A Youth Toolkit

The Children’s Society has produced ‘The Good Childhood® Youth Toolkit’ to help churches develop and implement their youth work ministry and help make childhood better for children and young people in their community.

Information included on the CD:

• Starting out – how to set up and manage a youth activity
• Sample guidance documents – safe practice and procedures
• for use in church
• Youth worker recruitment and employment –
• how to budget, advertise, recruit, and employ youth workers
• Volunteers – recruiting and supporting them
• Youth club resources – templates to assist in the day-to-day
• running of a youth group
• Session planning ideas – top tips for working with young people

The Good Childhood Youth Toolkit is a FREE resource, although a voluntary contribution of £4.99 would be appreciated. There are even free upgrades and additional resources once you register with them.

To order a copy of your interactive CD, call The Children’s Society on 0845 300 1128. To find out more information and leave your contact details visit http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/church

The Children’s Society is a leading children’s charity, driven by Christian values and committed to making childhood better for all children in the UK. By listening to and working with young people, you can help make a good childhood a reality in your community.

More information in the form of a pdf flyer can be downloaded here.

KORE

This is an amazing website full of ideas and resources to help you in delivering creative worship. I will keep coming back to this site again and again! Enjoy! The website is called ‘KORE’

It’s tagline is “engaging with culture, exploring new ideas, creatively equipping the church”

Child in the midst

• Children’s Well Being
• Can you hear me?
• Sing out!
• 2009 – Year of the Child
• Christian Values
• Off the Bookshelf

Children’s Well Being

There has been a lot in the press recently about children’s wellbeing. Hands On Scotland has published an excellent toolkit to give pointers and ideas to anyone working with children who are displaying anxiety, trauma, phobias etc. Well worth bookmarking.

Can you hear me?

The Open Learning Unit of the Open University has made a module on Children’s Participation available. If you are interested in exploring participation issues further, this might be worth a look.

Sing out!

ReSound have joined up with Big Ministries to write a couple of new songs suitable for all age worship. You can listen to both of them – Come you thankful people and We may not (God’s Masterpiece) – here (along with a whole lot more!)

2009 – Year of the Child

Churches all round the country are using the 30th anniversary of the UN Year of the Child as a springboard for celebrating children! If you’d like to join in, here are some places to get you started:

• ROOTS – Children & Young People (ROOTS website) (July/August) has a 4 session Holiday Club outline following opportunities to explore and celebrate the lives of children in your community

• ROOTS – Adult & All Age (July/August) has a an outline for an all age service to celebrate the 2009 Year of the Child, based around Zechariah 8 and Matthew 19

• Year of the Child 2009 has a whole range of ideas, including a downloadable starter pack to get you going

• Will You Make A Difference? is a DVD and web site that offers video clips, training ideas, PowerPoint’s and questionnaires to stimulate discussion and help churches think strategically with their ministry to, with and by children

Christian Values

It’s not that hard to find resources to help children learn about the Christian values of love and kindness. But how do we explore endurance, or humility, or koinonia? A new website from the Church of England – Christian Values for Schools looks at 15 different values and through images, theology and questions opens up their meanings and how they can be embedded in school life. But they’re not restricted to school! Using some of the starting points might open up very fruitful discussions for your children’s leaders (or even PCC!) about how our understanding of values informs our practice! The site has only just gone live, so more will be added to it in time – but there’s plenty of food for thought right now!

Off the Bookshelf

Instant Games for Children

This new book from BRF ties in nicely with the Government’s Play Agenda! With just 14 everyday items, it offers over 100 `instant’ games to play with 5 – 11s. There are no hidden moral lessons attached, just the opportunity to play co-operatively and have fun! Ideal for those `moments to be filled before they need us in church’ or to run a games hour during the long summer evenings

Instant Games for Children

By Susan L. Lingo

Pub. BRF ISBN: 978-1841-015910 £6.99

Do you love your youth worker?

I have copied the below from from the youthwork website, but this is something I will be encouraging parishes to think about before I leave in the summer.

