade. I pivoted my time to get the original space on the day originally promoted. Another space was offered a few days before my event due to the ‘chili smell’. Nope. Too late for all that. The space mattered for a whole host of reasons thought out last summer when the room was originally booked. Trying to navigate people to a different space in that short amount of time was not up to our standards for hospitality. It worked out just fine. 
• Story: A site visit by the Women’s Retreat design team helped us get to know one another when transportation was the church bus. Yes, we needed information about the location in order to plan the event well, but what seemed like a last-minute stop (intentionally planned) at the local coffee shop gave me a ton of information about the design team members. AND asking a member’s spouse to drive us made for lots of easy conversations of “What brought you to the church?” setting the table for learning the stories of the women leading the team. Offering next steps in discipleship for each one in the year to come is so much easier when we hear the priorities as shared by their stories. Ex: One isn’t part of a Sunday school because she “doesn’t like to bring food.” I see this design team as one of the small groups I lead for this season, so I will maximize the discipleship time as they see to the tasks BEFORE the event.

The event itself should be prepared before, during, and after as a best next step in one’s discipleship journey with what’s in your hand and who is the Lord setting before you. Want to dig a bit deeper? Check out this post.

Next week I’ll offer a few ideas for turning a one-and-done event into something more AFTER the event, thereby extending the discipleship pathway into intentional next steps.

“But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” 1 Corinthians 14:40

Effective ministry with children and families can not take place without a team of folks who love the Lord with their whole hearts, sacrificing time and brain space to littles and bigs for Jesus. Even Jesus insisted He was not a one-man show before His glorious resurrection by modeling and sending out his disciples two at a time. A good visible example of this kind of sending out is in one of the early season three episodes of The Chosen. But I digress.

The number one challenge I get phone calls about from fellow kidmin champions in the trenches is not having enough volunteers. They ask, “How do I get them?”, “Where do they come from?”, and “Why don’t they see how important this is?” I can relate because Sunday keeps coming. Take a deep breath.

What else is coming is that a good percentage of my entire ‘congregation’ will age out every year (I’m responsible for kindergarten thru 5th grade). Gone. Those 5th graders are going to be 6th graders no matter what. I could lament their leaving, but I prefer to look at them as ‘going into the mission field.’ Children’s Ministry is a sending ministry starting with relationships.

God called His people in the Old Testament to test Him by returning to Him a 10% tithe of their resources. People are your resources. Yes, money is nice, space is great, and priority at the table is important, but you can not do ministry with littles and bigs without other people.

What if you spent 10% of your weekly work time with, for, or about recruiting, retaining, appreciating, and growing in relationship with your volunteers? You’d be surprised how you could multiply and grow the ministry to love more kids to Jesus and your own faith. A 10-hour/week staff member dedicating one hour each week to volunteerism can go a long way to growing relationships because ministry with children is all about relationships.
20-hour/week staff member ~ 2 hours/week re: volunteers
30-hour/week staff member ~ 3 hours/week re: servant leaders
40-hour/week staff member ~ 4 hours/week re: team of laity laying it all out there

What to do to tithe or ‘return to our great God’ our best resources?

• Pray daily ‘Who, Lord?’ (I write this with a sharpie on my windshield for the commute), then make the cold call. The first call/email can NOT be about THE ASK, but rather, “My name is DeDe and I serve the littles and their bigs at McEachern Methodist church and I saw you at church on Sunday. I wanted to get to know you better so I thought I’d give you a call.” 
• Good questions to prompt the conversation: “Tell me how you came to McEachern?”, “How long have you been at McEachern?”, “Who is your best friend at church?” Not an interview, but just a couple of prompts and listening to toss the conversational ball back and forth. Take notes during or after the call. Close the conversation with, “Thank you for letting me get to know you a little better. I’m delighted to be at our church and I look forward to seeing you at church.” Short, sweet, confident, the start of a relationship. If you serve at their church, you’re family. 
• Other tithing practices can include monthly appreciation swag, hand-written notes of appreciation, send a text, invite someone to tea/coffee or chips & salsa, drop off something in their home mailbox, pray through their classroom, hold a volunteer team meeting, meet for lunch/breakfast/dessert, comment on their social media feeds. Design a training meeting, compose a thank-you post to recognize your team on social media, be available and accessible before and after programming and services, attend a concert or special event together, text pictures of their family taken at the last church event. Sharing life! Make new friends and grow in deeper relationship with first friends. THIS is the church.

