iKidmin

http://jumpstart3.com/ Believe me when I say that this music has changed the dynamic in our children's department. It is the SINGLE most impactful element we have added in our children's ministry this past year! I can't say enough about this music.  In our children's ministry kids from age 3-13 absolutely love it, request it, listen to it at home, share it with their friends and sing it anytime they get the chance. So far Romans 10:9 and Luke 2:52 are the favorites.  Well 2 Corinthians 5:17 might be in the running too.  They love them all actually and when I use the scriptures in our teachings the kids eyes light up because it is familiar. In this world there are so many songs, ideas and words that kids hear every single day.  I praise God that I can have a "voice" in their lives too with God's word through song. Scripture is powerful and these songs are not a waste of time.  Even if this isn't your "style" you should give

My friend and I attended Group's Children's Ministry Local Training this weekend and it was all about Jesus centered teaching.  It sounds obvious doesn't it? I mean, isn't that what children's teachers and leaders are supposed to be doing? Yes, yes they are.  But many times things get in the way.  We may end up putting emphasis on behavior, contests and memorization.  Those aren't bad things but they are not necessarily relationship building.  Children need to know Jesus is REAL.  They need to know that He really is there no matter what. Here are a some  of the ideas we learned about: There is a difference in knowing who Jesus is and knowing Him Families are not committed to attending church like they were even 10 years ago Jesus wants to reveal His heart to us We have to show that heart of Jesus to kids We have to be willing to be vulnerable with kids.  We do not need to put on a show or an act.   There are other fruits besides spiritual fruits.

I'm involved in KidMin Academy 's online diploma program.  I've been in for six months already. I can't believe it!  One of the assignments for this month was to write 500 words of my vision for my children's ministry.  I procrastinated all month.  I can talk, but writing things down is harder for me and consequently why I don't blog as I would really like.  Since the assignment was to write a blog post I thought I would share it on my blog.  I'm sure it will need refining along the way but this is my vision today. My Vision for Children’s Ministry I envision a place for all children to feel safe, loved and wanted. I will address each of these and my vision for making it happen. Safety: Children should be able to feel safe at church. Safety comes before any teaching can be done. If a child does not feel safe and secure or parent does not feel that their child is safe, there is nothing that can be done during the session to bring them close

Every year at our church we have children's Sunday. We call it GF Kids LIVE! We recreate children's church in "big church" so the others can see what goes on in children's church and so that we can show how God is working in our department.  For children's Sunday we have the kids do as much as possible and we use the songs and lessons from our children's church. This year we had a praise party ! Here's our basic outline: Opening Song – Shuffle  (kids on stage) VBS Commercial - Cave Quest 2016 Wake Me Up – Black Light Song by the PIT Crew Welcome – Pastor Scripture Reading – (child) Prayer – (child) Song – God’s Not Dead (kids on stage) Song – Romans 10:9 – Jumpstart3  (kids on stage) Lesson/Sermon–  Skit –  Invitation –  Nothing Could Keep Me From You (Instrumental) Offering  – Keep My Eyes on You –   (child special) Closing Song – I think I’m Gonna Throw Up  We had kids standing at the door passing out bulletins and kid

19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Matthew 6 I found this great science activity to use four our unit on storing treasure in heaven and the kids loved it!  It takes a little preparation ahead of time but it was really easy. You will need: ice trays, (or other mold that can be put in the freezer.) 3 parts baking soda 1 part water Jello gelatin as much as desired, flavor/color of your choosing. (We chose blue for ours.) vinegar (we used almost 2 gallons) something to squirt the vinegar out (condiment bottle, turkey baster, eye dropper etc.) To Prepare: Mix the baking soda and water, add in the Jello as desired. For the four ice trays pictured I used 6 cups of baking soda and 2 cups of wa

***Updated 5-17-16 to add a few new pics*** We like to do something special for the kids during Spring Break week. Usually we go skating or bowling. Surprisingly many of the kids do not enjoy skating, so this year we decided to do something different based on Corinne's post over at  kidmincorinne.com  about what she called a  "Reverse Lock-In"  .  We liked the idea, so our team got together and did a little brain storming. We decided to use the Disney movie "Inside Out" as our theme and off we went! We weren't sure how many would come so we planned for double our Wednesday night group. It rained all spring break, and those kids were ready to get out of the house! God provided and we had just enough supplies for the amount of kids that showed up. We were so happy! Here is the flyer and promo we put out. We did something else we have NEVER done before; we charged $5 per child! We were nervous about this because we didn't want a child to no

I am currently enrolled in a diploma program called Kidmin Academy and the first faculty leader was Tina Houser and let me say she is phenomenal!  I was talking to one of my co-leaders about her and he said he had one of her books.  So he went home and found it and brought it to me. It's Not Junk It's Resources! By Tina Houser I don't think he ever used it, however I got very excited about the ideas in this book! The first one I wanted to try was using a plant caddy as a scooter for kids' games! So I went straight to Walmart  and bought several of these from the Lawn and Garden section. They can hold up to 180 lbs and you can use them as scooters for games.  They cost $6.97 at Walmart; about half the price of the cheapest scooters I found. Yay!  I was so excited and can't wait to have fun with the kids on these! They will love them!!! I planned a game for this month using them as "lone boats" for when Jesus went to be alone with the

Resurrection Walk Last year we tried something new for Easter. Our church does not do egg hunts but the children's department wanted to do something for our kids and the families at our church. However, this isn't just a kids' activity. We had all ages participate which was our goal.  We will be doing it again in just a few days (we do it on Good Friday) but I thought I would post what we did last year and then later what we did this year adding in any changes we make. First let me say we kept it very simple.  We did not have resources to deck out the church and turn it into Jerusalem.  I would LOVE to do that someday, but for now we started simple. We had 12 areas or stations that the groups would go to and experience a portion of the story from the Triumphal Entry to the Empty Tomb. The first thing you saw when you pulled up to the church was a live donkey! A church member brought her little donkey up and the kids were able to pet her. Gently of course. A