So, if you love your youth worker and everything they do as they serve your church, then sign up to the charter…PG

——-

The National Charter for church youth workers is a set of seven promises churches make about the about the practices and principles they will use in employing a youth worker. It’s a project for all churches who have a paid youth worker (or a worker whose responsibilities include youth work).

Many churches across the UK are wrestling with the challenge of connecting with young people in our society. Fewer teenagers are linked with the church community than in previous generations, yet many of the pressures they face are greater.

One response has been to employ a paid youth worker, full or part time, to focus on some of these issues. It is estimated that there are currently around 8,000 employed youth workers in UK churches, alongside the many volunteers also working with young people.

We Love Our Youth WorkerThis change has brought with it a new challenge for many churches as they think about how they go about not only recruiting a youth worker, but also training and supporting them in their role.

The Charter is meant to be a helpful way for churches to think through the key issues in employing a youth worker. It contains seven declarations churches make about these issues.

The seven areas come from the very real experiences of youth workers up and down the country: they reflect situations where youth workers, and the churches that employ them, can often find frustration, conflict or simply unmet needs.

Some churches may find they already meet the seven areas of the Charter, others may find that it beneficial in identifying areas needing change. We hope everyone will find it a helpful and reflective experience.

Child in the midst

I have worried about the Church’s actions in history and begun to worry that it is difficult to see clearly what the Church is for. The Church acts like it is God himself instead of an instrument of God.

Philip Fryer (15) in `Through the Eyes of a Child’

This week

* ChildFaith
* Back to Church Sunday
* Every Child’s Spirituality Matters!
* Raising Spiritually Healthy Children
* Off the Bookshelf

ChildFaith

If you’ve got the time to think some more about children’s faith and how to support its growth, this is a great website to explore. ChildFaith offers articles, resources, a blog, video clips and lots more. There’s plenty to think about and links to help you explore further.

Back to Church Sunday

This year Back to Church Sunday is on 27th September. If you’d like to plan something special to offer families a reason to come back to church, you’ll find plenty of ideas on the Back to Church website.

Every Child’s Spirituality Matters!

Ci2Eye, specialists in early years education, have a day conference happening on 13th June. Rebecca Nye and Richard Sudworth are the keynote speakers, and there will be workshops, seminars and displays. It’s being held in Birmingham and should offer plenty of food on how we help nurture the faith and spirituality of under 5s. More details on the Ci2Eye website.

Raising Spiritually Healthy Children

This article by Debra Haffner has some very practical ideas for families to use to help nurture their children’s spirituality, several of which could be adopted in church or mid-week settings.
Off the Bookshelf

Colourful Creation

This delightful hardback book brightened my Friday afternoon! Lucy Moore’s rhythmic poem about the wonders of creation tumbles across Honor Ayres’ vibrant illustrations. Under 5s (and a lot of over 5s!) will love it!

Colourful Creation

By Lucy Moore

Pub. Barnabas ISBN: 9781841-016818 £5.99

Reflective Learning

This little gem of a book has been written for Key Stage 2 teachers to help them explore key Christian beliefs in RE and collective worship. The 11 units cover the concepts of Trinity, salvation and reflective living and are packed with ideas for exploring the stories and symbols, worship, activities and theme-based focus tables. But it seems to me this could form the basis of a Christian basics course for 7 – 11s in a church setting, offering as it does reflective teaching about doctrine and Christian living at an appropriate level. There’s no dumbing down of the concepts, and the church seasons and sacraments are explored with a richness not often offered by weekly resources. The background information offered at the start f each Unit could usefully be used in any preparation meetings of children’s leaders to deepen their own understanding of faith.

