Small Group World

02.17.10

What do you do with children in your group?

Ben Reed is a guest blogger here at the Lifeway Small Groups blog. He regularly blogs for Life and Theology. You can also find him on Twitter HERE.

Is intergenerational ministry something that you raise as a value in your group? In other words, as most small group leaders have asked, "What do I do with the kids during group meeting time?"

Randall Neighbour offered a more pointed, helpful question:

What are you doing in your groups to integrate children into the mission of small groups?

My son, when he was a senior in high school, after attending small group with his dad, said, "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen you do. I've seen you preach great sermons and lead great conferences. But seeing you pray over someone was the coolest thing I've ever seen you do." - Rick Howerton
At our church, we've tried to form intergenerational groups, and have had very little interest. The general consensus is, "I love my kids...it's everbody else's that I can't stand." But in my personal group, we have children present with us. We don't do a lot of faith practice stuff together. But it's the frequency of interaction, and the camaraderie that built in the group, that's so helpful. -Bill Search
In our group, we adopt a student from the high school ministry. Our goal is to invest in their lives. They help us out with childcare during the group meeting, we celebrate their birthday and significant events in tehir lives, and we also commit to raising the funds necessary for them to go on a missions trip with the church. - Eddie Mosley
Families are studying the same central message in small groups...just not together. Children are broken into small groups on Sunday morning, and make it through a multi-year curriculum that concludes with a missions trip. But, to be honest, we may not be as intentional as we should be. What I'm wrestling through now is, "How do we import what we're doing well with adult small groups?" and, "How can we export what we're doing well with the children's ministry into our adult small group experience?" - Steve Gladen
If your goal is increasing in knowledge, then dividing children up based on ages makes great sense. But what if your goal isn't necessarily just increasing in knowledge? - Rick Howerton

Daphne Kirk is the foremost intergenerational minstry expert right now. Here are 4 of her books that Randall has found helpful:

Reconnecting the Generations - this is a "why" book, helping show you "why" connecting with your children now will keep you connected with you later.

Intergenerational Cell Resources - this is a curriculum for truly intergenerational small group meetings

Heirs Together

What Shall we do with the Children? - this is a training curriculum for how to integrate this, given by a children's pastor.

To connect with Daphne, and find other resources, a link to her website is HERE.

So I pose the question back to you:

What are you doing in your groups to integrate children into the mission of small groups? Is there a right way or a wrong way?