Ministry is all about relationships, not the tasks, not the curriculum’s ‘big idea’, but relationships. Relationships where Jesus is the center and the Holy Spirit is the binding force to grow us closer to Him and closer to one another. Yes, the tasks of copies, cleaning, organizing, and shopping (my least favorite part of ministry) need to get done, but your greatest delight at the end of your professional journey will not be the Christmas Eve Children’s Moment in 2021, but rather the people and relationships you tithe back to the Lord. Can you name them? There are a whole bunch I hope to share a mansion and the golden streets with in Glory forever. We’ll be singing at the top of our lungs and laughing our heads off of our new bodies.

“She is clothed in strength and dignity and she can laugh at the days to come.” Proverbs 31:25

The calendar is always too busy, the season is already too full, and systems for navigating spaces and communication have become my greatest current frustration. Deep sigh.

But we can not wait to…

Support new families
* New families are concerned a lot about what foods/snacks their kids are getting so organic apple sauce isn’t much more expensive and Made Good foods has fabulous snacks which are very appreciated by families today. Make water available with small paper cups. Stop treating, serving, or rewarding with candy, cupcakes, and fruit juice. Children’s ministry people are more creative than that.
* New families have no idea what our worship habits or routines are and we should be better teachers. When I can’t get traction for that, I print small teaching documents to add to the worship clipboards the children get at the beginning of services or post short teachings on our children’s ministry Facebook group. It’s old school, but I love Chuck Knows Church for all things about liturgical seasons, history, vocabulary, and more. One new teaching a week can make a world of difference for families to feel more connected and comfortable in a less-than-kid-centric environment.
* Give church folk access to you and make yourself accessible to them before and after services. Intentionally introduce and connect people face-to-face with a commonality to begin new friendships, then follow up with a phone call or hallway chat. Know the best one or two small groups where you can direct new people to if new groups are not an option.

Support new small groups
* Don’t be afraid to start a new adult group under children’s ministry. New people need new groups to lessen the awkwardness of walking into a group with history, assigned seats, and set routines. Parents and grandparents need a place to grow in their faith, too, and you can set the table for that with ‘Small Group is sponsored by Children’s Ministry’. Rather than wait for the adult education dept. to start a group and ask for ‘childcare’, take the point to offer an adult Christian education class WHILE you are already leading littles in ministry at the same time. Not sure who to invite to lead/facilitate that? Pray for one and when they arrive with a YES, invite them to choose a partner (this is where THEY do the 2nd invite, not you) for TWO people to lead the group together in a 4-week, 6-week, 9-week season/study. Under children’s ministry, you get to choose the options. Right Now Media and Amplify Media have fantastic small group studies to choose from. People grow in their faith best in circles and at tables. How can you circle up and set the table for the bigs while you lead the littles?
* New families have been reaching out to me BEFORE an event or Sunday because I’ve given them space and opportunity for that with a ‘more info’ button on your website’s children’s ministry page and have a ready email – a kind of form email to edit to make personal in response. Invite your new folks to come 15-30 minute early to make for a smooth and less chaotic start. Plan for a hospitality greeter who knows check-in processes and systems with a resting happy face to make the beginning of their arrival experience a lovely one. It should be a different person from your church’s regular greeter team. This is more than holding a door and pointing. It’s the first trustworthy relationship parents will make to leave their child with you or join their children in your programming.
* New families are concerned about security and if you are trustworthy. Your systems for volunteers, Safe Sanctuary, spaces, hospitality, follow-up, and building relationships must be gracious, accommodating, visible, consistent and trustworthy.

