Children's Ministry Directors

[00:00:00] This podcast is a part of CG and Media, a podcast network that points to Christ. We are supported by listeners like you to help us create more great shows visit cgandmedia.org slash support. The awesome privilege of interviewing two amazing children's ministry leaders, first Tammy,

[00:00:37] Pam, yeah, Mike, yeah, Mike there. Children's Ministry Director here at Reliant Search and to Macula and Jasmine Bush, hey, hi, Jasmine, from Calvary Chapel, Murietta. She is also the Children's Ministry Director.

[00:00:50] So why did you guys tell us a little bit about yourself and just like what your experience in Children's Ministry is kind of how you got to this table today? Yeah, I'll start. Jasmine here. So I've been attending Calvary, Murietta for about 11 years and then came on staff.

[00:01:08] I just actually had my six year in her series. So I started out as the Children's Ministry Assistant and was under Pastor Tony for three years, I guess, three of those years, three and a half.

[00:01:22] And then when it was time for him to kind of move on to other things, still within the church, but taking on different roles, they asked if I wanted to step up and I said yes.

[00:01:34] And so I've been the director now for about two and a half years and love it have, I don't know, maybe 60 or 70 volunteers that kind of come throughout the week. Different services, different days and times and all that.

[00:01:52] And then a great assistant, Alyssa Cress that I work with as well. All right. Thank you so much. Do you now do you lead just Sunday morning or do you do the midweek programs as well?

[00:02:02] Midweek as well and then also the Women's Ministry events, so we have our mom's group and our Tuesday morning Bible study as well. Awesome. Very cool. I love it. So this is Tammy and I've been serving in reliance church for over 14 years now.

[00:02:21] So I've been here for a while. I've been doing Children's Ministry as a director for 35 years. I can't believe that I can't believe that I can't believe that I can't believe that I can't know how I started super young in my teens. I'm always out of heart.

[00:02:33] I wish I could say that. And so it really, Children's Ministry transformed my life. So I always wanted to be a part of it in some shape or form and I've just had the great

[00:02:45] opportunity here to be able to come alongside and credible team to serve the Lord. And so we have a little over 300 children every Sunday for all of our services and we have a 1 up program and then we do child care throughout the week for the different

[00:03:03] ministries that meet. So that's fantastic. And there's so much that goes into it I know because I watch you guys just like the scheduling of volunteers and the training and the people that don't show up when they say they're

[00:03:15] going to show up and all the things and then just the spiritual aspects of the kids and we'll get into all of that. And we kind of want to focus on what do people who are listening that are in children's

[00:03:26] ministry like what do they need to know or what should they know? And so we're going to go through some of that but I'm super excited because we've never done. I don't think we've done a segment.

[00:03:37] I think we did one on special needs like dealing with special needs within the church but then having this is just so exciting to me because there's such a huge part of the church you know our children and I know both if you probably have the philosophies of

[00:03:53] the children aren't like something that they grow up into members of the church. They are members of the church and so sharing a little bit about just like your personal philosophy of ministry or the heart behind ministry.

[00:04:05] So I really look at the kids as our future, not far in the future but we're training them now. We have leadership programs for the kids starting out at third grade so they can continue

[00:04:17] to be leaders but my philosophy behind the ministry is just realizing this is eternity that we are dealing with. We don't do child care. That's a naughty word here. We only have time to change lives and to transform for eternity.

[00:04:31] And so for me that's super important to everything that we do. We're looking at vision constantly evaluating what is our vision? What is the heart of our pastor? Are we making sure that that's part of our vision here?

[00:04:44] So we work as a team and we're cohesive with all of those things and we have a three prompt ministry. So we are working with children obviously but we're also working with their parents and also the servant.

[00:04:58] So we have three ministries within a ministry and so we have to look at the heart of that. How do we connect with each of those groups and a meaningful, powerful way for eternity? Thank you. Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

[00:05:11] It is so multi-basseted across the board and of course our number one thing as we want the kids to know that Jesus loves them. He's real and he is here for them and it's not a story that they're reading or just

[00:05:28] something that they are brought to you by their parents because they have to but that God is here and he wants to meet them where they're at and we can share his love with them and yeah, just to know I'm sorry.

[00:05:42] Just to know that he is real and he is for them. Amen. And that they can be a part of the church. They can use their spiritual gifts and kids can pick up so much like there's so smart such intelligent little people there.

[00:05:56] Sometimes we think, oh we just want to share our story or but they can grasp so many concepts and those concepts they're going to keep or when they memorize the word like they're going to take that into their adulthood. And so those things are so fantastic.

[00:06:10] What are some of the, and we could just stop on this question I know. I know this one's going to be loaded for you guys but what are some of the biggest joys working

[00:06:20] when children are in our, or maybe even a story of like the just that one like you know sort of rose bowl moment or super bowl like that's I should say. Yes, we could definitely take out talking about this but of course with our goal in helping

[00:06:36] children reach eternity. I had a girl two years ago that came up to me. I shared part of my testimony at VBS and I have quite a colorful childhood to say the least and she was going through very similar circumstances with abuse and her family.

