Faithbook - Summer Children's Ministry

Come be a part of living out Faith @ Home by ministering with your kids in faithbook!

Faith @ Home

Parents and Church Leaders, this is a GREAT SITE to check out if you are interested in getting for information about how to disciple children in the home.  Mark Holmen was the Senior Pastor at Ventura Missionary Church until he left to pursue full-time missionary work in the Faith @ Home movement.

Again, with details coming shortly, Mark will be coming May 1st and 2nd to present a Faith @ Home workshop.  Saturday the seminar will be for Church leaders (Pastors, Directors, Lay Leaders).  On Sunday evening, from 5-7 PM, Mark and a representative from Focus on the Family will be presenting a workshop for parents of ALL ages who desire to continue, start or ramp up their discipleship of their kids at home.  Children's Ministry and Childcare WILL be provided - they will even get to eat!!!!

How to Connect the Dots...Part 2

At our last Equip meeting we talked about how to connect the space from Sunday to Sunday by connecting with the kids and families throughout the week.  There was some great insight and discussion brought up that I thought I would share with the rest of the world.  Here are the starting points:

• On average, we have 1 hour each week with the kids to make an eternal impact.
• If that is all the kids receive each week, God becomes ONE thing they DO rather than THE central part of their life.
• A child's faith is AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE developed in the home.

With that understanding, our first question becomes:

"If our desire as children's ministers is to see kids become fully, committed disciples of Christ, and that will ONLY happen if parents are doing things in the home, how can we make in roads into the families?"

Here are a few insights our volunteers had:

1. Provide easy ways for parents to know what their child/children learned that service (take home papers, craft projects, etc).
2. Mail a postcard to the kids (KIDS LOVE GETTING MAIL)  or parents during the week to remind them of what they learned.
3. Send an MP3 audio file via email to parents about what was covered and how to continue that learning throughout the week.
4. Meet & Greet your parents when they come to drop off or pick up there kids.  There is no substitute for the personal connection!
5. Continue our Family Journey In Faith ministry to inspire, encourage and equip parents to intentionally disciple their kids in the home.   (If your church does not have a ministry like this, I highly recommend starting one.  Email or comment if you have any questions.)

Those were the highlights.  Do you have other ideas to better the partnership between the home and the church?  Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Dean

Saturday Venue Kids!

We are excited to announce a new venture for Venue Live Children’s Ministry called “Saturday Venue Live Kids.” Starting January 24, 2008, we will be expanding our programming to include all kids Birth to 5th Grade and adjusting the rooms to break down as follows:

• Birth - 2 Year Olds in One Year Old Room
• 3's - Kindergarten in Kindergarten Room
• 1st - 5th Graders in Room 205

1st - 5th Graders in Room 205
The Elementary SNL Kids program will focus on discipling kids in a large group setting with worship, fun games, stories and hands-on activities. Dean and Lori Butterfield will be running the program for kids each week and exploring God’s Word and His plan for their lives.

Birth - 2 Year Olds & 3’s - Kindergarten
We are also creating a Kid’s Ministry team of 36 workers who will agree to volunteer ONCE EVERY 6 WEEKS (no including special Musical weekends) in one of the pre-school children’s ministry rooms on Saturday night. Your commitment would be for one year with the option of continuing at the end of that year. We will also send out reminder post cards, emails or phone calls when it is your turn. It would, however, be your responsibility to show up or switch with someone if, for any reason, you cannot be there.

This will be THE place to be on Saturday night for kids!

Let me know if you are interested in signing up for this limited time (and minimal committment) opportunity.

Dean

Special Event Helpers Needed

With the special event of Don Piper coming to speak on October 22nd, I need to get a few subs to help out for just one night only. I have room in all the ages and could use you if you are willing.

Let me know and thanks,

Dean

Do you ever feel like there is not enough time in the day, week, month or year to get stuff accomplished? That is what the last month has felt like for me - problem though is that I KNEW it would be coming...

What am I talking about?

The annual push for summer program volunteers! Every year, you may know, I try and bring in a new group of people to help give the school year volunteers a nice break. And every year I struggle with it...

How can I get more people to understand that EVERY Believer should be serving?!!! Imagine every one of our 1600 church folks each serving in one area? What an amazing thought!

But, this is reality, and I still need over 20 more volunteers starting in 2 1/2 weeks (one of which I will be gone for to graduate from Seminary). Chances are, if you are reading this, you are already volunteer or attend an entirely different church. But if you attend CWMC, and you don't volunteer anywhere this summer, consider jumping on board...YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT and will experience more joy than you can imagine.

Yours, Dean

It's been a while...

