Children’s church is a great way to introduce people to your children’s ministry. Over the years our use of volunteers in children’s ministry has moved from a few long term volunteers to our current format of volunteer teams. Our children’s church is for kids in Kindergarten through the Fourth grade, and so our volunteers can be kids in the Fifth grade and older. Our teams are a mixture of preteens, youth group members and adults of all ages.
We have four teams that server for one complete school year. We take the summer off and recruit new team members during the off months. Each team serves one week of the month. To make things easier to remember, team one always serves on the first week of the month; team two always serves on the second week of the month and so on. If we ever skip a week, for say a holiday, then that team does not serve that week. This schedule let’s everyone plan ahead for their time of service. Some of our volunteers serve in other ministries during the worship hour and our consistent schedule allows them to easily arrange the schedule in their other areas of service.
Depending on how we are formatting our children’s service, we have recruited volunteers in a couple of ways. The years that we were doing consistent themes throughout the year, we recruited volunteers for specific characters. For example, in our space theme, a volunteer was able to sign up to be a live actor in the role of the ship’s captain. This year, our themes are changing about every six weeks, so volunteers signed up for their choice of jobs. This year they could sign up to be puppeteers, actors, backstage directors (this was the only role reserved for adults only), audio/video techs, tappers (the sit with the kids and help keep them focused by “tapping” them on the shoulder), videographer, and song leaders.
The bulk of our children’s church teams our teenage boys. They are always excited to be helping in children’s church. In years past I was always trying to find fill-in’s for team members who were out. Now, I regularly have teens waiting in the hallway to see if someone doesn’t show up so they can help. Another great thing I see is families signing up to help together. One of this year’s team consists of a dad and Fifth grade boy who are doing puppets, mom is our backstage director and the youngest son is in the audience. Their teenage son is also involved, but he chose to serve on another team. I also have a husband and wife whose daughters are grown serving together on a team as a tapper and audio/video tech.
As much as I would like to have teams practice before performing together, realistically it’s just not possible to get all of team members together in advance. Instead, I have scripts for team members at our Wednesday night service or I mail/email the scripts to them on Thursday. I strongly encourage everyone to read through their scripts prior to Sunday. When team members arrive to the children’s church room following Bible classes, they meet together in a nearby classroom and read through the scripts together. Then they find their puppets and change into any needed costumes. By this time we have finished our praise and worship time and are ready for the first skit.
Each week, I list the team number and the members of the children’s church theme in our church bulletin. This is a great reminder if they’ve forgotten and also a good form of recognition of their service in the children’s ministry for the rest of the church. This year, for the first time, I plan to have some social and appreciation events for all of our teams. Over the years, I have found that youth and adults who serve on children’s church teams also become involved in other areas of the children’s ministry.
A couple of key things I stress with team members each year is taking serious their commitment to serving in the children’s church. I work to remind all team members of their upcoming week to serve, but also stress that it’s a member’s responsibility to let me know if they are not going to be there. Over the years I’ve noticed that’s it’s mostly adults that don’t show up or kids whose parents take them out of town unannounced. I have had a teenage girl drive three hours one Sunday morning to be back in town to fulfill her commitment. Another young teen regularly has his parents who often help serve at another church in town drop him off so he can serve in children’s church. I work to keep our skits fun, current and tied to Biblical concepts that benefit the kids and the team members.
Our current format has built a strong, dependable volunteer team that enjoys serving together. Our children are also benefitting from seeing youth and adults serving together and worshipping with them. In next week’s post I will be discussing the material we use for curriculum in our children’s church.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Children’s Church: Our Format
One of the initial requests upon my hire as a children’s minister some thirteen years ago was to begin the process of starting a children’s church during our Sunday morning worship time. There is always discussion on the pros and cons of a segregated time of worship for children, however this is not the aim of these posts. I will say, we have regular times of combined worship for kids and their families including three months off during the summer which I believe is important.
In this week’s post I want to talk about the format I have adopted at my church. Our children’s church is for kids in Kindergarten through the Fourth grade. Over the last several years we have tried a variety of things bringing us to our current format. We begin right after Bible class, choosing not to dismiss kids from the “adult” worship time. A quick overview of our service includes a time of worship through song, communion, a lesson time, a time of review and sometimes a game.
We are an acapella church, and typically I lead the songs myself. I regularly bring a child to two up to help me lead the song, getting several kids up throughout the service to lead. We sing a variety of songs including large motion, actions songs to slower paced, praise songs, including some “adult” songs that the kids love. During our song time, we serve communion. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper each week, and so we have different kids serve the Christians in the room.
