Tag Archive - curriculum

Powerful Assumptions

September 9, 2008 in Ministry with 3 Comments

Yesterday I held our weekly team meeting at a local coffee shop. I try and take a few off-site meetings every quarter, just to get away from the office atmosphere. While at these off-sites I will hit our weekly agenda with a high-speed pace, and try and make time for some teaching and encouragement. So this week I totally stole a lesson from HERE, and adjusted it to fit what I felt our team needed.

There are 4 assumptions I asked our team to make as we headed into our semi-busy fall season of children’s ministry. We’re planning Halloween alternatives (ugh…), Thanksgiving themes, Christmas story lessons, and finally launching into 2009 with some new programs, events, curriculum, etc… Again, the full list of assumptions can be found HERE; but I want to highlight the fourth assumption I asked everyone on our team to put into practice.

Assumption #4: Assume that you are the right person to do your job.

I challenged our team to assume that they are where they are, because God put them there. I asked them to go ahead and assume that they are where they are, because I (the boss) want them there. It’s high time that we all stopped assuming that someone must have made a mistake to put them in the position are in. It’s important that everyone on our team, including me, come to realize that God has us in the right place. I have lived in the past, where I assumed that someday somebody would finally figure out how terribly unqualified I am for what I’m doing. Then my secret would be uncovered!

To state a disclaimer: I also said that if they really feel they aren’t keeping up with the team, that it might be time for a change; but until that proves true we can all assume that they are the right person for the job.

For me this is challenging. I have a very easily comparable job. I can look at those in much smaller churches and think I’m in a better place. I can also look at those in much larger churches and think I’m in a worse place. I can compare myself with those that operate with no supporting staff, or those with dozens of support staff; those with more flexible church leadership and those with completely inflexible church leadership; those with supportive Senior Pastors and those with incognito Senior Pastors. I can get lost quickly in this comparison game, and really it should all come down to this fact: I am where I am, because God needs me to be where I am! When God decides to move me, I’ll know. (And trust me, I’ve heard that voice before; and I’ll know when I hear it again!)

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.

What We Do, What We Don’t

December 17, 2007 in Ministry with 0 Comments

Today I responded to some questions about what we do in our children’s areas at the church. Thought I would post them for the record. (And because it took me 10 minutes to do it.)

Small Groups
* How much ‘text’ do you give volunteers? Using Elevate curriculum, I usually select 1, maybe 2 activities and distribute the appropriate scripts, discussion questions, and/or activities
* How different is your Preschool small group material from your Elementary small group material? Right now it’s in a transition, which is to say that the Preschool area is more traditional in teaching nature. No Preschool ‘Small Groups.’
* What is the MAIN THING you are focusing on for your ’small group time?’ Relationship building and applications for the kids to make use of what was learned in the large group teaching.
* How long is your ’small group time?’ 10-20 minutes
* What new ideas, formats or processes have you tried & been successful? We have moved all prayer time, offering, and some special music into the small group areas.
* What works for you? Still figuring that out. Small groups have allowed us to improve the the safety and security aspects of our ministry; eliminating the ‘get lost’ factor we find in large groups.

Large Group
* Do you use video? How much? Again, we use the Elevate curriculum. But we do the live performances with the video that runs in the background. Some series have been much better than others.
* Do your kids enjoy video? When it’s not the ‘Main Thing’; they really get into it.
* How long is your ‘production’ time? 25-30 minutes
* Do you use volunteers on stage? YES!
* Do you teach the Bible Story on stage? How? I rotate with some trained volunteers, using the Elevate ‘Performance’ videos that back up the teaching on the screen. It’s really a cool way to teach. (Not all Elevate series work this way, though.)
* Do you have fun Large Group games you do on stage? What are some examples? We do games at times, but they tend to take up to much time, and don’t get everyone involved. We usually reserve game times for small groups.

Teaching Tricks
* Do you do a new Memory Verse each week or every ‘X’ number of weeks? New verse every week.
* Do you use a ‘Main Point’ or ‘Key Phrase’ each week to help the kids see a ‘main idea?’ New Main point and Key point every week, however they are all related for 8 weeks of teaching.
* Do you use motions with your kids to help them remember Main Points & Memory Verses? Always motions with at least one of them each week.
* Are their other teaching tricks you might have tried that help the lesson stick? Anything that brings all the lights down, except those lights on the stage with the teacher. Anything with sound effects keeps the volume down in my audience; and of course the bigger and messier the stage the more memorable it will be. My big challenge is keeping it fresh every week, and not letting it bog down into the same formula every week.
* Do you use ‘Parent Letters’ that go home with the kids? Are they successful? I like them, but the work involved isn’t worth the reward. Parents simply didn’t miss them when I stopped doing it.

Please forgive my grammar and spelling errors. Thank You!

Calling All Children’s Pastors

November 12, 2007 in Personal with 1 Comment

Any Children’s Pastors out there? This posting might seem useless to some of my audience, but I’m wondering if there is anyone who uses the Elevate Curriculum from Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX?

We transitioned to a small group setting in our Elementary areas over 4 months ago, and have made some great strides since. A little history: On average we have 160 kids in our 1st-5th grade areas during our 11:15 am service. We do three services, but the last one is the most populated by far. (But that is slowly changing…) Having this many kids was a big challenge, because you don’t want kids to feel overwhelmed or lost in a church environment; but you also don’t want them to miss out on the excitement of a large group gathering. So in July of this year we started using the first half of our service in large group format(40 minutes), and the last half in a small group format (20 minutes). The small groups follow-up and reinforce what is taught during the large group format. It also allows for more intimate settings between my volunteers and the kids. I’ve discovered that Small Groups are great for relationship building!

After weeks of researching, I settled on the curriculum Elevate. However, if Fellowship Church ever showed up to view what we do they might not recognize it. We’ve worked through the ‘On The Trail‘, and ‘Heroes of Mega City‘ series, and are now working with ‘Winter Extreme‘.

We’ve made many tweaks, but I was wondering if anyone else has ever used Elevate? Ever heard of it? If not, what do you use? If you use it, then what do you do with the Early Childhood kids?

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