Articles
Peak Experiences: A place where God meets you, stretches and inspires you …. and transformation happens
A peak experience is a vital complement to the regular activities within the faith community. The experience may be a residential camp, a day camp, a special Saturday program, a concert, a special evening program, and so on. In these contexts, faith is deepened through the mixture of meeting new people with a real faith, being…
Read MoreThe Church Sticking Together – The Vital Role of Intergenerational Relationships in Fostering Sticky Faith
It turns out that intergenerational relationships are one key to building lasting faith in students. Silver bullet? No. Helpful if we want students to live their faith beyond high school? Absolutely. Sadly, many high school students lack these significant relationships. In our effort to offer relevant and developmentally appropriate teaching and fellowship for teenagers, we have…
Read MoreIntroducing the Quito Call to Action on Children at Risk
The Lausanne Consultation on Children at Risk was held in Quito, Ecuador, on 17-19 November 2014. We were gathered with more than 60 of the foremost experts in the area of children-at-risk, including church leaders, theologians, missiologists, and NGO representatives. The two documents that emerged are the fruit of our collaborative work from this gathering,…
Read MoreHELPING CHILDREN ON THEIR JOURNEY TO JESUS
My guess is that the majority of the readers of this article can remember a time and/or a place where they made a commitment to follow Jesus. Perhaps you ‘gave your life to Jesus’ or ‘invited Jesus into your heart’? Others may have ‘made Jesus the boss of their lives’ or said ‘I want to…
Read More10 reasons children should play at church
Do you believe kids should play when they’re at church. Why? Dale Hudson has 10 reasons why this is a great idea. 1. Play gives kids the opportunity to connect with each other. In a recent post, I shared 8 games you can use to help kids connect with each other before service starts. 2.…
Read MoreChildren’s Ministry Effectiveness Model – Reflect & Innovate
Children’s Ministry Effectiveness Model The ultimate statement of effectiveness is a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ for each child. We believe that if ministry solutions help children to become active disciples of Christ…living in that saving relationship…then the ministry has been effective. These are, however, very challenging “bottom line” criteria to observe and…
Read MoreBible handling goals for the 11-14 year age group
An age-appropriate guide for children’s use of the Bible – their knowledge of its content, skills in using it and attitudes towards it. Children of different ages approach the Bible in different ways. As their general skills grow, so does their understanding of the Bible and their skill in using it. The statements below represent…
Read MoreWHY WE NEED TO ‘GIVE UP’ MORE IN CHILDREN’S MINISTRY
Distributing free resources has been going on since the early church shared Paul’s letters and the early gospel accounts from city to city. Christians are generous people and they want others to know more about God. The internet has made this more prolific as it is so easy to make your resources available for free…
Read MoreThe impact of church based parent and toddler groups
The importance of working with children in early years (aged 0-5) There has been a large amount of academic and social policy research concluding that the single most important factor influencing a child’s intellectual and social development is the quality of parenting and care they receive and the quality of the home learning environment that…
Read More10 habits of an effective trainer
1. Create an environment where participants feel comfortable talking to each other.Be sure to include some fun “get-to-know-you” games and activities to introduce participants to each other. 2. Consider the physical set-up of your training room. Can participants see each other, or are they sitting side by side in rows facing the front of the…
Read More