Support existing small groups & classes
* Communication is an issue in every church, but we must be able to do it better no matter the inconvenience. Communicate on paper, email, social media, bulletin boards, posters, fliers about what is happening in the  ministry you lead. Leave notes in committee meeting spaces like trustees, finance, and staff-parish relations with a 6-pack of water and a basket of snacks. You don’t need to be there, just leave a little generosity and a note of appreciation for their work signed by you on behalf of the ministry you lead.
* Thank your small group leaders and encourage each one to raise up a ‘wingman’ to take on the administration or hospitality or in case you ‘get hit by a bus’. That is my mantra for pulling someone aside and inviting him/her to see what I’m doing/modeling just in case I get hit by a bus. Jesus never sent His disciples out one at a time, but rather two, three, or seventy. Yes, it’s easier to ‘just do it yourself’ or ‘he’s always led that class’, but we are called to be fruitful and multiply. Keep pushing your one-man-show to recruit a wingman, then love on them both. This raises your leader to be a disciple-maker and your wingman to be raised up to the next level of leadership.
* As a volunteer leader we DID the work of ministry. As a leader of volunteers we equip the saints to learn and practice the work of ministry. We are called to invest in others to use their talents and skills to love people to Jesus. Just as you had to learn, you now get to do the teaching and partnering with others to share the journey. Yes, I could have washed those 10 blankets from Campfire Christmas, but asking on the Facebook page ‘who can help’, we had more help than blankets. Yes, I could have decorated those bulletin boards, but asking others made the boards WAY more inviting. Yes, we could’ve cleaned out the moldy refrigerator, but asking a youth to do it for $20 cash with a box of Clorox wipes made for a much better story and the job got done while he listened to a zoom call for school.

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” Deuteronomy 29:29 …pass it on!

When we were hit with the pandemic in March 2020, I researched the Spanish flu. I found that the space of time from beginning to no longer making global accommodations was 2.5 years. Christmas 2022 was right there at the tail end of that period and offering a Christmas gathering not ‘in rows’, ‘kid-friendly’, nostalgic with Christmas carols, and a ‘chaotic-on-the-spot-Christmas program’ is where we started planning.

We planned for an outdoor service with firepits, roasting marshmallows (s’mores have too many pieces), a short message from the senior pastor, an acoustic guitar to lead the caroling, stick-masked costumes for all kids, with a program base from which to edit for our context from a fellow kidmin colleague in our networking group.

THEN the temps were anticipated to drop to zero with wind gusts of 35-40 mph was forecasted. THEN our guitarist had an accident with his hands requiring stitches the week of. THEN the adjacent building was torn down days before (we’d been waiting for over a year) covering the entrance with orange barrels, yellow caution tape, and two dumpsters we had no idea when pickup would be arranged. AND there was mud where the building used to be. Now frozen mud.

In true kidmin fashion, we pivoted with the couple of days the Lord gave us.

One firepit and a scout dad served as our firepit master outside at the entrance for the entire service time we were inside.

We cleaned a nearby, indoor space for a full day which hadn’t seen a broom nor trash bag in months. Thankful now for the dumpsters for the building tear-down which were removed the day of the event.

A team of visual artists turned the space into a warm, welcoming, sacred space. Bathrooms were loaded with appropriate welcome supplies, large banners were hung with mega magnets to the metal walls, battery-operated fire pots (from previous VBSs) were arranged in the seating area, luminaries purchased by a generous church for $5 each in honor or memory of a loved one, a hot chocolate bar (we ran out of three gallons of hot chocolate and hot apple cider in less than twenty minutes), and indoor table firepits to roast marshmallows with big blankets along the floors.

Activity bags were prepared with four marshmallows (in separate snack bags), a birthday candle and party blower to be used on Christmas Day to celebrate Jesus’ birthday at home, a jingle bell used for a ‘Joseph Says’ game as part of the service (think Simon Says), an LED finger light (to guide to the car in the dark since none of the outdoor lights/signage were working either), and a glow stick candle to use for singing Silent Night.

