After school Training – Goal Boarding

By Wanda Parker

KidTrek Training
July 14-22, 2009 and October 6-14, 2009
Click here for more information

As we take people through the eight days of training we stop after most sessions for them to write out on large post-it notes how they will use, in their unique ministry, what they have just learned . 

We call this GOAL BOARDING.

Above you see Training Attendees working on their Goal Board after a session.

Each ministry creates their own Goal Boards

By the end of the week the walls are covered.

They then take all the Goals they have written out and put them on a Time Line.

They now have step by step plans laid out to begin their ministry and/or enhance an existing ministry.

 

Be sure to read the other posts on After School and Children’s Ministry Training  click here and here

Children’s Ministry – Applying KidTrek Training To

 By Wanda Parker

KidTrek Training July 14-22, 2009 and October 6-14,2009

It is vital that we make sure our Children’s Ministries are effective in long term transformation in the lives of the children.  KidTrek Training can assist you making sure this happens.  Read below to see how the training can bring life to your children’s ministry.

The training is purposefully kept small so that each trainee can receive individualized interaction with KidTrek Staff.  Throughout the week trainees Goal Board – after each session they write out how that session can be applied to their unique ministry.  By the end of the week a plan of action has been developed for enhancing their ministry based on the unique vision of their church.

 1.      Spiritual

a.      Challenges for your own spiritual growth so you return ready to meet all God has for you in the coming years

b.      Christ Centered Ministry – how do we create a Children’s Ministry and stay centered on Christ?   

c.      Children and Salvation – a tool to train your staff/volunteers in presenting the gospel to children

d.      Matthew 18

e.      Proverbs 22:6

f.        Mark 10:13-16

g.      Deuteronomy 6

h.     How to use the giftedness of your staff/volunteers

i.      Spiritual Warfare – preparing for the war that will come if we in Children’s Ministry are doing our jobs with excellence

j.      Creating a plan for intentional discipleship of each child

2.      Administration

a.      Strategic Planning

b.      Learn a tool to brainstorm with your team to create Purpose Statements and Guiding Values for each area of the Children’s Ministry.

c.      Philosophy of Ministry development

d.      Emergency plans each Children’s Ministry volunteer should know

e.      Setting standards for staff and volunteers

f.        How to train your staff/volunteers to deal with abuse issues

g.      Volunteer Management – building strong ministry teams

h.     Cultural Awareness – a tool to train your staff/volunteers as your church becomes more diverse

i.      Program formats and Organizational Charts – a time to think through how you want your overall children’s ministry to look.  Who are the people you will need to make this happen?

3.      Child Development

a.      Wholistic Development of the child/teen

b.      The Hurried Child – how can we harm kids in our ministries?

c.      Reality Learning – how do children learn; how do we engage them so they want to learn?

d.      Emotional Needs of Children – this helped to recruit many a children’s worker when I was a children’s pastor

e.      Relational Ministry – how do we disciple the children so they will walk with Jesus into eternity?  Children’s ministry is not just an hour on Sunday morning and an hour on Wednesday night – it is walking through life with children and their families.

f.        Discipline Tools

4.      Programming

a.      How to present the Bible so kids will understand, internalize the truths and have fun

b.      Crafts – how to use crafts so it isn’t just a fun activity

c.      Recreation – how do you do recreation and have the Bible concept caught.  Why is recreation important in a children’s ministry?

d.      Importance of being a family in the Family of God

e.      Perhaps a new slant on Bible memorization

f.        How to have a program where new non-churched kids will feel welcome

Children’s Ministry Training

By Wanda Parker

KidTrek Training  July 14-22,2009 and October 6-14, 2009
Discipling as Jesus did
Aimed to enhance your Children’s Ministry
Providing the tools to make disciples who are fully devoted to Jesus – even through their teens

“This week has been an eye-opening experience of awesome learning, frustrated realization, amazing encouragement and being stretched beyond what I thought possible.  It is rare that a vision can be so catching – it is because it comes from how Jesus did ministry!  KidTrek offers my ministry not a quick fix or curriculum to fill time but an outlook on ministry that requires complete surrender and reliance on our Lord.  It will not be easy but so worth while to reaching kids and families with the truth and love of Jesus!

