Posted in Children, Resources, Training | August 4th, 2010
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 [...]
Posted in Holiday Programs, Puppets, Resources, Training | May 24th, 2010
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 [...]
Posted in Christmas, Easter, Training, Websites, Worship | April 7th, 2010
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. [...]
Posted in Children, Leadership, Resources, Training, Websites | February 24th, 2010
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
Tags: Children, Leadership, Training
Posted in Leadership, Resources, Training, Websites | February 3rd, 2010
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. [...]
Tags: Bible, Leadership, Learning, Storytelling, Training
Posted in Leadership, Resources, Training, Websites | January 28th, 2010
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
Posted in Children, Leadership, Resources, Training | January 25th, 2010
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.
Posted in Leadership, Resources, Training, Websites, Worship | August 12th, 2009
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 [...]
Tags: Leadership, Storytelling, Training, Websites, Worship
Posted in Children, Research, Training | July 20th, 2009
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 [...]
Tags: Children, Leadership, Learning, Research, Training
Posted in Children, Leadership, Training | July 8th, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Children, Games, Training | April 23rd, 2009
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 [...]
Tags: Children, Training
Posted in Children, Holiday Programs, Leadership, Training | March 5th, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Children, Leadership, Reflection, Training, Uncategorized | February 6th, 2009
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 [...]
Tags: Children, Discipline, Training
Posted in Leadership, Resources, Stories, Training, Websites | January 28th, 2009
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 [...]
Tags: Leadership, Storytelling, Training
Posted in Leadership, Resources, Training, Websites, Worship | January 21st, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Children, Holiday Programs, Leadership, Training | September 18th, 2008
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 [...]
Posted in Children, Holiday Programs, Leadership, Training, Worship | July 21st, 2008
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 [...]
Posted in Children, Resources, Training, Websites | May 26th, 2008
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 [...]
Posted in Children, Games, Holiday Programs, Puppets, Resources, Training, Websites | May 21st, 2008
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 [...]
Posted in Resources, Training, Websites | May 12th, 2008
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
Posted in Children, Leadership, Training | February 27th, 2008
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.
Posted in Resources, Training, Websites | January 29th, 2008
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.
Posted in Children, Research, Resources, Training, Websites | January 16th, 2008
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 [...]
Posted in Children, Leadership, Training | October 1st, 2007
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 [...]
Posted in Leadership, Resources, Training, Websites | July 31st, 2007
I found this website today which has a number of good articles on leadership, training and recruiting new children’s leaders. TodaysChildrensMinistry.com
Posted in Children, Quotations, Reflection, Research, Resources, Training, Websites | June 4th, 2007
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 [...]
Posted in Holiday Programs, Personal, Resources, Training | May 9th, 2007
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 [...]
Posted in Easter, Resources, Stories, Training, Websites, Worship | March 13th, 2007
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.)
Posted in Holiday Programs, Puppets, Resources, Training, Uncategorized | December 3rd, 2006
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 [...]
Posted in Children, Christmas, Reflection, Resources, Training | November 14th, 2006
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 [...]