Molong saves the day! 

When Covid hit Molong, many people couldn’t put food on the table. A phone call from a community person to Julie Spencer was all it took and the church flew into action! Julie and her husband Wayne are the pastors at Molong Baptist. Have a listen to this humble servant of God share His love. God has blessed this little community with big hearts!

 

Padstow Kids in Church during the holidays! 

At Padstow Community Church, during the school holidays the church have the children with them. Their motto is simple is not shallow, where 8 year olds and 80 year olds engage together in the service. What a great way to introduce intergenerational ministry! 

 

Kids Teaching Adults

At Belair Baptist Church, most people are back in the building, but there has been a significant change. The children’s teaching is now part of the main service, and everyone’s loving it!

 

Kids Ministry integrated with the wider church online

 

At Northern Life Baptist Church, the Kids ministry team are having a blast! During this time of COVID the kids ministry have a 5 minute spot in the wider online Church service. 

Not only is their presentation engaging and fun, they are also learning skills and uncovering gifts of their team and the children. It’s exciting to watch and we look forward to how God will use these amazing children and young adults! Well done Rachel and team! 

 

 

Gordon Baptist introduces Intergenerational Church during COVID

 

Gordon Baptist has gone through some significant changes as they have responded to Covid19. In January this year there were 5 congregations that met in 3 languages – Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Each of those congregations was between 50 and 120 people.

When Gordon could not meet in person, they went through a process of discernment to ask how should they gather and express being together in the new covid world. The process took place over three months – including focus groups surveys and one on one conversations. In August the 5 congregations were dis-banded and life groups were suspended. Instead the people of Gordon have been meeting in groups of 10-50 people, instead of meeting in larger congregations or very small groups.

This has required additional leadership development and training for facilitators and hosts.

This move has multiple positives:

  • Gatherings can take place in homes, parks or other spaces such as the church building
  • Gatherings can be hosted and facilitated by trained people who are not pastors
  • They can utilise shared pre-recorded teaching as well as a shared order of service which makes facilitation sustainable
  • Gatherings are small enough that people can know each other’s names and that people can participate in those gatherings together.
  • Gatherings are large enough that they can be intergenerational and intercultural.
  • These groups are can grow and be reproducible.
  • This is a way Gordon can express itself as one local church body that gathers in multiform gatherings.

Two of these gatherings at Gordon Baptist held at the church building and are specifically intergenerational with simple English. These gatherings are more informal, with a short gospel focussed message, and spaces for people to creatively reflect individually or with others, including discussion and prayer. These gatherings are a great way to open things up a little more for people might previously have not come to their traditional church gatherings. These gatherings provide a space for children and young people to be connected to people of other generations and for families to engage the bible alongside others.

In this video, Yvette interviews Russell Mathews – check it out to see and hear what their intergenerational gatherings look like in practice.

Kids return only at Green Point Baptist Church 

 

At Green Point Baptist Church, they believe children are an integral part of the church family. They want the children to enjoy coming to church, to build healthy relationships with their friends and leaders and feel encouraged and supported as they learn about and experience God’s love.

During the time of COVID the kids ministry went online along with the adult church. However after some months the engagement of the children was waning, so Louise and her team decided to start up kids ministry again when restrictions were lifted enough to have 100 people in places of worship. As yet their adult church is still meeting online, but check out what this means to families in this video.

 

Lego Church for the Community

 

When a handful of faithful servants at Helensburgh Baptist Church called Brad Blacker to be their pastor, they probably never expected what would happen next! They started a coffee shop in their local community as a pop-up cafe, and have since made a huge impact from so humble beginnings. Listen to Brad as he talks about why they decided to do Lego Church on a weeknight.

The Night Outline:

A story from the bible is read out by anyone, then Brad or someone else suggests ideas on how you could relate that to lego. The families have 20-30 mins to build their idea. Then everyone takes a turn in explaining how it relates to the Bible story. They then share prayer points and if they are in the cafe, Brad makes hot chocolates for everyone, then it’s home time for PJ’s and bed. 

Northern Life Musical

 

 

When the lockdown meant going online, the Kids and Youth team at Northern Life dug deep to produce some high quality kids skits! As if that wasn’t challenge enough,  they decided to create a fun music skit to tell the story of the Tower of Babel. AND THEN– They loved that so much they’ve decided to produce a musical with their own songs retelling the story of the Bible! Here Rach, the Kids and Youth Pastor, sits down with Morgan and Steph on how their dream began.

 

Thornleigh Baptist Kids Club

 

Check out how Thornleigh Baptist Church have been modifying their Kids Club so that it can still operate through Covid!

More details

Adapting your Special Event during COVID

 

Here’s a simple way to build relationships and still maintain social distancing. 

Equipping Parents

 

Here’s a simple strategy to equip parents to disciple their children.

When your children remind you to pray!

 

Sophie and her team have come up with a simple way for parents to engage with their children in prayer. One parent has shared how the children remind him to do prayer time each day! See the content of the prayer boxes via CANVA, where you can edit the content for your context here.    

Or the PDF is here Prayer box poster design_compressed

Pastoral Care to Families by Families

 

Georges River Kids send out an encouragement letter to families, and add an extra empty postcard and name of family for them to pass on the love! What a great idea!

Ideas Market by Georges River Life Kids Ministry

 

Below are short videos on different ideas that you could use in your Kids Ministry! Thanks to Sophie and the team at Georges River Life Church for sharing their content!

 PARTNERING WITH PARENTS

3 Keys to Support Parents

If you are looking for resources as you partner with parents we want to suggest 3 key ways you could support parents in this season:

Encourage parents and strengthen them from where they are –  for lasting impact avoid a one size fits all model. Each home is different. Look for ways to strengthen each family. Talk with them about what would be most helpful.

