Effective Children's Ministry

Posts Tagged ‘Helpful sites’

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.

Catherine and I both love our allotment garden. We grow veggies, fruit and flowers  there, but the crop can be ruined by weeds and pests.
So we sat up and took note when we spotted  one article highlighted  in the Childrens Ministry magazine newsletter.

ChildrensMinistry.com is a great site, stuffed with useful resources and tips from experienced kid’s workers.

Walter Norvell, a children’s minister in Tennessee, writes  about 10 “weeds” that threaten the growth of your children’s ministry. It’s a great check list to run through from time to time.

10 Things That’ll Ruin Your Children’s 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.

What if some of the children in your meeting have no family in the church? What if Christian church life is a foreign culture to them? How can you relate Bible principles to their life experience? And how might you engage their parents with the Christian message, so that they feel welcome and comfortable in church?

Reaching beyond the church walls, out into a culture which is not familiar with Christianity, is not easy. But Gary Newton has tackled these issues in a thoughtful and thorough way, over at ChristianMinistry.com.

There is a lot of food for thought in Drop Off or Drop Out? Spare five minutes to check it out. And if you have longer, there’s a wealth of good things elsewhere on the site.

Free children’s bible ministry lessons are always welcome.  So we thought that we would post from time to time about such resources, as we become aware of them. Have a look and see if anything is suitable for you.

Posting about these resources is not  an indication that we have read  and approved everything . We simply want you to know about them and use your own judgement concerning their suitability for your work.

After mentioning today a free 3-year curriculum plan from Kidology, we have just seen a blog post from the excellent FreeCMStuff.com site.

There you will find news of a free 13-week course outline for children’s bible lessons. Made available by Children’s Ministries University Online, the course marries principles from the book of Hebrews to lessons from the Gospels.

You can download and review the course here.

Look for “The Book of Hebrews: 13 Weeks of Children’s Church Lessons”

Glasses, water and shredded paper can teach a musical lesson. 

Ken Sapp over at CreativeYouthMinistries has blogged about how to help the kids can make a Do-It-Yourself xylophone and even play tunes. 

Taking it one step further, Ken suggests substituting the water in one glass with shredded paper, and a spiritual lesson can be illustrated – living in harmony, being a blessing to others and the need for God in our lives.

Full details, and tons more great ideas, are over at  Ken’s blog:

Creative Youth Ministries

We have already highlighted the great list of resources at Dad in the Middle, the blog of children’s minister Wayne Stocks.

Now he has uploaded his Monthly review for January and it’s a real bumper bundle!  To give you  the flavour of what Wayne has gathered this month in his “Children’s Ministry Blog Patrol” here is his table of contents:

• Practical Teaching Tips and Advice
• General Ministry Issues
• Leaders and Leadership
• Orange Week
• Volunteers
• Kids & Theology
• Kids & Christ
• Cultural Trends
• Resources (Music, Conferences, Internet Sites, Books, Games)
• Curriculum and Object Lessons
• Family Ministry
• Parenting and Marriage Issues
• Just For Fun

For those of us with limited time he has even highlighted the “must-reads”. 

It’s well organized and clear, so you can find your way to the items that most interest you. Enjoy the feast of good things!

Wayne Stocks, over at Dad in the Middle, has blogged about his favourite web resources for childrens ministry workers.

Wayne says:

My struggle in developing this list was not to find adequate sites, but to limit them to just the top three for each category! The list person who dwells inside of me would have given you a list of every site I ever visited ranked by how useful I found them, but I decided to refrain. So, the following is a list of my personal Top 3 sites for various categories related to Children’s Ministry:

So we hope his list of  “Best of the Best – Children’s Ministry Internet Resources” is of benefit to you. Thanks Wayne!

Would you like to have the pick of the kids’ ministry – from all over the web – in one place…everyweek?

If the answer is yes, then you will love the weekly roundup at Ministry-to-Children.com.

With news, comment and practical help sources from the many excellent children’s ministry sites online, there is bound to be something to inspire and help you.

Onca again, here is that link to the This Week in Children’s Ministry for 1/20/2010