[00:06:52] And she just felt like giving up. And so I shared a bit of my testimony as I usually do during VBS with our servants because I was saved at VBS as a four-year-old child and it changed my whole trajectory.

[00:07:07] But she came up to me two years ago which was two years after I shared my testimony and wrote this beautiful letter to me and said I was about ready to give up and because you shared

[00:07:18] that you could do what you've done and you are where you are because of Jesus. I know he's not going to give up on me and I know he loves me and I know I can fight

[00:07:28] through these battles and to have someone relate to that and to be inspired by the pain that I've suffered in my life and to show her that yes we can do this with Jesus and my goal the reason I

[00:07:41] have such a heart for children's mysteries because I was my safe haven as a child and she's feeling that same feeling. So I just totally related to that and I was weeping the ugly cry with her when

[00:07:53] I wrote her beautiful letter but I had no idea her story up until that point. So important that safe harbor that you know kids are coming in that are in abusive families and

[00:08:03] that you know don't have a great home life and then to come here and be able to come to church and then be able to meet with Jesus and be around loving people and people that are going to

[00:08:14] support them through thick and thin it's just that there's no greater joy right and let us see them get it. And a lot of people think because I got to church everything's great oh all the people at

[00:08:25] church they don't have any problems they don't have any issues and we're all part of this world and so because of that they're dealing with really hard things when we write down their prayer

[00:08:34] requests when they pray when we pray with them it's heavy stuff and so we need to realize that as children's mystery leaders and directors that that is where our goal is let's get to the

[00:08:46] heart of things let's be there in the thick and the thin and every trench in between and so they know that they can always rely on us we're always there for them and so a lot of times people just

[00:08:56] take it for granted that oh they go to church everything's great now that's where the battle begins because they want to attack all that business yeah what's some been some of your biggest joys I mean

[00:09:08] the simple ones of just kids running up to you and giving you a hug you might be power walking to get to a situation but somebody runs up to you and hugs you and just stop for that second

[00:09:17] and just enjoy that but there was a time a few years ago when I was assisting I was doing it was really small service I think it was probably our 8 a.m which is one of our smaller ones but

[00:09:30] I was doing an object lesson where you bring in the the clear jars and one has like the iodine and one has bleach and one has watering and pouring to show you know this is our sin

[00:09:40] and this and takes over and then Jesus you know washes our sins away and then the iodine turns white because of the or clear because of the bleach and so the you know I'm doing the whole

[00:09:48] little thing and there's this one little boy he's just sitting in the front row wide iodine and you know I do the thing and he's like can he even take my sins away yes yes you're open him out let me

[00:10:03] be careful so it's just like a core memory for me that's precious I mean just to see kids like getting baptized you know and they fully understand what it is or getting being saved for the

[00:10:22] first time or you know we have an unwanted program and just seeing them you know there's third graders will come in and say oh this kid knows 87 verses like I don't even know 87 verses

[00:10:33] you know one of our grandkids rattled off the entire like all the books of the Bible Ted just used to be goes I don't even know if I did that like here's a state year old just shining and showing us

[00:10:44] up yeah and then they can leave people to the Lord to right and then they turn around leave people to Lord it's so fantastic I'm it's exciting too when you see those kids that are in the corners

[00:10:55] when they first begin coming in or they might be the ones that the teachers are saying hey I'm having some discipline issues here the more we can call them by their first names the more

[00:11:04] we treat them as an individual all of a sudden those are the kids that start raising their hands and that always gets me every time because it's just like click it turned from being that

[00:11:14] kid that I keep seeing their name on the report we need to chat with the parents to all of a sudden this is the one reading the Bible this is the one who knows the Bible verse this is the one

[00:11:22] who can answer the questions because their life's been transformed not only of course by the love of Jesus by people but by people who care about them that want to love on them that that are

[00:11:33] there for them and that always gets me excited too and you see their transformation yeah it's well fun yeah what what is it you know why is it important to have the right people and the

[00:11:46] right procedures in place no you go first Jasmine but why is that important to us right oh just like you're just saying you know having the people who are going to take the time to learn their name

[00:11:58] and ask them about hey you know last week you told me XYZ how's that going to follow up and the kids can know oh somebody's thinking about me throughout the week and not only are they thinking

[00:12:09] about me but they're praying for me and they're remembering me and oh I haven't been here in a couple weeks but they remember that last time I you know my cat was sick or whatever so to have

[00:12:18] that personal connection to build that relationship is just so important so that the kids do feel not only the love of Jesus but we are his hands in his feet and so to feel that extended

[00:12:29] through the volunteers is so important and then just I think taking that extra step in the classroom if they are teaching a lesson or running the craft or the snack words oh they put