We have tried a variety of methods to present the lesson each week, and have settled on a combination of things these days. We utilize live drama and puppets for a large segment of our lesson presentation. Typically we have three skits that mix puppets and live actors on stage in a thematic presentation. In between the skits, I will help kids connect the skits to the Bible lesson with scripture, gospel illusions, object lesson, student involved skits and object lesson-puppets from Amaze Healing Wings. Repetition is critical in teaching children, so I strive to present the lesson in several simple, to the point methods.
Following the lesson time, typically we have a short time of review. Sometimes we divide the kids and play a game show-style review using a projected, digital scoreboard with team names, lives scores and sound effects. Other times, I may simple ask kids questions about the skits, the Bible stories and draw kids into conversations that will help them apply the lesson to their lives.
On the few times that our service runs shorter than the adult service, we may sing a few more songs, watch a video on the lesson topic or play a game. Now games are not my strong suit, but we’ve played a few games over the years that are fairly simple and the kids enjoy. Our most used game is called “Elimination.” I call out things that someone might do and anyone who has done it must sit down. The last person standing is the winner and we start over.
Over the years we have tried a variety of themes. Some years ago, we had four themes and each week of the month was a different theme. We had four teams, one for each week of the month and they did the same theme each month. We did that for two years. Last year we moved to one theme, with a story line that ran all year long. However, at the end of the year, we were all pretty tired of the theme, even as fun as it was. This year, we are changing themes about every six weeks. We did a superhero theme first and are currently doing a theme called “It’s a King Thing” using some great royal family puppets from Melissa and Doug as we focus on Godly leaders from the Kings of Israel, how to lead by example and ending with Jesus, the King of Kings.
That’s our children’s worship service in a nutshell. Next week’s topic will be on using volunteers in your children’s worship.
In this week’s post I want to talk about the format I have adopted at my church. Our children’s church is for kids in Kindergarten through the Fourth grade. Over the last several years we have tried a variety of things bringing us to our current format. We begin right after Bible class, choosing not to dismiss kids from the “adult” worship time. A quick overview of our service includes a time of worship through song, communion, a lesson time, a time of review and sometimes a game.
We are an acapella church, and typically I lead the songs myself. I regularly bring a child to two up to help me lead the song, getting several kids up throughout the service to lead. We sing a variety of songs including large motion, actions songs to slower paced, praise songs, including some “adult” songs that the kids love. During our song time, we serve communion. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper each week, and so we have different kids serve the Christians in the room.
We have tried a variety of methods to present the lesson each week, and have settled on a combination of things these days. We utilize live drama and puppets for a large segment of our lesson presentation. Typically we have three skits that mix puppets and live actors on stage in a thematic presentation. In between the skits, I will help kids connect the skits to the Bible lesson with scripture, gospel illusions, object lesson, student involved skits and object lesson-puppets from Amaze Healing Wings. Repetition is critical in teaching children, so I strive to present the lesson in several simple, to the point methods.
Following the lesson time, typically we have a short time of review. Sometimes we divide the kids and play a game show-style review using a projected, digital scoreboard with team names, lives scores and sound effects. Other times, I may simple ask kids questions about the skits, the Bible stories and draw kids into conversations that will help them apply the lesson to their lives.
On the few times that our service runs shorter than the adult service, we may sing a few more songs, watch a video on the lesson topic or play a game. Now games are not my strong suit, but we’ve played a few games over the years that are fairly simple and the kids enjoy. Our most used game is called “Elimination.” I call out things that someone might do and anyone who has done it must sit down. The last person standing is the winner and we start over.
Over the years we have tried a variety of themes. Some years ago, we had four themes and each week of the month was a different theme. We had four teams, one for each week of the month and they did the same theme each month. We did that for two years. Last year we moved to one theme, with a story line that ran all year long. However, at the end of the year, we were all pretty tired of the theme, even as fun as it was. This year, we are changing themes about every six weeks. We did a superhero theme first and are currently doing a theme called “It’s a King Thing” using some great royal family puppets from Melissa and Doug as we focus on Godly leaders from the Kings of Israel, how to lead by example and ending with Jesus, the King of Kings.
That’s our children’s worship service in a nutshell. Next week’s topic will be on using volunteers in your children’s worship.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
So That's Where All The Dirt Has Gone
I have been teaching creation from Genesis to my young boys class on Wednesday nights for the last six weeks. Tonight we finished talking about how God rested. As we were going back over the days of creation, I mentioned that God had formed Adam/man out of dust or dirt. One of the boys in my class chimned in, "Yes, God made man and woman and kids from dirt. No wonder we've been loosing dirt in our backyard. My mom has four kids."