I know it's been a while since I last posted, but things are almost finalized for the new ministry year with nearly all volunteers in place. A HUGE THANKS to all the summer volunteers who made a difference in kids lives. You made it great! Thanks to each of you who are volunteering this school year, there are exciting things on the horizon. Be on the lookout for the letter and new sub list in the mail, if you have not already received it.

We have started a new program during the 2nd hour with the 3rd to 5th Graders called Disciplemakers! This program focuses on teaching kids to live for God in all aspects of life in the fun and engagning format of small groups. Stop by room 205 sometime and check it out, you won't regret it. As always, if you know someone who may be interested in volunteering in Children's Ministry, pass along their information.

Stay tuned for more as we go.

Dean

CM Fall Kickoff Reminder

This is to remind all of you returning to Children's Ministry this fall about our Kickoff Meeting this coming Wednesday, August 15th @ 7:00 pm. The plan is to:

• Hand out the new curriculum


• Connect with each other for a time of prayer


• Play some fun games


• Enjoy some food, and


• Pass along needed information

Unfortunately, childcare will not be provided at this event, but please make efforts to attend. We will meet in room 205 for about 1 hour. Also, if you know of someone who may be interested in getting involved in CM, bring them as well. Please email or reply with a comment as to whether or not you plan on attending.

Thanks, Dean

VBS Updates

Well, we have now had 4 days of VBS and have 1 more to go! So far, we have had 40 kids receive Christ for the first time and have collected $1085 for the Blue Water Pregnancy Care Center. The kids have one more day to riase $415 in order to see me have my head shaved. (I am farily sure it will happen.)

Also, we have been averaging 260 kids each night along with well over 100 volunteers each evening as well. If you volunteers during VBS, I just want to say you have been doing a fantastic job and have truely made an impact in the lives of kids. Hope to see everyone tomorrow night, where I may be going bald!

God Bless, Dean

Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean

Yes you heard it right. If the kids raise enough money ($1500) for our VBS Mission fundraiser this year, Blue Water Pregnancy Care Center, I am going to shave my head! Think that will get the kids attention!

Also, in case you are checking in how things went, we had 210 kids in attendance and raised $34.00 so far for BWPCC. I am sure more will be coming in tomorrow night! Hope to see you there.

Dean

Welcome to SonForce Kids VBS!

This post is for all of you checking out the blogsite from the conference room at Colonial Woods during our VBS week. Welcome to a great new way of communicating to our volunteers. Check around the site, look at a few links and make yourself at home.

The table you see before you is to entice you to become weekly or monthly volunteers of Anchor Children's Ministry. So be sure to sign up as we have A LOT of spaces available for you to make a difference in the life of children and impact them for God!

Thanks, Dean

Have you checked in yet?

ATTENTION ALL SCHOOL YEAR VOLUNTEERS OF COLONIAL WOODS CHILDREN'S MINISTRY! Have you let me know if you are returning in the fall? You should have received a postcard in the mail, but I have not heard from MANY of you.

So give me a call, stop by the Church, or email me.

Dean

SonForce Kids VBS

Greetings all you wonderful CWMC peeps (a little bit of "old school" for you)! Just wanted to make sure you know about our dynamite VBS Dates and Theme this year.

SonForce Kids will be starting Sunday, July 22nd @ 6:30 pm and running through Thursday the 26th. Did you notice the Countdown Clock up above? You can either register your kids or volunteer by stopping by the registration table that will be in the lobby for the next 4 Sundays.

Be sure to check it out!

Dean

End of Month Check

Teachers and Volunteers, we are nearly through one month of Summer already and time seems to be flying by. We finally got some much needed rain around here and things are on "Cruise Control" for the Summer programming on Sundays. If you currently volunteering this Summer, I want to say "Way to go!" and give you a Hi-5! So here you go:


Also, for the volunteers taking the summer off - be in prayer about returning in the Fall to continue winning kids and bringing them closer to him by being involed in CM. I will be contacting each of you soon. There are some exciting things on the horizon, and you will not want to miss it.

Also, congrats to Joann Mc. on winning the free book, Rock-Solid Kids. We will do something like that again in the future. God Bless!

Dean

Another Blog Site

I have added another link to the list on the right side of this page. This site is another blog from several big names in the area of Children's Ministry.

http://www.thewayweseeitblog.com/

Go ahead and check it out.

Dean

Are you continuing...

This post is simply to check in with you to find out if you are going to be staying on this Summer. I am assuming most of you take the summer off and want to honor, but just need to know for sure. So, if you are a regular Sunday AM volunteer and have not yet told me anything, let me know!

You can email me, or call the church office.

God Bless, Dean