[00:12:41] in some thought to this you know they brought in a honey bear because they want us to know that you know Samson was doing this thing or you know just to make it that one extra step

[00:12:52] so that they're not just hearing the lesson but they're experiencing it as well and a lot of times pastors will have these great ideas like oh let's get all the parents to serve one Sunday

[00:13:03] a month or they have these ideas and I'm all about filling a heart not filling a hole and so that's part of having the right team what are they passionate about what is their

[00:13:12] compassion what is their gifting I don't want to just put someone in there because we have an opening um I want to put someone in there because they want to fill a child's heart and so

[00:13:22] that really transforms the way the ministry operates because everyone's there with the same goal the same vision the same purpose to fill lives and so I refer to all of our servants as

[00:13:32] missionaries when I pray for them when we we have our morning prayer meetings we talk about missionaries because that changes the way you feel about what you're doing you're a missionary to the community versus someone to in child care which again we don't use that word but

[00:13:47] it really changes the outlook and the perspective for everyone I'm a missionary this is my mission field these are my children that I'm serving so it's really important to have people there

[00:13:57] and then also on the safety aspect of it we want to make sure we have people that can get kids out in case of an emergency if there's a fire if there's an earthquake if there's an active shooter

[00:14:07] type situation we have to have people that are capable of handling those situations these are our precious precious kiddos and so we want to make sure that all of those things are taking care

[00:14:17] of in case of an emergency that we have people in there that are trained that are ready to jump into any type of situation that might come up and we have to make sure that we're doing our

[00:14:25] due diligence and training people for those situations yeah I remember one particular time when I'm always the one like more kids let's have more kids and Bible study and tell me it's always

[00:14:37] the voice of wise reasoning of like no like what are you going to do if there's an earthquake how many of these kids you know under two can you pick up and carry out it's like oh yeah I'd have to leave a few

[00:14:47] of those probably should do that so in a practical way like those ratios that you kind of stand firm on like those are important things and so talking through kind of procedures and

[00:15:01] stuff and safety what would you guys consider maybe like the top three like laws in children's ministry that people should know because we've we've done it our church we occasionally will do consultations with other churches and assessments and usually we'll show them like where

[00:15:21] their legal exposures are if they have any and so what are kind of maybe the top three laws they like if there's a children's ministry leaders pastor listening like what do they need to know

[00:15:35] that is a great question I don't know if I know the top three but I mean I know for sure that we take the safety really seriously in doing the the live scan background check and making sure that

[00:15:47] anyone who's in a classroom you know has gone through that process and making sure that they're never alone in a classroom with another student so I don't know if that's necessary a lot but

[00:15:58] it's a safety practice you know that we that we have and then also just the mandated reporting if a child does bring up a situation that's going on at home or at school that they know

[00:16:09] to report that to us so that we can get that report filed right away. Yeah so if you're in California you need to be aware of AB 506 it's a can a California mandated

[00:16:23] youth reporting so we have to every church because you work with youth you are required to follow these California requirements if you're in other states they have similar training but everyone has

[00:16:36] to be trained in child abuse reporting as Jasmine mentioned we have to know you have to actually take an online course class and have our certificate for that and to be able to report any signs

[00:16:49] of child abuse you have to have a live scan so it is now required before churches used it as an opportunity well it's our option should we shouldn't we yes you always should but it is now required so

[00:17:01] if any church is not in compliance as of January 2024 they are not going to be able to operate under the California mandate and California can shut down the children's ministry so it's very

[00:17:12] very serious they have given us two years to come into a compliance so now we're at the end of those two years so everyone has to be trained for all of those things also we have to learn

[00:17:27] that identification for those abuses and churches have to have a policies and procedures for how they deal with that so California can come in someone from the state can come in and say

[00:17:40] okay what are you going to do if you have a victim of child abuse how are we do you handle it and everybody has to know anyone who serves whether you're on staff or a volunteer you have to be aware

[00:17:50] of what those laws are what those rules are and it's very very serious so that's definitely a top priority yeah so as we visited other churches we knew they're a little bit out of compliance

[00:18:01] you know like we had a situation where we didn't assessment and we showed them more they were legally exposed and they were able to take some steps to fix that and then like three weeks later

[00:18:15] they actually there was an accusation and so it's saved yes there behind in that because you need to show that you have due diligence right like okay we have this procedure here's the manual

[00:18:28] everybody's been trained we know the language we know step by step we've taken those steps and so you can show due diligence what about other yeah so that's important speaking of due diligence for insurance purposes so at our church we make sure everyone who's dealing with children

[00:18:47] in any way shape or form has followed all of the requirements because we want to make sure we've done all of our due diligence so someone's working in security they have to go through all of

[00:18:57] the mandates as well they have to be live scanned and do the mandated reporting training all of those things because God forbid something should happen and there's an accusation and we haven't done our due diligence then we're not only emotionally morally and spiritually liable but also

