Parenting, it's been said, is the only profession where the goal is to work yourself out of a job.

As children's ministry leaders, whether volunteer or paid, our goal is to partner with parents, and help them work themselves out of a job. That is, to support their efforts to bring their children to maturity. We are helping parents to raise their children, to train them in the ways of the Lord. We focus on the spiritual, but really, just as parents, our goals ought to be to develop the whole person. After all, what good is it if we can get a child to recite from memory, "Love your neighbor as yourself," but then he goes home and bullies the other children in his neighborhood, or is disrespectful to his teacher at school?

Our goal is not to police kids, since we can't. The hour on Sunday you spend with the kids you minister to is miniscule compared to the time they spend with parents, peers or in school in any given week. So how can you impact kids, how can you help them grow? In fact, how ...