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Childrens' Ministry Annual Report - 2004Healing Kids' Hearts
Last year we concentrated on developing the infrastructure of our growing ministry so that we could effectively and safely minister to the 400 children and 200 volunteers involved in some way in the children's ministry. Now that structure is secure (at least for a little while, until we exponentially grow again) and we are focusing on GROWTH. Here are the goals from the past year and this coming year and how we've done: Goal #1: Provide at least two opportunities for the children to serve the community and the world through service projects. We successfully sent 18 boxes of Christmas gifts to 10 soldiers and their friends. We are still receiving letters from them showing their gratitude. We will have a local service project for hands-on ministry in the Spring or summer. Goal #2: Guide parents in their pursuit of leading their families in spiritual growth through the Parent Partnership Program. It was a big commitment of time but half a dozen families successfully completed the four sessions that explored George Barna's book Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions and experimented with making Independent Spiritual Plans for their children. We are looking to host another one in the Spring. Goal #3: Develop and host quarterly theme training for volunteers. Our first meeting went well in November. Volunteers from the elementary departments met as did volunteers from the preschool department. They shared ideas from their experiences and discussed new ways to apply our theme, F.R.O.G.: Fully Rely On God, in their classrooms. The next one is scheduled for February. Goal #4: Form a T-shirt team and schedule "wear your t-shirt" days once a month. What a smashing fun activity to wear your F.R.O.G. shirt to school or around your neighborhood. We have had wonderful participation and the kids love to get their F.RO.G. prizes each month. We've decided now to change T-shirt day to T-shirt week to give the kids freedom to choose the best time to show off their faith! Goal #5: Continue leadership development with a four week training series. We will be scheduling this in the spring, probably after the church-hosted Leadership Simulcast in April and we will open it up to all the ministry areas. This will be a tremendous strengthening tool for our church. Goal #6: Double the size of Adventure Club attendance. We averaged 75 elementary kids on a Wednesday night from September- December. PRAY WITH US that we will see that number double before May. We want the majority of the additional 75 kids to be previously unchurched. If we do it, we'll host the largest ever pizza & ice cream sundae party in the history of the world in May! Goal #7: Begin a discipleship class on a rotating basis for new believers. Lord willing, we will create and host a four-week class for new elementary believers. Our prayer is to build a firm foundation for these young Christians and lead them to get baptized as a symbol of their commitment to Christ. Annual stuff: The children's Christmas program was the best attended ever with over 500 people! And the lord received much glory and praise. Thanks, Dee and Paul, for your professional work and for using your creativity for the Lord! The Kids Retreat, previously a highlight in the church year was the lowest attended ever. We are moving it to March this year, making time between this event and summer camp. We hope to bring 40-50 people again this year. The attendance at summer JAM this year was also a disappointment. I will be meeting with Dan McLaughlin this month to make plans for this summer. It seems most parents need a full-day all-summer program for their children, which our current system can't support. We will explore creative alternatives for reaching and building relationships with urban kids and we hope to continue our connection with Ocie Hill Community Center. Budget: We were within budget again. According to my best calculations we spent $35,008 of our $40,550 budget to keep us in the black by $5,542. A generous gift came in at the end of last year (not included in these numbers) that will be spent upgrading the sound and video systems in the community room that the children's ministry uses each Sunday and Wednesday. Anyone interested in a full report of where the money was spent can see me. PERSONAL: This year has been personally fulfilling for me. I learned things from the Lord, about myself, about ministry and about life. God has surrounded me with wonderful people: an excellent staff, dedicated and gifted volunteers and a beautiful and charming wife. Matthias and Madeline continue to grow (you can't stop them, even if you wanted to)! I am continually fascinated with church history and am trying to write a novel for children, but there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. CLOSING WORD: We don't make a distinction between first time decisions for Christ and just-making-sure. Anytime a child comes forward or raises a hand to indicate that he is responding to the Word of the Lord, whether it's at Kids Retreat, summer JAM or a Sunday or Wednesday service, we record it as a spiritual decision. Sometimes kids think they have to ask Jesus into their hearts more than once. In that case, we instruct them that He will never leave them nor forsake them (Hebrews 13:5), but we record it as a spiritual decision because there is evidence the Lord is doing something in their lives. The Strength Team brought in over 100 decisions and we followed up with them, encouraging them to connect with a church and answering any questions. Goal for 2004: 90 decisions, 20 baptisms. Decisions for 2004: 302 decisions, 5 baptisms. Goal for 2005: 90 decisions, 15 baptisms Submitted with great joy and praise to the Lord, Children's Ministry Annual Report 2002Healing Kids' HeartsOur Mission: To enthusiastically and courageously reach as many children as possible with the gospel* Our Core Values: People, Relationships, Joy, Godliness