[00:19:16] very painfully financially liable so we want to make sure that those things are covered as well as safety so obviously you want to make sure you can the ratios that we're in to

[00:19:25] brought up earlier I'm super tight on crazy on that because I'm always thinking in case of emergency when I lay my head on the pillow at night I need to know that I kept those little sheep that belong

[00:19:36] to the Lord of save as I possibly can so I'm constantly looking around the church the campus for anything that might be a safety issue can kids get out of the classroom can they get to the

[00:19:47] parking lot who's watching them how are they there so there's lots of that and part of the new mandated reporting laws also require which we have always had as a policy but they have to have

[00:20:01] two or more adults in the presence of children at all times so that's another good safety net for our kids but also just making sure those things are being followed so I'm always looking at

[00:20:12] things through the eyes of a guest so as someone's coming on campus you're a parent what a UC what looks safe to you if you don't feel like there's somebody there who knows what they're doing

[00:20:22] you're obviously gonna go out the back door so we do have our all of our servants have t-shirts red t-shirts and they have land-yards so everyone knows when they see that anywhere on campus that

[00:20:33] there's someone who's been trained so they're easily identifiable and I also like that in case of emergency too so I know who I can call upon if there was a crazy situation unfortunately

[00:20:44] we can we know red shirts and everyone you know goes into formation yeah maybe we could talk about I don't know if you have the ratios but maybe we could talk about that because some of my

[00:20:54] want to know like well what are what are where do I get that information you know what I mean so what are the ratios for kids what's that breakdown look like I would have to look at our

[00:21:07] we have a policy and I would have to look at it I know in the nursery we're four to one and then it goes up higher as you go each each grade but we definitely want to have as many hands

[00:21:19] as possible for the for the little babies but I'm not sure on the on the exact numbers yeah so nursery depending on your classroom too because it does depend on your classroom space how much

[00:21:30] space you have in there so our our ratios are a little bit higher we're two to one in the nursery because it's one of our smaller areas for the little babies so and then we go to three to one

[00:21:40] for um two's and three's and then six to one four's I'm sorry starting at three is we do six to one four's and above we go twelve to one starting out four year olds and then once we get to kindergarten

[00:21:53] then we can do fifteen to one but again there always has to be two adults in the right so yeah no matter what but it does depend on your classroom space and what you're looking at is okay realistically how

[00:22:05] many hands is it going to get to take these kids out of the room if there was an emergency or if there was a crisis situation how are we going to get them all out that's when I'm constantly looking at

[00:22:16] you always I'm always trying to explain that to pastors because they're like you could fit 30 kids in there well yeah but I can't get 30 kids out like Brenda was referring to earlier you know that's

[00:22:25] what we're always looking at yeah are there any other legal exposures that you guys can think of that churches might need to know um what what is what does that look like is there anything else

[00:22:39] that we've kind of already did you hit them all um well live scans a big one because you do get live scan and we get updates so um that is really big um we you know when we get an update maybe

[00:22:51] someone has a DUI or a situation like that uh live scan does notify us so we can keep on top of those situations so um I recommend doing live scan versus background checks there's lots of

[00:23:03] Christian organizations that offer a background check per se it's less expensive but believe me it's not worth the amount of money compared to what you're going to get from a live scan and live

[00:23:14] scan's government so live scan is fingerprints through the government um a lot of the Christian organizations offer a background check was basically putting in your social security number it's not fingerprints and so um we have I have had experience in the past where someone was using a different

[00:23:33] identity um so those fingerprints exposed that this was not the person that goes with the fingerprints wow it was pretty wild it was pretty wild so and no one's coming to wild so it's been a mystery

[00:23:48] so what are some of the you the pitfalls or failures you guys have seen like maybe either may it could be on a teaching level it could be on a leadership level or what are some

[00:24:00] of the pitfalls or failures you guys have seen I think for for me one of the hardest things and I put it under the pitfall category I don't know if that's the right spot for it but it's just knowing

[00:24:11] and we kind of have swung the pendulum every which way you can on rewarding behavior because we want good behavior we want the kids um participating and growing and learning and it's like but we

[00:24:25] don't want them doing it for the reward for the prize so we want you to memorize that Bible verse and here's a sticker but you know do we do the sticker do we not do this sticker do we do a

[00:24:35] candy do we do a chart you know so just trying to find that balance of we want this to be coming from their heart but reward they're helpful and they help motivate kids so just knowing where to kind of

[00:24:50] draw that line of okay that's far enough you know we don't want it to just be so focused on the prize or the reward we want it to be a hard change and they're doing it they're bringing their Bible

[00:25:00] because they want to open it and read it not because they want to get a sticker you know so that's one of the things we are always looking at that's gotta be a rough balance too because you have some

[00:25:10] like rough for kids coming in and you don't want them to like oh this is the standard of behavior because I remember when I was little going into church and like not knowing the word not knowing anything

