Effective Children's Ministry

Archive for November, 2009

From Family Worship.org comes a simple but poignant song, presented as Christmas music video. The Youtube page will give you a taste of this inspirational worship experience.

It is good to know that, if you would like to use this for a Christmas service,
>> it is available to buy as a high quality DVD or download.

Hot news!!
Now available from the web site of Damaris.org are some great new free resources, based on the new film “NATIVITY”.
They include scripts for children’s talks, video clips for discussion starters, a free school assembly outline with all the media clips and even the heading and bullet points to add to your PowerPoint presentation. You can preview everything, then download for free.

We haven’t seen the movie, but many of your friends and neighbours, with their children, may go to see it. This could be a way of connecting with them, and showing the relevance of the Christmas message for today. The Damaris material gives you ideas and materials with which to take advantage of this.

Myth or Truth? A Christmas PowerPoint Presentation
Is Jesus Christ really the promised Saviour?
This post is to tell you about a resource on our Christmas mini-site that you may have missed.

Myth or Truth? is a  Powerpoint presentation which may be used as one element in a service, or as the basis of a small group Bible study.

It is a brief introduction to the main areas of evidence which prove that Jesus is the promised Messiah, Saviour of all who trust in him.
Develop this as you wish. It is absolutely free to download.

 Here is the page to head for.

Here is a very simple idea – and the visuals you need are free to download.

Easy presentation for your Children's Family service

Prepare large rectangular cards, each with a letter on.  If you wish, make them the shape of tree baubles, or bells.
This could be done equally well with large imitation Christmas cards, which open to reveal the letter as each line is said.
Or even simply cover the rectangles with gift wrap and put a bow on for imitation gifts.

Whatever shape you choose you need one for each letter.  To help the children, their lines may be printed large and clear on the back.  We have found this removes a lot of strain, and is especially helpful if time is short!!

The children take turns to hold up their card , reveal the letter and say their line.  For little ones who know their letters but cannot read, you could have them hold up the cards while older children read , or a narrator.

C  tells us the Lord Jesus CHRIST is His name
H says down from HEAVEN to earth He came
R says REMEMBER, God sent Him one day
I says, in the INN He had no place to stay
S speaks of the STAR that shone in the sky
T tells us that there were great TIDINGS of joy
M says in a MANGER Jesus was born
A – ANGELS and men worshipped Him that morn
S says, Christ came down to SAVE you and me
[All] That’s the real meaning of Christmas, you see!

A free downloadable version of this, with Christmas gift boxes as the theme, is available. Simply print it out and laminate.
Click here for the free download of script and printable visuals.

How do the children we teach think about people in the Bible ? Are they imagining super-heros like their favourite cartoon characters, or do they understand that these were real people who really lived in a real world, having real dealings with the real and living God? Christine Jones, writing in the childrensministry.com blog, shares what she is doing to convey the truth to her class. You’ll find her post here. What do you think?

Dick Gruber, cartoonist and great children’s communicator had made available a free downloadable cartoon worksheet for “Thanks Living”. Ideal for our friends in the US, this would still be useful  anywhere in the world.
Here is Dick’s blog.

I came across this beautiful and challenging video on Cameron Smith’s blog.

The method of presentation is striking.  How many of us can write backwards?!  The design and layout of the words and images is very creative. But the words and music are simple and clear. They drive deep with their message. Whether active in children’s ministry or not,  every one will find this video intriguing and challenging.

We have just created a small “mini-site” for Children’s ministry workers.

It has some simple ideas and free downloadable resources for Christmas. Ideas for presentations for the children to do, PowerPoint prentations with which to teach about Christmas, ieas for games, and loads more.

As time goes on we hope to build up a full resources site; this is just a taster! We’ll add posts here as more stuff gets uploaded.  Everything is free to download.

Here is the link to the Christmas resources mini-site.