Seeking Children’s Ministry Workers (both paid and unpaid).

I am wanting to connect with others in children’s ministry. I would love to have a place where we can seek advice, support, encouragement, and have a place to share our successes, disappointments, and any fantastic resources that come across our path. This forum might be a start.

I currently attend a church plant in Wentworth Falls. I am the children’s ministry coordinator for our kids program – we call Kings Kids. It is a small church that has been running for nearly 8 years.

I wonder where do you go to find support? Where do you get your professional input? What about day to day support? Do you have a mentor? Do you have a team that you meet with regularly to debrief how the children’s ministry program is going?

One area of input that is valuable to me is subscribing to two American newsletters. They help a lot with ideas for managing people, and ideas to implement into the children’s program. They are:

http://www.childrensministry.com
http://www.youthministry.com

Wouldn’t be great if Youth Works had a regular newsletter? It would be nice to have some Australian content to refer to.

Share your thoughts.
cheers,
Heather.

Hi Heather
Not Explorers? I was reading about it today.

I’m not a childen’s ministry worker, but I’ve had 4 and used to be one:
I think Children Desiring God offers some pretty good resources.

Yes, Explorers. (Three cheers for us!)

Thanks for the web link. It seems to mainly promote the purchase of their curriculum.

For Sunday School curriculum we have successfully been using the CEP books put together by Youth Works. This year, however, we are trialling material written by Sandy Galea. The reason for the change is to give the teachers some variety in the material they are using.

cheers,
Heather.

Re: Seeking Children’s Ministry Workers

[quote author="Heather Smith"]Seeking Children’s Ministry Workers (both paid and unpaid).I wonder where do you go to find support?
Where do you get your professional input?
What about day to day support?
Do you have a mentor?
Do you have a team that you meet with regularly to debrief how the children’s ministry program is going?

.....Wouldn’t be great if Youth Works had a regular newsletter? It would be nice to have some Australian content to refer to.

Hi Heather,

YouthWorks doesn’t have one?

Where I teach Sunday School we use the “On The Way” series {from England I think}.  There are also a couple of good enhanced CDs including lesson units called “Meet The King” {based on Mark’s gospel} and “The King, The Snake And The Promise” {good OT overview}.  We have used the first and I have heard from others that the second is good too {and the songs are definitely gold}.

Training:  We are encouraged {and subsidised} to go to events such as the Children’s Ministry Training Day run by SMBC, and I think the Katoomba Youth Leadership Conference is excellent grounding to help teach the Bible at Sunday School more faithfully too.  Unfortunately for those who don’t live in NSW such events can be hard to attend.

Support/team/Debriefing:  Before every session we run we pray about what God has given us to do; we talk about what has worked in the past, what isn’t working/needs to change, how the kids are responding and coping, any concerns we have esp. over safety or management.  We also meet 3-4 times a year to evaluate past teaching and plan for future teaching.

Mentorship:  The lady who keeps so much organised & running for us is, by God’s grace, an experienced school-teacher and makes herself available to talk to, share with, and learn from.

As a school-teacher myself with much less experience, I find her input invaluable and no matter how busy she is, she always makes time to check on how we are going, to try and observe our lessons & give us feedback when possible, & to listen to me and give me advice even about non-Sunday School teaching situations.  It has been a great blessing from God to have her mentoring us.

As for more “full-time” children’s ministry, I was trying to manage an assistant chaplain’s teaching load in an Anglican boys’ school at one time, but that’s another kettle of fish for another meal!

Regards,
Tia Z.

Tia. Thanks for sharing! Wonderful stuff. I’ll try to use some of it at my next meeting for teachers.

It would be great to have your mentor chatting here too. Is she computer friendly? (I understand that not everyone is.)

I need a mentor. {Anyone out there?} Someone with a thick skin. I need someone to share my struggles/challenges with without them thinking I’m always a depressing person to be around.

I feel I’m supposed to be the one that’s cheerful and encouraging for the teachers all the time. But then how do you express your frustrations without seeming to “nag” and then risk offending someone for having tried to bring ‘the team’ back together. {My own solution to this is to issue a handbook this year with all the things I might ‘nag’ about so that it is written down in one place for all the teachers to read.}

Sorry Tia - I’ve probably become a wet towel here - and squashed your enthusiastic run.

Anyways methinks I ramble a little.

I’m hoping that there will be more people joining the discussion as the weekend approaches and people jump on their computers.

cheers,
Heather.

