okay, y’all, i just finished six of the richest weeks i have had in children’s ministry. those six weeks were when my class was live through beadisciple. i gotta be honest. i was so nervous, i mean did i really have anything to offer to help other leaders as the serve in kids ministry? like with everything else when we allow God to stretch us, i ended up more blessed than i could have ever blessed them. even though i was the teacher, i took home some great ideas and left each conversation challenged or encouraged. through the six weeks of my class we read, discussed, challenged and encouraged each other, and shared burdens and laughs. i loved it.

and the best news… i get to do it again and i want to invite you to join me. i am going to share a little about the children’s ministry certification and my class below, but if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.

click here to learn more about the certification in children’s ministry. my class is the last of the four classes in this certification. to register for the 1st class in this certification click here.

here’s a little more about my specific class followed by some quotes of what my first-time students thought.

Children’s Ministry as Leading Spiritual Education

This will be an examination of the role of the educator in supporting the faith development of children and families in the congregation. We’ll cover pedagogies, models of ministry, and administrational tasks. Not only will we discover how to intentionally plan and lead long term, but we will examine best solutions to the in-the-trenches children’s ministry elements.

This course will equip you with techniques for the following:

• Creating and Maintaining a Gospel-Centered Ministry
• Different Models of Ministry (what’s best for your ministerial context?)
• Partnering with Parents
• Strategic Planning, Budgeting, Outreach, Service and Follow-Up
• Building, Leading & Maintaining Volunteer Teams
• Consistent & Creative Communication
• Serving Families with Special Needs
• The Preteen Bubble
• Family Worship
• Using Your Facility to set your teaching/worship up for success

see the class online here.

quotes from participants:

“This course was very helpful to me personally. The content and resources offered were great and pertinent to my work, but also Danielle was very knowledgeable and always available to us. She was great at following up on our discussions and provided great insights based on her extensive experience.”

“The course leaders (Danielle’s) interaction with the participants. She seemed to be online frequently and she gave sincere, and encouraging remarks. She has a great sense of humor and was a source of helpful information.”

“All the reading material was extremely readable, and it directly applied to our subject. It made our discussions more interesting, and our instructor was attuned to our needs and flexible.”

“Always encouraging and making us think. I appreciate all the interaction with us.”

“The course books were absolutely perfect and very helpful. I wished the class was longer than 6 weeks; I am sad that it ended.”

thank you to all of you that comment on my last post about winning a free year’s subscriptions to sermon for kids. (learn more here.)

the winner of the free subscription is….

becky, i will be in touch with the info you need! congrats!

okay, surely i am not the only one that needs help with a lesson from time to time. you know how it is… like the idea in the curriculum just won’t work, or your service is notorious for going long and you just need a little help to complete the lesson! am i right?

well you don’t have to be in kidmin long to see that when a resource comes along that can truly help, you just want to grab it. that’s why i am so loving the sermons 4 kids plus.

sermons 4 kids plus is a monthly subscription service for children’s ministry leaders that gives them access to teacher how-to video instructions (i so love that this site includes these videos), children’s sermon, interactive Bible experience, video, craft (if you are clueless in crafts like me this is a must.), snack, game, prayer, music and memory verse. plus there’s tons of coloring pages, crosswords, word search, group activities and so much more! all lessons are available in english and spanish and there are 2 versions, one for elementary and one for preschool.

if you want to see what it looks like, check it out. here’s a link to 2 free lessons!

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now let’s talk the GIVEAWAY! (you know i am excited if i am using all caps.
you can have a chance to win a one-year subscription to sermons 4 kids plus ($120 value). this little contest will start today, november 11 and end next monday, november 18. all you have to do to enter is comment with your name and your favorite church. feel free to let your other kidmin friend know, too. i’ll do a random drawing on the 18 and announce the winner.

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as promised, here are some links to some of the programs/tools mentioned in my creative communication breakout. i also included links to some other helpful articles at the bottom of this post.

prezi slides – here is a link to my presentation slides. this will be live for about a month.

canva – design site

adobe spark – design software

buffer – social media scheduling

skedsocial – social media scheduling

remind – texting website/app

ifttt – i use this site to make all out instagram posts a native image on twitter instead of a link. (saves a step.) this site helps you connect so much more.

linktree – personalized instagram link

slydial – ringless voicemail app. we use this to send a pre-recorded, thank you for visiting, message to parents of first-time visitors.

webinar jam – the best money i have spent in ministry in the past two years. we use this for parent meeting, parenting webinars, and more.

How We Use an Automated Series of Emails to Partner With New Parents by Nick Blevins
How to Utilize Facebook Groups by Bryan Haley
All Effective Church Communication Starts With 4 Crucial Questions by Joel Gorveatte

thanks for attending my safety first breakout at #etch19. here are some links that i thought might be helpful as you continue to provide the safest place possible to point kids to Jesus.

prezi slides – click here to see my prezi slides from this workshop. (this link will be available for a month.)

child protection – click here for the link for our church’s child protection process.

general policies – here is our current general policies, behavioral guidelines, and more packet.

incident report form – click here to download a copy of our incident report form. we get it printed on tri-carbon paper so that we can give copies of the report to various staff members.

emergency bag procedure sheets – click here to see an example of our sheets that go in our emergency bags.

sunday school teacher job description – here’s a copy of our job description for our sunday teachers.

check out these articles about church security that i find helpful.

10 Safety and Security Mistakes Churches Make by Dale Hudson
Children’s Ministry Security: 10 Questions Every Children’s Ministry Must Answer by Dale Hudson
7 Reasons Your Church Needs a Safety and Security Team by Chuck Lawless
Keep Your Kids Safe: 15 Church Security Tips by Anthony Coppedge