I am always on the hunt for new resources to supplement our kidmin programming, especially around the holidays. What’s in the Bible?’s new Christmas Memory Book is one that we’ll definitely pull from this year.
The Christmas Memory Book is a 14-page downloadable resource that older children can do on their own or that younger children can complete with help. The variety of activities contained within are Bible-centered, fun, and great for sparking good family conversations. Children will enjoy activities such as:
a Bible scavenger hunt (this is one our elementary students will do)
a Christmas letter to Jesus (this is another one our elementary students will do, especially since our Advent memory verse is displayed on the page)
a Christmas song match game (our preteens will LOVE this one!)
a Christmas memory interview
coloring pages
and more!
Normally priced at $2.99, this great resource is available through 12/18/14 for just $1.99! Don’t let this deal pass you by! Click the picture above to order your instant download today! You can also click below to check out other What’s in the Bible? deals.
The “Buy More, Save More” Deal – Ends tomorrow, 12/11!
The more DVDs you buy, the more you save:
3 DVDs for $20
4 DVDs for $25
5 DVDs for $30
6 DVDs for $35
7 DVDs for $40
8 DVDs for $45
9 DVDs for $50
(Buy 9 or more and DVDs are only $5.55 each!)
Get “Color or Sing Through the Bible” for only $9.99
Don’t Forget! All shipping within the US is currently free-no minimum!
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Hi friends! Several weeks have passed since I’ve last posted. Like you (I’m sure), we have been busy getting ready for Christmas. Here’s a snippet of what’s been going on in my kidmin world as we’re making final preparations:
For Everyone
Our Worship Arts department selected “For Everyone” as our theme & sermon series for Advent. We are learning how Jesus came for EVERYONE. Each year our Children’s Ministry provides Advent devotionals for our families, so we wanted to try our best to factor this theme into our decision regarding our selection. Originally, the theme of “Born for the World” was tossed around, so we chose one that fit that theme (even though it was reworded to “For Everyone”). We landed on this devotional from Creative Communications. We have heard a few parents tell us this was the best Advent devotional we’ve selected so far. Yay!
Deck the Halls
On the first Sunday in Advent (Sunday, November 30th), my church held an all-church event where our entire congregation (including children) were invited to come out to decorate the church, make crafts (including an Advent wreath) and enjoy a meal together. Started last year, Deck the Halls is one of the few all-church events we offer throughout the year and it’s so much fun!
Sunday Programming
All of our kidmin Sunday programming for Christmas will obviously center around the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. For younger children (toddlers & preschoolers), the lessons will be simple, as this might be the first time many of them hear about the Christmas story. Since many of our older children (elementary students and preteens) have heard the Christmas story before, we are being intentional about helping them personalize the story in a different way, while having lots of fun of course. I’ve incorporated some ideas from ideas I’ve collected on Pinterest. You can check out my kidmin Advent & Christmas board here. There are over 230 ideas!
Worship Time
Each year, our Pre-K children – 5th graders lead the worship for our family Christmas Eve services, so on each Sunday during Advent (during their regularly scheduled kids’ worship time), they practice the songs they will sing. This year, we added our 3 year-olds to our worship time and they are just precious. Songbooks, CDs and a video showing the motions are provided to families so that children can rehearse at home.
Christmas Eve Services
Every year, our church holds four (4) Christmas Eve services, with the first two being designed for families. Children’s Ministry works closely with our Worship Arts department to plan and implement these two services, which will include:
a welcome/call to worship given by yours truly
lighting of the Advent wreath by two families
our 3 year-olds – 5th graders leading the families in worship
several older students sharing a special reading
a solo by one of our older students
a family friendly (and shortened) sermon
candlelight ceremony (we provide battery-operated candles for children)
Just a few things we’re doing to get ready for Christmas. I’d love to hear (and see!) what you’re doing. How are you getting ready for Christmas?
Training and equipping our kidmin leaders is of utmost importance if we want them to lead well in their ministry area and to have longevity in serving with us.
There are many challenges when it comes to volunteer training, however.
How can we make it beneficial to rookies and veterans alike?
How can we make it appealing so that they’ll actually come out for the event?
Are there some creative elements we can incorporate to make it fun and memorable?
What can we call it other than ‘training’?
How do we make it both informative and engaging?
There are so many resources available for kidmin leaders to take advantage of to train and equip volunteers. One of the best resources, in my opinion, are workshops that I attend. Many times when I travel to national workshops I am unable to take staffers or volunteers with me, so I try to find ways to share what I’ve learned in various contexts. Usually, I purchase audio recordings from the places I attend and pass them along to others. However, I felt compelled recently to try something different.
I attended Group’s KidMin Conference back in September and one of the workshops I took there was called “50 Ways to Bring the Bible to Life”. (You can pick up my notes here). I loved the premise and content provided, so I thought that it would be cool to teach my version to our elementary and preteen leaders. I absolutely THRIVE on preparing for events like this, so I was very excited about how it would come together.
