Children’s Workers Training Days in KZN
Several times a year the KZN children’s workers executive runs regional training days at Christ Church Pinetown. These are aimed at providing support for lay children’s leaders and teachers in the form of training and equipping for practical kids ministry, as well as Bible handling skills.
Our first training day for this year was held in March, with 55 people attending two sessions led by Rory & Kim Bell. The Bells are two of CESA’s most experienced trained children’s workers and have just taken over leadership of TnT Ministries in London. We’re so glad we had the opportunity to hear and learn from them before they left!
Kim spoke on the importance of teaching children the Bible from a very young age, and gave some helpful ideas on how to set up this kind of ministry. In his session, Rory reminded us why children’s ministry is so strategic. We covered topics such as what material to use, how to recruit leaders, why we should be committed to evangelism and how to better create a culture of service in our Sunday schools. We were encouraged that we had quite a few men attend the training day, both dads and those involved as Kids Club or Sunday school leaders.
We invited Michael Schafer to speak at our second training day at the end of July on how we as children’s workers can support the parents of the children we teach. The seminar – entitled ‘Don’t Forget the Parents!’ – covered the two extremes of parenting: overemphasising it at the expense of parents following Christ themselves, and underemphasising it which results in parents not sufficiently embracing the responsibilities they have. It was a very helpful time of discussion about the role of Christian parents as the primary teachers of the Bible to their children, and how children’s ministers can encourage and support this within the context of their local churches.
With one more training day planned for the year, we’d appreciate your prayers as we prepare for it.
