Effective Children's Ministry

Archive for the ‘Bits and Pieces’ Category

It is two months since I last ran our web address through Wordle.net. [Click the image for an enlarged version.]

Though it is really only a little bit of fun, it is always intriguing to see what themes emerge.  The larger the lettering, the more often the word is used. I have a feeling that Wordle simply look at the home page, so this image will reflect words used in the last 10 posts only.

We have come a long way since our first Wordle highlighted pizza and cake! If you would like to browse our site by a similar method, have a look at our tags, in the side bar to the right. Unlike the Wordle image, these are clickable and reflect the whole site, not only recent posts.

Would you like to draw on a big pool of kidmin experience?

Whether you work in a large or small setup; whether your children’s ministry is thriving or struggling; whether you have a healthy budget or nothing in the “kitty” – there will be something for you at the forum of Ministry-to-children.com.

We have learned a huge amount over the 6 months or so that we have been visiting the forum. It is free to join and very easy to sign up. I know you’ll learn a lot, and no doubt you will be able to contribute to the discussion with your own experiences and comments.

Here’s the link to the forum.

Other areas of the site are extremely helpful too, with lesson plans, craft and games  ideas, helpful videos, stimulating discussion and a massive list of kidmin blogs for you to browse.

This book brings together 33 authors from amongst the leaders in the fields of children’s and family ministry.  Each author was asked to define, in one word, “What Matter’s Now in Children’s Ministry.”  They were then asked to expand on that one word with a short (200 words or less) explanation of their choice. 

This is a quote from an excellent in-depth review by Wayne Stocks of a new free resource of interest to everyone in kid’s ministry.  You may have seen the information elsewhere on the web, but in case you haven’t, we thought you’d like a link to the review and download.

If you would like to find out more before downloading the e-book, visit Wayne’s site for his full and thorough review. There are links there to the download.

Or download using this link (Left-click to read online in a new window, or Right-click and save to your hard drive):
What Matter’s Now in Children’s Ministry

Yes, it’s that time of month when Wayne Stocks (aka Dad in the Middle) captures links to all the best in the kidmin blogosphere!

If you want a ” one-stop-shop” with free articles, tips, resources, challenge and anything else to do with children’s ministry, then Wayne’s Blog Patrol is for you.

This list is a great resource for all of us. Wayne does the web browsing for us and we benefit. Once again, everything is in easy-to-find categories, including:

 and TONS more!

Check out The Children’s Ministry Blog Patrol (April 2010)

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!

He calls it his Children’s Ministry Blog Patrol. But we call it Wayne’s Bumper Bundle!

Every month Wayne Stocks, over at the Dad in the Middle blog gathers links from around the blogging world related to Children’s Ministry and issues important to those who work in Children’s Ministry.

The massive list is categorized, so you can go immediately to the sections most important to you. Wayne has gathered the “creme de la creme” of children’s ministry comment, information, free stuff, news, tips and advice.

We are honoured to have been featured on the list, but that’s not why we are sending you there! It is simply because it is a wealth of excellence for you to browse as you want.

Do visit this month’s Children’s Ministry Blog Patrol, and bookmark the post; you’ll want to visit it several times to take advantage of  the links that will benefit you and your ministry.

Is there something that a small church can offer that is much harder to achieve in the megachurch?
Pastor Jared at the Smalltownkidmin Blog thinks so. In one thoughtful and honest post he focuses on the value of building relationships.

If you check it out this post, you’ll also see an ace craft idea for pre-schoolers!

Smalltownkidmin Blog is relatively new, but in a dozen or so posts, the author has established a niche of writing from the perspective of a small church. Pastor Jared’s church has an average attendance of around 50, of which about a third are cared for in the nursery and children’s ministry. In the wider scope of children’s ministry sites and blogs it is refreshing to see the challenges and blessings of the small scale set up written about.

In the side bar, low down, is a small image of a map which, if you click on it, opens out into a larger one. It is a world map, speckled with red dots of varying sizes.

This is Clustrmap, a small application which plots each unique visitor to our wee blog.

As Catherine and I view these maps from time to  time we see the speckles increasing in number and size, indicating that our readers are spread right across the globe and that your numbers are growing.

We want you to know that we are praying for every red dot. We thank God for each one of you; thank him that you are giving your time to browse a web site about children’s ministry resources; that you are preparing yourself as best as you can for the ministry you will give the children in your care.

And if you are not yet in kids’ ministry, we thank God that you are interested enough to drop by here.

So whether you are in the United States or Australia, Russia or Brazil (and any point in between!) – we are trusting God to bless you in every area of your life as you live and work for him.

In one sense you may appear to be only a tiny red dot on a big map, but to us you are brothers and sisters, fellow workers in the Lord’s harvest field. And to God you are infinitely precious.

Vacation Bible Schools take a lot of planning, need a lot of prayer and will benefit from you being well-organized ahead of time.

ChristianEdWarehouse have produced a timeline chart that will guide the organizing of your helpers, teachers, materials and everything else that goes to make a great Holiday Club.

If you are among the many who will be  planning a summer club for the first time, or are simply curious to see how others map out their progress, have a look at this helpful PDF.

You can download the timeline organizer here .

It has been said that the greatest weapon the devil has against Christians is discouragement. And those involved in kids’ ministry are not immune from it.

We work hard – investing time, energy and emotion into a project, only to find that numbers are less than we hoped for, or we have few reliable helpers or…any number of things have made us dejected.

James Kennison, a children’s worker full of passion and very up-beat in his ministry, has experienced the lows as well as the highs of children’s ministry.

His thoughtful blog post  at CMMonthly.com will be a great help to any who are feeling a bit low just now.  James and his wife had  distributed 1000 invitations, and hoped for 30 new faces at their Valentine’s Day family outreach. Instead, 5 kids brought 5 visitors.

Read how this affected him, and what God said to him  in this discouraging disappointment.