and Effectiveness Our Purpose: Pastor children, serve parents, equip lay leaders and manage the ministry Focus for 2002-2003: Recruiting and developing our lay volunteers: "Train Yourself to be Godly" (I Timothy 4:7) What a fantastic year! The Lord has blessed us with the accomplishment of most of our goals and with many successes that we hadn't even planned on! "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." (Proverbs 16:9) GOALS: (1) Consistently present our purpose and goals to the volunteers. We have developed a newsletter for the 200+ volunteers in our ministry. We provide weekly newsletters in the classrooms. We use the Banter to further promote the important work of ministering to children at Berean and in our community. Fresh work is ongoing on our website to make it a recruiting and training tool for our volunteers (and parents and kids). We have plans for an e-mail mailing list that will allow me to communicate on a weekly basis with all our volunteers and with the kids. (2) Develop a system allowing volunteers, when needed, to quickly and easily arrange for well-prepared substitutes. This was accomplished through the hiring of Jenni maples as the children's ministry administrative assistant. This provides a very important support system for our dedicated volunteers, freeing them from some of the administration and letting them focus on teaching and loving kids! (3) Provide regular volunteer training at an accessible time that equips them for their role as teacher and grows them as Christians. We held a half-day seminar one Saturday on developing your lesson plan. This month we will host identical prayer training seminars on Monday night and Sunday morning first and third service. We continue to experiment with days and topics to provide as many volunteers as possible with opportunities to grow in their Christian life and in their ability to serve others in Christ's name. (4) Provide a self-accountability program to aid volunteers in their growth in "taking the next step" as believers and children's ministry servants. This was only partially fulfilled. We felt the other plans for volunteer development would achieve this same purpose. (5) Develop an internship program to shape future children's ministry leaders. This is still a goal for 2003. In time we hope to have a process to locate, recruit and develop young people and adults who feel called to children's ministry as a career or vocation. (6) Develop and recruit staffing that will allow us to move forward in our mission and be good stewards of the resources God has given us. Praise God for our new CLeaT members (Children's Leadership Team). He is using Tod Petit, Russ and Carol Reed, Tim Schill, Rita Wallace, Jill Bachelder, Brenda Wray and Jenni Maples to give vision to our ministry, develop goals and accomplish important projects. UNEXPECTED SUCCESSES: (1) TruthRaiders. It began as an idea to perform some skits for Kids' Retreat to explain how the Bible can change our lives. It became a one hour action adventure film creating an analogy revealing the power of God's Word and how it can be applied personally to anyone's life. Now we have a Bible study system that kids can understand and visualize and that volunteers can use in their classrooms to guide the kids to walk with God more closely through His Word. See me if you're interested in viewing this or using it with your own children. (2) Reaching the community. After years of prayer and effort, we have made a breakthrough relationship with the black community in Mansfield! Through JAM (an outreach to kids in city parks with Youth for Christ) we have begun working with Ocie Hill Community Center to help them with their brand new mentoring program. See me if you want to personally change an at-risk kid's life (ages 11-19) forever! (3) Partnering with other churches. We have supplied used children's curriculum to new church plants in the MBC. We hosted a Kids' Revival at Lincoln Heights Church (using TruthRaiders) that saw over two dozen solid new or refreshed commitments to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are partnering with them as they seek to break the 250 attendance barrier and breathe new life into their children's ministry. We were able to provide them with some used curriculum for their ministry, as well. This year we hope to partner with Main Street United Methodist Church to develop their children's ministry to the next level. I am looking for one or two people committed to seeing churches in Mansfield work together and knowledgeable in children's ministry to help me develop what may well become a system that will equip us to help other children's ministry in our city and throughout the MBC. BUDGET: Despite some unexpected costs (especially with the TruthRaiders movie) we were within budget again. According to my best and faulty calculations we spent $29,348.26 of our $31,900 ministry budget to keep us in the black by $2,551.74. Anyone interested in a full report of where the money was spent can see me. PERSONAL: This year may have been the most exciting growth for me personally in a long time! I began the struggle of recognizing my impatience and arrogance. I discovered I am more of a visionary than I thought and that my vision needs other people's input and lots of time to be refined and to come to fruition. My relationship with my wife and kids has matured and grown even more in bringing me pleasure, personal growth and fulfillment. Praise God for faithful, loving and wonderful wives! CLOSING WORD: Goal for 2002: 50 commitments to the Lord, 15 baptisms. Decisions for 2002: 74 commitments to the Lord, 7 baptisms. Need we say more? (PS Goal for 2003: 80 commitments to the Lord, 15 baptisms.) *We changed our mission statement this year! I think it reflects the challenge of our calling as a ministry and reminds us that our work is never done! Like it?Submitted with great joy and praise to the Lord, Pastor Nate Berean - Children's Ministry - Introduction |
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