I’m interested to know if anyone else is using Sandy Galea’s material.

I am going to be introducing it this year to the teachers. It will be a new concept having to do a children’s talk every week prior to the lesson.

How well does your church use this material?

cheers,
Heather.

After 30+ years of Kids’ Ministry, e.g.CEBS, kids clubs, youth fellowship & Sunday School, I now am not available for a comeback, only the odd ‘guest appearance’.

Hi Ken,

How richly God has blessed you. After 30 years in children’s ministry there will be many children who are now adults living a faith that was nurtured and matured through your faithful service.

I hope that you are able to delight in seeing some of them continuing to worship in your local church.

Thank you!

cheers,
Heather.

Heather Smith
Hi Ken,

How richly God has blessed you. After 30 years in children’s ministry there will be many children who are now adults living a faith that was nurtured and matured through your faithful service.

I hope that you are able to delight in seeing some of them continuing to worship in your local church.

Can’t resist. Heather, I had nothing to do with your spiritual growth, but it is also a great delight to see one of the former students at the school where I taught, and young people from the church I used to attend, continuing to serve Christ, now teaching the young folk in her church.

And, by the way, since leaving Katoomba High School, it has also been a great joy to occasionally meet students who have come to faith post-school, and who have been eager to share what Christ has been doing in their lives.

Dear Heather,
When I say that to our current kids ministry people, they just say “Oh Ken, do you really mean it?” and I say “YES”, no more kids ministry for me (unless they ask me to help at the Christmas Pageant again!!)

Thanks David for your kind words.

Thinking about encouraging Sunday School teachers I came across this song which is absolutely beautiful. If you ever get to hear it - it is sung in the acappella style. {Sorry David for my poor phrasing of a musical term.}

I love this song. It is a great encouragement to know that no matter how small a contribution we make here on Earth, Jesus sees all that we do for His Kingdom. I hope this is an encouragement to everyone who passes by this thread. Blessings.

THANK YOU
Words and Music by Ray Boltz
copyright 1988 Gaither Music Co./ASCAP

I dreamed I went to heaven,
you were there with me
We walked upon the streets of gold,
beside the crystal sea.
We heard the angels singing,
and someone called your name
I turned and saw this young man
he was smiling as he came.

He said “Friend, you may not know me now”
and then he said “but wait”
“You used to teach me Sunday School,
when I was only eight.
Every week you would say a prayer,
before the class would start.
One day when you said that prayer,
I asked Jesus in my heart.”

REFRAIN
“Now I thank you for giving to the Lord
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am so glad you gave.”

Then another man stood before you and said,
“remember the time,
a missionary came to your church,
his pictures made you cry.
You didn’t have much money,
but you gave it anyway.
Jesus took the gift you gave,
and that’s why I am here today.”

One by one they came,
as far as the eye could see.
Each life some how touched,
by your generosity.
The little things that you had done,
sacrifices made.
Unnoticed on the Earth,
in heaven now proclaimed.

I know up in heaven, you’re not supposed to cry.
But I am almost sure there were tears in your eyes.
As Jesus took your hand, you stood before the Lord,
and he said,

“my child look around you,
for great is your reward.”

REFRAIN
“Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am a life that was changed.

I am so glad you gave.”

Good one, Heather.

I’d like to encourage everyone reading this thread to think back to people who have stood out as guides in your Christian walk. Have you thanked them?

Please take the time to do it, if it’s possible. If you are able to thank them personally, and in a letter, please do this in preference to a phone call or email.

I’m glad I was prompted, I trust by the Holy Spirit, to do do this a few years back, and thank Cec Williams [Sunday School Superintendent who challenged us to think through our Christian faith] and Tom Mascord [a gracious, kindly man who taught me for several years in Sunday School].

I can still think God for them today, but not them personally as they have both passed into the presence of our Lord Jesus.

Got one or two people in mind? Now where’s that nice writing pad?

Heather,

Explorers is an Anglican congregation so should have no problem accessing Youthworks Western Region team of advisors.

perhaps you’ve been left out of the loop because Explorers is a church plant rather than the parish centre???

Re: Seeking Children’s Ministry Workers

[quote author="Heather Smith"]Seeking Children’s Ministry Workers (both paid and unpaid).

I am wanting to connect with others in children’s ministry. I would love to have a place where we can seek advice, support, encouragement, and have a place to share our successes, disappointments, and any fantastic resources that come across our path. This forum might be a start.

