Effective Children's Ministry

Archive for April, 2010

Once again our friends over at Ministry-to-children.com have come up with a practical and sensitive article.

To quote from the introduction:

Some of the children in our classrooms may not have a mother present in the home due to death, abandonment, military service, incarceration, custody issues, or various other circumstances.Parents can also be dealing with Mother’s Day grief, especially for those who have lost a child or their own mother recently. These feelings often will affect all the children in the family. So how can we approach the day with compassion? 

You can find  Mother’s Day & Kids Who Have Lost Their Mom here.

There is also a companion post on Father’s Day & Kids Who Have Lost Their Dad

Would you like to see a video of two of the cutest kids on the planet showing what they have learned about the Crucifixion? They use finger gestures to help recall the “5 mighty miracles of the cross”.

Hop over to FreeCMStuff.com .

I defy you not to grin from ear to ear when you watch the girls and then try to remember the gestures so that you can teach your kids!

Cullen Wood is an experienced Christian pre-school worker. She has her own channel on YouTube with sections for children’s action songs, activities, stories and Christian songs.

Cullen shows us how to help kids remember Bible truths and songs by using finger play. She interacts with Gator the puppet, encouraging little ones to focus and follow the teaching. She demonstrates craft and other activities that she has used successfully with tinies and shows how you can set up these fun times for your children.

Her site, Cullen’sABC’s is rich with all sorts of inspiring stuff. It’s ideal for anyone who has young children in their family or Sunday School class.

Every time I watch Cullen and Gator, I end up with a big smile! They are not only informatiove, but very uplifting. Best of all, from the comments made by her users, Cullen has quite a fan club of toddlers and tots!

Great prizes from a brilliant kidmin freebie site. Do check it out! The thought of those PowerPoint Bible story pics is  making my mouth water!

Go to FreeCMStuff 

Catherine and I once turned up at a children’s service with the wrong bag of visuals.  We had identical bags for a youth event and a childrens event – not a good idea! Fortunately Catherine is a tremendously good story-teller! So the loss of the picture cards was not an enormous handicap to her telling the Bible story.  She used her gestures and voice to dramatize the lesson, and gripped us all.

But from that day onward we kept a list of everything that was needed, and before we loaded the car we eye-balled each individual item. Oh yes, and we colour coded the bags!!

Lists are invaluable. Most of us use them when we go shopping, pack for holidays and  plan for Christmas. They are equally useful (and for us older folk, essential!) in kid’s ministry.

Doing craft? List every required items. Then you won’t find yourself without wet-wipes to clean hands after a messy activity.

Leading worship? List your visuals and equipment. I once forgot the amplifier for my electric guitar! I have also left behind electrical extension cables and overhead projector slides.

Giving a powerpoint presentation? List all the connectors, extension cables and projector screen, if required. Put your presentation notes on the list too, if you work from a sheet of paper.

Teaching a Bible lesson? List all your visual aids and presentation equipment, together with any objects or demonstrations you will be using.

Even after all our years in kid’s ministry, we still find making lists one of the best ways to ensure a trouble-free setup and a smoothly run meeting.
You might even like to transfer a list onto your computer, so you can print a checklist each time to leave to take part in a meeting.