CONTENT

– From the Editor 

– Purpose-filled Ministry – Helping Members Reach Out Beyond Themselves

– Children's Ministry Checkup – Building Your Class Team

– Book Review  – A Voice in the Wilderness 

– Classified Ads

From the Editor,

I know I moan and groan about this every year but...I can't believe it's already November! Where does the time go?  It seems like we just started this new year. This month's MIM has info on how to get your members involved in service projects plus an insightful article on building team in children's ministry.

We've had an exciting month at MIM with two new columnists joining us plus a change over to a new ezine system.  I'd like to encourage you to share issues of MIM with your friends and encourage them subscribe as well so that we can continue to grow and learn together.

What's New at Ministry in Motion? In addition to our new columnists we've also added speaker directory page. We know that from time to time Christians in ministry have special events and may need speakers for those events. If you are a Christian speaker you might want to visit speaker_christian_directory and get listed.

To view this ezine in its html format click here

Teena Stewart

Consultant/Editor for Ministry in Motion

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If you're at a loss as to what to give your pastor, your family members or your friends, why not give something unique and greatly appreciated?  Many Christians love reading Christian  magazines because they help provide insight and guidance into mature Christian living. They can even help provide insight for better ministry.  Ministry in Motion has added a new page to our website just for Christian magazines. You can renew your subscription or purchase a gift subscription for someone you love and help fund Ministry in Motion's on-going ministry by ordering through our pages. http://www.ministryinmotion.net/subscriptions_magazines.html

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Purpose-filled Ministry

Helping Members Reach Out Beyond Themselves

By Teena M. Stewart  

One of the core values of the Bible study group I facilitate is to do at least two service/outreach projects a year. The purpose is to stretch our members to think beyond themselves so that they will be less of a holy huddle.  Last year our group participated in two events. In the fall we helped with a community chili cook off that benefited the Affordable Housing Commission. It was great to see members rubbing shoulders with other non-church people in the community for a common and worthwhile cause.

In December we combined our Christmas party with an outreach event by caroling at a local nursing home, bringing the residents baked cookies, and then later, adjourning back to a member’s house for our party. This year our group has decided to gather together items for a care package that will be sent to the U. S. troops, and we’ll be tossing in items like socks, CDs, books, candy, and more.

With December, the month of giving, just around the corner, many of your church members are probably already thinking about helping others. Often people long for  hands on participation rather than simply dropping a check into an offering basket or bucket, but they may be at a loss as to where to get involved.  Providing your members with information can help them make the connection.

Not long ago, our church wanted to encourage people to do service oriented projects, so we invited several people from the community to come and share about their organizations.  (These were researched by several of our leaders ahead of time.) Afterwards, we had information on these organizations with specific needs these organizations had made known.  This info was available at a table in our lobby.  In addition, we had one leader head up a temporary team that volunteered to help a local organization that provided temporary housing for displaced individuals.  This team also put out information on the charity and had a sign up sheet available for church members.  Out of all of the opportunities we provided, this one had the most volunteer participation because it had someone managing it and because it asked people to sign up and commit themselves.

Church members should never be forced to serve, but the easier we can make it for them to make the connection and commitment, the greater the chance they will actually get involved.  It’s not too late to give your members information on service opportunities for this holiday season.  When you do, you’ll see many lives touched, both by the giver and by the recipient.

Teena Stewart is a Ministry Team leader, a Ministry Discovery Seminar teacher, a published writer, a speaker and a consultant/editor for Ministry in Motion. To learn more about her speaking or seminars visit Speaking Topics of Jeff and Teena Stewart.  

You can contact Teena at smartwords@sbcglobal.net

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One of the needs we have perceived at Ministry in Motion is a service to help connect qualified ministers and church workers to ministry related and church staff positions. In order to assist our subscribers with finding ministry positions and staff, we've added a new page.  If you are presently in job search mode, or if you have a ministry position you are looking to fill, be sure to visit this page. http://www.ministryinmotion.net/jobs_churches.html

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Children’s Ministry Check Up

Building Your Class Team

By Karen Wingate

Helen has taught the preschool class at her local church for 45 years. JoAnn has taught for over 18 years.  The two ladies have faithfully worked together as a team for the last twelve years.

Today, Helen and JoAnn are a rarity.  Gone are the days when, once you agreed to teach, you signed up for life.  Because it's hard to get teachers to commit to teaching every Sunday, many children’s ministries have restructured their volunteer core so that teachers teach on a rotating basis; a quarter of a year, a month, or even a week at a time.
This allows teachers the freedom to work their teaching around other life activities. Rotation also allows teachers to be learners themselves in adult classes.  To many, it’s a relief not to have to be indefinitely committed to the same class week after week.

However, there are some drawbacks to the rotation system.  Kids, especially younger children, need the continuity of the same teacher. Kids try to adjust to one style of teaching and discipline, only to have to adapt to someone new the next month.  When I taught on a monthly rotation, the curriculum units didn’t always coincide with my month.  I become frustrated, because, just as I got going on a particular unit, my month would be over and I couldn’t finish my train of thought with my students.

With a little organization, you can minimize these drawbacks and make a team rotation system work for you.
        
Know your other team members.  Get together for coffee or lunch.  Pray for each other.  Share children’s needs and prayer requests with each other.  As you become friends, you will build a united front so that even though the teachers may change week by week, the children will sense continuity in the classroom.  It’s important to have a team of people that get along well together, JoAnn believes.  “Over the years, we’ve become close (as friends) and that helps us get along,” she says about her teaching partnership with Helen.
 
Choose the rotation structure that works best for you.  Consider rotating according to the curriculum units of study so that a teacher can finish a series of theme based lessons.  I personally do not recommend a weekly rotation, especially for younger children.  Our children already face plenty of upheaval in their lives; they need to see Church as a safe and secure haven.  Having one teacher teach several weeks in a row will help give the children that sense of security.

Have a team meeting.  Plan this meeting at the beginning of each new series of lessons.  Plan bulletin boards, classroom rewards, class parties, and long term activities together.  Decide who will teach which lessons, based on each person’s availability, interest and expertise in certain lessons.

Take advantage of each other’s gifts.  If one person is artistically inclined, let that person create the bulletin boards while your musically gifted person selects songs to teach the class and your organization diva plan the class parties.  Letting each person do what they do best will take the drudgery out of teaching and will free each person to teach using their unique abilities.

Develop a rotation for lead teachers and assistant teachers.  If you are the lead teacher one month, try to be in the classroom as much as you can as an assistant the next month.  This will help the teachers see how each other works, and give kids the consistency of seeing the same faces each week.

JoAnn and Helen have no set schedule of who will be the lead teacher, but arrange their teaching schedule around vacations and other times they need to be gone.  When both of them are at Sunday School, one will teach while the other one leads songs, distributes worksheets, takes attendance and does the other small tasks a lone teacher doesn’t always have time to do. This arrangement gives them the flexibility to be gone if they need to, but the children know that both Miss Helen and Miss Joann are their teachers. 

NEXT MONTH: We’ll address how to be an effective class helper and how to use helpers effectively.  If you have any sage advice of how to be a good classroom helper, email me at kwingate@neo.rr.com

Karen Wingate is a teacher of teachers.  She is known for her off the edge activity based teaching that is still solidly based on the Word of God.  Currently, she is writing curriculum for the Salvation Army’s new Sonday’s Cool programs, teaches a high School Sunday School class and oversees the Youth Ministry Team at her local church near Canton , Ohio .  You can reach Karen with comments or questions at kwingate@neo.rr.com.

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Book Review  –  A Voice in The Wilderness, God’s Presence in Your Desert Places