[00:25:21] and if it would have been like the you know oh we get candy for Bible verses or whatever I've never would have gotten me out of bed at the little kid in the corner like someone gonna throw me something

[00:25:32] so I guess it's probably that tough balance too and like we don't want kids coming in and thinking that Christianity is just about being moral just about being good just about this certain standard

[00:25:43] you have to meet this certain level but genuinely meeting them where they're at never but he's in a different place you know yeah we try to encourage our volunteers because it is easy

[00:25:55] then to the same kid over and over it gets the same price because I never told you that I'm just angel in the plot and then you know you've got my son who's like oh I'm gonna you know

[00:26:06] he's there all the time and he's very very comfortable and so to remind the teachers like we're not looking for perfection you don't have to be perfect to get the sticker or the ticket

[00:26:16] let's look for the kid who normally you say it's time to line up at the door just Chuck's out does it push his chair and is gone or her hey you know what those week they slowed down they stopped

[00:26:26] they pushed in their chair and they walked to the door that maybe they were talking out maybe they weren't paying attention during worship but they did that one thing like let's look for something good that they're doing where we're not expecting perfection across the board

[00:26:40] awesome for me a lot of the pitfalls I as I touched on earlier are people who refer to children's mystery as child care that is one of my biggest puppies I visited churches where they're

[00:26:53] just showing movie the whole time or they're just playing the whole time or they have so many activities they don't have time for God's word and so to me that's a huge pitfall when I'm visiting

[00:27:04] other places because we do need to remember our mentality for and our vision is changing lives for eternity and so that's a huge pitfall that I see sometimes and then also the lack of

[00:27:16] safety and churches oh I know that they've been my neighbor they've gone to this church for five years I know who they are and so those are the times where we're leaving ourselves very vulnerable

[00:27:25] we don't want to be just stuck out there thinking we trust someone and we know what they're doing when we can really be putting ourselves in a lot of liability that way also trainings a huge thing

[00:27:36] a lot of people who have a tradition and their churches are because of lack of training people want to serve they want to be a part of it but they don't know what to do so if somebody could train them

[00:27:47] in our trainings we always talk about our vision our purpose why we're here because once they see that they have a transformation of their heart oh man I'm not here just to sit here for an hour and a half

[00:27:58] I'm here to read lessons to the kids and to love on them and to listen to them and call them by name again that training having that underneath them helps them fill and powered okay I can do this

[00:28:09] I know what I'm doing I know what my objective is and then also policies and procedures a lot of places just oh we've always done this I followed the person behind me I'm doing what they're

[00:28:21] doing and so that can be a pitfall too because we want a fresh vision from the Lord and so I'm constantly praying about that because our ministry has morphed quite a bit over the years

[00:28:32] out of my comfort zone so I know that's Jesus but always looking at it with fresh eyes I love when we have new people join the Children's Ministry and I tell him scrutinize everything

[00:28:43] I'm not afraid of anything please tell me any ideas you have if you wonder why I'm doing something the way I'm doing let's talk about it tell me about it tell me why what anything I can

[00:28:52] improve you know because this is not and I say this all the time in training it's not my ministry it belongs to Jesus and so you're not going to hurt my feelings because it's all about Jesus let's

[00:29:01] make it his very best so pour it out let's go yeah I know actually know some churches that say that they do child care they actually will state we do not do Children's Ministry and are you just

[00:29:15] this just heartbreaking and what I'm wasting waste of time yes you know for the parents and I mean we're not we're not in charge of raising children no in the Lord but we are in charge of coming

[00:29:28] alongside parents and helping them to partner yeah partnering with them I have one other thing as you were talking about doing the same thing getting stuck in the same curriculum because you

[00:29:40] oh this is what we've always used and maybe it's not the right fit for your Children's Ministry and so I think really getting out there and looking to see what is out there and yeah not getting

[00:29:54] stuck using the same thing just because that's what you've always done yeah yeah this might might be a good time to kind of just talk through like you you I'm sure both churches have

[00:30:03] different ways that they actually do their Sunday morning program so how how do you guys do your Sunday morning program what sort of you know just very very briefly like what's the routine first Sunday morning yeah at Calvary Mariana our Sunday mornings we check in in our multi

[00:30:18] purpose room the MPR and then if they are in kindergarten through fifth grade they stay and we have found that just giving them a little bit of free time in the morning where they can combine with

[00:30:29] other ages has been working out really great siblings that necessarily when it necessarily be together because of their age group are able to kind of stay and have a slower time before they have but if they're nursery through four-year-old they go into their classroom and then if they're

[00:30:47] kinder through fifth they stay we all do worship together we have a Bible buddy memory verse that we work on and then kinder first and second they had off to the playground get some energy out before

[00:31:00] they head into the classroom for their lesson and then we actually do our lesson for third fourth and fifth grade all together after their lesson time is over they had out to the playground get some

[00:31:11] energy out while the younger ones go back to class for their lesson and then third fourth and fifth grade we actually have a small group program that we do with them so they then head back to different

[00:31:23] locations and classrooms to break into small groups of five to eight sometimes ten or twelve depending on how many leaders we have kiddos that they can meet with an adult leader who or an older teenager

[00:31:38] usually they're adults and they can talk about what's going on in their life sometimes they review the lesson and they talk about that sort of thing but the main emphasis in goal is just

[00:31:49] for them to share with a group of their peers what's going on in their lives talk about hard things talk about the happy things and then they go ahead and get picked up by the parent.