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Social Networking and Ministry
Unless you've been hiding under an online rock, you have likely been exposed to a social network of some sort. Whether it's Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or any of the hundreds of other options, the world is connecting with each other at record speeds. It's also making the world a much smaller place. (A few months ago, I was chatting with someone on the other side of the world.) So the question for Children's ministries (and churches) is how can we use social networking in ministry?
Currently, I have a twitter account for my children's minstry, which posts to my children's minsitry website. It's still hit and miss when I remember to use it, but I try to keep the week's Bible class topic update each week and any special events tweeted. Still have very few followers, but then members can see it on our website. A twitter account wtih a strong volunteer following would be a great way to recruit volunteers, or post prayer requests. You could also post during things like camps, to keep folks updated. How about using Twitter to get instant feedback during or after an event?
I have created a Facebook account for the Children's Ministry this week. I've had a group page but this week I've switched to a Fan page. I think it will give me the format and options I want to connect with folks. Currently, I have some parents of kids in my ministry and a few families who have moved away as fans. It will be interesting to see if we can attract new folks to the ministry as they are invovled in a children's ministry event or their child visits - great way to see what we're doing, where their child is visiting and also stay up on upcoming kids events that they might want to participate in. I have very few of my younger kids on Facebook right now, but imagine as this becomes more and more a part of peoples lives, it will attract a younger and younger audience. Best when parents and kids have accounts and are each other's friends.
I had tried to create a Ning site for the children's ministry, but after little participation I'm of a mind that I don't need to create our own little thing off somewhere by ourselves, but I need to find what everyone's using and use it. Thus, I started a Facebook page and already have much more participation - because people are already using it. They didn't need ANOTHER things to check and stay up on.
Any way, I'm heading to a seminar in the morning on this topic. Seems Social Networking and Ministry is a topic many of us are talking about. Can't wait to get their input and see how better we can use these tools. The seminar is being led by the authors of this blog, www.marketingtwins.com.
Happy Tweeting. :)
Currently, I have a twitter account for my children's minstry, which posts to my children's minsitry website. It's still hit and miss when I remember to use it, but I try to keep the week's Bible class topic update each week and any special events tweeted. Still have very few followers, but then members can see it on our website. A twitter account wtih a strong volunteer following would be a great way to recruit volunteers, or post prayer requests. You could also post during things like camps, to keep folks updated. How about using Twitter to get instant feedback during or after an event?
I have created a Facebook account for the Children's Ministry this week. I've had a group page but this week I've switched to a Fan page. I think it will give me the format and options I want to connect with folks. Currently, I have some parents of kids in my ministry and a few families who have moved away as fans. It will be interesting to see if we can attract new folks to the ministry as they are invovled in a children's ministry event or their child visits - great way to see what we're doing, where their child is visiting and also stay up on upcoming kids events that they might want to participate in. I have very few of my younger kids on Facebook right now, but imagine as this becomes more and more a part of peoples lives, it will attract a younger and younger audience. Best when parents and kids have accounts and are each other's friends.
I had tried to create a Ning site for the children's ministry, but after little participation I'm of a mind that I don't need to create our own little thing off somewhere by ourselves, but I need to find what everyone's using and use it. Thus, I started a Facebook page and already have much more participation - because people are already using it. They didn't need ANOTHER things to check and stay up on.
Any way, I'm heading to a seminar in the morning on this topic. Seems Social Networking and Ministry is a topic many of us are talking about. Can't wait to get their input and see how better we can use these tools. The seminar is being led by the authors of this blog, www.marketingtwins.com.
Happy Tweeting. :)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Great Christian Fiction to check out from Bryan Davis
Just wanted to share some news from one of my favorite Christian authors. If you're looking for some great Christian fiction, check out Bryan Davis. I've read his entire Dragon's in Our Midst series and looking foward to getting started on The Echoes from the Edge series. Here's some info for you:
"The Echoes from the Edge series by best-selling author Bryan Davis is an exciting, action-packed adventure/fantasy that's great for anyone 13 and up. If you like mystery and suspense, you'll love this book. The author is selling autographed copies of the first book, Beyond the Reflection's Edge, for only $5 plus shipping. Here is a link for that deal: http://www.daviscrossing.com/BTRE.htm. Here is the series website: http://www.echoesfromtheedge.com. You can also get it at any online bookstore. Please pass this note along to your contacts. I would love to see others have the opportunity to read this exciting series."
