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Kids Ministry

Dedicated to helping Kids Ministry leaders in their mission of making disciples

Podcast
Kids Ministry

Celebrate Children’s Ministry Day 2020

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Churches throughout the Southern Baptist Convention will celebrate children’s ministry (ages birth-preteen) on Sunday, July 19, 2020. This is a great day to thank God for the ministry to kids, their families and their volunteers your church provides. This year’s Children’s Ministry Day may look differently than in past years. Your church may be meeting online, gathering for family worship, or offering children’s classes again.

No matter how your church is meeting this summer, use this day to remind kids of their importance in the church and how they can tell others about Jesus. Take some time during the service to recognize and honor kids ministry volunteers who invest in the lives of children and their families. A variety of resources have been created for leaders to use in their church. Click here to find the downloadable items. Select and use the resources that best meet the needs of your church. How do you plan to celebrate Children’s Ministry Day in your church?

Find resources to help your church celebrate Children’s Ministry Day here.

Bible Skills, Games

Bible Story Scavenger Hunt

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by Shelly Harris

Many families are staying at home, but that doesn’t mean that Bible learning stops. In fact as kids’ ministry leaders, we can equip parents to engage their kids in Bible learning. Here is a fun game you can provide parents to help them lead their kids’ spiritual formation.

Game Supplies: basket, honey, water, plant, stuffed animal, cotton balls/wool item, something with wheels, candle, toy boat, bread/cracker, first aid kit, a rock, a Bible

Instructions: Allow kids to search for the needed items. You may want to assign each kid specific items to find to ensure that everyone is able to participate. Then challenge family members to name Bible stories that are related to the item. Keep a count as you play to see which item had the most Bible story connections. Family members can name a Bible story more than once as long as it connects to each item. 

Possible Stories

Basket: Baby Moses, Paul Escaped Damascus, The Sermon on the Mount, Amos’ Visions

Honey: Samson, John the Baptist

Water: The Red Sea, The Parting of the Jordan River, Jesus’ Baptism, Noah

Stuffed animal: Noah, Creation, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, The Triumphal Entry, Peter and Cornelius

Plant: Creation, Baby Moses, The New Creation

Cotton balls/Wool item: The Good Shepherd, David, The Shepherds Visited Baby Jesus

Something with Wheels: Philip and the Ethiopian, Elijah and the Whirlwind, The Red Sea

Candle: The Fiery Furnace, God Led the Israelites, Elijah on Mount Carmel

Toy boat: Jesus Calmed a Storm, Jesus and the Disciples Ate Breakfast

Bread/Cracker: Passover, Jesus Fed 5000, God Provided Manna, Elijah and the Widow’s Oil

First Aid Kit: Jesus Healed Ten Lepers, Jesus Healed Blind Bartimaeus, Elisha Raised the Widow’s Son, Namaan Was Healed

Rock: Water from a Rock, Crossing the Jordan, The Temptation of Jesus, Lazarus, Jesus’ Resurrection

Discussion: Conclude the game by reminding kids of these Bible truths: The Bible helps us know more about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Bible truths never change. The Bible teaches us how to live. The Bible tells that God sent Jesus to earth because He loves all people.

Game Option: You can also play this game by naming a Bible story and leading kids to search for an item that reminds them of the story.

Crafts
Podcast, Podcasts
Kids Camp

Online Mass Chaos! – A CentriKid Worship Experience

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On May 14th, our LifeWay leaders and the CentriKid Team had to make the difficult decision to cancel camps for the summer of 2020. Our top priority is the safety and health of kids, adults, staffers, and members of the communities where we hold camp. But, because our passion is partnering alongside churches to share the love of Jesus to kids through camp ministry, we asked a question …

How can CentriKid still partner with churches and be a part of kids’ summer?

We come to YOU … virtually! 

Introducing: Online Mass Chaos! – A CentriKid Worship Experience

At CentriKid, we believe life-change happens in the context of relationships. While you (Group Leader, Pastor, Volunteer, Parent, Bus Driver, etc.) and our awesome CentriKid staff cannot be a part of those relationships and ministry at a physical camp this summer, relationships and ministry is made for the home. 

OMC – A CentriKid Worship Experience will happen LIVE on June 16th, 2020 at 6pm CST. You can join us on our page at www.centrikid.com/online2020.  It will also be available for you to use at a later time this summer with your group.

What to expect? Worship and fun! Whether you are able to meet at your church or you are still at home, everyone can participate. Through the CentriKid Worship Experience and three additional study sessions, we will dig into Mark 4 when Jesus calms the storm. Like the disciples in their storm, kids may be scared or not completely understand what is going on with the storm of this pandemic. BUT the good news is that Jesus is in control of the storm! 

Alongside the three kid sessions, we will provide a parent/leader guide to help guide conversation and lead additional activities. You can access these at the link above.

Join us as we teach kids that Jesus is With Us, Cares for Us, and Rescues Us! You bring the conversation and streaming device. We’ll bring fun and worship. Together, we can have a worship experience like we’ve never done before. 

The CentriKid Team is praying for your church, your community, and your kids. We are walking through this season with you and faithfully trust in the Lord and His plan. We CAN’T WAIT to high-five you at CentriKid in 2021!