I currently attend a church plant in Wentworth Falls. I am the children’s ministry coordinator for our kids program – we call Kings Kids. It is a small church that has been running for nearly 8 years.

I wonder where do you go to find support? Where do you get your professional input? What about day to day support? Do you have a mentor? Do you have a team that you meet with regularly to debrief how the children’s ministry program is going?

One area of input that is valuable to me is subscribing to two American newsletters. They help a lot with ideas for managing people, and ideas to implement into the children’s program. They are:

http://www.childrensministry.com
http://www.youthministry.com

Wouldn’t be great if Youth Works had a regular newsletter? It would be nice to have some Australian content to refer to.

Share your thoughts.
cheers,
Heather.

Hi Heather
I’ve started in full time ministry in 2006 and went straight from Moore College (4 years) into Children’s Ministry.
Lots of people were surprised by this and would say things like ‘oh are you really happy with that?’ To which I would reply, ‘yeah, what do you reckon?” Its like people think its a ‘step down’ from what I had trained for.
Where as I actually think its a ‘step up’.  Much harder teaching the bible to kids than adults and Jesus has given us enormous encouragement to do so.

I like your suggestion of a forum for Children’s ministry discussion.  I reckon this is a good place to start.  Maybe it will develop into something on another site oneday. 

As far as I can tell the support for Children’s ministry is a bit patchy.  After all it is called ‘Youthworks’.  I reckon we need a separate category ‘kidsworks’ or something.  Youth and kids are completely different.

I’m new to the game, so I haven’t checked out youthworks training at their colleges or the SMBC conference.  I have heard they are worthwhile.  My biggest beef is the lack of depth most children’s ministry resources have. 

As for Sandy’s material- I think it is good, but patchy.  Sometimes she nails the teaching well, other times its a bit off the mark.  Nothing really serious, I just like to see the bible taught right from its original context. Sometimes the programs are complete, others, bits appear to be missing.  Her narrated plays work well with kids and are very suitable for a ‘dramatically challenged’ bunch of leaders or just very busy ones.  I used her material on Colossians in 2006 (2nd time around) but ended up writing my own scripts and our group leaders adapted material from her stuff as well.

I’ll mention your request for a ‘webspot’ to Anglican media and see what they think.  But this forum might be it.  or it might be best on Youthworks website. Maybe its already there??

As for mentors- you could try finding out who is your children’s regional person for Youthworks.

Stephen said:

I’ll mention your request for a ‘webspot’ to Anglican media and see what they think. But this forum might be it. or it might be best on Youthworks website. Maybe its already there??

yeh, why not here!! I’d encourage Youthworks guys to sign up and participate.

As for mentors- you could try finding out who is your children’s regional person for Youthworks.

I provided the link above. (Heather this page says your mentor/advisers are Tony Jones and Liz Martin).

Thanks Jeremy and Stephen. Welcome to this thread!

My aim here is to keep on posting to keep this thread alive. It takes time to attract some notice. Eventually maybe some ministers will encourage their children’s ministry workers to sign up on-line and chat.

Although I must say that as the new school term approaches my time will be taken up with the needs of my teachers, preparing lessons, and I will have less time to chat here.

I know about Youthworks. I am about to recommend my teachers to do the Safe Ministry training course (child protection training) - if they haven’t already done so.

My understanding of the staff at Youthworks (and Tony and Liz can correct me if they like) is that they are very busy people. They are running lots of courses all over the countryside. They also have their own personal children’s ministries in their own parishes. I don’t imagine that they have time to become personal mentors for the 500+ churches (big guess) in the Sydney diocese!?

If this is not the place to start a “network” for children’s ministry workers then I’m a little surprised. I think it just needs a bit more time for people to tell other people to talk to each other.

If people specifically would like to have a separate discussion board - I have already set one up at my own website. You are welcome to visit. My goal, however, is to encourage discussion across denominations and in and outside of the Sydney diocese. Probably a huge goal, but one has to start small. http://www.kidz4jesus.net [ mind the “Z” ]

This is a big step for me. I’ve never done this before. I have used free website templates and a free discussion board. So please excuse any ads.

It is great to hear of people like Stephen and Tia who enjoy and love working with children! I personally have to work hard at it. But I am slowly building up my kit bag of tricks and ideas.

So Tia and Stephen stay with me! I’d love to pick your brains from time to time. And maybe I can share a few gems with you later on.

cheers,
Heather.