Tools over tasks –Wherever possible offering parents tools rather than tasks will have long term benefits. We want parents to take the lead in nurturing faith in their children. Tools can be used over and over again and this makes parents less reliant on a program. Instead of asking a specific questions about a particular story or passage ask questions that can be used with every passage. Questions like: What does this story tell us about God, what does it tell us about people, how does this story apply to me today and what am I going to do about it. Those questions are tools that will last a lifetime.

Encourage families to invite God into their day- Talking about God throughout the day is one of the simplest and most impactful things parents can do.

Prayer Spaces at Home

PRAYER SPACES AT HOME

These prayer activities have been created for families to use at home.
Click on the tiles to open a downloadable/printable PDF.
(And if you come up with any new ideas, please send them in.)

Family Activities Booklet

Enjoying God My Creator

From the Authors: ‘With over 70 activities, this guide was designed to help children enjoy and delight in God their Creator by teaching the way children learn best—through play, activity, and FUN—while still teaching solid biblical truth! We wanted a resource that will equip parents, teachers, and other adults to teach children about God the Creator in an active, meaningful way. Play is the work of childhood, and these activities harness the power of imagination with the power of God’s Word. Our ultimate goal is helping children know, enjoy, and respond to God, their Creator.

The activities in this guide are designed for 3-11-year-olds. Most can be easily adapted for other ages or taught to a multi-age group.

We designed activities with our own preschoolers in mind, so if you have preschoolers, they can join right in! Preschoolers love to touch, move, explore, and wonder. These are the main components of most of the activities.

Older kids love to lead. These years are a great time to help them develop skills while they continue to learn about God. If you have older children or teens, they can help you with the research or prep for activities. Suggestions are also given on ways to adapt activities so they challenge older children.’

See Link Here Enjoying-God-My-Creator-Activity-Guide

Chat Matters

A series of ‘Talking Life Together’ table mats has been designed to help you, your family and friends to talk around these important faith forming pillars from Here2Stay. The Family version has been translated into multiple languages.  The Users’ Guide has been designed to fit perfectly on your tablet or smart phone.

Love out Loud

Check out the awesome Aussie made christian content videos especially for Children! HERE

Parenting App

The Parent Cue App cues you to have simple and meaningful faith-moments with your kid that will fit seamlessly into the daily rhythm of your life.

7 Ways for Families

This guide can be used by families of all types who want to explore their Christian faith together in everyday activities. There are 77 different ideas from praying, chatting, worshipping and serving to ideas for young children and teens. This can also become a companion for “Head, heart and hand family times,” found in the “Family times” library, which are linked to BibleMAX lessons. https://max7dialup.org/en/resource/7waysfamilies

Encouragement to Parents from Parents

Ainsley Freeman gives her wisdom on how a family with 3 children and both parents working have managed in the midst of Covid.

Quiz Worx Home Delivery

 

For over 20 years Quiz Worx has been Sharing Jesus with Kids Everywhere through fun and creative live puppet shows. With the global pandemic of COVID-19 shutting down all opportunities for live ministry, Quiz Worx has turned its creative attention to making resources that can help churches and families share Jesus with kids in the home.
 
Each week Quiz Worx will bring clear Bible teaching to you at home.
 

 

 BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Intentional relationship building

Relationships are key to flourishing and kids have been finding it hard to be disconnected from friends at school, their sporting teams and church. While some restrictions are slowly changing it will be quite a while before gathering as a whole church returns. What intentional ways are you able to connect kids to their peers, ministry leaders and the church as a whole?

Safe Online Ministry

5 Tips for Online Kids & Youth Ministry

1. Be Values Driven

2. Be Purposeful

3. Be Accountable

4. Be Wise

5. Be Compliant

Simple Church Video

 In what ways is your church inviting participation from as many people as possible?

The Simple Church Network pre-recorded a bible reading by people from three different households.Colossians 1 reading from Simple Church Network.

   MISSION SHAPED

Mission Doesn’t Stop even if there’s a virus.
Let’s keep looking for ways to put faith into action for families at home and the church as a whole.

35 Ways to love your Neighbour

 

We’re socially isolated. We can’t gather in groups. We’re working from home. We can’t even go to church.

How are Christians meant to express their faith in these strange days of COVID-19?

It’s tough, I agree, but there are plenty of ways to love your neighbors, even during lockdown. Here’s 35 simple ways to love your neighbor as yourself, even at a distance.

 

Kids Club Guide

Run a Kidzone Club at home or in your local church. We’ve made it super easy! Our leaders’ guide breaks down each current Kidzone mag into different zones with activities, teachings and small group questions that you can slot into your program. Download the leader’s guide and you’re all set to run a Kidzone Club!

 

Lego Challenge

   COOL CONTENT 

Engaging ways of telling the big God story and creative ways of exploring and responding to the story are helpful for everyone. Content that the whole church is looking at is going to get more take-up and be helpful for families than age segregated material.

The best way to use pre-packaged content will be as a springboard for your own context rather than just sending a link to families. 

Good questions to ask as you choose content:

  • Will this content be used for the whole church or specifically for kids?
  • If you are having a separate time for kids to explore the bible – can you use the same passage, story or key theme in your material as what is being explored in the church live stream/videos?
  • Rather than overwhelming families with lots of options – what are the 1 or 2 great things I will use?

Hands Off Games

KidsMin Curriculum have produced a great list of no touch games to play in the kids ministry setting. Find it here

Zenos Media

Zenos Media is a new Australian Christian media initiative providing churches, schools and other Christian organisations with resources to enable them to proclaim the good news about Jesus in culturally appropriate and creative ways.