Podcast
Bible Skills, Kids Ministry, Parenting

Bible Skills at Home

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By Shelly Harris

We practice Bible skills at church, but how often do we encourage families to practice Bible skills at home? Right now families are spending more time at home together. This is a great time to help families develop Bible skills with their boys and girls. Invite families to try these suggested activities.

Babies/Toddlers:

  • Encourage babies/toddlers to touch the Bible as you share that it is a special book.
  • Using your hand to guide their hands, help babies and toddlers to turn the pages of the Bible. As you turn, point out the names of the Bible books or names in the Bible (such as Adam, Eve, God, Jesus, Moses, Peter).
  • Tell a brief Bible story.

Preschoolers:

  • Write the name of a Bible person on a piece of paper and help preschoolers find a matching name in the Bible.
  • Gather toy musical instruments or pots and pans and create a rhythm while you practice saying a Bible verse or phrase of a Bible verse.
  • Place a Bible marker in the Bible at a verse (example: 1 John 4:16b). Help your preschooler open to the verse and practice repeating the words or phrase after you (example: God is love).

Younger Kids:

  • Name a book of the Bible for younger kids to find in their own Bible. Help them use the table of contents as needed.
  • Select a verse and challenge kids to memorize it (examples: Psalm 56:3 or Ephesians 4:32). Find fun and unexpected places to write the verse to help them remember the challenge (on the bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker, on a notecard taped to the pantry door).
  • Help kids develop the habit of daily Bible reading by helping them select a book of the Bible to read a chapter from each day.

Older Kids:

  • Guide kids to use a Bible atlas, the maps in the back of a Bible, or a map online to locate important Bible places (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee).
  • Challenge boys and girls to open to a Bible book you name on their first flip or turn.
  • Name a Bible book and invite kids to name the book that comes before and the book that comes after.
Podcast
Kids Ministry, Kids Ministry Curriculum

Choosing Great Curriculum

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By Ken Hindman

One of the critical responsibilities you have as a leader of preschool and children’s ministry is choosing great curriculum. You need to choose a curriculum that fits your discipleship and spiritual education needs for the kids at your church. For the past 30 years, I have witnessed a flood of curriculum resources targeted to kids. Let’s face it, the resources provided for kids is big business. This provides you with many options to consider, but is having these options always the best? Here are a few things to consider as you select curriculum for preschool and children’s ministry:

  • Biblically Based
    • Please read through the curriculum and make sure all items that are provided to support a teaching session are biblically based. Does it point the leader and the learner to the Bible? If not, you do not want that curriculum.
  • Transformational Teaching
    • Make sure the curriculum you choose points kids to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. This transformation occurs only when a child moves from being an unsaved sinner to being saved through the blood of Jesus Christ.
  • Age-suitable
    • By now, you must know a two-year-old learns differently than a 2nd grader. Make sure the curriculum offers a wide variety of teaching options for younger, middle, and older preschoolers and younger, middle, and older kids.
  • Interactive Learning
    • Does the curriculum support the use of multiply modalities? If not, it is not going to be a good option for kids. Kids must move in order to learn. When kids are encouraged to use their senses to learn, the knowledge gained is retained at a greater rate and for much longer. I encourage you to make sure your curriculum choice allows kids to be kids. For the most part, kids do not like to sit in chairs all the time while attending your class.
  • Teacher Training Support
    • How do you train your teachers, leaders, and volunteers? The best curriculum choices will provide teaching training resources. Remember, a classroom is only as good as the teacher. Teachers are better when they are trained, equipped, and encouraged.
  • Life-Application
    • Are kids learning how to apply the Bible to their life? I think it is important the curriculum teaches kids to be able to apply what they are learning to their everyday life.
  • Price
    • Maybe you have an unlimited budget, but I do not. I must make sure the curriculum I choose is a wise purchase. Am I getting the best value for my money? If I pay for a company’s curriculum and it is provided in an online format, it might not be the best option if I am spending tons of money every week to print out the products for each individual classroom.
  • Curriculum Evaluation
    • I would encourage you to walk through a curriculum evaluation process every 5-6 years. Products, price, and values, the needs of your church, ministry, and kids change. Take some time and do a thorough evaluation of the curriculum you currently use.

Joshua 1:9 states the following, “As for me and my house, I am going to choose to serve the Lord.” For myself, and the ministry I lead, the curriculum of choice is Bible Studies for Life produced by LifeWay. We use this curriculum because it meets all of the requirements I have mentioned. Plus, it provides colorful take home pages for kids, online support, curriculum resources for Babies, Ones and Twos, curriculum in Spanish, and curriculum for all ages of special needs learners.

Ken Hindman serves as the Children’s Pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee.  He has served in preschool and children’s ministry for twenty-six years.  He is a graduate of The University of Alabama with a BS degree in Childhood Education.  Ken and his wife, Kristina, live in Arlington, Tennessee with their two sons, Mack (20) and David (18).  He was named Staff Member of the Year in 2003 by the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Ken is the creator of Marketplace, a hands-on biblical learning experience for kids. Ken has designed a variety of programs for preschoolers, children, and families such as Resurrection Journey, Kid$ense, Creation Station, TeamKid Camp, Fall Fun Fest, and Journey to Bethlehem.

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