[00:31:59] Awesome. So for us we're a little pretty similar to that I've we do check in at all one station so all the parents can check in all their kids all at once and then they end up in their own

[00:32:13] individual classrooms we're divided up by grades and during that time the check in time that's when the leaders get to visit with the kids talk with them we have activity activities that have to

[00:32:24] do with the Bible lesson so just keeps reiterating what we're going to learn about so they're working on those activities before they had to worship and then about 15 minutes into service we

[00:32:34] had to worship and we do collective worship from the five k-class all the way to fifth grade so we're all in one room for that and it is so joyful it never gets old we always have tears tumbling

[00:32:46] down seeing those kids worshiping the Lord raising their hands and the parents aren't even pushing them into doing it it's just straight from their hearts love it and then we do our Bible

[00:32:56] lesson collectively as well during that time and then after that we break up and go back to their classrooms where they began and we do questions regarding the Bible message and then also

[00:33:06] do prayer requests time so we we have boards in our classroom so we have a prayer and praise boards in there so we give them sticky notes and they write their prayer requests on the sticky notes

[00:33:16] and then the goal is to show them how God works and one day they can take that sticky note from the prayer side and move it over to the praise side so we want them to see how God

[00:33:25] tangibly works in their life so that's what we're working on and it's so cute because it's like kids will spontaneously just pray for their friend right then and there you know and it's heavier

[00:33:34] things and then of course the little kids I have a scratch let me find it somewhere here it's so precious though and it's important to them so it's cute yeah and I think it's great when the kids can

[00:33:47] have that time to talk and talk about their prayer questions I was sitting in doing some work in a corner while another group was in I think it was our fourth and fifth grade boys but one of them

[00:33:58] said oh my grandma or grandpa I can't remember is sick and then another one my grandma sick and then another one my grandma and it's like okay go wherever everybody's crying yeah

[00:34:09] just the season we're all like but you know they're kind of finding that like I'm not the only one going through this they can share it together where they might not necessarily talk about that

[00:34:18] on the playground but you give them that space to kind of open up it's really cool. I love that that's why we write them down too because some kids are uncomfortable sharing as you get into

[00:34:26] third fourth fifth grade yeah they may not feel comfortable sharing what their prayer request is out loud sometimes so we'll give them that opportunity if they want to have a private prayer request they

[00:34:35] write it down because we don't put their names on it and they can put it on the board and know that they'll be prayed for and I always remind them we're coming through the classrooms all week long

[00:34:43] lots of ministries coming through here everyone can see those and there's more people praying then just the people in your class so they get super excited about that. That's cool.

[00:34:52] I know one of the things that you do to me is we have and I've had done this at any other church so it's so impressive just the leadership program that you've started here for kids and

[00:35:04] we found that to be like super fruitful would you explain just a little bit about what that is sure so we call it crew four twelve from first to met the four twelve and talking about do not

[00:35:17] despise your youth and so God put it on my heart many years ago especially for those kids that are attending to services because their parents are serving giving them an opportunity to be

[00:35:28] our youth leaders and so we start the program at about third grade if their parents are serving I let them do it a little bit younger but we're giving them jobs in the classroom so they're

[00:35:38] helping to hand out the papers they're playing with the kids in the classroom they help lead our worship they help us with our puppet team and just the general movement of the classroom

[00:35:49] one of the most precious things I love when we have kids that are new and they're coming in and they're tearful and they're scared adults can love on them all you want but you get one of

[00:35:58] those crew kids next to them like yeah by parents those tears stop because they have someone closer to their age and so the kids are really trained on being able to do that and I always say like

[00:36:09] they could take over my job right now whenever I know they're in charge they're there's such a great supplement for us we're we're getting ready to do we do accordingly outreach as well um so this is

[00:36:19] something that they create on their own I just help implement whatever their ideas are so we do accordingly outreach so this year they have voted on they're going to be handy now out Christmas ornaments and their inside the ornament has a keychain with a Bible verse on it

[00:36:35] and then they're putting their inviting people to church and then they're going to hang hang them at the sports parks when they go to their gangs they're going to hang them from the trees

