Other free resources and activities are also available to download to supplement the storytelling kits.
Along with organising lessons and rosters for your children's programs, you're probably in the midst of thinking through the material you'll be using each Sunday for children in the church worship segment. This week, we'll present a few suggestions. Although we've mentioned it before, the Lost Sheep material is worth highlighting again for those who missed it. "Fresh, vivid and attention-grapping, these stories touch the heart and illuminate the mind." Max Lucado. These powerpoint-style presentations come complete with a prompt booklet and the story to read aloud. Storytelling kits are available for immediate download for $10/kit. Download a free story-telling kit to sample.
Other free resources and activities are also available to download to supplement the storytelling kits.
0 Comments
Often, as leaders, we're called upon to highlight the importance of children's ministry to our church and our church leaders. We may need to encourage and motivate new volunteers with a vision of all that we seek to achieve through God's strength and enabling in children's ministries. But more importantly, families will need to be encouraged to share our passion and commitment as, each Sunday, our teams seek to make each moment count, ensuring that our time with these kids has eternal impact. For these occasions, try this clip from 252 (the Rethink group- Think Orange) to remind everyone that our time is limited. Most churches will have little more than forty hours per year with these kids. Although you may not use the 252 curriculum, the clip highlights 3 basic concepts for kids- I can trust God no matter what, I need to make the wise choice and I should treat others the way I want to be treated. It's a great clip to remind everyone that time is slipping away. Every moment counts! While the start of the year produces the rush to buy calendars and reorganise our lives, we also need to take some time to focus on a more important aspect of our lives and our ministries. "We have schedule planners, computerized calendars and self-stick notes to help us organise our business and social lives every day, but what about organising the other side of our lives- the spiritual side? Tempted to give imbalanced attention to the public world at the expense of the private, we become involved in more programs, more meetings. Our massive responsibilities at home, work and church have resulted in a lot of good people on the verge of collapse. Gordon MacDonald's book Ordering YOur Private World equips a new generation to live life from the inside out, cultivating the inner victory necessary for public effectiveness." Find it in our online store. 'Building Church Leaders' has prepared a downloadable resource in their 'Practical Ministry Skills' area- Spiritual Disciplines for Busy Church Leaders. It's so easy to get lost in the frantic pace of ministry that sometimes we neglect our own spiritual lives. The practice of personal spiritual disciplines invigorates your personal relationships with God was well as your ministry. Download it for yourself or to present to your ministry team. Pack includes: Hurried Sick (John Ortberg), An Introduction to Solitude (Henri Nouwen), Finding a Steady Rhythm and more..... Download the pack from Building Church Leaders now and use the code 'BESTOF2010' to receive a 25% discount. The start of a new year provides the opportunity to start with a fresh approach to planning and organisation for your ministry team. The Planning Center has been designed specifically for music teams and the planning and organisation of worship services but it also has growing appeal for those who plan and lead the Sunday programs in children's ministries. Why? I'll list some of its features and you can check it out yourself to see if it has potential for your own needs. Part of its appeal is the price. Planning Center is an online program and offers a Free Plan for those who operate one service type (or children's program) per week with up to 10 volunteers on roster. The paid plans range in price from $14/month to $99/mth for 25 services and unlimited people. And you can trial it free for a month. Planning Center allows you to easily plan and prepare your weekly lesson and roster your volunteers and share the planning with them. Its clean, graphical interface makes it intuitive for you to edit your plans, and for your users to view them. You can link media (video, images) to items in your plan. It's easy to create your own categories for unlimited flexibility in organizing your lesson plan flow and scheduling and assigning your people to your plans. Contact details are easily added- email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses and even a picture for each person on your team. Assign your people to properties that you create. Create one property for leaders and another for greeters and then simply tick the appropriate box in each person's profile. Send an email to all people or specific categories of people scheduled/rostered on your plan which include their customized times and links to get the lesson plan. Print customised reports/lessons to have hard copies on-hand. Planning Center's Facebook integration has quickly become one of their users' favourite features. Volunteers with the Facebook app installed will receive a Facebook notification whenever you schedule them. Clicking the notification will take them to the Facebook application, where they can respond right from within Facebook. Check it out at www.planningcenteronline.com The new year has barely begun and, if your life is like mine, there's already been a flurry of meetings and planning put in place. And perhaps your new year's resolution is to become more organised and in control of your life. Fortunately, there's plenty of programs and apps to help you organise your time, family and ministry. I've listed a couple that might be of interest. Awesome Note (iPhone & iPad) combines a to-do manager with easy note-taking, daily diary, checklist and shopping list with full sync with Google Docs and Evernote. 2Do (iPhone & iPad) for projects, checklists or simple ToDos will sync with MobileMe, Toodledo, iCal or Outlook. Yu can also share your todos with others and even drag and drop between calendars. The people from Mashable have put together a terrific list of web apps to help you gain control of every aspect of your life from organising your home library, or fast and easy event planning to tracking your workouts and even allowance management for your kids- it's got it all. Check it out... So take a few moments to set some systems in place and get on top of your year before it really becomes busy! This short clip 'Retooning the Nativity' from Igniter Media would probably work well for older kids. Watch the clip together and then reread the Christmas story from the Bible. Ask the children to make a list of those aspects of the Christmas story that we have come to accept that are not mentioned in the Biblical accounts. The clip can be purchased directly from Igniter Media or from Sermon Spice. Disney's classic Christmas story 'The Small One' can be viewed on YouTube (3 parts). This endearing tale involves a small boy, and the boy's old donkey, Small One. Sadly, the donkey must be sold.The boy and Small One wander the town looking for someone to buy and lovingly care for the donkey until finally, as the evening shadows and their discouragement deepen, a soft-spoken man stops and asks if the donkey is for sale. He is looking for a gentle donkey to carry his wife to Bethlehem.
This is a movie that all ages will appreciate and will generate plenty of discussion following the movie. Those who wish to purchase the movie will find it in Disney's 'Classic Holiday Stories' Vol 9- a compilation of Disney Christmas stories. The Christmas Story God's Son is Born (Tommy Nelson) is available online. Click on the link to visit the site and read the story aloud to your children or print it off for each child. If you're reading the story online, remember to click on Full-screen or Presentation for ease of viewing. Looking for some Christmas material for your Christmas Children's Church program or to help tell the Christmas story to your children? YouTube has many resources that you may find useful. This well-produced clip is from NEST. Whether you're looking for activities to occupy the kids during the holidays or searching for children's church Christmas activities for the festive season, we've found some great resources available on the net. First up.... downloadable activity sheets and colouring pages from Boz the Bear (for younger ages) and The Very First Noel (older children). Of course, these resources are designed to be used in conjuction with the DVDs and include colouring sheets and craft ideas (BOZ the bear's WowieBOZowee Christmas) with suggested activities, word searches and verse scramples for the Very First Noel. Both these DVDs can be purchased from our online store. |
Join my newsletter
For Email Newsletters you can trust. SPONSORS
Archives
November 2016
|