Each child, youth, whoever wanted to, picked up a mask on a stick to be part of the Christmas program and waited to be directed. Complete chaos and complete fun! We had a stage manager on the stage and on the floor. We had two Ambassadors serving as Mary & Joseph to set the stage for what the others were supposed to do on stage and two Ambassadors who engaged the audience in sounds and responses with cue cards prepared by a fabulous Sunday school teacher who has an eye for what is kid-friendly and beauty.

Activities started at 6pm, program started at 6:30pm, and we were finished by 7:30pm.

The last hiccup: I placed the event’s trash bags onto the hood of my car to drive to the trash dumpster near the main building. By the time I got there, bag had busted and frozen hot chocolate covered the hood of my car. It stayed until the temps rose above freezing four days later. Yet I was SO happy!

Families came out to celebrate a new tradition: A Christmas Adam family worship service completely led by the children and youth departments of the church less than a week after leading the charge and a year’s planning for an all-hands-on-deck Live Nativity and Bethlehem Experience the Sunday before.

The Campfire Checklist I gleaned last year from a church in Evans, Georgia who modified theirs this year to have the service inside with their firepits under their covered portico. The checklist built energy and let folks know that ‘though the weather outside is frightful, the fire is so delightful…’

Next year, Christmas Eve is on a Sunday and there are five Sundays after Thanksgiving. We will present Campfire Christmas again on the first Sunday in Advent, hopefully outside which was the original plan. Have you looked at your Advent calendar for next year yet? Having conversations and making decisions now while everything is still fresh will help guide you to lead your volunteers and families through a smooth, engaging, and well-planned-though-delightfully-pivotable Advent next year.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29

Attending a conference with friends is the best way I’ve found to learn and sharpen my skills as a professional Christian educator. I’m a verbal processor so asking questions and hearing the take-aways from those I trust will fill my creative bucket quickly. Last week at Children’s Pastors Conference sponsored by INCM (International Network of Children’s Ministry) proved even more fruitful when I shared a house with twelve other kidmin leaders from twelve local churches attending the same conference for the entire week.

CPC does a fabulous job of intentionally adding to my resource shelves and providing content to do my job better through various breakout sessions. CPC especially pours into us as disciples in the general sessions with incredibly effective communicators.

One of the most impactful for me was the general session with Bo Barredo, an attorney and native missionary to the Philippines. He and his attorney wife co-founded Advancing Native Missions. He shared, “Hope is anticipating the best of what’s good.”
“Mamas are a child’s first Children’s Pastor.”
“Those in Christ share in His story therefore we will share in His suffering.”
“Until Christ returns or we return to Him, we must work and suffer.”
“How do I stay in my hope in the middle of my journey and remain alive and vibrant until the first moment of eternity? JOY!”
“Do not have a poor joy.”
Brother Bo offered four places where I can find joy in the waiting and even the suffering. He is spot on.

Regarding content, I thoroughly enjoyed and got my sword sharpened by the following:

Gender-Specific Ministry Matters led by Cindy Bultema (GEMS for girls) and Adam Sculnick (CIA for boys). Backed by research, we explored…
86% of teen girls say they would feel more confident if they had a mentor
The average church offers 3-6 ministries for women and girls, but only 1-2 ministries for men and boys.
Church has become A place to go rather than THE place to go to learn to follow Jesus.

Family Ministry: A Holistic Approach led by Kathleen Jaoudi sharing, “Don’t re-invent the wheel; just add the layer.” I’ll save greater details about this breakout in a separate blogpost.

Equipping Parents to Navigate Technology and Their Kids led by Ela Hammond. She shared all her resources of books, links, a musical game, QR codes, takeaways, through a parent workshop model. Ela offered breakout information for (1) Screen Time for Littles, (2) Should I give my kid a phone?, (3) Pornography Prevention, (4) Social Media Strategies, and (5) Video gaming/YouTube.
“Today’s families have food boundaries, why not technology boundaries?”
“Our kids will be discipled by something.”
“In West Virginia, the majority of kids’ caregivers are not parents, but grandparents.”