Enjoy!
Greg
"The Echoes from the Edge series by best-selling author Bryan Davis is an exciting, action-packed adventure/fantasy that's great for anyone 13 and up. If you like mystery and suspense, you'll love this book. The author is selling autographed copies of the first book, Beyond the Reflection's Edge, for only $5 plus shipping. Here is a link for that deal: http://www.daviscrossing.com/BTRE.htm. Here is the series website: http://www.echoesfromtheedge.com. You can also get it at any online bookstore. Please pass this note along to your contacts. I would love to see others have the opportunity to read this exciting series."
Enjoy!
Greg
Monday, May 18, 2009
Kindergarten Bible Presentations
Today was what we call Senior Sunday. We honor our high school graduates and present them with a Bible from the church. Some years back, we began recognizing our Kindergarten graduates. Now, we present all Kindergarteners going into the 1st grade with a brand new NIrV Bible and challenge them to make it the most important book they read and to wear it out and we'll replace it in 12 years with another one. It's so much fun to see these little one's so excited about receiving their Bibles.
I'm a firm believer in recognizing miles stones in the spiritual lives of kids. This is one of those mile stones. Nothing better than having families up front as elders and the church pray a prayer of blessing for them. Be sure to challenge your young readers to make the Bible their most important book!
Greg
I'm a firm believer in recognizing miles stones in the spiritual lives of kids. This is one of those mile stones. Nothing better than having families up front as elders and the church pray a prayer of blessing for them. Be sure to challenge your young readers to make the Bible their most important book!
Greg
Friday, May 08, 2009
New Year, New Opportunities
Wow, it's been so long since I've updated things around here. This Spring has gotten so busy. I'm currently working on prep for my first international children's ministry trip. I'm heading to Ghana, West Africa to minister to a group of missionary children at a missionary retreat. I'm still trying to raise funds and starting to work on my program - would appreciate your prayers.
I am about ready to do a major over haul of this site and clean things up & update everything. That'll be coming in the weeks ahead... I hope.
God Bless,
Greg
I am about ready to do a major over haul of this site and clean things up & update everything. That'll be coming in the weeks ahead... I hope.
God Bless,
Greg
Monday, March 02, 2009
Welcome March
Our Spring Quarter has begun and all the teachers are in place. I am still in awe at the changing of the seasons. Our world is miraculously transformed from season to season. What a creative God we serve. I pray your Spring Quarter will be a blessed one.
Have you checked out Phil Vischer's new children's site, Jelly Telly? This is a FREE internet-based children's program. There's new content each day just for kids. There's fun puppet characters, videos and more. Check it out at www.jellytelly.com
Have you checked out Phil Vischer's new children's site, Jelly Telly? This is a FREE internet-based children's program. There's new content each day just for kids. There's fun puppet characters, videos and more. Check it out at www.jellytelly.com
Thursday, January 01, 2009
It's CPC Time!
January has arrived and along with the New Year, CPC or the Children's Pastor's Conference is about to begin. If you are unfamiliar with CPC then it is well worth your time to check it out. CPC is THE conference for children's ministers. It is put on each year, usually in two locations, by the International Network of Children's Ministry (www.incm.org).
For me, CPC is more than just another conference. It is my recharge both professionally and personally each year. Yes, it is expensive when you add it all up, especially as more and more churches are struggling with their budgets, but if you can swing it, you need to check one out. You can expect the best of the best when it comes to speakers, worship, workshops, and you just can't believe the resource center!
This year CPC will be held in Nashville, TN on January 5-8, 2009 and in San Diego, CA on February 4-7, 2009. I'm heading to Nashville for the first time, however this will be my 8th CPC. If you're going to Nashville, drop me a note and maybe we'll bump into each other! It's not too late to get registered (and if you do, list me as you referral friend and help out my ministry!)
Greg Stanford,
Owner/Creator of Kidminister.org
For me, CPC is more than just another conference. It is my recharge both professionally and personally each year. Yes, it is expensive when you add it all up, especially as more and more churches are struggling with their budgets, but if you can swing it, you need to check one out. You can expect the best of the best when it comes to speakers, worship, workshops, and you just can't believe the resource center!
This year CPC will be held in Nashville, TN on January 5-8, 2009 and in San Diego, CA on February 4-7, 2009. I'm heading to Nashville for the first time, however this will be my 8th CPC. If you're going to Nashville, drop me a note and maybe we'll bump into each other! It's not too late to get registered (and if you do, list me as you referral friend and help out my ministry!)
Greg Stanford,
Owner/Creator of Kidminister.org
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