Never too late to try.... again.

A good way to reinvigorate your children's ministry is to build on past successes. Even after a long break. This is what Sth Gippsland CRCA has done. After many, many years of clubless holidays, they have again ran a holiday club. Far from taking the, 'been there done that' attitude, this enthusiastic bunch (I know, I've met them) has experienced God's blessing in their efforts. Read about their Ship Shape holiday club, and see if this is the type of blessing you would want in your own children's ministry.

All in all it was a great event and we saw many blessings from the Lord. The children who came participated well in every aspect of the programme.

We had singing (thanks to Mrs Susie who led us so energetically) craft, Bible stories, drama...who could forget the drama team - they were so believable!

The children learnt about what it is to follow Jesus and even when we don’t show our love for Him, as Peter did when he denied his Lord, He still loves and forgives us. They learnt about the "greatest treasure" being Jesus and not things in this life.

The numbers fluctuated a bit but averaged between 45-50 each day - all in all about 60 children participated over the week. We were really happy with this number as we could manage with our team and resources.

Please continue to keep the children and their families in your prayers that they may grow in their faith.

Thanks to everyone for helping in whatever way...on team, as a helper, setting up and preparing craft, baking for our morning teas, donation of money etc, but mostly for your prayers. The parent/family BBQ and concert night was extremely well attended also.

Until next year when we hope to do another Holiday fun week we'd like to say thanks to you for your support.

Reinventing something you've already done has it's advantages, especially if the initial experience was positive. You can tap into the bank of positive feeling and rekindle latent enthusiasm. On top of this you have people with experience, skills and knowledge. Especially if you're ministry is lagging why not get some momentum by launching from success?

Can we help each other?

At times children's ministry can seem like a job which we tackle alone. Isolated in our own churches we forget the hundreds of passionate people though out the denomination who want to see our children's ministry succeed and grow. I'm sure your one of them!
How can we help each other? One way is by prayer. As Paul himself said,

He has delivered us... On him we have set our hope... as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. 2Cor. 1:10 - 11

Together we can support and help each other through prayer and see a movement of God among us to grow our children and ministries in answer prayer.

On the contact page, email through your requests. With your permission we can circulate them by email and join together in prayer. Who knows what God will do!

If you do not wish to receive prayer requests in this way, just let us know and we will take you off that mailing list.

Recruiting the leaders you need: a training resource

One of the greatest challenges in children's ministry is recruiting leaders.

“Part of your role as leader is to find and develop your replacement who will do a better job than you.”

Yet, there are never enough leaders.
The main obstacles seem to be our hesitation to ask already busy adults to add one more thing to their hectic life or our reticence because we wonder if the person is 'the right kind of person' for children's ministry. Then there are the discouraging knock backs and general disinterest. Easier, we think, just to put an add in the newsletter and see what happens. Yet that rarely works.
Recruit we must and now is the time to begin thinking about next year. It may seem hard, yet there are things we can do to make it easier. Here is the short list.

• 1. Adopt a recruiting attitude.
• 2. Pray
• 3. Hunt
• 4. Inspire
• 5. Involve.

For a more complete description of each of these go to the web site 'training' page. See Leaders and download the file 'Recruiting Leaders.' Let me know how you get on, or if I can help you with any of the ideas mentioned.

Big Picture Children's ministry.

From my own experience and shortcomings in children's ministry I have begun to compile a list of what I've called, "Important but neglected dimensions of Children's ministry." I've included things like, 'developing leaders' and 'prayer.'
However one topic has come to stand out over the rest. I call it, "Working from a bigger picture of Children's ministry."
What I mean is, most of us would rightly feel affronted if people said we were merely babysitting. We would retort, "It's much more than that!" But then just what is it? We often describe it in terms of teaching. Yet this answer too is far from satisfying because it is too narrow. We do more than impart information and our role must include much more if it is to reach what God intends.
A more complete answer sees us as those who help shape young lives as disciples of Christ and to develop children to become mature in Christ with all that that entails. What Paul says metaphorically, we say literally,

"My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you." (Gal.4:19)

Another way of describing this is to say our aim is to develop truly wise children. Wisdom means applying God's ways in every aspect of life. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Prov.9:10). Wisdom enables a person to effectively navigate life (Prov.2:6-11). It has high values, is deeply satisfying and brings rich rewards (Prov.3:3 - 6.) In Proverbs 4:7 the child is told,

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

If we are to do this well it is not enough to have a series of 'lessons' on proverbs. The challenge is to imbed, promote and practice the principles of wise living in the very fabric of our ministry. For example; a wise person is proactive and works hard. Where in our program are children given the opportunity, expected or rewarded for taking initiative? How do we encourage them to do so? On the contrary, we as adults often prepare everything and simply 'spoon feed' the children week after week. At an age appropriate level could we give children responsibility for aspects of the program? Could we take time to reward those who make an effort "while no one is watching?"

If we are to do this well we need to have in mind some of the fundamental practices of wise living which we will aim to incorporate into our ministry. What would you include in such a list? The list should not comprise so much of christian virtues (such as 'being kind') but of habits of wise living. This is because we can all think of various christian virtues, but the goal is to develop children who are committed to choosing the good, whatever that good may be. Perhaps that is one of the habits: 'Chooses the high road.' Your list should include personal habits, as well as 'communal' habits, that is, how they work with others in community. I'd be interested in what you would include in your list. More next time.