Reflective Learning

By Trevor Reader and Lillian Weatherley

Pub. Barnabas ISBN: 9781841-015736 £8.99

Child in the midst

Right from the beginning [the child] is already in possession of that value and those depths which are implied in the name of a person. It is not simply that he gradually grows into a person. He is a person….The child is the person who, right from the first, is the partner of God.
Karl Rahner, Ideas for a Theology of Childhood

This week

• Children and Family Ministry
• Pockets
• Christian Child Care Forum
• Children WebMag
• Leaves of Life
• Off the Bookshelf

Children and Family Ministry
Kingsway have re-vamped their children and family ministry pages. Have a look round it and you’ll find a variety of articles, resources and forums to explore.

Pockets
Pockets, an online resource for children comes from America, and features a calendar with daily Bible passages and prayer ideas, stories, games and more. For adults, there are a whole range of articles with ideas to help develop your ministry with children both in church and at home.

Christian Child Care Forum
CCCF has published its latest newsletter. It has a good round up of what’s been happening in the world of child care, so to `catch up’ with things, you can find it here.

Children WebMag
The March Edition of Children WebMag focuses on issues surrounding parenting, including men in caring roles with little children, single parenting, grandparenting and the values we might want for our children.

Leaves of Life
The Children’s Society have produced an excellent resource designed to help children think about the Gospel message of new life and articulate what makes a good life for them. In the `new life’ season of Easter, this would be ideal to use with groups in your setting, to help the church hear (and act) on what they have to say. Visit the Leaves of Life website to discover how you can get your free resources.

Off the Bookshelf
Multi-Sensory Ideas for Worship
We have five senses, but very rarely are they all engaged in worship. Irene Smale, Children’s Adviser for the Diocese of Chichester, has brought together 100 ideas using the senses. This isn’t a `ready-made-session’ book. Each of the ideas will need to be thought about carefully as it is incorporated into your service or activity time, but there is plenty here to bring taste, smell, sight, touch and hearing into worship.

Multi-Sensory Ideas for Worship
By Irene Smale
Pub. Kingsway ISBN: 978-1-84291-392-5 £8.99

Through the Year with Jesus!
In 2006, Eleanor Zuercher wrote `Not Sunday, Not School’, a resource to help small churches with their children’s ministry. This sequel takes an aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry each month and offers stories, crafts, displays, prayers as well as a summer activity programme. Written for churches in a rural context, there’s plenty here for any small church which wants to offer children opportunities to meet together to explore faith and worship.

Through the Year with Jesus!
By Eleanor Zuercher
Pub. BRF ISBN: 978-1841-015781 £9.99

Child in the midst

In the face of a society that places a high premium on `growing up’, on becoming the kind of consumers that adults are……children are already fully alive, fully present, fully endowed with promise in God’s world. They do not simply grow into the future, but inhabit a present fully pregnant with meaning.

David H. Jensen, Graced Vulnerability

This week

• Five lessons for Lent
• The Good Childhood Inquiry – a Christian Response
• Getting a voice!
• ReSound Worship
• Really Useful website
• Toddler Group Training
• Off the Bookshelf

Five lessons for Lent

Lent has already started, so in one sense this resource is too late. But this series of Bible reflections linked to stories from the Philippines could be used at any time to help your team reflect on the issues that are at the core of what children need: security, boundaries, community, creativity and significance. They aren’t restricted to Lent! Based on Keith White’s book The Growth of Love , Love to Pieces is well worth a look.

The Good Childhood Inquiry – a Christian Response

The Churches Child Care Forum is holding its annual Forum Day in London on 28th April and will be focussing on how Christians might respond to the findings of the Good Childhood Inquiry. Among the speakers will be Jim Davis (a member of the Inquiry Panel), the Bishop of Stepney, Jon Khurt (a Christian activist) and Stephen Timms (Chief Secretary to the Treasury). For more details and a booking form, click here.

Getting a voice!

Too often we assume we know what children want and what is best for them without ever asking! Participation Works has published a free, downloadable resource to help groups develop opportunities for children to have their say in the things that concern them. Packed with plenty of practical ideas and activities, these modules could help your church really hear what children think.

ReSound Worship

If you are looking for a source of new songs (not necessarily for children’s worship) you might like to look at ReSound Worship which is constantly adding new, thought provoking material.

