Easter is less than a month away and I'm sure the preparations for your children's ministry Easter events are well underway. You may be thinking about some early promotion of these events and so I've created a simple Easter slide that you may like to use.

The wording may be altered to suit your own needs. I created the design using Smilebox. I've mentioned this great little program before but in case you missed it, use the link below to find out more. 

I've also include a little promotional movie clip, also created with Smilebox, for our Kids Club program so that you can see how it can be used. Smilebox makes it easy to share invitations, slideshows or clips via Facebook, twitter or your website/blog. It probably took about 15 minutes to create the clip.
Find out more about Smilebox here...

David C Cook produce quality curriculum for all age-groups, books, ministry resources and more. They also produce a great supplementary download called 'Real-life Downloaded' and include material for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School and Adults.

These free resources are posted every Thursday and include related YouTube clips, music videos and news clip segments as discussion starters and lead-ins for the rest of the lesson. 

I've found them to be particularly useful for our midweek group of upper primary/high school kids, most of whom are from non-church families. The kids relate well to the clips and are happy to discuss the related questions and interact with the following activities. Then we conclude with a related themed scavenger hunt, games program, mini-Olympics, active skills tasks or other activity and a meal. The following downloadable file for a mustard seek bookmark pattern can be used with the recent lesson on faith.. see here
Bookmarks can be coloured, cut out and laminated. Punch a hole for a ribbon tie and glue on a mustard seed accent. The Real-life Downloaded lesson provides directions but they are simple (but fiddly). Cut a slit in the back of a goggle-eye and use tweezers to remove the black pupil circle. Slip in a couple of mustard seeds. Don't try it with small google-eyes. I used medium sized ones and had them ready for the kids to glue to their bookmarks.

Questioning is an important element of almost every lesson and activity in kids' church and midweek programs. It's not just a time-filler activity but rather, has an important role in the learning process.

Questions..

• focus attention
• make children think
• revise the lesson and help determine what kids know
• arouse curiosity and stimulate interest (especially if questioning occurs as a lead-in to a lesson)
• review and consolidate the story/lesson
• identify any misconceptions
• reflect on learning and help kids apply the Bible lesson and concepts

Your questions don't have to be too complex but it's a good idea to begin with some questions relating to simple facts and progress to higher level questioning requiring thinking and applying to real-life situations.

Make it exciting. Use visuals in your question and review time as much as any other part of your lesson. Include action whenever possible; complete some activity or compete in some skill, game or relay event to earn the next question. 

I've included a very simple Spot-the-Difference activity that may be used to review the Daniel and the lions story. The concept is simple: ask a question relating to the story to earn points for the team. A correct answer also gives them the opportunity to earn extra points by spotting a difference on the powerpoint slide. Clicking on a correct part of the image results in the points awarded flashing up on-screen.  The Spot the Difference powerpoint is available to download below.

Are you using social media as tools for your ministry? Are you uncertain how to begin? Would you like someone to guide you through the process? Then this may be just for you.
 
Nils Smith is a web pastor, author and blogger and will be presenting an online training event for ministry leaders based on the core principles of his soon-to-be-released book- The Social Media Guide for Ministry. The five days of training start March 4th (3 sessions daily), with sessions lasting 45 minutes and  will include include training from Nils Smith, interviews with ministry leaders and social media experts, and live chat Q & A.


The daily topics include: Social Media Basics, Facebook Foundations, Twitter & YouTube Techniques, Blogging, Pinterest and other Networks and Online Church.


For more information, download a flyer or register for this event, visit the site here...

Children's Ministry coordinators, directors and leaders often bemoan the mountain of admin that accompanies children's ministry, and it's true, especially if there are multiple age-groups and midweek programs involved.

It's so easy to feel overwhelmed by the seemingly endless and mundane tasks. But if you take just a couple of these tasks each day you'll find that you can regain your balance and focus. To assist with this, I've included a weekly ministry planner with weekly tasks and monthly/term tasks to help you sort out your workload.( Simply download and print the copies you need- one for each week.) The download also includes some added details and ideas for some of the listed tasks and suggestions for the month's focus.

Hopefully, this will be part of a planning collection filled with helpful forms and planning templates designed specifically for the admin needs of children's ministry leaders. Coming soon...

Earlier this week, we were flooded in. The aftermath of ex-cyclone Oswald caused wide-spread flooding to a large part of south-east Queensland and although our home was high and dry, we were certainly affected. Roads were impassable, electricity was cut, phone and internet coverage was down. I had no way of contacting my family and no way of determining their safety, circumstances or needs. I was totally isolated.

If you work in children's ministry you can not function in isolation.You need to connect with others- your church families and the community, your team and a wider ministry network. You need to develop 'Relationships', the second element of our F.R.E.S.H. approach to children's ministry. Building relationships is an integral part of a thriving ministry. So.. how do you go about it? Check out these 3 areas and click through to the practical suggestions and ideas.