When I began thinking about a catchy name for this event, I knew that it wouldn’t be called “training”. I mean, that screams excitement, right? NOT!! So after some careful thought, I landed upon Leader Lunch & Learn. This past Sunday, I hosted our very first Leader Lunch & Learn and it was great! Here are some details about the event:
I wanted this event to be (1) a time of fellowship (over a delicious lunch that we provided, of course!), for the leaders to get to know each other better in an informal, casual setting; (2) informative – leading a group of children requires our leaders to know what they’re doing; (3) practical – I wanted the information presented to be something that they could use right away; and (4) engaging – I wanted attendees to get share ideas (it’s always a good idea to have team members learn from each other) and practice what they’ve learned.
Keeping those four things in mind, the event began to take shape. I designed an invitation that was sent to adult and student leaders via email (I used Mail Chimp). I set up responses to go to a form I created on Google Forms – very easy to do. Then I used the workshop notes to come up with a time flow/outline for the 90 minutes that we’d have together:
Arrival
Welcome & Overview (5 minutes)
I welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming and gave them an overview of what our time together would look like.
Lunch & Fellowship (20 minutes)
Since we held this event immediately following our 2nd service hour, serving lunch was not an option. I landed on a simple, delicious lunch that was very affordable and easy to set up: I ordered a deli sandwich wrap platter and provided potato chips, fresh fruit, cookies, brownies, iced tea, lemonade and bottled water.
Introductions, Introduce the “Smarts”, Have team take “Smarts” Inventory (7 minutes)
Our elementary and preteen ministries are run separately, so many of the attendees had never met each other. We took a few minutes to introduce ourselves and then I had them quickly fill out the “Got Smarts” inventory (that was included in the workshop notes) so that they could discover their primary “smart”.
Review responses from “Got Smarts” Inventory, Talk about “Smart Chart”, and Ways to Incorporate these ideas into their large group & small group times (25 minutes)
After reviewing the responses from the “Got Smarts” inventory, we discussed what each ‘smart’ looked like and ways to incorporate each ‘smart’ into our lessons. Since each of our volunteers is very gifted and creative, I wanted them to learn from each other, too, so they tossed out additional ideas that were not included in the original notes. They had some great suggestions!
Group Assignment & Sharing
I wanted everyone to get some practice incorporating what they had learned, so I broke the group up into 3 smaller groups and assigned each group a Bible story: The Good Samaritan (Luke 10;30-37); Jonah and the Whale (Jonah 1); and Feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21). Their task was to brainstorm ideas to bring the Bible to life by incorporating each ‘smart’ into that particular Bible story. Boy did they do an awesome job with that. When they shared their ideas, I was blown away! You can read their ideas here.
Wrap Up/Thank You’s
I closed our time together by reminding them to not be afraid to think outside of the box and infuse creativity into their lessons to help the Bible come to life for every student in their group. I affirmed them, thanked everyone for coming and reminded them to take home a special treat I had prepared for them. Since we were talking about ‘smarts’, it was only fitting to use “Smarties” in the treat bags.
Take-Home Treat (the front)
Take-Home Treat (the back)
As a result of preparing for this training event, feedback was so positive that we will offer a new topic every other month. I asked volunteers for suggestions on future topics and so we’re set for our next event, which will be held in January. I can’t wait!
Now it’s your turn – what does your volunteer training/equipping opportunities look like? Share what works for you below!
I love my job. I really do. But sometimes, in the busyness of making sure that a million details are covered, I can oftentimes forget that families in my church community walk through our church doors carrying some pretty heavy burdens. I was reminded of that this past weekend. One family is facing a health crisis while another family is adjusting to new, temporary living arrangements.
My heart breaks for these two precious families. I wish I had the ‘right’ words to say, other than, “Tell me how I can pray for you.” But it dawned on me…praying for these families is one of the greatest gifts I can give to these sweet families and the other families I serve.
“Partnering with parents” is a popular phrase tossed around in the kidmin world. Google it – you’ll see more than 600,000 results! You’ll see the phrase on websites, in vision and mission statements, listed in an organization’s core values, just to name a few. But what does it really mean to partner with parents?
This past weekend, I was reminded that partnering with parents begins with a relationship. Do you take the time to stop and chat with the families in your ministry during weekend services? Are you even available to make this happen? Position yourself in visible places in your children’s areas to get to know your families. Listen to them – really listen. What are they saying? What are they NOT saying?
Partnering with parents means regularly communicating with them. Has a child or family missed several weeks of church? Has someone been sick? Is someone dealing with an extended time of crisis – unemployment, illness, new living situation? Reach out to them with a phone call, email, note in the mail, or text message. Meet them for coffee.
Partnering with parents means coming alongside them in prayer. When you say you’ll pray for someone, mean it – then do it. Pray for them specifically by name. Then follow-up with them. I have begun to add this to our weekly staff meeting agenda. It’s that serious.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of ways a kidmin can partner with parents. But think about it.
Build relationships.
Regularly communicate with them.
Pray with them (and for them).
Keep the conversation going by adding your two cents! What ways do you effectively partner with parents?
