Posted on September 22, 2009 - by rfrank

Tuesday Talk: Jerry Meadows

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on my blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Jerry Meadows answers the question, “How can children be involved in world-wide missions?”

Traditionally, there has been one mission question and one answer: “Whom shall I send?” “Here am I, send me”.  We must broaden the idea of missions involvement and make sure every believer, regardless of age, has a strategic answer to, “how are you involved in missions?”.  Here’s 5 avenues of involvement you can pave with your own creativity.

1. Prayer: An 11 year old boy in the Dominican Republic who is wheel chair bound due to severe scoliosis and brittle bone disease rolled up to his caregiver and declared that he wanted to die. His life would never be worthwhile. His caregiver put her face near his and said, “you can help change nations if you learn to pray. Can I teach you?” He has become a mighty warrior and is involved in missions.  We must challenge our children with the same passion.

2. Correspondence: Through emails, skype, blogging…your children can learn about culture, felt needs, and real life around the world in real time.

3. Gift in Kind: When your kids give some thing to meet a legitimate need they will be energized to do more. I’m convinced that kids despise cute projects with grandiose tag lines. What they really want is to meet a need.

4. Offering: Yep, good ol’ cash. Challenge them to give their own money not their parents. When they relate to the project you will see 5^th graders willing to give their birthday cash and 2^nd graders ready to do neighborhood chores to earn money.

5. Visits: Encourage your missionaries to come and share their personal stories. Consider children/family mission trips and involve your whole ministry as senders.

Jerry Meadows has served the local church for over 20 years. He is the Global Outreach Director for CURE International and coordinates with CURE’s Spiritual Directors doing children’s evangelism in 10 countries. His family (wife, Michelle and daughter, Chelsea) live in Mechanicsburg PA and have served on many short term mission trips. He enjoys speaking engagements, golfing and vacation time in Northern Michigan.