February 4, 2015 By Brian Dembowczyk

5 Easy Ways to Help Parents Disciple Their Kids

The Bible is clear that parents are to be the primary disciplers of their own children. But that doesn’t mean that God intends for them to be the only disciplers. As a kids leader, you play a vital role in partnering with parents in their ministry of discipling children and when the parents and you are both pouring the gospel into the hearts of kids, they stand a great chance of loving and following Jesus for a lifetime.
Here are 5 ways you can use The Gospel Project for Kids® resources to help parents disciple their kids.

1. Send a Parent E-mail each week. A suggested e-mail for each session is included on the Enhanced CD (for print customers) or through My Curriculum Manager (for digital customers) or create your own. The idea here is to share the main idea of what you will be covering that week beforehand so that parents can begin talking with their kids about it at home. Keep the e-mail brief and send it earlier in the week.
2. Share the link to The Gospel Project for Kids training videos. Hopefully you watch the training video for each session at Ministry Grid and find these helpful as you prepare. While these videos are produced with you, the leader, in mind parents could also benefit from watching them. You might want to include a link in your weekly e-mail.
3. Train parents on how to use the Activity Pages and Big Picture Cards for Families. The Activity Pages and Big Picture Cards provide parents with all of the basic elements of each session and position them to have fun and meaningful conversations with their kids. If you have not done it yet, consider walking parents through the content of these items and share a few ways parents can use them in their homes (e.g. putting the cards for each unit in order, asking the child to tell the Bible story in his or her own words).
4. Encourage parents to use the app. The app is another great resource for parents that they can use to help their child understand the Bible story, memorize the key passage, and more. The app is available at your preferred app store.
5. Invite parents to learn the Key Passage as a family. As your kids work at memorizing the key passage each unit, ask parents not only to help them, but to work at memorizing it with them. By doing this, parents will not only model what they want their kids to do, but they will also create regular opportunities to talk with their kids about what the passage means.

Brian Dembowczyk is the team leader for The Gospel Project for Kids. He served in local church ministry for over 16 years before coming to LifeWay in 2014. Brian earned an M.Div. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a D.Min. from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Brian and his wife, Tara, and their three children – Joshua, Hannah, and Caleb – live in Murfreesboro, TN, where Brian enjoys drinking coffee and teaching 1-3 graders at City Church.

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