Really Useful Website

Children’s Work is the Children’s Work Advisers‘ revamped website and there are a growing number of really useful resources on it. Web links, ideas, contacts, downloads and book reviews will all be making an appearance. It’s a work-in-progress – so keep coming back to it (and let me know if there’s something you think ought to be on it!).

Toddler Group Training

The CATS Group (containing representatives from Scripture Union, Fegans, the Salvation Army, the Baptist Union and the Go Project) has produced Building Blocks – a resource to help resource leaders and helpers in Toddler Groups. Mixing theory with practice, it’s a course to help shape Toddler groups and offer practical help with faith development, storytelling, music and prayer.

Off the Bookshelf

Through the Eyes of a Child

This collection of 14 essays explores theological themes such as vulnerability, judgement, sin and grace through the perspective of children. It offers fresh insights into how children might experience and understand faith and has questions and activities to stimulate further thought.

Through the Eyes of a Child

Ed Anne Richards and Peter Privett

Pub. Church House Publishing ISBN: 978-0715140888 £19.99

Discovering the Bible with Children

Both Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and broadcaster Joan Bakewell have recently commented on the importance of children hearing and learning Bible stories. Their reasoning focussed on understanding literature and culture – ours would be on encountering God through his word. Scripture Union’s latest title in its Top Tips series has a whole host of practical ideas for helping children engage with the Bible. Whether it’s exploring the 5 S’s, stories in parallel or head and heart questions, there’s likely to be something that helps you dig deeper into scripture with your group.

Top Tips on Discovering the Bible with Children

By Terry Clutterham and John Stephenson

Pub. Scripture Union ISBN: 978 1 84427 335 5 £2.99

A Good Childhood

No doubt you read the headlines when the Good Childhood Inquiry reported early in February – but to get the real story you need to read the report itself. Written in an accessible style but backed with the research and evidence from the last two and a half years, it’s published by Penguin and offers challenges to us all.

A Good Childhood

By Richard Layard and Judy Dunn

Pub. Penguin ISBN: 978-0-141-03943-5 £9.99

Child in the midst

…the separation of children from congregational worship produces children who cannot participate in worship, but also adults (lay and ordained) who cannot worship with children. Joyce Mercer

This week

• Lent and Easter
• A Good Childhood
• Changing Childhood
• Global Perspectives on Children’s Spirituality
• Suffer the little children?
• Off the Bookshelf

Lent and Easter
Lent starts on 25th February. Here are some sites and resources which offer a range of ideas to help children and families explore the season:

• Lent Event from the Uniting Church in Australia
• More Ideas from South Australia
• Ideas for marking Lent at home
• A Resource Sheet of prayers, ideas for `burying the Alleluias’, an Ash Wednesday scavenger hunt and much more
• A Service of Tears to help children mark the start of Lent

A Good Childhood
The Good Childhood Inquiry reported this week. Mark Easton, the BBC’s home editor, hosted the launch event on Wednesday and is blogging this week on aspects of childhood.

Changing Childhood
Changing Childhood is a conference to explore the child in the context of church, society and culture. Coming as it does shortly after the Good Childhood Inquiry, it offers the chance to go deeper into some of the issues that children face today and how we might change things for the better. Hosted by the Diocese of Chichester in collaboration with the University of Chichester and the Children’s Society, it will bring together practitioners, researchers and academics from across disciplines but united in their concern for children. 2nd – 4th July 2009

Global Perspectives on Children’s Spirituality
Still on the theme of conferences, the International Children’s Spirituality Conference is also in July (15 – 19) with the theme Global Perspectives on Children’s Spirituality.

Suffer the little children?
A thought provoking sermon on the Fulcrum webite explores the question of why God allows children to suffer.

