Articles — Page 3

Understanding Approaches in Ministry

This article first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on September 17, 2013 I’m noticing various approaches in ministry lately. Traditional, contemporary or blended worship services. Seeker sensitive, holy huddles, and house churches. Chronological Bible storytelling, series-based, or topically-based. Large-group/small-group, rotation stations, video-based, or classroom format. Purpose-driven, Gospel-centered, etc. Family equipping, family church, family-suppored, or family educational. […]

June 12, 2018

30 Dr. Seuss Quotes That Can Change Your Life

source mamiverse.com

June 10, 2018

Dear Parents, It’s Okay to Discipline Your Children

This article first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on November 21, 2013 Dear Parents, I’m concerned about a disturbing trend I’m seeing happening more and more: parents are not disciplining their children (both young and old) when they are doing behavior that they themselves did when they were young. This is more than just a pastor’s […]

June 8, 2018

Lifeguards: A Parable about the Presence of Authority

This article first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on December 9, 2013 There is a municipal water park in Spokane, WA that my daughters like to frequent when we visit my in-laws. It’s a really neat place. They have a bucket that fills up with water, water spouts shooting streams of water all over the place, […]

June 6, 2018

Some Tips on Germs and Working with Kids

This article first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on January 11, 2014 My body encountered a strain of strep that it had never seen before and it knocked me down for a week prior to Christmas. Ten days of Penicillin later I was feeling mostly better, with a twinge of an earache. About a week later, […]

June 4, 2018

I Desperately Want to Matter

From a journal entry dated July 30, 2017: At the moment, I feel insecure. All day I have not felt important… that I am not a good leader… that I’m not cool enough… that I’m not an extrovert, “out there” or flashy. I’m just Jeremy… simple and quiet. I guess I’m just feeling insecure in […]

June 3, 2018

What Are You Building Your Life On? (part 2)

I was offered two weeks in a row to teach at Hayward Wesleyan. The first week was called: What Are You Building Your Life On? I originally was planning on talking about the foundation we build our lives on, Jesus, which I did in the first week, and then what are we building our lives with, […]

June 3, 2018

A Children’s Ministry Competition Disaster

How does a connect-the-dots activity, made into a contest, where a prize is involved, become a disaster? I’ll tell you… I wanted to do a game with the Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students when we were doing the story on the Temple being built by King Solomon (second link). My children’s coordinator found an elaborate […]

June 2, 2018

Why Chairs Are Important in a Teaching Environment

“Do you think we should not use chairs today? I’ve seen children’s ministry in churches where they didn’t have chairs and the kids had room to move around and sing.” This was a question I posed to of my children’s ministry volunteers a number of years ago. I wanted to switch things up and try […]

May 31, 2018

Report to the Church Board on Ten Years in Ministry at Hayward Wesleyan

The following board report was from July 2013, which was one month past my 10-year anniversary of working at Hayward Wesleyan: Board Report Pastor Jeremy Mavis // July 2013 10 years ago, I started working @ Hayward Wesleyan Church. I had never been a pastor before and yet I felt somewhat confident in what needed […]

May 29, 2018

What Are You Building Your Life On? (part 1)

About a month ago, I did a teaching with the middle school students with these two thoughts: What are you building your life on? (Matthew 7:24-27) What are you building your life with? (1 Corinthians 3:10-15) When my lead pastor asked if I could preach for a couple of weeks in a row, I thought […]

May 27, 2018

Five Ways I Have Observed Ministry is Like Farming

This post first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on March 15, 2014 This past week, Hayward Wesleyan Church hosted a “leadership summit” where we invited all the leaders of our church (those serving in all the different ministries of the church) to a collective gathering where we would celebrate, encourage, and exhort one another. The pastors […]

May 27, 2018

Questions Children Ask about God and the Bible

I’m always trying to exegete our current culture—both the good and the bad—to get an idea what effect it is having on the children and teenagers I and our small group leaders interact with on a weekly basis. Culture is always a moving target than I’m trying to understand. So I wondered where our children […]

May 25, 2018

Such an Incredible Mind Wrote Children’s Stories

“A STORY IS HOW YOU CAPTURE A CHILD’S HEART.” Sally Lloyd-Jones, author of the Jesus Storybook Bible, talks about her appreciation for C.S. Lewis. “SUCH AN INCREDIBLE MIND WROTE CHILDREN’S STORIES.” I appreciated Jones’ words toward Lewis and I agree that those who write good children’s stories tend to be incredible and often deep thinkers. If […]

May 23, 2018

7 Skills Every Kid Needs to Learn in the World Today

“THE WORLD NO LONGER CARES HOW MUCH OUR STUDENTS KNOW. KNOWLEDGE IS A COMMODITY. WHAT THE WORLD CARES ABOUT IS WHAT THE KIDS WILL DO WITH WHAT THEY KNOW.” Critical thinking and problem solving. Begins with the ability to ask really good questions… the right questions. The world is more interested in problem formulation, than problem solving. Collaboration […]

May 21, 2018

The Power of Stories (from Books)

Sally Lloyd-Jones on Parenting Children Into the Christian Worldview Story “IF A STORY CAPTURES OUR CHILDREN, THEN NOTHING ELSE COMPETES.” Stories from books seem to capture a sense of wonder, adventure, a “secret world escaped into.” Video games seem to make children worse and addictive. “PLAYSTATION PUTS KIDS’ LIFE ON HOLD, WHILE A BOOK SEEMS […]

May 19, 2018

Men Need to Know Their Family

Notes from the video below: Men Need to Know Their Family Men need to know their family intimately, not on a superficial level. What are you concerned about? What are you worried about? How are you doing? How are we doing? Men fail to know their families in that their family is not a priority. […]

May 17, 2018

Children Need to Be Taught to Obey

Article first appeared at Wesleyan Kids from April 25, 2014 Children need to be taught to obey. Why? Parents, teaching your children to obey is actually training your children to obey God. When our children are young, things need to be black and white. Obedience brings blessing and disobedience brings punishment. Children have to learn […]

May 11, 2018

Want vs. Need

Article originally appeared at Wesleyan Kids on May 12, 2014 One of my good friends is an elementary gym teacher. If he were to ask his students what they wanted to play during gym class, they would reply: “Pom, pom, pullaway!” This is their favorite game. If they were given a choice, this is what […]

May 9, 2018

Should a Parent Force their Children or Teenager to Come to Church?

A while back I read an article entitled: Why I Would Never Force my Kids to go to Church. Below is an excerpt from that article: “My parents forced me to eat three times a day growing up. No joke. Three times. Every. Single. Day. And it wasn’t always stuff I liked, either. Matter of […]

May 7, 2018