Reaching the Families in Your Community led by Jennifer Edwards gave multiple, easy ideas for being a good neighbor in Jerusalem (inside the church) and in Judea (outside the church) in the community where we live. She’s presenting at the She Leads Church Online Conference and I can’t wait! In the mean time, I’ll be implementing several of her ideas within the next six weeks.

Holidays and Holy Days: Hands-On Celebration Ideas led by Emily Snider walked us through the seven festivals God called His people to celebrate in the scriptures. The four spring festivals celebrate Jesus’ first coming. The three fall festivals remind us of what will be fulfilled upon Jesus’ second coming. For this gal who has no trouble celebrating Jesus, this breakout just added more confetti to this amazing walk with Jesus. Watch out February!

Engaging the Grandparents in Your Ministry was led by Jill Vogel, a representative of the amazing folks at Legacy Coalition. The resources abound there and are fantastic. Their blog is great, their resources are great, their books are great, and their people are great. I found Legacy Coalition at my last in-person CPC2020. It gave me everything I needed to start a new ministry with grandparents during the shut-down which grew by leaps and bounds. I came back this time with lots of resources to gift to those involved in our Grandparenting With A Purpose team, to add to our Faith Grandparenting Facebook group, and share with churches where I lead workshops on this very thing.

The greatest content? The chats around tables, pizzas, Walmart & Publix & Bucc-ee’s runs, hallways, benches, beignets, walking trails, and Animal Kingdom ride lines (2.5 hours for the Avatar ride!) with my housemates who share the trenches in ministry from Georgia to Ohio. The discounted rate for CPC24 is good until January 20th and worth every penny. We’ve rented an even bigger AirBnB and we have four extra spots because sharing together is the best way to go.

My Spirit is full, my mission is clear, my joy can’t be contained, and I’m coming in hot to share the unending hope I have with whomever will listen or not. 2023, I’m coming for ya with my hands raised high!

“Surely you have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.” Psalm 21:6

As a young adult, I experienced great opportunities with college, new schedules, new co-workers, jobs, used cars, living on $25 for two weeks and lots of mac-n-cheese. Snail mail of love from home was a precious gift. That’s why our children’s ministry began serving our young adults 18-24 year olds who call the church I serve their ‘home church’ with monthly prayers and connections with Jesus Loves You Boxes.

Each fall and spring we invite parents and grandparents to register their young adults to receive a Jesus Loves You Box. When our CLUB345 and K2Club meets each month, we fill a priority mail box with goodies, or sign a Christmas card or postcard, and lay hands of blessing and prayers for each one.

The registration form: Let McEachern Kids send some love to your young adult this fall. If your son or daughter is between the ages of 18-24, we will reach out this fall to share the love of Jesus. Complete the form below and we’ll be in touch.

The form includes: Young adult’s name, mailing address, tell us something about them, allergies, person registering the young adult, and an optional donation to offset postage. Almost all registrations include a donation of some sort, but are not required. It’s part of my missions budget.

We include seasonal decorations, squishy and inflatable Jesuses, markers, office supplies, candy, and a gift card. Christmas cards went out in December with signatures written by students who participated in the Stuffed Animal Sleepover and a gift card. Gift cards have been RaceTrac (gas $$), Walgreens/CVS (office supplies; personal items), and Starbucks/Dunkin’ Donut (especially now that it’s cold). We even included this outreach as part of the kid’s active service on our annual Great Day of Service last Spring.

All of the small touches from a home church can go a long way to loving our young adults. Why children’s ministry? Why not! Next level? Invite a small group, Bible study, or Sunday school class to ‘adopt’ a registered young adult for a season. #2023goals

“Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.” Proverbs 20:11

Arrival Activity: Draw a picture of your house; Make a model of your house with playdoh or clay.  