Off the Bookshelf

Grief in Children
How can you best help a child who’s been bereaved? Most people don’t even think about it until they find themselves in the situation where a child’s parent, or sibling or teacher has died. This excellent, readable book explains how children of differing ages understand death. It offers practical support and advice to help adults support the child whether in the home, school or church. It explores the different reactions a child might experience and strategies for coping. It’s the sort of book that ought to be read before the event – and then be easily accessible to refer to if a tragedy occurs.
Grief in Children
By Atle Dyregrov
Pub. Jessica Kingsley ISBN: 978 1 84310 612 8 £12.95

Child in the Midst

Suppose that I am part of a silent Martian invasion, and that my intention is slowly to destroy the whole culture of the human race. Where would I start? I would start where thought first grows. I would start with children’s television. My policy would be to give the children only the sort of thing they “already know they enjoy”, like a fizzing diet of manic jelly-babies. This would no doubt be exciting, but their hearts and their minds would receive no nourishment, they would come to know nothing of the richness of human life, love and knowledge, and slowly whole generations would grow up knowing nothing about anything but violence and personal supremacy. Is that a fairy-tale? Look around you.
© Copyright Oliver Postgate 2003

This week

• The Imagination of God
• Godly Play Blogspot
• WYMAD?
• Lent Resources
• Off the Bookshelf

The Imagination of God
The second annual Godly Play lecture was held on 6th December in Birmingham. The text of Martin Steinhauser’s lecture (with the theme `The Imagination of God’) is now available on the Godly Play UK Website along with the handouts.

Godly Play Blogspot
Continuing on the Godly Play theme, Caryl Menkhus (Director of Training at the Godly Play Foundation in the States) has started a Godly Play Blog. It’s a great chance to follow the thinking as Godly Play continues to grow and develop.

WYMAD?
Will You Make a Difference? is a DVD with a whole host of resources to challenge churches as to the difference they are making to children’s lives. Introduced by the Bishop of Southampton, it asks the question, `How are you helping this generation of children hear and respond to the message of Jesus?’ Some excellent material to provoke discussion, thought and action.

Lent Resources
If you haven’t already planned for Lent, here are some resources that might be useful:

Count Your Blessings from Christian Aid offers a calendar to follow for Lent.
The Barnabas Website has a vast array of ideas for Lent and Easter – it’s arranged alphabetically, so keep scrolling down.
Love Life Live Lent now has a family book to join those for children and adults.

40 actions to make a difference to the world – over 250,000 people have already taken part!

Off the Bookshelf

ULTIMATE EVERYTHING
Scripture Union has expanded its ULTIMATE series! There are now:

• Ultimate Games
• Ultimate Quizzes
• Ultimate Creative Prayer
• Ultimate Craft and even
• Ultimate Visual Aids CD

They’re crammed with ideas for all occasions!
Pub. Scripture Union £9.99 each

THE CHILD IN THE BIBLE
When people talk about children in the Bible, it’s usually in connection with a few passages in the Gospels, and perhaps the stories of Samuel, Naaman’s servant girl and Moses in the bulrushes. This new book makes visible the children hidden throughout Scripture, exploring the implications for the contemporary church. I’m up to Chapter 5, and am enjoying the change to look at familiar texts through fresh eyes. The Emerging Kids Blogspot is also reading the book and offering reflections on it chapter by chapter.

The Child in the Bible
By Marcia Bunge (ed.)
Pub. Eerdmans ISBN: 978 08028 4835 2 £16.99

SHOWSTOPPERS
Dust down the costumes, get out the greasepaint – Scripture Union’s Holiday Club material this year lifts the curtain on the greatest show on earth! Drama, story, song, prayer and activity combine as children explore the stories of creation, David and Goliath, Daniel, and Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection. Supported by a DVD, Showstoppers offers everything you need to run a Holiday Club.

Showstoppers!
Pub. Scripture Union ISBN: 978 1 84427 343 0 £9.99

Challenging Behaviour

Here is a website which gives lots of good practical advice on mangaging challenging behaviour. Also, there is a traning day on Saturday 31st January at Canterbury Diocesan Office on this subject. You can download a booking form here.