Thank you!

I caught it and now have the task to infect others”

R .E., Director of Children and Family Ministry, First E.V. Free Chicago

What is your church’s Children’s Ministry like?

Do kids love to come to church?  Are they being challenged to grow into men and women of God?  Are they learning the truths of the Bible in a way that those truths are being internalized?  Or are they being entertained? 

Are the dhildren in your church being discipled?

According to Thom S. Rainer, in The Bridger Generation, what children most need are adults who truly care and are involved in their lives.  Adults other than mom and dad.

Years ago I heard of a study where they interviewed siblings who had grown up in Christian homes but one sibling was walking with the Lord as an adult and one sibling was not.  The question was why?  What made the difference?  Certainly it had to be something that went on in the home.  But over and over the factor that made the difference was that the sibling who was walking with the Lord as an adult had as a child (not a teen, a child) a close relationship with adult(s) in the church other than mom and dad.  The sibling who had walked away from the Lord had never connected to adults in the church.

Why is this so important?

Those relationships made them feel as though they belonged, they were an integral part of the church.  They weren’t shoved off to another part of the church to just be entertained and babysat.  They may be in a different part of the church – but the adults who were with them were engaged with them in meaningful ways.  There were intentional times when there were intergenerational activities. Everyone in the church was aware of the Children’s Ministry and its importance.

The church was family. 

KidTrek will equip you, regardless of the size of your church, to implement this intentional ministry.

Rainer in the Bridger Generation, which are those born between 1977 to 1994, says they are the most churched generation ever.  However, only 4% of them are making decisions for Christ.

If that is true of that generation – what about those who follow them?  Will their numbers be even less?  Can your church continue to do things the way they always have?  

Please contact me if you want more information or click here.

Who Cares for the Needy?

By Wanda Parker

Do you think it is possible to want to help the poor and in the end actually harm them?  Do you think that the poor can become an idol?  That we can in the end actually put them before God, all the while doing it in His name?

Jesus certainly told His followers that they must serve the poor – or else!  Matthew 25:31-46

Then He said, the poor will always be with you.  What did He mean?  Mark 14:3-9

I’ve been pondering this and have come to this conclusion looking at both passages in the context of the entire Bible.

We definitely have a responsibility to serve the poor and we will be held accountable if we don’t.  However, that does not excuse putting the poor before God Almighty.  We make the poor more important than God when in serving them we break God’s laws, or we twist His truth. 

I’ve seen a lot of twisting of the truth lately in the name of social justice.

Just as the Israelites did at the foot of Mt Sinai, I’m seeing new gods created to fit each individual’s idea of who God is.  Rather than truth we want a god who will make us feel good. 

But the problem is that when we create this new god we are doing harm not only to ourselves but to those we want to serve. 

God’s anger was great, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.  Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”  Ex. 32:9&10

Moses had to fight for the people so God wouldn’t destroy them – God’s anger was great.

Do you think He is any less angry when new gods are created today?  Even if we do it in the name of social justice?  Even though we call this new god Jesus? 

I believe God wants us to do social justice, He wants us to fight for social justice – but under the banner of His truth.

Let me know what you think.

Life Changes

By Wanda Parker

We never know what life will bring us from one moment to another.

A week ago I was in the middle of a staff retreat, excited about the direction of KidTrek and what was to come.  Today I’ve been in the hospital for 48 hours had a stent put in my main artery where there was a 95% blockage.  Trying now to learn how to deal with with aches and pains and know if it is something to be concerned about or not.

I thank the Lord for getting me to the hospital in a timely way.  I thank the Lord for being with me every moment. 

Lord willing I will be able to get back to Blogging next week.