My Favorite KidMin Books
These are some of my favorite children’s ministry books that I love to go back to again and again. They are not in a ranking order and, certainly, many great books are left off of this list. Let me know what your favorite KidMin books are and why!
Group’s Emergency Response Handbook for Children’s Ministry
Seriously, a must have for all children’s mi
nisters. It’s short, sweet and to the point. It’s pocket sized so you can keep it in your bag every Sunday. This is a book I want to read and over and over until I know the content like the back of my hand. It is practical information on just about every crisis a child in your ministry could be going through and what you should do in response. Each chapter focuses on a different crisis/emergency and contains an example story, how to respond when a child in your care is going through such events, what not to say, legal implications, helpful scripture and more. I highly recommend this book for any children’s worker and even for training volunteers.
Strong Enough to Last by David Boyd
Boyd outlines eight goals that we should help our children reach before they leave our ministry. These eight goals create an outline and measure for your ministry as you disciple students. You now have a checklist to keep yourself and the kids on track. This is a great way to evaluate your current ministry and better it as you go forward.
Relational Children’s Ministry by Dan Lovaglia
Lovaglia takes an in depth look at the “pain points” in children’s ministry today and inspires readers to look more closely at their own ministry and impact. This book also takes readers into the five invitations Jesus used in discipleship and how we can mirror that in our own ministries. This book has a practical and thought-provoking message that will help you take your discipleship to a whole new level.
6 Children’s Ministry Essentials: A Quick Access Guide
This book is exactly what the title claims, a quick access guide. With Dick Gruber as the general editor and many contributors you get a full scope of ministry essentials like nursery, gender specific ministry, spirit-empowerment, evangelism, grief and volunteers. Each chapter contains practical tips and tricks as well as a section or two on why each of these parts of children’s ministry is essential. This is a great book to have on hand for any new or veteran children’s minister to reference in times of uncertainty.
Foundations of Children’s Evangelism by Dick Gruber, DMin
I purchased this book specifically for the chapters on Leading a Child to Christ and Leading Children Into the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and I was not disappointed. It is split into two sections. The first section covers the Biblical mandate of leading children to Christ and the ethical considerations of altars calls for children. In the second section Gruber jumps into the “how-to” chapters on evangelistic outreaches, promoting the ministry and how to lead a child to Christ and into the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In addition to these wonderful chapters full of ideas and tips, the appendix contains even more information for the reader’s use, including checklists and outreach example ideas.
Pastoral Care with Children in Crisis by Andrew D. Lester
This book is one that I wanted to immediately re-read when I finished it. I didn’t want to forget a single piece of information. Pastoral Care with Children in Crisis is not one of psychological or counseling advice. Instead, it focuses on how a pastor, not a trained counselor, should handle children in crisis. The interesting thing about this book is that the author is a senior pastor so it is written from that perspective. The advice is relevant to all children’s ministers and includes many ways we can care of children in crisis that most children’s ministers no longer think to do.
Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions by George Barna
Barna uses his knowledge and research of statistics to call upon churches and church leaders to make children their number one priority. Barna emphasizes that the church should build up and resource parents to lead their children and how together we can transform them into spiritual champions. This book brings together statistical and spiritual needs and provides an outline for churches to reach kids before they are lost.
Bonus:
Healing Hearts Club— The Trauma Healing Institute and the American Bible Society have partnered up to create a series of training resources and events for the church to help those who have undergone trauma. I have yet to attend their training events but their books are great resources to use even if you can’t get to a training session.
The Complete Guide to Crisis & Trauma Counseling: What To Do And Say When It Matters Most— Only a couple of chapters in this book focus on children but I have found the whole book to be immensely helpful in ministry.
Current Read:
Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way— I am currently reading this book by Michael Novelli. Novelli writes primarily for youth ministers but this book has been a great help to me as I reconsider the way we teach stories and engage students’ minds.
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