[00:36:45] and then we're also giving out Bible so we have we're beautifully wrapping them up in packages and it's gonna say open me inside is the Bible and then they're folding origami ornaments and inside the origami ornament has a special special message each kiddo will do so we

[00:37:00] we've done all different kinds of things for outreach one of the most impactful one for me um several years ago um we called it a sneak attack for Jesus and they took post-it notes and they

[00:37:11] just wrote Bible verses and they said Jesus loves you um please come join us at church you know just different little things like that and when they somebody put it they put them everywhere so

[00:37:23] they put my castations and target in Walmart and wherever they were cereal boxes I thought was acutus me so one of the ladies came to our church from that she she came to our church and she

[00:37:35] used to suck you sought me out and she wanted to tell me who find out who I was and and this note that she got well she was on her way out of target and she was having a really hard day

[00:37:47] and considering taking her life and on her card door is a note says Jesus loves you who will never leave you no forsake you and she just took that into her hand she showed it to me um and she took

[00:38:02] that into her hand and said this changed my life and I said I didn't write it a child real bad and so we were able to share that and I shared it with the kids to know you're making a difference

[00:38:15] now you don't have to wait till your teenager or 25 you are making impact now and of course I didn't share the suicide part with them but I shared that this lady was having a very hard time

[00:38:26] and so they also feel the vision they also feel the impact of what they're doing and so it's really important we actually have 65 kids um that are a part of that team and our normal

[00:38:38] servant base we have 150 adults that serve um during Sundays and then another 100 on or 80 excuse me on Wednesday night so um in comparison there's a lot of kids that are serving and so

[00:38:52] it's just incredible to see their growth too and again I'm not looking for kids that are the first ones raising their hands I'm looking for that quiet kid in the corner that's a drawing and

[00:39:01] feels like there's no place for me and then I give them an opportunity you know what this little boy oh he loves spider-man can you draw spider-man for me yes I could draw spider-man and

[00:39:10] he now has a purpose where he felt like I don't fit in I don't know the answers I don't and now he has a purpose so it's it's really exciting they're they're awesome

[00:39:20] I can tell you there's a grandma there's a fruit of that has been that now I have a grandson who's in middle school and he wants to be here every service like now because he went through that program

[00:39:31] like he's working the coffee cart first service he's doing sound for junior high second he's running the cameras third like these are kids now that like this is my church and I want to be

[00:39:40] involved in it so cool um Jasmine how do you guys handle like what um like special needs kids when they come in because that's I think another area in children's ministry where people are like

[00:39:51] how do we handle this because people desperately want to come to church but sometimes they can't because you know the child is difficult to get there but we can make that easier and so how do

[00:40:03] you guys handle that yeah we have a special needs class available at our 12 o'clock service that um was where we felt we could offer it the best we have two fabulous ladies that um actually

[00:40:20] work with special needs kids throughout the week in their um their job their day job and um they kind of recruited each other and so they they do it together and um yeah we offer that

[00:40:33] to parents um if somebody does come to another service what we usually try to do is depending on their need um give them a one on one so they can be in the classroom um with everybody else but

[00:40:45] they have that one person where if it's too loud and they need to step out they can step out with them or um if everybody's moving on to the next thing and they're not ready to transition they

[00:40:53] can kind of hang back with them um but our our special needs class is specifically on Sundays at noon that's fantastic um anything different there we we do a little bit different we do

[00:41:06] integrate all of our children into all the services and so we have a special buddy for them and we have special buddy boxes um so in every box we have a had fun and one of those beds

[00:41:18] and just like a budget time no it's a lot of fun I actually just passed her skills they probably mean those two so we did something um fun our creative team actually thought of not my

[00:41:30] idea um but we have kind of like um safari vests so those that are you know like a hunting vests sort of worth all the little pockets in it um and they're sure it says special or their vests

[00:41:41] as special buddies so inside the pockets are all these fun little things so when a special buddy gets bored guess what I'm gonna open up another pocket and there's another fidget in there there's

[00:41:51] another thing in there um so we we hide stuff and they're just to make the element of surprise and just keep it moving for them for the special buddies we have and like I said we have boxes

[00:42:02] available we do want to be ready and it's been a good growth opportunity because we do have quite a few special needs friends um for the other kiddos you know why why do they get to play with toys

[00:42:11] and I don't get to play with toys oh my god that's gone they're like I want but um but just to explain in how God made all of us and his image and his likeness and so allowing them to understand

[00:42:24] their friend um next to them and not look at them like why are they doing that we're all part of the same buddy a Christ family we're not ostracized we are all together we all have our different

[00:42:33] quirks and things we love and so it's been great because now and especially the crucades they're always flocking around our special friends um because they want to hang out with them and

[00:42:42] it's just a fun privilege for them like oh God made them so special and so it's it's been a really great growth for us we we really want to do more it's on my heart to do more um but right now

[00:42:54] we just um pair them up with the buddy well I mean we've talked about so many things I don't know if you guys um other things you want to talk about but one thing that I would like to end on is

