Involving Children with the Bible 1.Extending the passage: Following a story, children are encouraged to think further. e.g .to pretend they were the guard at the tomb, and to write a letter to your mum, a week after the resurrection, e.g. make up some press questions that you may ask one of the disciples after [...]
So you’ve found your puppets or made your puppets. You know that you’d like to use them with your group, but… what exactly are they going to say ? You’re not quite ready yet to launch into a full scale puppet play. Why not begin by making an announcement or introduce someone to the children [...]
All-Age Worship Web Resources (April 2010 updated) MessyChurch (in the UK) is one church’s attempt to be church for families who might want to meet Jesus, belong to their local church and bring up their children as Christians but can’t cope with traditional Sunday morning church services. Lot’s of practical suggestions to try. messychurch blog. [...]
I found the following website has helpful downloads relevant to teaching or leading a children’s group. There are also some questions for reflection and discussion with others in your children’s ministry team. Children’s Ministry Agency- Assemblies of God USA. http://4kids.ag.org/library/characteristics/index.cfm
MAX7.org has a load of great FREE resources for use in Sunday School, training children’s workers and running children’s programs. I’ve just been reading their latest resource which is a training guide for children’s workers which has some excellent material to work through with your leadership team. The guide is also available in several languages. [...]
The Christian Blind Mission (CBM Australia) has produced some excellent resources to help make our churches more inclusive for people with disablities. Please visit their website and consider how Children’s workers can implement changes and work to improve our support of those who find church access and inclusion difficult. Visit: http://Luke14.cbm.org.au
Scripture Union have made available a great training resource called “Children and the Gospel” written by Ron Buckland a seasoned Australian children’s worker, pastor, trainer and writer. This article and the references quoted are well worth a read.
I have just seen a great new children’s ministry resource from Scripture Union in the UK which has been developed to help those working with pre-schoolers.The material is called “Tiddlywinks“. They write.. “We are aiming to provide a monthly email to support and resource those working with under-5s in Christian settings. This could be on [...]
We all want our kids to be happy, but too much praise and inclusion does not teach them that they can’t always win- an important life lesson. What happens when they get older and things don’t go their way? US curriculum and childhood education expert Dr Pam Schiller says we are already seeing the results [...]
Build good relationships Leaders to kids Kids to leaders Kids to kids Participate in all activities even if it is from the sideline Be real with the kids Set and keep good standards Use action and variety Be well prepared. Use activities that suit the children’s age group. Give the children some responsibility. Create a [...]
Practical suggestions in helping children read the Bible. 1. Use part of the Bible as a handbook: If possible, give each child one of teh Gospels. This becomes their handbook, in which they can- Colour in important verse or memory verses; colour boxes can be drawn around each story as it is covered in you [...]
1. Get the children to sit together in such a way that everyone has eye contact with the leader. Make sure that all the children can hear you. As best you can be aware of any children with eyesight or hearing problems who need to sit near the front. 2. Clearly outline the task and [...]
DISCIPLINE & CONTROL WITH CHILDREN A definition of DISCIPLINE Discipline is the guiding of behaviour so that learning can occur. The aim of good discipline is to : (1) effect learning ( learning should be promoted and enhanced). (2) help children to acquire the ability to exercise SELF-DISCIPLINE. Good techniques of class management and discipline [...]
Children’s Ministries University Online offers free “Children’s Ministry Training Workshops”. The following workshops are intended to give prospective students a glimpse of the instruction offered through their courses. I’ve included the link here for those who might find their free workshops helpful. Free Workshops “Cultivating a Cutting Edge Children’s Church” “Creative Storytelling” “Help is on [...]
I have just found out about a great new website which offers free resources for ministry to children. Included for free is the new BibleMAX curriculum, video and song downloads and some training materials. New resources are going to be added in time. This generous offering of resources to the world via the net is [...]
What are some key elements in dealing with discipline problems? Lay a good foundation of discipline through your positive relationships with the children. Get to know what makes them tick and what to expect from children of differing ages and stages of growth. Discipline Hints- 1. Make expectations clear. Before a children’s program, camp or [...]
I was reminded recently of a helpful guide to choosing songs or music to use with children. This test (originally developed by Scripture Union) has been also a very useful tool in training music teams working with children in mission situations. The test is called the TRIM test. T = Teaching Is the teaching true [...]
A new program of Child Safety training has just been launched by Scripture Union in Australia and New Zealand. This program and resources would be of interest to all those who work with children and are concerned about child safety. ChildSafe online provides… “Our aim is to help you create a culture of safety for [...]
Our church is gearing up for our annual children’s holiday club (vacation bible school) in our July school holidays. This year we are following an Olympic Games theme and bible passages from Luke’s gospel. If you are looking for material to use for your Sunday School or children’s club could I recommend two excellent resources [...]
Scripture Union continues it’s long tradition of producing high quality resources for bible reading and children’s ministry. Scripture Union UK have just launched a new website which makes available thousands of resources from their “LIGHT” material archive. Fully searchable and free. http://Lightlive.org
1. Develop an atmosphere of love and acceptance. 2. Provide meaningful activities. 3. Allow the child to make choices. 4. Be realistic and consistent in your expectations. 5. Focus on positive actions.
Greg Baird at “Kids in Focus” has a very helpful article titled “Don’t recruit R.E.L.A.T.E.” which gives some good tips for Children’s Ministers who are looking to grow their ministry teams. The newsletter (available from this site) is also worth subscribing to. It has some very useful reflections and ideas on kid’s ministry.
I’ve just been looking at a very helpful website dealing with lots of issues to do with raising boys. BoysForward.com Articles include – Boys and Role Models , Boys and Praise, The value of sport with boys, Boys and homework… 50 ways to improve your child’s attention span and behaviour without drugs. Lots more helpful [...]
Considerations in choosing the appropriate material to teach a children’s small group. 1. Scriptually based. 2. Appropriate to teach particular doctrine or spiritual truth. 3. Good story content. 4. Link with the other lessons to form a compact series. 5. Has action and content which appeal to the age group of children. 6. Gives the [...]
I found this website today which has a number of good articles on leadership, training and recruiting new children’s leaders. TodaysChildrensMinistry.com
The Importance of Children’s Ministry No evangelical church has unlimited resources in facilities, money and often a more limiting factor, staff and volunteers. Therefore, to be most effective in its evangelical mission of bring the Love of God to the largest number of the unchurched, it is important that a church focus its resources and [...]
We are currently preparing for our children’s holiday program (called “Going Bananas” ) which will be held for a week in July. This year is our tenth year of running these outreach programs and every year we get a bit larger with more team members and more children coming each day. I’ll post some more [...]
I’ve just picked up a great resource full of ideas for Easter including drama skits, stories, poems, Easter service ideas and craft. The publication is called “Easter cracked” and is published by Scripture Union. (93 pages) http://www.scriptureunion.org.au (Aust.) http://www.scriptureunion.org.uk (Britain) http://scriptureunion.gospelcom.net ( U.S.A.)
20 Ways to use puppets to teach a memory verse 1. Teach the puppet the verse. 2.The puppet can teach the verse to the children. 3. Use the puppets to teach the meaning. 4. Use puppets to emphasise the main theme words. 5. Use puppets to explain difficult words -eg. puppet pronounces hard or unusual [...]
Sharing the Christmas Story with Preschoolers In preparation to tell the Christmas story. 1. Be reminded that God’s Son Jesus came to earth as a little child to rescue humankind from their sins and to bring people back into relationship with God the Father for eternity. (John 3:16) Emphasize to your child that Jesus is [...]