We talked about Jesus’ homes (heaven, stable, cave, heaven) and his beds (manger). We shared about our homes and our beds. We talked about our favorite rooms in our houses. We talked about what we do in each room.

When we believe that Jesus is a gift from God who died for the sins of the whole world, God sends a helper to us, the Holy Spirit, to live inside of us to show us the way to please and obey God, and share God’s love to help others.  WE are the house of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says one more important thing about houses. It says that Jesus is preparing a house for each one of us in Heaven! He says that one day, we can all live forever with Him there in that perfect, wonderful place! (Luke 1:31-33; John 6:38-40; John 14:1-3)

ASK: Where do you live? (My house) Where in your house do you spend the most time? What is your favorite room in the house?

In the book of Deuteronomy 6:5, God directed His people (are we also God’s people?, so can this apply to us?) He said…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at HOME and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

Where do you SIT AT HOME?

Where do you WALK ALONG THE ROAD?

Where do you LIE DOWN?

When do you GET UP?

We brainstorm some creative ways to bless our homes using our sight (hang artwork that honors God), sounds (speak prayers out loud – there is power in the spoken word), touch (physically lay hands on the walls, chairs, carpeting, etc.), smell (light a scented candle or bring an open orange because citrus smells make us happy).

Activity:  Wrap crosses with wire and beads to be artwork to hang in your home that honors God.

Personal Testimony:  I would pray through my kid’s rooms often when they were growing up, especially in middle school.  When we purchased a new home, my Emmaus Reunion group came to pray through the house from my son’s bedroom (he asked if his room could be the starting place) out to our mailbox on the street.  When #1 Son moved into his new place after graduation from college, he asked if I’d come to pray through it, as well, and every home since then.

We prepared a pamphlet with short prayers that apply to each room of the house and we read some of those prayers together, out loud holding onto our crosses or placing our hands on the walls/doorframes.

One of the youth shared how she’d just gotten the acceptance letter she’d been waiting for from the college of her first choice.  She shared how she plans to pray through her home now and her dorm next fall.

Everything about the Christmas story speaks to home, a place to rest, a place of shelter, a place of hope, a place of safety, a home for now. Let’s use this new year reset to lead our littles to a holy habit of praying and the laying on of hands to bless and be a blessing wherever they call home.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”  John 13:17

As the local church I serve dedicates January to personal stewardship, a recommitment to holy habits, we will invite families to read through the book of Proverbs and pray through each room of their home as a practice to claim their home, their family, and all aspects of their lives for the Lord. The new year is a perfect time! It’s standing up and physically proclaiming, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

We prepared a brochure for students to easily carry from room to room as they blessed each space with family-friendly language with these prayers for various rooms.

AT THE FRONT DOOR
Touch the front door, and pray by saying: In Jesus’ holy name, let there be peace in this house and to all who live in it. Bless this house and all who enter it. Amen.
Matthew 18:5 

IN THE HALLWAY
Pray by saying: Loving God who sent your own Son to be born in a stable, bless this house and may it always be a place of love and peace. Amen.
Luke 2:16

IN THE FAMILY ROOM OR LIVING ROOM
Pray by saying: Lord God Almighty, we ask you to bless this room so that those who live together in this house love you Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind. Let us see what is good in each other and live together in goodness and love. Amen.
Hebrews 3:12-13

IN THE DINING ROOM
Pray by saying: Heavenly Father who sent Jesus to share food and drink with his friends, we ask you to bless this dining room so that all meals will be shared with each other in delight and thanksgiving. Amen.
Luke 24:30 

IN THE KITCHEN
Pray by saying: Lord Jesus, who generously serves others with kindness and joy, bless this kitchen and all the work that is done here. Just as you made breakfast on the beach for your friends after you rose from the dead, let us make our meals and clean up with a sweet spirit of helpfulness. Amen.
John 21:12

IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM OR UTILITY ROOM
Pray by saying: Heavenly God, just as you feed and clothe the birds of the sky and the flowers in the fields, let us put on clothes of helpfulness, compassion, clean talk, and respect each other. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Amen.
1 Peter 5:5

IN THE BATHROOM
Pray by saying: Creator God, bless this bathroom so that everyone in this house may be pure and clean both outside and inside. Amen.
Isaiah 1:16

IN THE BACKYARD
Pray by saying: Lord, from the very beginning You have been like a home to us where we feel safe and loved. Before you created the mountains, from the beginning to the end of time, you are God. Bless this backyard that it would be full of life and beauty. Let everyone who lives here always care for Your earth and do all we can to take good care of Your creation. Amen.
Psalm 90:1

IN THE GARAGE
Pray by saying: Thank you for the blessings of cars, trucks, vans, and all the ways we have to get to and from our home. May the Lord keep us kind, wise, safe, and patient as we go out and come back home. Amen.
Psalm 139:3

IN THE BEDROOMS
Pray by saying: It is the Lord who makes us sleep in safety even though He never sleeps or naps. Lord God bless the one(s) who sleep here. Protect us from all evil and temptation so we will be ready to serve you every day. Amen.
Psalm 120:3-4

FINISH IN THE AREA THAT IS FAMILY CENTRAL
Pray by saying: Most gracious Father, this is our home; let Your peace rest upon it. Let love live here, love for one another, love for others, love for life itself, and love for You God. Let us remember that just as many hands built this house, so many hearts make a home. Amen.
Proverbs 3:33

Praying through our home is a holy habit we practiced when we moved into a new home, at the beginning of each new year, and whenever prompted by circumstances. Teaching children to pray for their homes and each other is a holy habit that can carry through life and an amazing offensive weapon against family strife, contention, and even the occasional contrariness.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Colossians 4:2

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” Romans 8:28a

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 reads ““Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home . . . “

We’ve gone a step further when we sit at our home . . . we regularly pray through our kid’s bedrooms. This is not a superstitious little ritual. This is a powerful claim of your home, your children, and all aspects of their lives for the LORD. It’s standing up and proclaiming, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) Stormie Omartian, author of Power of a Praying Parent, is quoted as saying, “Everyone’s house needs a spiritual housecleaning from time to time, especially in the rooms where our children sleep and play.”

A holy housecleaning is done periodically as a matter of principle, but definitely whenever we feel troubled by something in our child(ren). If he/she is becoming fearful, rebellious, angry, depressed, distant, strange, a disciplinary problem, or having bad dreams and nightmares, sometimes simply praying through the room can change things quickly. I have seen a change in spirit in my children after every time I have done so. My prayer always started, “LORD, if there’s anything in this room that shouldn’t be here, show me.”

As we entered the teen years, I explained that for his/her own peace and blessing, we would clean the room of anything not of the LORD. Did she/he like it? No, not always. Did we have to remove anything from his/her room? Yes, sometimes. We removed anything that promoted drug or alcohol use, violence, disrespect to family members, or anything we knew would encourage disobedience to God’s word. It didn’t take long for them to welcome it, even ask for it.

We found that music was the most common item of removal because kids trade and copy. So no headphones, no tvs, nor computers were ever allowed in bedrooms. That way I could hear what was being sung and I would ask God for the discernment of what battles to pick.

And when we still struggled through a season, I enlisted the help of his/her small group leaders, my prayer group (who could pray for my children when I was in such distress I couldn’t pray beyond, “Help!”), and their youth pastor. Their spiritual leaders maintained their loyalty to my kids and I never did anything that would harm their need for confidentiality. Youth culture and children’s issues are what they dealt with daily and they were our greatest resource. These folks are here to help us be the godly parents God intended. It’s the personal relationships we have with real people just a bit further down the road of parenting than we are who will set up our kids and us for the greatest possibility for success to navigate a real world for a real God. Today, I get to stand in that role for others. To God be the glory!

“Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” Psalm 24:8

(This updated posting was originally posted September 2011)