[00:43:04] how what's the best way for children's ministry workers to find resources to what are places they can keep up on curriculum research the laws we've been talking about is there is there like a

[00:43:16] location that you guys go to to find how do you do that research? That's a great question I would love for there to be a one stop shop for all of those things it's Google for me I mean I I tried to

[00:43:31] you know research different things we do use group uh group publishing for our curriculum and so we have one that we use on Sundays and one that we use on Wednesdays and then one that we use for

[00:43:40] VBS and so group has a lot of different um options what's the website for that do you know group I believe it's group publishing yeah and then yeah and then again just I literally just

[00:43:56] Googles stuff we do coloring pages and it's like okay the lesson this week is Deborah so Deborah Bible coloring page image search and what can we find and there's a lot of stuff on there but yeah

[00:44:07] if there's a one stop shop please let me know I wish there was yes it's lots of research and I also work with other people I have a mentor and then I meant tea people so collectively we talk about these

[00:44:20] things what are you using what are you doing what were expected what I love group curriculum I definitely recommend it it's one of my favorites we used it for quite some time um right now

[00:44:29] we are using grace curriculum because it is more of a one stop shop as far as all the coloring sheets are there activity sheets it all goes with the lesson and it's a little bit deeper um

[00:44:39] than group so um we've changed I like I said we want constantly want to fresh eyes what's got the vision God has given us um and so I'm constantly curriculum is like one of my favorite things

[00:44:50] I just ask people like what are you looking for and because I do a lot of research on it because it's my passion um and I do write some curriculum on my own so I'm like really into that but I wish

[00:45:01] there was one stop shop I'm so I'm making a million bucks where do you find grace grace curriculum org also yeah so that's that's one that we're currently using we also have the I want a

[00:45:17] another one if you are looking for a free curriculum that I highly recommend is truewekids.com they are incredible um they're free and it's in many different languages um and they have pre-school

[00:45:30] elementary school and teen all on the same themes so that's one if your church has a tight budget I would highly recommend because they're very biblically based and also they have little

[00:45:42] booklets that have to do with the lesson too so if you have a small budget tight budget highly recommend and I do use that a lot to myself for supplementing for the ministries that we

[00:45:51] do help out during the week so that they're really fun ones. Any any other websites that people should run to? I love on YouTube a saddleback kids I don't know if you've ever used their videos

[00:46:03] their videos are great they're just little cartoon videos of different biblal stories but um they yeah saddleback kids has a great uh YouTube page. Biblal project has a lot of yeah yeah that's one of my favorites for sure. They have a lot of good ones and mostly again

[00:46:22] it's a Google search. Calvary curriculum is really good for supplements they have um I like using them for the pre-school age because I like their graphics um and they also have a great little

[00:46:31] summary that goes with the biblal lesson that you've learned so there they're another good one that I like going to. I also do focus on the family when I'm dealing with parenting issues um they have a

[00:46:43] lot of good resources there that I can refer families to and then they also have fun stuff for families during the holidays and different issues so that's another one that I use outside of

[00:46:54] curriculum but there's a lot of good curriculums out there so just keep searching doing Google or you can contact me but hey it's a fun for me um just always you know what does a Lord want you

[00:47:06] guys to use what what is it that he's calling you to do we have different themes sometimes we focus on the names of God um it could be also different um the way the Lord leads us and that's why

[00:47:16] said I know it's not me it's God because a lot of it's been out of my brain cells it's good yeah but there are good resources oh yes definitely oh plethora plethora oh children's ministry

[00:47:28] calm as another huge one that I use quite a bit so that's a really great resources and ministry to children as well yes we got that one yeah they're connected so perfect

[00:47:40] hey well thanks for joining us today we hope you find the content really helpful uh speaking of staying connected and with like-minded ministry workers uh we want to tell you about something super

[00:47:51] exciting that we have going on we have all new leadership cohorts and we were joking early that we had to look up the word cohort um it's just people being like-minded in the same group and so we're

[00:48:02] putting these room groups these room cohorts together um for the purpose of being connected and encouraging equipped so if you're a children's ministry leader we're gonna we're gonna be having a children's ministry cohort that you've been joined and talk through these things more

[00:48:18] more often and that's why we do these topics so that then we can just spur on the conversations and these conversations that can continue so check it out go to whenchilids.org for more

[00:48:29] information and to register they are free and I love it my husband always says if it's free it's for me and also stay up to date on Facebook and Instagram to know what's going on and when she leads

[00:48:40] we're going to a lot of different locations this year doing conferences all over and like always we are our west coast one you can save the date already October 18th and 19th and we will be back

[00:48:51] out near it hot springs resort and this time it'll actually be open for business last time we were just in the auditorium but now the entire spa and hotel and everything will be open so it's

[00:49:03] gonna be sure to be a great time so uh righty we'll see you next time